Sermon by Judith Liro on 01.22.2012
I dedicate my life to the power within me.
Through dedication I unfold naturally to the
highest potential of my being.
This is my day.
I control each and everything that comes to me.
I accept complete responsibility for my life.
I am power.
So be it.
Brenda Davies begins her chapter on the 3rd Chakra: the Solar Plexus with the affirmation I just read. “I dedicate my life to the power within me.” It’s clear that she’s not writing about egoic power but about our willingness to humbly and courageously recognize and serve the sacred life force within us. “Through dedication I unfold naturally to the highest potential of my being.” This is about slowly growing into the divine image within and into our full humanity. For Christians this is becoming Christ, growing in Christ. Nothing is forced. It’s about the deep listening and faithful emerging of who we truly are. At first I am resistant to saying “I control each and everything that comes to me.” I don’t like the word ‘control’ since I associate it with the ego’s fearful reaction. When I work with it though, I believe Brenda is pointing to the choice that is always there no matter what happens in our lives. The places where we feel most victimized offer us an opportunity to respond, to find our truth in the midst of any situation no matter how bleak. Nobody is saying it will be an easy path but the path of love and courage is always an option.
Brenda Davies calls the solar plexus a “magical chakra. The chakra of fire, it glows golden yellow radiating our fire out into the world.” It is located below the diaphragm and above the navel. “The work at the first and second chakras has primed the pump, the solidity of the root giving rise to the flowing movement of the sacral chakra. Now we stand at the threshold of enormous change as we build on the ideas that have emerged. The pleasure/pain principle of the second chakra is a useful signpost to indicate our way forward, but the choice to create our own life strategy in whatever way we wish comes now. The solar plexus offers us liberation. It’s up to us whether we take it. It’s time for action, for taking charge, for deciding upon our course. All is ready for each of us to capture and harness our will, to be dynamic and with motivation and drive to move forward. Though communication and self-expression are functions of the throat chakra, it’s here at the solar plexus that our opinions are formed. It’s here that we develop the courage to express ourselves in the world as our truth emerges. We discover our own inner strength and freedom and we develop the tenacity to keep going despite difficult life events and circumstances. We now have the will to achieve and succeed as we radiate our energy and become a force to be reckoned with.”
Hildegard seemed to understand power in a similar way. In her view the whole universe is full of sacred power and every creature, indeed all of creation radiates this power. She believes that God has adapted all the power of the elements to flow through human beings In fact she uses the sun as a model and it sounds like she could be describing the 3rd Chakra when she writes, “God has firmly adapted the powers of the world to us so that we breathe, inhale, and exhale these powers like the sun, which illuminates the earth, sends forth its rays, and draws them back again to itself.” Vanessa Stone from the Amala Foundation writes that the degree of openness in our solar plexus chakra will determine how comfortable we feel about letting our light shine and how accepting we are of others doing the same. “We discover our identity and individuation in the third chakra. When this chakra is balanced and open it allows us to be in our power without giving ourselves away or over asserting ourselves onto others.”
Historically the teaching of the church seems as confused and ambivalent about personal power as it is about sex. Usually power has been seen as a limited commodity reserved for the elite rather than freely available to all. Except for the elite, personal power has commonly been feared rather than celebrated. Instead of helping people grow into a mature expression of creative power, the church frequently opted for control. Just as sexuality has a shadow side and can be abused and exploited so does power. Power can serve life and love or be destructive. Brenda Davies is clear in saying that power can be misused and end in disaster unless there is commitment to use it for the good of all. Hildegard writes at length about sin for the same reason. Having power brings with it great responsibility and the need to stay on course. Jung believed that the greater the power, the greater the shadow; there was a direct correlation. Using power in love takes courage and humility. Denying and repressing power doesn’t work because it goes against Creation itself and the way humanity is made to be in creative partnership with God. Sometime what we experience as evil in the world is the consequence of creative gifts that haven’t been nurtured and released, of persons who are stuck in a false life. Violence and consumerism are two examples of humanity being off course with tremendous creative power going to sub-human and destructive ends.
The story in Mark’s Gospel today is a shining solar plexus moment. It’s a time when Jesus picks up the mantle that has been passed to him by John the Baptizer earlier in the same first chapter. Mark doesn’t say anything about Jesus’s birth like Luke and Matthew or his cosmic role like John. Mark’s story begins in the wilderness when Jesus is a young man of about thirty. It begins with John the Baptizer looking for the one who will come after him, who comes in the power of the Holy Spirit. In the prior thirteen verses we read that Jesus is baptized by John in the River Jordan where he has a visionary experience of being God’s Beloved and then he goes into the wilderness for forty days where he is tempted by Satan, lives with the wild beasts, and is looked after by the angels. A couple of weeks ago I described the Baptism of Jesus as a powerful opening of all the chakras from the root to the crown. This time of testing in the wilderness is a time when Jesus wrestles with this tremendous power. Will he serve ego or the higher good of all? Will he act from fear or trust the voice of God within? Mark doesn’t say that John identifies Jesus as the one he is looking for. Perhaps this is also a question that Jesus takes into the wilderness. Is he the one spoken of by John? The one who will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit?
Mark tells us that after John was arrested, Jesus appeared in Galilee proclaiming the Good New of God. He proclaims a time of fulfillment, a time when the reign of God is at hand. “Change your hearts and minds, and believe the Good News!” Today Jesus steps into his power. His teacher and cousin, John, is in prison and will soon be put to death. There is no one to confirm that he’s gotten it right, just these deep experiences of baptism and vision quest in the wilderness calling him forward into his destiny. He calls Simon and Andrew, James and John as his disciples. Some scholars believe that these men have been disciples of John and that after his arrest they had gone back home to their families. It’s a moment of choice for these men as well. How will they respond to the devastating reality that John is imprisoned and will be killed? Will they be defeated by these circumstances and continue a life of fishing with their fathers, yielding to the expectation of their families and their culture or will they be led by the fire in their bellies? Is Jesus the one spoken of by John? This is a solar plexus opportunity for them as well, a liberating moment of taking action, for deciding on their course, for responding to their truth. They find inner strength and tenacity. An event that could have been the end of the story lights a new fire within them all.
I only have time to sketch in a bit more about this magical 3rd chakra. The solar plexus is the place of “gut feelings,” where we tune in to intuition, learning to trust and appreciate it in issues of truth, integrity and behavior. The solar plexus begins to develop about the age of 8 or 9 so trauma or distress at this age has a big impact. The solar plexus is connected to the digestive system and dysfunction there leads to a range of symptoms and illnesses. Emotions such as anger, rage, jealousy, resentment and guilt when repressed and not dealt with get stuck in the solar plexus. This is the place where people get stuck in feeling victimized and powerless. I thought briefly about how this chakra ties into 12 Step Programs, where there is a confession of powerlessness regarding alcohol or other addiction. It might seem contradictory but I think the first step states that the ego is powerless over the addiction and recovery is about connecting to the greater healing power, called the Higher Power, that is available for all. Brenda Davies’ book has wonderful meditations on forgiveness at each chakra. I encourage you to buy or borrow a copy and try them at home especially if you sense a need for healing at one or more chakras.
Take a few moments to consider your own sense of power. How is the energy at your own solar plexus, your own inner sun? How is your own Calling, stepping out to bring your unique radiant energy into the world? When I did this, I realized that there are certain aspects where I have a healthy sense of power and other places where I am not taking responsibility and there is probably a block or need for healing. I feel some excitement to think about healing those stuck places. What about you? We’ll have a moment to consider and then we’ll conclude with a healing meditation.
[Pause]
Meditation from The 7 Healing Chakras by Brenda Davies
Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Allow a wave of beautiful healing light to enter at the top of your head and flow down through you, filling every cell and every atom of every cell with wonderful healing light. Healing. Cleansing. Balancing. Every cell now bathed in light. Feel the refreshing touch of the light. Feel the cleansing. Feel yourself in harmony. Now take your focus down from behind your eyes through the center of your neck. Down through your throat chakra. Down through the center of your chest and your heart chakra and focus now on that area in your upper abdomen where the solar plexus lies. See it—a beautiful golden yellow ball of light, your own personal sun, shining out in all directions, filling you with warmth, filling you with light. Feel its warmth. Allow yourself to gaze at its brightness. See the sunshine entering into all of your tissues from this wonderful glowing ball of light.
Now as you warm to the light, feel simultaneously its gentleness and its power. Feel the power now flowing. Feel the power now flowing in and out of the glowing ball of light. Feel yourself becoming powerful. Feel yourself more capable than ever. Feel yourself strong. Feel yourself able to do new things. Feel yourself able to accomplish whatever you wish to do. Feel the power flowing into all areas of your body. Feel that your limbs are stronger than before. Feel the power surging through your body. Feel it in warm waves coursing through you. Know that you are capable of new strength, new power. Know that you will use this power for your own good and the good of others. In this moment make a pledge that you will use whatever power the universe will give you for your own higher good and the higher good of all. Make a commitment that you will never abuse the power that is given to you now. Affirm that you are ready to receive the power of the universe and to use it wisely.
Enjoy the feelings now passing through you. Enjoy the warmth. Enjoy the power. Enjoy the strength. Take your time. Enjoy. Ask that this power may now heal you. Heal old hurt or pain. Heal any old wounds. Heal you. Feel the power. Breathe it now to wherever you wish it to go. Flowing like the sun. Shafts of glowing light. Heal yourself now. Stay another moment in this golden yellow glow. Knowing that you will forever have whatever power you need so long as you use it for the higher good of all, start to return, leaving the sunlight shining there. Start your return. Bring your focus back to your solar plexus. Allow the rays of light to come back to the wheel of light that will always be shining there, but for now visualize a beautiful golden yellow flower over the chakra and let its petals close into a tight, tight bud. Let its head droop in sleep. And gently now, bring your focus back up through the center of your chest, back up through your throat, back up till once again you are behind your eyes. Feel yourself present. Feel your physical body. Move your toes. Feel your attachment with the earth. Feel yourself well grounded. Hold your physical body and be aware that you belong here in your embodied state. Be present and begin to slowly and gently open your eyes.
