Vulnerable Without Fear: Manipura Chakra
sankofa flow.
Backbends like eka pada rajakapotasana are a good path for meditation on the word sankofa, or “go back and get it.”
Sankofa is often “spoken” with an image of a bird flying forwards, yet looking backwards with an egg in his/her beak. Or in American lexicon, a heart.
In more words, “sankofa” translates to empathetic understanding — to love — what has come before us, so that we may fully experience — love — what is occurring now, the creation of the future.
Its linguistic root is in present-day Ghana, from where many of the ADOS came. To know this is to acknowledge the simultaneous smallness and infinite qualities of the individual human body.
This photo was shot at the annual Yoga On The Mall event. Faith Hunter of Embrace DC guided the stage and the audience through her signature vinyasa flow (extra sweaty for all the vata of corporate America). We practiced on the grounds of the Washington Monument, a ginormous phallic symbol situated not far from my home in the nation’s capital, the “seat of power of the free world,” or more simply put, the ego capital of the world (like Milan is to fashion, and New York is to finance).
Each of Faith’s demonstrators donned a yellow shirt — symbolic of the manipura (solar plexus) chakra that regulates our hunger, our gut intuition.
It is the third of the lower chakras, the “animalistic” qualities of Kemetic god Set, the King of the South who warred with Heru, the Sky god, in the battle for control.
The first of these chakras that Set represents is our muladhara chakra — our home/environment/”the Earth.” The second is the svadisthana, our reproductive intuition — that which protects the seed.
It is said, Heru, who reigns over the emotional intelligence — the heart, the throat, and the intellect (our third eye) won the fight. It is possible, however, that there was ultimately a compromise between the two monarchs, for the sake of oneness.
Urdhva dhanurasana a.k.a. chakrasana [as seen above] awokens all 7 chakras*. It strengthens the back body, unblocks the front, and because it is an inversion calms the mind. It is, like anyone who lives by the word “sankofa,” the personification of the woke-flow mantra, “vulnerable without fear.”
Regular pigeon pose (video above) is another good all-chakras-woke posture. As is viparita dandasana [technically what’s pictured above in the Mall photo] and mandalanasa.
The deep stretch of the abdominals in backbends requires strength in the muscles that protect and stimulate the organs of our manipura. These include the digestive organs, pancreas, and adrenal glands (which regulate our stress levels).
Eka pada raja kapotasana (one-legged king pigeon) supports our parasympathetic system — our “rest and digest” mode — the opposite of our “fight or flight” nervous system that is overactive among persons with PTSD and recognized by overstimulated adrenal glands (adrenaline, adolsterone, cortisol hormones). These glands are situated near the kidneys.
Balasana, too, allows the belly to hang and affects the vagus nerve, a significant path for our rest & digest.
The chakra’s seed mantra is “ram,” or Rama, who in Vedic history is the god of virtue and the seventh incarnation of Vishnu, the preserver god.
Foods this chakra enjoys include sweet spices like cinnamon and vanilla.
*There are actually a bunch of chakras. The most prominent 7 are the most researched, and may be easily remembered by the color spectrum acronym ROY G BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).