3 Ways to Understand the Health of your Chakras

When it comes to working with chakra energy, one of the first questions I receive is how to know if your chakras are blocked. Like all things relating to energy work, there are a variety of ways to approach working with your chakras.

Before we dive in, the most important thing for you to understand is how you receive extrasensory information. I dive deeper into this topic in a past blog post here. If you don't know what kind of "clair" you are, I suggest you give it a quick read. You can also check out a graphic I created below for some of the most common clairs. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

In this post, I'll break down why understanding the health of your chakras can be beneficial to you in everyday life and in your spiritual growth. I share three methods in this post, which you can apply to understand the health of your chakras and, in some cases, heal them. 

Why would you want to understand the health of your chakras? 

As above, so below. As within, so without. I refer to this adage often because it's so applicable to spiritual work. What goes on in your energetic body (auras and chakras) can also manifest in your physical body and vice versa. 

Understanding the health of each of your chakras will shed light on your physical health, current life situations, future path, and where you may want to focus your energy. 

Let's dig into some ways to start working with and understanding the energy of your chakras. 

Understanding the Polarities of Each Chakra

Understanding the traits associated with each chakra will enable you to ascertain the health of your chakras quickly. This method can take a bit of time, especially if the chakras are new to you. You'll need to have a deep understanding of the polarities of each chakra. What I mean by this are the traits of each chakra when they're functioning optimally, and the shadow aspects of them as well when they're blocked. The expression of each chakra can range from overly open, balanced, to totally blocked, or somewhere in between. I discuss this more in this video. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cassie Uhl (@cassieuhl)

Here's an example of how this technique can be applied. Have you ever felt overwhelmed and like you can't focus? These are all manifestations of a blocked or stagnant root chakra. The root chakra is responsible for your sense of safety and connection to the earth. If you're feeling this way, the next step would be to take action to activate and balance your root chakra. This could mean simply taking a break to go for a walk outside or performing a quick root chakra meditation. 

Here are my top suggestions to gain a better understanding of the polarities of each chakra. 

• If you want to dive into understanding the chakras right now, find blog posts on each of the chakras here: root chakra, sacral chakra, solar plexus chakra, heart chakra, throat chakra, third eye chakra, and the crown chakra. 

• I also cover the chakras in The Goddess Discovery Book V1, The Ritual Deck, and in my new book Understanding Chakras. These are great options if you'd like ritual suggestions and tools to go along with each chakra. 

• For deep dives into understanding each of the chakras, I suggest Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith PhD and the Complete Book of Chakras by Cyndi Dale. I'm particularly fond of Dale's book as it offers information on chakra systems from around the world. 

Feeling Chakra Energy with your Hands

If you consider yourself clairsentient and feel energy easily, this technique will work well for you. Even if you're not clairsentient, I encourage you to try, as anyone can learn and acquire new kinds of psychic abilities!

Your chakras are spinning wheels of energy, continually taking in and emitting energy. If you have the gift of clairsentience, you'll be able to feel this energy coming out of your body. I share the best way to get started with this technique in a previous post that also has a video breaking this technique down. Click here to check it out. 

Essentially, you're going to want to get yourself into a meditative state, activate the chakras in your hands by rubbing them together and begin to hover your hands above where each of your chakras is. You may start to feel a bulge of energy push your hands out as you come near each chakra. How far the chakra comes out from your body can be an indication of how under or overactive it is. You may also receive information about the health of each chakra as you feel into each one. 

Using a Pendulum to Work with Your Chakras

Pendulums are such a useful spiritual tool! If pendulums are brand new to you and you want to get the basics, check out this previous post here. There are SO many useful applications for pendulums, and understanding the health of your chakras is one of them. The technique I share here works well for doing chakra readings on yourself or others. If you're working on yourself or someone else remotely, you'll need a pendulum and a piece of paper or a drawing of someone with the chakras. You don't need anything fancy though and can even use a piece of paper with the chakras written down on it as a reference. Your pendulum won't know the difference! If you're working on someone else in person, all you'll need is your trusty pendulum. 

Before you start, ensure that you have formed a good relationship with your pendulum. You must understand how your pendulum communicates with you. Generally speaking, a clockwise swirl means "yes" or "open," and a counterclockwise swirl means "no" or "closed."

How to check your chakras with a pendulum: 

1. As with all spiritual work, take a moment to quiet yourself. 

2. Call on any spiritual support you'd like (guides, angels, ancestors, etc.).

3. Hold your pendulum over each chakra and ask if the chakra is open or closed.

4. The pendulum should begin to swirl one way or the other, indicating the health of each chakra. It is possible that the pendulum won't move at all; check out this previous post I mentioned above for more on why a pendulum might not move. 

5. Once finished, thank any spiritual aids you called on. 

As always, run any information you received through your intuitive filter, and if it feels off, you don't have to act on it. If you feel like the reading you received from your pendulum is accurate, you can now take steps to work with any chakras that may be blocked, stagnant, or overactive. 

The best thing about the pendulum technique is that after you've worked with a chakra that's a little off, you can retest with your pendulum. I'm often astounded at how quickly I'll get an open and balanced swirl from my pendulum after working on a chakra that needed some extra love. 

NEW MOON CARD SPREAD

Every new moon, we get a beautiful opportunity for a fresh start. The new moon is the time of the lunar cycle where we get to dream, vision, and set intentions for what we would like to heal, manifest, and create for the new cycle.

Cards, whether oracle or tarot (learn all about the difference between oracle & tarot cards and how to choose here), can be a powerful way to help us gain clarity and understand how to work with the whole cycle holistically. 

Keep scrolling for your new moon card spread and to learn how to work with the cards throughout the whole moon cycle!

Cards featured from The Ritual Deck.

CARD SPREAD FOR THE NEW MOON

This is a card spread designed to help you work with the moon cycle holistically- through all of the major moon phases of the cycle including the new moon, first quarter moon, full moon, last quarter moon, and dark moon.

To ritualize drawing cards, you might like to take some time before getting started to light incense or burn other herbs, ground yourself (click here for suggestions on how to get grounded), and/or do a practice that helps you open your channels such as breathwork, a movement practice, or a visualization meditation.

When you feel ready, you can start pulling cards:

1. What cycle is opening up for me?

2. What wants to emerge, grow, be tended this cycle?

3. What blocks are coming up around this? (Draw one to three cards - let your intuition guide you!)

4. Why this block is here/the shadow underneath the block (draw one card for each blockage card)

5. Advice for healing these blocks (draw one card for each blockage card)

6. Advice for working with these energies to come back to myself

This card spread can offer some beautiful guidance for working with the phases of the moon holistically. I’m going to cover the 5 major phases of the moon below - the new moon, waxing moon, full moon, waning moon, and dark moon.

THE NEW MOON

The new moon is a time of dreaming and feeling into what you want to grow during the cycle. So during the new moon time, you’ll want to focus on cards one and two. I recommend creating an altar based around the themes of these cards.

For example, if the cards showed that in this cycle, spirit is inviting you to work with your creativity, then you could create an altar representing your creative energy blossoming. This might include lush flowers, the tarot cards you drew, anything that represents your creativity to you, and sacral chakra crystals like carnelian, peach selenite, or tiger’s eye.  

Seeds are always a great addition to a new moon altar as well, a symbol of what you’re planting this cycle.

WAXING MOON

The waxing moon is the time for action. It’s an opportune time for taking the steps needed to bring your dream, your desire, into reality. During the waxing moon, you’ll want to focus on the steps that need to be taken to help card number 2 emerge and grow.

This could be internal or external! Often, I find, it’s a combination of both. 

For example, say that your cards showed that this cycle is all about growing your business. During the waxing moon phase, this could be a time where you take more external steps to grow your business (like sending your newsletter, making a content calendar for Instagram and sticking to it, etc.) as well as doing an abundance ritual. 

[Looking for abundance rituals to work with? Find four abundance rituals on the blog here.]

Remember to work with the sixth card, advice for working with the energies this cycle to come back to yourself, to support you through every phase.

FULL MOON

The full moon can feel like “everything all at once,” as one of my teachers says. The water in our bodies is heightened- emotions, intuition, fertility, psychic abilities. This is the last big push in the growth phase of the cycle so it’s the perfect time to do a manifestation ritual around your first and second cards, what it is you’re cultivating this cycle.

Notice any feelings or downloads you receive at this time and take note - you’ll weave them into your work through the waning part of the cycle.

WANING MOON

The waning moon is a time for shadow work, for releasing, for turning inward. It’s our invitation to work with cards three through five of the spread above: the blocks around your dream or desire, the shadow underneath the block, and the advice for healing these blocks.

This is a great time to explore the roots of these blocks and do practices like tapping (EFT) or breathwork to deprogram the stories and patterns that make up those blocks. If any of those blocks feel ready to be released, this is also the time to release them!

DARK MOON

The dark moon is the time of the cycle when the moon disappears from the sky. It’s a deeply internal time for rest, shadow work, banishing work, and cord-cutting.

If you feel ready at this time to release the blocks and work with the fifth card, the advice for healing those blocks, this is the time. A cord-cutting ceremony or banishing ritual would be ideal to help you wrap up the cycle and release these blocks once and for all.

You can return to this new moon card spread with every new moon to help guide your cycle. Want more rituals for the new moon? Click here!