Coming Home Meditation Tomorrow 9-10am EST ~ Solar Plexus Week 2 ~ Shine

Join us for a new solar plexus meditation tomorrow morning.

Dear Friends,

Tomorrow we’ll gather from 9-10am EST for the second week of work with the solar plexus. Last week was beautiful as we explored together the nuances of power, agression, and the ego. Tomorrow, I want to focus on the radiance of a healthy solar plexus…and the healing, integrating power of being seen.

This week I’ve been asking myself this question: why do humans have an energy center that governs power and the sense of self or “I”ness? If we are communal creatures meant to live in the awareness of our interdependence, why have a solar/self center?

The heart seems obvious—the center of our Being and home of the Soul. The root has a definite function to ground us. The sacral is exciting in that it governs sexuality, sensuality, and creativity. The throat is about expression. The third eye—is cool and visionary. The crown, ascension!

But, what about this mysterious solar plexus center? Located below the ribs, above the navel, shining like a sun or in the Sanskrit, manipūra, a lustrous gem, this chakra is governed by the element of fire and linked to the sense of sight. Its esoteric effect in the attachment process is the experience of being seen or known.

What I have come to is an appreciation for the gift we humans give each other when we take the time, make the effort, and are open to fully seeing each other. What a gift. I am not fully myself, not totally sure of myself, until I am fully seen by another...or many others. This is not a weakness, but seems to be an integral way the human experience works. We need to be seen in order to really know ourselves and have faith in our impact on the world.

All of us can probably remember someone in our young lives who really saw us…like even the parts we didn’t WANT to be seen. Somehow, they managed to see it all and STILL love us…maybe love us even more than we felt we deserved. They could see the parts of us we couldn’t see ourselves…the parts we might be trying to hide, but also the parts we hadn’t yet developed or expressed. Their seeing helped bring us into being.

For me, this person was my grandmother, Minerva. She loved me unconditionally and I felt truly seen by her. When she looked at me, there was a softness and wonder in her eyes. She was the only person I recall who laughed at my jokes (my brother was and is much funnier). I ran to tell her about my accomplishments and was always rewarded with a sweet incredulity, like I’d really done something out of this world. She marveled at my courage and basked in my stories. This went on my whole life. She was alive with me here on this plane well into my early motherhood days (blessedly I had a long time with her - she died when I was 41) and she brought the same appreciation and wonder to my daughter, her great grandchild. I shared stories about my toddler with her over the phone and she oohed and awed like I’d given birth to the smartest kid in the world.

My grandmother saw me the way I wanted to be seen by the whole world. Of course, the whole world isn’t always so hospitable, but she showed me it was possible. She saw me and so I knew I could be seen. If she could receive my radiance, then it must be there. I’ve heard people talk about sports coaches this way, teachers, mentors, parents, cousins, siblings, a local librarian, a kindly elder. Bless the folks who take the time to SEE our children.

One thing I am learning about the WILL, which is traditionally located at the solar plexus, is that what we call WILL isn’t always that. Sometimes, it’s just a complex of desires or aversions. Fear. Anger. Jealousy. Aggression. Judgment. There is a difference between willful or having willpower and having FREE WILL. To have free will is to be free from the base desires of the ego and hindrances and complexes born from trauma; being able to act effectively from a place of clear seeing. Clear seeing must come—in part—from being seen clearly. If I have the experience of being seen then I know how it feels. I know how it goes and how to give that gift to others. I can see because I have been seen.

I wrote a brief poem today to capture some of my reflections on the solar plexus. Join me tomorrow as we sit and offer some healing to this precious, lustrous gem. Let’s gather and see each other and be seen.

POEM: I see you.

What does it mean 
to be seen? 
It means to be gathered into being
and held in a gaze, 
in the light, in a frame.
Received without blinking, 
without obscuration,
no murkiness 
no question.
The inner eye taking in 
the distinct glory 
of this one human being! 
Registering it
at a unique cosmic address, 
and holding in place 
long enough 
for something essential
to constellate.

If I can be seen, then I exist
I am some thing, some one.
I have in that distinction
some power.
To move other things 
and people;
to make waves 
or just ripples;
to have an effect
to be a cause. 
With power comes responsibility. 
If I am seen by my community 
I know when I am in integrity 
I know when I am not myself 
There is accountability.

There are things about me
that come into focus only when I am seen.
Parts of me I haven't even seen myself. 
Will you show me?
Where my hopes
meet your gaze, 
I land more fully.
If your gaze is a welcome one, 
I can inhabit myself.
What a landing!
The appreciation, the appraisal, the wonder
makes manifest 
aspects of self that might have stayed hidden.
Your gaze is an invitation to all of me
to be here fully with all of you.
We need to be seen to become whole.
We need to be seen to know 
we are matter.
We matter.