The Seven Veils: How To Feel Better About Yourself

The Seven Veils: How To Feel Better About Yourself

The Dance of the Seven Veils, of legend, is the dance of life. In mystical traditions, a veil is a thin barrier that obscures one’s vision of some greater truth. The Dance of the Seven Veils is about a progressive unveiling to reach a state of completely naked truth. It allows living life fully open and unguarded (at least to oneself) and learning to feel better about ourselves.  As Master Jesus says, “The truth will set you free.”  Lies will allow you to feel comfortable for a while. But the truth is what allows Liberation and a stable positive mood.

The detail of seven veils is not arbitrary. It corresponds to the seven major Chakras, best known from the Hindu mystical tradition. You don’t have to believe in Hinduism to benefit from this model. They are generally presented as seven energy “wheels” along the spine, from tailbone to the top of the skull. But it is more helpful to think of them as different states of consciousness. They can heal you or become an obsession, depending on your attitude towards them. The spinal locations can be thought of as spiritual “shortcuts.” Not the actual thing, but pointing at it, acting as a path to it.

One of the best ways to empower chakras is to perform certain breathing exercises. There are too many exercises to detail them all here. So I will limit this blog to only the generic breathing exercise that will work for all chakras. In this exercise, when breathing (either controlled breathing or simply watching-breathing) imagine the breath going in and out through the chakra you want to develop. Although intellectually you know it is going in and out through your nose or mouth, using this visualization will help to keep you focussed on the chakra. For beginners, I recommend starting with three minutes for each chakra, once a day. 

• 1st, Root Chakra, seen by sensitives as red in color. Located at the bottom of the spine, at the tailbone, this chakra focusses on survival and security. It is also the gateway of physical vitality. Without this chakra being sufficiently open a person will be chronically low on energy, except when scared or angry. Which is why some people need to live in a state of chronic anxiety or anger. This, of course, takes a toll on the physical and emotional bodies. This chakra is not just about physical survival, but also financial survival (abundance) and social survival.
• 2nd, Sacral Chraka, seen by sensitives as orange in color. Located approximately two inches below the navel, this chakra focusses on sensation and sensual pleasure. The acuity of your awareness of your senses and the pleasure derived from them is what matters here. The pleasures of music, food, visual arts, and physical touch including sex are affected by this chakra. This chakra is also associated with creativity, whether it is creating life, painting, determining how to build a bridge. or writing a song.
• 3rd, Solar Plexus Chakra, seen by sensitives as yellow. Located, as the name suggests, in the Solar Plexus, this chakra focusses on power. Getting power, keeping power, how much power you have compared to somebody else (dominance). It is also how you empower (willpower) projects, doing good deeds, and achieving goals. It has the greatest potential for addiction and paranoia, but you can’t use a car without some kind of power driving it. 
• 4th, Heart Chakra, seen by sensitives as green. Located in the heart, this chakra focusses on all the various kinds of Love. Romantic love, Familial love, Agape, God love, Friendship love, Compassion for others and yourself. This is also the chakra of balance, and the safest one to work with. No matter which chakra you are opening, even the Crown Chakra, include an equal amount of work with the Heart Chakra. 
• 5th, Throat Chakra, seen by sensitives as blue. This chakra focusses on communication. Not just speaking but also writing, and body language. All forms of communicating including foreign languages and marketing. 
• 6th, Third Eye Chakra, (middle of the forehead) seen by sensitives as purple/violet. This chakra focusses on Insight. This is not the same as knowledge which is about facts, but instead about how things work and why certain things happen. Although Insight can inform knowledge, making the knowledge more useful, knowledge is the body and Insight is the Spirit.
• 7th, Crown Chakra, seen by sensitives as white (the combination of all colors) or ultraviolet. Located on the top of the head, this chakra focusses on Unity. Unity with God, unity with all of nature, unity with all people, unity with your partner, unity with the Universe. 

By activating and balancing all seven states of consciousness you begin living up to your full potential. Experiencing your full potential, you naturally feel better about yourself. Activating all seven chakras is not without risk, though. Their natures can become the targets of obsession, and obsession never leads to a better life. Unlike Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is not necessary to develop the “lower” chakras before developing the “higher” ones, but it is wise to do so. Just as it is wise to not linger too long on the lower levels.

The next blog: The Seven Veils: Chakra-Enhanced-Sex

Douglas R Pitts is a mental health counselor in a Washington State prison and author of the book “144 Aphorisms.”

The opinions stated in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Washington State Department of Corrections.