One who constantly meditates upon this chakra attains a peaceful mind. One becomes very knowledgeable and fluent in speech. One attains the power to see the past, present, and future. One becomes free of all disease and sorrow. One attains a long life, and becomes capable of overcoming all challenges in life.
NOTE: This series on the system of chakras is meant to provide an analysis through the spiritual lens of Islam, which is rooted in the purifying principle of One. It is not an endorsement of polytheistic systems, which the Yogic system denies anyways, nor is it an endorsement, guide, or instruction for any spiritual practices or prescriptions. Where the term ‘god’ or ‘deity’ is used, it is used loosely only to retain common language while understanding these words are metaphors. Where practices are mentioned, it is only informational. While the theme of these posts is to explore the deeper metaphysical architecture of these systems and spiritual technologies thereby enabling us to see the principle of One that pervades all revealed religions as a proof of God, it does not imply the doctrinal teachings of the school of Perennialism (different from “perennialism”).
The Metaphysics of Vishuddhi
The word vishuddhi literally means “pure” or “filtered”. This energy center is located at the pit of the throat, and thus it is known as the throat chakra. It is the center of spiritual purification, which is ultimately a process of transmutation. This is demonstrated in the metaphorical story of Shiva ingesting the poison of the great serpent and storing it in his throat where it was purified. In doing so, he saves the world, and the Devas and the Asuras were able to obtain Amrita, the Nectar of Immortality. This story represents the inward path of Enlightenment, which entails the purification of the Mind through the transformation of impure karma into pure karma.
The Divine Masculine energy in vishuddhi is personified by Sadashiva, who represents control over the five senses, and who has the ability to dispel fear. The gold that is often depicted is the light of the Nectar of Immortality, which represents control over the lower mind. He possesses the boon providing mudra, and is clad in tiger skin.
Spirituality, in contrast to the concreteness of materialism, is abstract. As such, it uses indirect symbols to communicate deeper meaning as opposed to the language of the material world, which uses direct symbols in the form of literal language and images to convey apparent and obvious meaning. Such images as the above are symbolic in meaning because they are meant to denote esoteric realities as they manifest to us, they are not literal.
The tiger is a powerful and common symbol in various spiritual traditions. The various forms of Shiva are often depicted in a variety of interactions with the symbolic tiger, sometimes riding on top of one, and in this case, wearing its skin. Animals (pashus) merely act according to nature (prakriti). When a person is dominated by the animal self, led by lower animal instincts, they are a pashu. Their behavior is characterized by lust, greed, anger, all egoic tendencies identified by the Seven Deadly Sins as identified in the Christian tradition. The tiger skin represents the roaming senses that are attached to this material world. However, when the indwelling being becomes conscious within the material self, it attains to the state of Shiva, who is pashupati (master of pashus). Wearing the tiger skin or riding atop the tiger represents the Divine Self (the self characterized by God Consciousness), the Awakened Self has mastered the lower animal self through non-attachment and true awareness, and is thus able to act according to free will and agency. It represents the dominance of the True Self over roaming senses.
The Divine Feminine energy is personified by Sakini, who is pure white. She is said to be the gatekeeper to the doorway of Liberation. By mastering the lower mind and having control over the five senses, one transcends egoic fear, the basis of attachment. This is made possible through purification and abstinence from the passions of the animal self. This is necessary for traveling the path of Liberation and Enlightenment. Today, popular movements have appropriated the Yogic tradition and its reference to the Divine Feminine to justify sexual excess as the path to liberation when, traditionally, such excess and impropriety leads to one becoming consumed by the animal self and imprisonment within the lower ego.
Once the dormant Kundalinī energy reaches and becomes prominent in this chakra, then powers related to speech, strength, health, and the occult begin to manifest in the body. Because of its occult significance, full activation of vishuddhi is often avoided being taught to students by teachers until a certain level of maturity and mastery has been demonstrated by the student.
The significance of speech is understood in its mechanics, which is vibration. Every atom in the universe is vibrating at a frequency, which is what gives solidity to form, to the “things” that make up what we call the material world. As far as the relationship between vibration and speech goes, it is the collision of air molecules. When there is intent behind speech, as in the conveyance of meaning, then the vibrations that make up speech are the physical correlates of the metaphysical, that is, of meaning that occurs within the soul. The physical world is ultimately a correlate of metaphysical realities. For instance, the throat is the pathway to the lungs where air is purified and detoxified, which is a correlate of the metaphysical reality of the function of the throat chakra for purifying karma. And thus, metaphysical vibrations are made known to us only approximately by their correlating effects in the physical world. Being a correlate, it offers a way of understanding the fundamental basis of reality and the mechanism of creation.
Purification occurs through the transmutation of pure intention [sincerity], which is metaphysical, through the modality of our physicality. Transmutation occurs through vibrational changes caused by the movement of Prana on the substratum of the material universe, the etheric or Akashic Plane. It can then be said that Prana carries our intent from the spiritual realm into the physical realm, emerging first on the Akashic Plane. All gross elements that exist are formed of Akasha and by Prana, and are thus connected. At the most fundamental level, Prana is will power, which manifests as the forces of movement, from thought to gravity. Within the human being, Prana is controlled and cultivated through prânâyâma, which simply refers to the broad category of breathing meditation, from breath work to vocalized sound as articulated will. The process of purification facilitated by vishuddhi causes vibrational changes within oneself that harmonize with the frequencies of higher realities. Because these vibrational changes permeate our Being, from the energy body outwardly into the physical body, and because all of physical reality is connected on the Akashic Plane, our vibrational state emanates outwardly to influence the world around us, almost like a butterfly effect on the substratum of consciousness. From an Islamic perspective, this would describe the hidden technology behind the dhikr [ذِكْر – remembrance, mention], and therefore, the significance of the vocalization of the sacred language as meditative practices, such as wirds and the Names of God.
Articulated will communicates meaning through words. This is what true language is, the articulation of will. Meaning is the realm of the spirit, of the intellect. It is not material in nature. But when it is made manifest in the material world through intentional vibrations of sound then it has a physical presence, and therefore, a physical effect. Transmutation occurs both intentionally and also unintentionally, and thus the consequences can often also be unintentional. Vishuddhi is thus said to facilitate both purification as well as pollution or corruption, success and failure, growth and destruction, benefit and harm. Full activation is not required for attaining Realization and is thus typically explored more fully by people who wish to understand the intricacies of the occult and spiritual technology. For this reason, an effective sādhana for learning control over vishuddhi is silence (mauna), which highlights the wisdom behind the importance of silence.
In all world religious-spiritual traditions, “guarding the tongue” has always been a central tenet for success and salvation in this world and beyond, which does not just come down to an arbitrary morality, a checklist of what is good and bad according to the social group. Rather, it has more to do with the transformative and creative power of speech, which affects the energetic dynamic of one’s own Being, either towards true Being or false Being, towards Enlightenment or towards Ignorance. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, for instance, highlighted the significance of speech:
“A man speaks a good word without knowing its worth, Allah records for him His Good Pleasure till the day he will meet Him; and a man utters an evil word without realizing its importance, Allah records for him His displeasure till the day he will meet Him.“
The Bible also conveys the affective power of speech on our spiritual state as well:
Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life; he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love to use it will eat of its fruits.
Eliphas Lévi said, “In magick, to have said is to have done; to affirm and will what ought to be is to create.” These are the two necessary ingredients of magick — the strong belief or desire, which is to will that it be so, and the right words. Today, it is it has become culturally popular to talk about manifesting, however this trend is not accidental or random, and it did not originate out of thin air. It originates from the Theosophical reading and dissemination of the Yogic tradition, and married to popular social progress movements starting in the early 1900’s. They understood very well that whoever controls desire controls will, and whoever controls will, controls people and the way therefore how societies develop and are engineered. Again, this highlights the importance of abstinence and discipline with regards to Vishuddhi.
According to the Book of Genesis, “God said, `Let there be light’ and there was light…” In the Qur’an, there is Divine Command, the Logos, “Be”, and it was. All of these events came to pass because God said them. According to the Abrahamic traditions, God created the world with words he spoke. This reality of speech is the basis of the occult, of magick, that is, using powerful and appropriate words together with the concentration of power and will underpinned by clarity of intention.
Vishuddhi is thus the locus of manifestation, the effects of which are felt on all dimensions of reality, from the subtle to the apparent, from the lower to the higher, from the gross to the energetic. From an Islamic perspective, it could be said to be tied to the Divine Attribute of speech [kalam], one piece of the form of man created in the image of God as a symbolic representation. Due to this underlying pranic connection between all things in the universe on the Akashic Plane, it is said that all of us are constantly engaging in magick to some degree and in some form, either directly or indirectly, and either according to our own will or the will of others. The occult is simply the art of controlling and moving Prana, such as through speech, in such a way that by its effect we end up calling it manifestation, transmutation, transformation, purification, and so on. Our intention, our will, our speech, all of these together have causal effects on the substratum of consciousness.
The purification of the Heart internally through vishuddhi therefore has manifested effects externally on the very fabric of reality. The mere presence of a reified and transformed soul in the world is a blessing, and so their absence brings forth instability on the substratum of the manifested world. It is said that the Enlightened ones, the Awakened ones, the Blessed ones, are spiritual mountains, which are like pegs in the Earth that keep the land stable. Without them, earthquakes become abundant, as described in the Qur’an. The mystics have understood the esoteric reality of these verses, which has to do with the stability of the spiritual states of human beings. On the other hand, the mere presence of polluted and corrupted souls in the world are curses, and so their presence brings forth instability on the substratum of the manifested world. These people tend to be careless with their words, and often use harsh words that are abusive and vulgar, who bring forth the chaotic vibrations of ugliness that corrupt the spiritual states of those exposed to them.
The Characteristics of Vishuddhi
When vishuddhi is active, we become characterized by a sense of wanting to understand the deeper mysteries of the nature of reality. It is said that people with active throat chakras tend to be articulate enough to be able to explain intricate mechanics. When it is active, because it is the first chakra that pertains to the realms beyond the physical, being close to the third eye chakra, and because the most immediate realm beyond the physical is the astral or interstice realm, an active vishuddhi would be more receptive and sensitive to their energies and the knowledge they convey. We become interested in the life of the grave or what is also called the imaginal realm in Islam, we become fascinated with the mystery of the great beyond. This is because we know through intuition that there is more to reality than what the five senses tell us.
Vishuddhi is said to be the seat of the sukshma sarira, the astral body because it is the place from which the astral body is able to leave the physical body, but still remain connected to it while the physical body is still alive. In various traditions, it is described how the soul leaves the body through the mouth when we breathe our last breath. The idea is that the astral body has a certain vibrational frequency that is distinct from that of physical matter, and therefore is not bound to the physical world. Other dimensions of existence vibrate at frequencies that differ from the physical world as well, and so by harmonizing the frequency of the energy body with the energetic frequencies of other dimensions, we may be able to explore them to some extent, whether by venturing in our astral body, through lucid dreams and interactions with other worldly beings, to gaining knowledge in the form of pure insight.
Ritualistic magick, whether in the form of white magick (such as prayer, supplication, or meditation on God) or black magick (such as summoning or ritualized manifestation), affects the astral body due to the vibrational effects of articulated will and vocalization. The astral body is, in a sense, adorned by the power of the will behind the affective words and the character of the intention. Vishuddhi thus determines how we engage with and navigate the astral plane. But it is important to remember that because vishuddhi is the site for purification, it can also lead to pollution. There are karmic vibrations that emanate from the most fundamental dimensions of our Being that characterize the state of our energy body, and therefore, determines what sort of dimensions of energy we explore, our ability to navigate them, and whether or not we become entangled within them. This underlies the prohibition of black magick in revealed religion, which is that it is inherently an egoic activity and thus necessarily results in the corruption of the soul.
In the Yogic tradition, it is said that the moment vishuddhi is active, disembodied beings begin gravitating towards you. These disembodied beings are forms of energy. When they appear to you, they appear as personified beings. The question is often asked, are these beings alive if they are merely personified energy? The problem with this question is that when we think about life we tend to be thinking about the biological expression of life, not life itself. In that sense, no. But both the question and thus the answer are problematic. Life is not biology per se, it is not material. Unconscious matter is not life, rather, consciousness is life. Both energy and biology are dimensions of its expression. Life as the all pervading consciousness can be expressed biologically, as in the case of earthly life, or it can be expressed in other ways through elements unknown to us. In the Islamic tradition for instance, the manner through which life is expressed as angelic beings is “light” while the manner of expression of jinns is “smokeless fire”. It is by manifesting or calling before us these energies, which have their own vibrational frequencies, and directing them that the world around us is influenced according to those vibrations. For this reason, in ancient literature on the occult, black magick often describes rituals for summoning demons or higher beings that the magician must enslave or command or work with. These are all approximate descriptions of various types of energies and interactions.
The Element of Vishuddhi
The element of vishuddhi is Akasha, or, ether. Akasha is derived from the Sanskrit root kāś meaning “to be”, corresponding to Abrahamic cosmology on the genesis of existence through articulated will – the command, “Be”. The direct translation of Akasha means “upper sky” or “space”. It is one of the Panchamahabhuta, or “five gross elements”, and its main characteristic is shabda (sound). The Nyaya and Vaisheshika schools of Hindu philosophy state that Akasha is the substratum of sound or vibration. It is the first element created as an all pervading subtle physical substance. It thus represents the basis of all things in the material world just like how the canvass is the basis of the painted images.
Ether represents spaciousness, a canvass upon which consciousness manifests through vibration all of the forms and appearances that make up the material world. This canvass of space is called the etheric plane. In the realm of occult studies, it is called the Akashic Record, a timeless compendium of all knowledge of the universe since all things in the universe are built upon it. From an Islamic perspective, it would correspond to the al-Lawḥ al-Maḥfūẓ [Preserved Tablet], the Mother of the Book and contains the original, uncreated record of all that has happened and will ever happen, and is understood therefore to be the original source of all divine scriptures; in essence, all revealed religions, all Divine Books, are connected to this in a very special way.
The tattwa symbol of ether is the sky-blue downward pointing triangle containing a circular white region like the full moon. The sky-blue downward pointing triangle represents the descending will from the spiritual realm into space. The full moon represents the Mind, a reference to the pure white radiant light of consciousness, which is the basis of existence and experience. The full moon also represents the fulfilment of creation from nothing. The symbol as a whole thus represents the space where Divine Will unfolds and manifests creation, which occurs on the canvass of the pure Mind.
Signs of a Blocked Vishuddhi
It is understood that when vishuddhi is blocked, a person undergoes decay and death. This could be due to negative vibrations that result from careless speech, especially vulgar and abusive speech, which ultimately reflect the state of a polluted heart. From a psychological perspective, when we feel that we are unable to express our inward reality in an authentic way then it leads to a pattern of behavior that can be described as repression. When we have engaged in this self-repression from an early age, it is often due to a lack of emotional safety within our environment. As the child develops, the emotional character of that external environment becomes internalized and we end up feeling this way all the time or during moments where we want to express ourselves. This inward state becomes articulated will, which above was described as speech. There is first the inward speech that we call belief, and then the outward speech that we understand in the ordinary sense. This inward speech as negative beliefs are fundamentally a denial of the true sacred foundation of Being upon which God had created us.
When we are repressed in this way, we become filled with pent up anger, anxiety, and agitation, and tend to lash out at ourselves and at others through overcompensatory forms of speech. As an overcompensation to our repression, we engage in inauthentic communication. The various forms of inauthentic communication are common signs of a blocked throat chakra, such as abusive speech or a tonality, intonation, and volume that does not convey genuineness. For instance, monotone speech is often associated with emotional repression due to the habituated safety seeking pattern of behavior. This is why we’ve seen great success in overcoming psychological trauma through vocal training, especially in forms of melodic expression such as singing. The recitation of the Qur’an is a powerful way of healing because of its profound emphasis on the rules of pronounciation, which is especially significant because language, particularly the Arabic language, contains within it the secret of God.
Signs of an Open Vishuddhi
It is said that when vishuddhi, along with the lower chakras, is active then we will possess the ability to transform negative experiences into wisdom and learning. This transformation of the subjective character of experience signifies the transformation of impure karma into pure karma, which are the karmic seeds of consciousness itself. Thus, the success and failure of one’s life is said to depend upon the state of this chakra. Some signs that one has a cultivated throat chakra is that one possesses the capacity for wisdom and deeper insight, possesses unifying moral principles, and is of pleasant disposition. This corresponds to the Islamic understanding of success, which is predicated on a sound and clear heart, and a tongue that remembers God much. These are signs of faith, which appear in the form of high moral character.
The throat chakra is the place where Shiva consumes the poison and the nectar, meaning that all experiences, good or bad, are seen as part of an integrated whole. It is the center that purifies and harmonizes all opposites into a unified understanding. It is from this unified understanding that wisdom emerges, which signifies spiritual growth and maturation. One sign of a cultivated vishuddhi therefore is having a sense of calmness and equanimity with respect to the events of the world.
They neither avoid the bitter nor absorb the sweet, and maintain composure of compassionate bliss. A common sign of a cultivated vishuddhi is a lack of interest in status and material success, and instead, interest and fascination with understanding the deeper dimensions of reality, particularly metaphysics. Another sign is that one is deliberate in the words they use and how they articulate themselves, careful not to use vulgar language or to insult people. They are mindful of the karmic vibrations that their speech can have on themselves and others.
References
[1] Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda – Prana
It can be said that the whole universe is composed of two elements, Prana and Âkâsha. Âkâsha is the omnipresent, all-penetrating substance of existence, the substratum itself. Everything that has form, everything that is the result of combination, is evolved out of Akasha. It is the Akasha that becomes the air, that becomes the liquids, that becomes the solid, anything that can be sensed. Akasha cannot be perceived directly, however. It is so subtle that it is beyond all ordinary perception. It can only be seen when it has become gross, an in, has taken form.
[2] Understanding and Activating Vishuddhi – Throat Chakra
[3] Vishuddhi Chakra – The Power of Blue
[4] Asana – International Yoga Journal – VISHUDDHI CHAKRA
[5] Vishuddhi Chakra – Throat Center
[6] Yoga Journal – Chakra Tune-Up: Intro to the Visuddha
[7] Empowered by Color – The Color Blue
[8] Vishuddha
[9] Etheric Plane
[10] Yoga in Daily Life – Vishuddhi Chakra
[11] The Throat Chakra – Color Meanings
[12] Chakras Info – Throat Chakra Stones
[13] Words of Power
