The New Heart Potential

For several years, I’ve been feeling the slow rising of feminine energy in the world. Although feminine energy is nurturing, restoring, relational, and receptive, it’s also dark and destructive (see “The Death Current and Pure Feminine Energy”). As the opposite of masculine energy which holds the essence of order, structure and action, the feminine current is more aligned with chaos, stillness and the void. That’s not to say that feminine energy is chaotic and destructive without purpose. Rather, it’s a natural, healthy response to overgrowth and decay. Without it, things would grow unfettered, until life itself was strangled. There would be no room to breathe and no way to start fresh.

In my class, “The Collective Shift,” I spoke in detail about how the rise of feminine energy is part of a massive, energetic shift that’s taking place across the world. In short, our energetic systems are recalibrating to a higher frequency. This recalibration will help usher the world into a new way of living. As part of this shift, a new “level” of the heart chakra is becoming available to us, perhaps for the first time ever. This new level will allow us to be in relationship differently with each other and with the world.

I’ve been carefully observing how this change is impacting the energy body, and how it’s creating change for me, my family, friends and clients, as well as the world as a whole. What I’ve observed makes me believe this shift is a long-term change in how the world will work going forward, as well as an opening to a whole new dimension of experience. It’s exciting, but also really challenging. Let me explain…

Existing Relational Dynamics

For much of recorded history, relationship has primarily been a function of personal will and desire. It’s been largely contractual (“you do for me, and I do for you”), with a strong focus on control and power dynamics. Even in our most intimate relationships, the idea of “relationship” has been self-referential (i.e., we choose partners that give us what we want, and when they stop giving us that, we move on).

That’s because for most of recorded history, we’ve been trying to relate to each other primarily from the three lower chakras: the solar plexus chakra (a personal will center), the sacral chakra (an emotional/desire center) and the root chakra (a primal chakra related to issues of safety and survival). Although the heart chakra is our primary relational center, we simply haven’t unlocked most of the potential that lies there. We haven't been operating on all cylinders.

The Lower Chakras

The solar plexus chakra sits in your belly and is a mental and will center. It’s rational and logical. It’s where the personal ego forms and is considered your personal power center. It’s great at making critical judgements about what’s right or wrong in your life. It helps you order, separate out, take action, discern, create structure and set boundaries. It’s a very masculine, energetic structure. The “go-go/do-do” dynamic that’s such a part of the world is a direct effect of the overuse of this chakra. When we relate primarily from this chakra, we want other people to agree with us, to reinforce our beliefs and ego definitions, and to do what we think is right. If they don’t, we either try to force them to, or we cut ties by shunning, exiling or “othering” them.

The sacral chakra sits in the pelvis and is your primary emotional and desire center. It’s more feminine in nature. It’s changeable and chaotic. Emotions rise and fall, oftentimes without any conscious understanding of what’s behind them. Even when we know what we want, we oftentimes don’t know why we want it. This chakra is where most of us shove all the feelings we don’t want to feel or don’t know how to process. For many people, the sacral chakra is a bit of a Pandora’s box. We don’t even know what’s in there until it comes flying out. When we relate primarily from this chakra, how we feel and what we want is primary.

The root chakra sits at the base of the spine and is highly tied to physical experience. It’s mostly concerned with safety and survival issues. This is a very primal chakra. When we relate from here, we’re basically seeking resources, or trying to ensure our physical safety and survival through relationship. This creates relationships built on dependency and based in fear.

Together, these chakras can create relational dynamics that are controlling, manipulative, territorial and self-centered. They create unhealthy, power dynamics where one person must play the winner and the other the victim or loser. In larger, relational contexts, they create “us versus them” tribalism. In the highest expression of these chakras, relationships can be built upon mutual agreement, healthy boundaries and a mutual meeting of needs and desires. In the lower expression of these chakras, relationships function primarily through aggression, control, fear, merging and self-sacrifice.

A Rebalancing

Although I’ve thought of the upward movement of energy primarily as a rising of feminine energy, what I’ve been observing in myself and my clients is actually a recalibrating to a higher vibration of both masculine and feminine energies. In essence, each of us individually, and the world as a whole, is being asked to raise our vibration. If you think of vibration in the terms of sound, it’s like we’re being asked to play the next higher note on a keyboard.

Although this sounds easy enough, any shift in vibration upward requires some kind of purification process. We can’t simply play the next highest note on a keyboard if we don’t know what note we’re currently playing, why we’re playing it, where the next key is located, or even that the next key exists. So, even though this movement will ultimately unlock the heart chakra in a new way and offer us a greater capacity to experience harmonious, mutually-supportive relationships, accomplishing this vibrational leap is actually an incredibly difficult process. There’s a huge learning curve, even for people who’ve been consciously playing at the edges of the heart chakra for years.

Although this is really uncharted territory, I’m going to attempt to offer some guidelines for navigating this vibrational, recalibration process. So here goes…

Vibration and the Chakra System

You can think of the chakra system itself as a series of energetic centers with progressively higher vibration. Keep in mind that vibration is a neutral term. Low vibration does not imply “worse” or “bad,” and higher vibration does not imply “better” or “good.” Like a rainbow, colors that exist in a lower vibrational part of the spectrum are no better or worse than colors that exist in a higher vibrational part of the spectrum. They’re just different.

In your chakra system, however, the higher the vibration you can hold, the more choice you have. Raising your vibration or moving energy into a higher chakra doesn’t mean you lose access to the lower chakras. Those lower, keyboard keys are still accessible. It does mean, however, that you’ll be able to use those lower chakras in a more refined way. Also, the higher chakra grants new options for experience and expression. You have more keys to play, which means you can create more complex harmonies and more interesting sounds.

Pulses of Light

I can’t say for sure, but it feels to me like this vibrational shift is unfolding in a step-like fashion, where pulses or waves of higher vibration energy are rising either directly from the Earth itself or from somewhere in the cosmos with the Earth absorbing the vibration. That means, everyone on the Earth will feel this. Your energy body is naturally calibrated to the Earth’s vibration. As the Earth shifts, we all must, too. From what I’ve experienced and observed, the more consciously we align with these pulses or waves, the easier they are to integrate. That’s not to say they’re easy. But easier.

Remember, both feminine energy and masculine energy are being recalibrated. That means the distorted desires and unprocessed emotions in your feminine, sacral chakra are being asked to evolve or give way. The distorted beliefs, ego-definitions and unhealthy willfulness of your masculine, solar plexus chakra are also being asked to evolve or give way. That means this energetic shift is basically asking you to change how you think and feel about a lot of things.

This is not an easy task, but thankfully, we’re not being asked to change on a dime…it does seem to be coming in steps or waves that build upon each other. We are being asked, however, to gradually and continually evolve. The danger lies in not accepting the change. Resistance anywhere in the system creates an energetic backlog. Instead of integrating one small wave of energy at a time, we then have to integrate much larger waves that have accumulated. The bigger the backlog, the more pressure those energetic waves create. Then change can happen suddenly, dramatically or in ways that are chaotic or deeply uncomfortable. Also, the more distortion being held in the lower chakras, the more of a shift integrating the pulse is going to require. The more distortion there is (i.e., the more unprocessed emotion and distorted beliefs there are), the more drastic the change required to recalibrate.

Upward Movement of Energy Through the Chakras

Each of these pulses of energy moves through the lower chakras, basically pushing against any distortion locked in the chakra. You can think of this like water moving through a channel. Small amounts of distortion can more easily be cleared. Places where there are hard blocks will feel more pressure.

As the wave of energy moves though the root chakra, it will trigger any safety or survival fears you may be holding. This can include physical or emotional trauma from your history that wasn’t fully processed at the time it occurred, as well as more existential and primal fears. As this wave of energy moves through the chakra, it will help clear small blocks, but will also place pressure on larger blocks. This chakra is directly tied to the physical body, and the complexity of potential physical experiences related to this shift is too much to try to discuss here. Keep in mind, however, that this energetic shift may manifest as real physical symptoms due to distortions being held in the root chakra. Transforming this seat of primal energy requires presence and deep, spiritual grounding.

From there, the wave of energy moves through the sacral chakra, the seat of your feminine, desire energy. This chakra usually holds a lot of unprocessed emotion and shadow material. Distortions of the sacral chakra involve questions of self-worth, money, sexuality and creativity. Emotional and physical trauma oftentimes get locked in this part of the body, going into shadow. Easily triggered, confusing and difficult emotions provide clues to what’s locked in shadow. Transforming this seat of feminine energy requires shadow work.

From there, the wave of energy continues moving upward, next into the masculine, solar plexus chakra. Distortions of the solar plexus chakra involve will, health, appropriate action, the ego, self-care, boundaries and self-sacrifice. The distortions here are mental ones that can be so entrenched, it never even occurs to us to question whether they’re true or not. When they’re challenged by life or new information, resistance can take the form of denial or doubling-down, as accepting new data can mean reworking an entire worldview. Transforming masculine energy requires boundary and ego work.

The wave continues to rise, next reaching the heart, where it will hit against all the relational hurts and distortions being held there, and potentially unlocking this next level of our collective experience. The heart is the place in our energetic system where all things meet. Here, masculine and feminine energy can be held together, not in a merged way, but in mutual respect. Distortions in the heart chakra usually involve unprocessed grief and are the result of painful experiences where the innocent trust of the child was broken. The inner child lives in the heart chakra, although the playfulness and beauty of the inner child is oftentimes locked behind bars of fear, immaturity, pain and mistrust. Because the heart is capable of feeling the interconnected nature of life, blocking it also limits our capacity to see situations with compassion and forgiveness. Transforming heart chakra distortions requires seeing our enemies differently (including the enemies within).

The wave will continue to rise, potentially through the throat chakra where it can unlock co-creational potentials, through the third-eye chakra where it can unlock vision and higher perception, and through the crown, where it can unlock a deep knowledge of the oneness of all of life. The wave will continue to place pressure on blocks anywhere in the system, and the force of the wave will inevitably diminish as it moves upward due to these blocks. As another wave comes, the intensity of the pressure being placed on blocks will increase, and the potential for the wave to rise higher into the system will increase each time a block is cleared. The challenge, of course, is that most of us resist change. Although distortions limit us, change is scary, and the defenses we’ve built over the years help us feel safe. Dismantling them can feel deeply destabilizing.

For all of these reasons, this upward movement can feel quite difficult, and will likely trigger experiences that deeply challenge us. The entrenched political and social conflicts we see in the world right now are expressions of this struggle. It’s important to understand that masculine energy is not being asked to give way to feminine energy. Rather the purification of feminine energy is creating a space for the purification of masculine energy. Both are being asked to evolve enough to come into mutual relationship with each other and live together in the heart chakra.

The New Heart Potential

The heart chakra is still a fairly dark continent for most people. In an open heart chakra, we can energetically connect to everything and everyone. Here, we understand that life is a deeply, interconnected web that's worthy of our trust. Everything is dependent on everything else, and everything is ultimately an expression of love. The heart chakra offers us easy access to compassion, forgiveness and deep integrity. The higher level that’s potentially coming online grants an increased capacity to be present with life in each moment, as it is.

This is actually a rather radical way of living, and one that most people haven’t embodied, even if they understand it intellectually or generally try to “go with the flow.” That’s because this way of living requires a high degree of surrender. To meet life, as it is, we must be able to relinquish the personal will and bow to a higher will, even when we don’t understand or like how it’s playing out. We must also have enough mastery of our emotions to discern what’s good and right for us and what isn’t and be willing to let go of addictions and attachments. We must trust ourselves and others. Here, in the open heart, integrity trumps power, and connection is valued over control.

As we continue to collectively unlock this next level of the heart chakra, we will naturally form healthier relationships. It will become natural to view others and ourselves with compassion, to more easily forgive mistakes, to value uniqueness, and reform our systems so they’re in greater integrity with their stated goals. The purification of the lower chakras will also unlock their higher expressions (i.e., relationships that satisfy mutual desires, provide for basic needs and maintain healthy boundaries).

Navigating the Shift

Again, this is all unchartered territory, but from what I’ve seen, the gradual shifts are more easily integrated when we openly meet them. These things are almost always blind spots, which makes it incredibly hard to even know what’s being asked of us. But here are a few steps to help you break it down:

1. First, it’s important to trust this process. The more you can trust the wisdom of this coordinated effort to raise the vibration of our planet, the easier it is to simply be present with what is. This step opens you to the higher potentials of this shift.

2. Spend time in nature. The Earth is modulating this energetic upgrade, so the more we can connect with the Earth’s vibration, the easier this shift will be to integrate. Go outside every day. Take a hike, walk barefoot in the grass, commune with flowers, trees and animals. Rest often throughout the day. This will naturally ground your energetic field, which will help transform root chakra distortions.

3. Feel your feelings. Most of us try to push away uncomfortable feelings by either denying they’re there or by thinking about something different. Oftentimes, we get into “feeling ruts.” We find it easier to feel certain feelings over other ones and deny or deflect everything that falls outside of the comfort zone. We may find anger easier to tolerate than grief, for example. Or frustration easier to feel than guilt. Do your best to not deflect, but to simply acknowledge what you’re actually feeling, and then make some space to feel it. Turn into the emotional discomfort whenever possible, and simply breathe. If there’s a song that brings up a difficult experience, put it on repeat and allow yourself to feel whatever it’s stirring. Sometimes feelings can be tricky to label, so don’t worry if you don’t know what you’re feeling. Sometimes it seems like you’re “not feeling anything at all.” This is just a protective defense, so let yourself feel the emptiness of the defense. Let yourself feel that you can’t feel. If that makes you frustrated, then feel the frustration. The key is to simply be present with whatever you’re feeling, in each moment, as it evolves. Try not to judge it. Just make some space and breathe. This step helps release distortions in your sacral chakra.

4. Journal or meditate. Spending time in quiet reflection of your experience can help you connect the dots. A good question to ask might be, “Where else have a felt this way?” or “What does this remind me of?” This step can help you make connections to things in your history. Further, consider how your behavior or thought patterns might be contributing to the problem. Are you crossing your own boundaries? Are there actions you should be taking? Where have you given your power away? Assume you know less than you think you do and be curious. Be willing to change your mind, even about the things you unequivocally know to be true. This step can help release distortions in your solar plexus chakra, as long as you’re willing to surrender the ego definitions underlying them.

5. Test out your new heart energy. Try to look at difficult situations with an open heart. Is there a way to see this with compassion and forgiveness for yourself and others? Would this look different if you removed any sense of blame, shame or guilt? Is there a relational, “win-win” answer to this problem? Are you trying to save someone? What can you let go of? Whatever you uncover, try to hold a state of open surrender. This isn’t about giving up or giving in. It’s about trusting the relational matrix you’re a part of. There’s a wisdom there that we’re only just beginning to tap into. Try to be present with what is, without judgement. This step helps open the door to the next level of your heart.

6. Ask for help from a higher power and trust. Ask your guides, guardians and ancestors to help you let go of whatever is holding you back. Align with the highest intention you can for your life and then let go of any agenda about how that would play out or what it would ultimately look like. Trust that you don’t have to figure this out on your own. You just need to be present with your life, as it’s unfolding. This step can help unlock the 5th dimensional potentials of the throat chakra.

Keep in mind, the heart is all about presence. Nothing needs to change when we’re living in the heart. Just try to be fully present with whatever life is bringing you, and you’ll more easily be carried through this upgrade. Even when you feel like you’re not succeeding, know there are higher powers at play in this shift. If you’re not able to move with an energetic pulse, another will be along shortly, and it’ll likely make whatever you need to let go of more obvious to you. You’ll get there. Trust the process.