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 The third chakra is the solar plexus, located in the stomach area. Here the energy of digestion and purification occurs through the functions of the intestines, kidneys, bladder, and liver. All process nutrients in and out of the body, into the blood stream and transform one kind of energy into another. In some ways the energies in the solar plexus are the most deeply connected to the process of actual transformation from one tangible form, say food or water, into calories or physical energy that propels the body. This chakra is associated with issues of retention and release, in the sense of emotional, psychological and mental processes, just as in the physical arena, the bodily processes are ones of utilization and elimination.
In the stomach region, medical science now knows that changes in body fat, whether stored or utilized, cause flux in hormones and other chemicals that affect how a person feels, and, in some instances, longevity of life. We have as a culture underestimated the powerful relationship between what we ingest and how we think and feel. Often when people have trouble in the area of the solar plexus, we are aware of the physical pain and discomfort, treating that accordingly. We are aware of the life threatening potential of disease or malfunction in the organs or tissues within the stomach region. What we sometimes miss is the relationship between distress in the solar plexus and the distress in the mind or emotional field.
The psycho-emotional field of the solar plexus is that of choice, decision, and action. Within this region lives the functional relationship between the body and its world in terms of what is done, what actions are carried out. Other words to describe this are will, intent, decision making, effort and action. People who have trouble making decisions often have issues related to the solar plexus, because in the chakra model, this region of the body commands the transformation of energies from supply to use, from need to action, and from hanging on to letting go. People who carry extra weight in the gut tend to be people who hold emotion and stress, whether not processing it in an efficient way, or accumulating more than can be processed. For example, perhaps someone who has a great deal of grief and loss in their life begins to either overeat or undereat, thereby using the digestive system, organized in the area of the solar plexus, to deal with their emotional and psychological world. Medical science now knows well the relationship between stress and inflammation, and how that is often played out in gastro-intestinal disorders, problems with the pancreas and situations such as kidney stones and bladder infections.
As the energy of the solar plexus indicates matters of will and emotional thoughts, it still must be noted that the paradigm is not exact. That is, a person may develop physical maladies that are unrelated to stress or an emotional condition. But what the chakra paradigm would say is that when a physical illness or dysfunction occurs in the region of the stomach, the psychological and emotional energy around that belongs in the energy of the solar plexus. So, to summarize: stress or emotion may create problems in the solar plexus when those are not processed well, but when an illness occurs in the region that is not related to stress or emotion, it still remains that the energy around those aliments is in the province of the solar plexus.
In the region of the solar plexus energies from the root chakra and the sacral chakra energy, sites of trust, connection and intimacy, move forward to meld with a wider environmental factor: how do I convey into the world and larger community my grounding and knowledge of familial life, that is the nearness that is foundational to advancing maturity? And, secondly, how do I receive and hold that which comes from other people and from my larger community, my context. How do I process those events psychologically, emotionally and spiritually?
The spiritual and theological issues of the solar plexus energies are central to many facets of organized religious systems. In Christianity, the themes of self service and care taking of others and the world emerge from notions of human connection based in emotional and psychological categories of love and will. Who do I love and thus how shall I act? All the great instructions of Jesus with regard to relationship move along the principle of love as a form of decision making and action. “Love your neighbor as yourself,” “Do unto others as you would have done to you,” “whoever treats one of the least of these in these ways (acts mercifully), treats me in this way also.” Central to the practice of Christianity is the belief that my decisions on how I act and my feelings about what I will into the world carry significant spiritual value.
Great Biblical stories that involve the energies of the solar plexus include the parable of the Good Samaritan, a study in appropriate emotional, psychological and physical response within a theological framework. In the story of the Good Samaritan, the religious professionals do not extend themselves to help a person in profound need. Instead, a person belonging to a marginalized group, the Samaritans, takes action in all three spheres: he feels empathy, he makes a decision to extend assistance, and he transports the person to a care facility. This trilogy of action, in the chakra paradigm, belongs to the energies designated within the solar plexus. I feel. I decide. I act.
In a spiritual sense, the reason behind the direction of the feeling, decision making and action is connected to belief and experiences of divinity. For Christians, either the direct experience of Christ or the belief in Christ creates mandates for feeling empathy, deciding on certain kinds of behavior and acting in ways that go a certain direction. Those mandates are determined largely by interpretations of the New Testament, teaching from religious authorities and experiences of spiritual life and love within a context that affirms the positive value of love as an activity,
It might be noticed that the Pharisees did not fare so well in the New Testament as depicting appropriate religious sentiment. Their actions which related to judgment and law were seen as harsh and unproductive to fostering the life and love that Jesus represents. Thus, a counter-indicator to positive energies of action and will as displayed by the Good Samaritan is the depiction of the Pharisee, a person whose actions and thoughts are governed not by love and life, but by judgment and rule. The “bent over woman” who is judged by her culture or the lepers, who are ostracized by the religious community, are examples of the way the negative actions of the solar plexus energy become acted out physically whether in an individual or a community of people.
An exercise one might try in order to get in touch with solar plexus energy is to place the hands gently on one’s stomach, and press while breathing deeply. As a person does this, thought should be directed to the solar plexus with questions such as, “what am I holding?,” “what do I need?,” “what needs to be released?,” “what do I long to gather in?” Then, in the aftermath of this exercise, the person is invited to ask what God might hold, what God might need, what God wants to release for that person, and “what God longs for with regard to that person.”
The Solar Plexus is the top of the triad of the first three chakras, known as the lower chakras. In this sense the spiritual journey parallels the journey of human development that describes growth as beginning with trust and rootedness, moving to the ability to attach and experience family and intimacy and then growing into decision making and the externalization of those decisions into actions and will. The Solar Plexus organizes the energies of fundamental ethics as defined in the Christian tradition as the ability to act in ways that increase positive relationships and hopeful feelings of love and concern for self and neighbor.
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