The sixth chakra is located between and above the eyebrows. Most often referred to as the Third Eye Chakra, the sixth chakra gains the moniker Ajna in Sanskrit meaning “to command.”
The Third Eye Chakra governs the neutral mind, allowing us the perspective to balance the warnings offered by the negative mind with the optimism of the positive mind and see reality for what it truly is beyond the veil of maya. The gift of the sixth chakra is to see beneath the surface. A balanced Ajna chakra gives insight and strong intuition – the ability to perceive what is, and a strong imagination – the ability to see what is possible.
I’ve been doing a lot of reading. With the African sun beating down, I don’t have much energy for a vigorous yoga practice, so I find a nice shady spot and if I’m lucky, one that comes with a breeze, and I’ll settle in with a book. I was gifted with many electronic versions of books ranging in subject from yoga to Reiki, fiction stories to historical non-fiction.
The fact that the books are electronic posed a bit of a challenge, given the constraint of electricity here. I’ve mentioned before that I’m lucky to be in a city that has electricity even for a small window most days. Out in the rural areas, electricity only comes from a generator, and those are few and far between. I’ve discovered, though, that the smartphone I have will hold electronic copies of books, and will also be recharged by my computer. Thus, I bounce back and forth between laptop and cell phone devouring book after book.
I’ve been reading a lot of Dickens, as well as more contemporary fiction and non-fiction set in the late eighteen hundreds and also encompassing the two world wars. I’m struck by the descriptions of the poor because they mimic what I’ve observed here in Africa.
Dickens describes a world of poverty coexisting next to a much smaller realm of wealth and privilege. He speaks of trash building up in the street and the smell of human waste running open in throughout London. While the human waste disposal here does not run in the streets, the trash is omnipresent. There is also a huge disparity of wealth, with a small sliver of the population living well above the poverty level that most Guineans occupy.
An ostentatious house sits well back from a roadside covered in the build-up of trash
She walks here barefoot every day, sometimes wearing a little shift of a dress, and sometimes, inexplicably, wearing a knit sweater over it. Her name is Rama and she just watches. When I make eye contact, she’ll raise her eyebrows and give me a small smile. Her name reminds me of one of my favorite yoga mantras, so I’ll chant to her sometimes, “Sitta Ram, Sitta Ram, Sitta Ram Ram Ram.” She sings back, “Sitta Libby, Sitta Libby, Sitta Libby Libby Libby.”
One of the things I’m asked for often as a foti is medicine. When somebody isn’t feeling well, they assume that I have the cure. I count myself blessed that I’m usually able to help.
The complaint I hear most often is pain in the belly. Sometimes, it’s exhibited as a small pain where the person has a more subdued energy than normal. Other times, the sufferer is lying down in too much pain to do much of anything else. When the case is the former, I mix up some white clay that was gifted to me by a girlfriend in California. One spoonful of clay mixed with water followed by two more cups of water, and my patient is usually feeling better right away. For more severe stomach pain, I mix up some water with a spoonful of activated charcoal, gifted to me by another friend in California. For extremely severe pain, I’ll follow up the natural medicine with a Reiki healing session. I’m lucky to have happy patients each time.
I’ve offered several Reiki sessions here in Guinea for a variety of reasons. Sometimes for stomach upset, others for fever, and other times for life issues compounded by energetic blocks in the chakras. Even though Africans here haven’t heard of chakras or Reiki before, they’ve been extremely receptive to the healing. I’ve received feedback that they’re able to feel the energetics of the treatment, have a sense of calm afterwards, and feel relief for the symptoms that led to me offering a treatment.
The fifth chakra vibrates to the color blue and governs communication. This chakra sits over our throat and literally gives a voice to our internal inspirations and creativity. Thus, the Vishuddi chakra is a chakra of manifestation; connecting Shiva with Shakti, limitless potential with life-giving energy and consciousness.
The throat chakra finds expression through speaking, chanting, and singing. When one is able to clearly state one’s unique view on the world, the throat chakra is open and energy is moving freely. Continue reading “Vishuddi, The Throat Chakra”
I’ve already mentioned that the poverty in Guinea is profound. The truth is that I have never seen this extreme poverty before. Guinea is in the thirteenth poorest country in the world. That’s the macro view. What this looks like on a micro level is a lot of people who are very hungry and in need and very few with the capability to make some money.
Many walk around in clothes that would have been tossed in the trash long ago by somebody in the developed world. Shirts with a collar but no material at the shoulders, pants that flap in the font and back because the material is long worn away, t-shirts that looks like netting in the back because there are so many holes in them. Many colors are faded, the clothes having taken on the color and texture of the African dust long ago.
Clothes dry on a line in the hot midday sun
Polygamy is practiced throughout Guinea. While not everybody has multiple wives, it is more common than not. In many families, a man will take two or more wives and father a myriad of children. Continue reading “Poverty and Community in Guinea”
It’s only 10 am and the market is crowded. Vendors line the left and right in small wooden booths and converted shipping containers. In the center are an array of ladies with large bowls holding rice, potatoes, tomatoes, and an array of other vegetables while other vendors move throughout the market, one carrying brightly folded material on his head, another with a basket of fish in her hand. People press against each other to move through the mass. Voices rise as vendors shout their prices, a girl in a tatter of a dress stands quietly in her own small space waiting for her mother to finish a transaction.
These women pause their wig making to smile for the camera.
Percy
A medicine man told my boyfriend that in order to ensure health, happiness, and abundance, he needed to buy a racer chicken and leave it at the house to be cared for.
Percy peeks in the front door to see if the coast is clear.
When traveling, it’s important to drop your ethnocentricities. You want to be able to look at the culture you find yourself immersed in for what it is, not what it is in comparison to your home culture. Here in Guinea, that means embracing different standards of beauty, understanding that when voices are raised, people are not necessarily angry, and not being offended by constantly being called foti, white person.
Coca Cola bears a familiar look but a different language in this cooler outside a gas station
