Le Svâdhishthâna Chakra

Dr Bernard Auriol

translated by Laurence Brian

Copenhaguen (May, 2007)

A few elements concerning Svâdhisthâna Chakra according to a traditional point of view.

 The name of the second Chakra starting from the bottom, located above Muladhara Chakra is called Svâdhishthâna Chakra or "Svâdhisthâna" written more commonly "Svâdhisthana" and with less exactitude : "svadisthana" or " svadistana" or even "Swadishtana"

In sanskrit, it can be divided into "Sva-adhi-shtâna" that is to say :

Symbolism

Symbolic representation of Svâdhishthâna (Arthur Avalon, Le Pouvoir du Serpent, Paris, Dervy)

"Element"

According to tradition, Chakra Muladhara, located under the Svâdhishthâna, corresponds to the Earth element; The chakra located above corresponds to the element "Fire". The Svâdhishthâna element is basically in opposition to the other two : it is the Water element which can dissolve the earth and extinguish the Fire.

 Water (Ap) is tattva [1] , the element, the primary substance of this Chakra ("white region of Varuna"). As Avalon reminds us, the element of a Chakra is not reduced to its materiality, but rather , as one can read in theories of the middle-age on the four (or five) elements, subjacent matter components: one could speak about "states" : solid state (earth), liquid state (water), gaseous state (air), to which one could add  more dynamic (fire), or more subtil states (space, ether).

Naturally with Water as tattva of this Chakra, it contains less stability than Muladara (earth), and less radiance than Manipura (Fire).

 Its germ, its Bija [2] is "Vam"  that of water; Varuna is the vedic divinity of waters, which enables to allocate this center a number of "aquatic" values; as for example the animal symbol is a a white makara sea animal, sea turtle or swan.

 He is the son of mud (kardama: mud, mire, rubbish ; it is the name of a Naga and a Prajapati). The spouse of the wine Goddess (Varuni) and the Father of Chandra, Lakshmi, Pushkara, Vasishtha, etc. His brother would be Mitra (who rules during day time whereas Varuna rules at night), and represents inspiration whereas Varuna represents expiration. Mitra is the father of Pingala (carnal pleasure, such as with a prostitute)

Varuna is one of the 12 âditya, considered as the main asura and representing the law of the Samsara; he binds the ones who are guilty with the rope of the attachment.

He is the Lord of mysteries with 4 faces. One of them is Agni, its counterpart.

Mandala [3] corresponding to this tattva is the crescent of the moon (ardhendurû-palasitam)

Color symbolism

To my knowledge, traditional literature does not integrate, the rainbow distribution on the vertical axe, as it is done in the "New-Age" version of the Chakras. We shall mention the colors listed by Arthur Avalon, which concerns mainly the petals  (secondarily, there are different colors used for other symbols in the classical representation of the Chakras.)

The color of the petals is orange-colored, more precisely vermilion, cinnabar-based ( natural mercury sulfide HgS, mercury ore. )( http://www.dotapea.com/vermillons.htm).  Authentic vermilion is a pigment as well as poison, above all in case of ingestion or mere inhalation. It was forbidden in the 19th century due to its toxicity.

With its characteristics, it could symbolize the psychological ambivalence that one can find in the psychoanalytical approach.

Geometrical shape

Octagon (ashtâra)

Mythological symbolism

In order to symbolize the energy of this zone, one calls upon God Hari (Vishnu) carried by Garuda and who has for shakti [4] Râkini (or Shakini [5]  with a furious aspect who shows its teeth with a ferocious look. Her mind exalts drinking ambrosia, divine drink, immortal nectar that evokes honey.

She has two heads, symbol of division, loss of fusion and unity (psychoanalysis enables us to find the link between oral drive and a raising ambivalent form. She is at the   root of artistic inspiration, whether it is resonant or visual.

Number of petals [8]

Six petals, which corresponds to {3 petals [8] x 2 sides }

Sounds

The grossest elements are located in the lower part of the body, most subtle elements in the upper part, which opens the door to the following parts:

Audiometric frequency

Listening test and sorting out of Chakras

Following the teachings of Gitalamkara and modern research (Point of view of Tomatis-1974b), one can see correspondences between auditive perceptive capacities and certain areas of the body. The upper part corresponds to higher frequencies, and the lower part of the body to lower tones.

Music Notes

In India, traditional music therapy claims to have an effect on each specific Chakra with the use of a particular type of raga (see table hereunder)

Root Mantra

We have mentioned earlier that the letter VAM corresponds to the bija mantra of the Svadhisthana Chakra.

The name of this letter could instruct us on the following symbolism :

and

RUDRA=> rumbling, violent, lord of tears, Master of death and fecundity, symbolizes the "Tamas" guna.

Letter Vam evokes Kama=>

Kâma has many other names :

It stands for sexual love and love memories, sexual attachment (smara), sensual pleasures (Rama or Ramana), the son of passions (Bhâva-ja), the son of attraction ( Kârshni), the one that inflames ( Darpaka or Dîpaka), lust (Kâmana, Kharu),  shamelessness (Kulâkeli), Matrix of sensual pleasures (Shringara-yoni), hot (Titha), voluptuous (Shatanârîca), he has many arrows (Ishma) as Cupidon, he is the same killer (Mâra)

(Cf. HINDU POLITHEISM  p. 476)

Petal Mantras

Traditional recitation of mantras that are carried by the petals of each Chakra (sanskrit alphabet slightly changed) corresponds to a movement that goes from vishuddha to muladhara Chakra and then straight up to Ajna, which « loops » the circuit by being according to the point of view at the very initiation or end of the movement.

If one makes a downward movement, at each level (each Chakra), it corresponds to a clockwise movement (anti-trigonometric).

By combining both actions, one can observe a spiral that turns clockwise into a downward movement (and anti clockwise going upward). Just af we would use a regular cork-screw: going down within the cork while screwing in a clockwise direction, or as if we were screwing down a screw into a piece of wood. The unscrewing goes naturally anti clockwise.

Phonological considerations

According to Pr. Sarkar and Dr. Seal [9] [9]  svâdhishthâna has its part in sexual stimulation

« The Svâdhisthâna Chakra, fiery and emitting lustre like diamond with six petals representing the six letters "ba", "bha", "ma", "ya", "ra", "la". »   (Devî Gita, ibidem).

Mantras of Svâdhishthâna are: phonetically labials or semi-consonants that correspond to a pronunciation located in the front part of the mouth, with minimal intra-oral pressure.

Svadisthana's consonants: oral consonants ? (ref. Auriol, Sounds in the subjective present)

Fonagy, a linguist who was interested in qualifying words with reference to sweetness and in that sense to orality.

Phonems connected to the "sweet" taste would be :

The author notes the link that exists between articulatory movements meant to produce different sounds and contraction sequences necessary for the baby to suck on his mother's breast. 

The question that remains is what actually makes these consonants suggestive of « vrittis [10]  » as indicated above.

In tantric teachings, all these characteristics disappear with the waking up of the kundalini in the Chakra, which transcends, and allows for the mastery of lust [11] , more commonly called desire, by reaching beyond our desires and fears, attractions and repulsions, becoming conscious that they are all part of a united whole.

Independently from this successful process, it is possible to master the vrittis by concentrating on the center of the Chakra, knowing that the Supreme One (paramâtma) is located there. From this process one may experience peace by submitting the vrittis concerned to the absolute center, which is undoubtedly a psychological mechanism. Centering oneself on the conflictual point allows for its reintegration into the unity of the organism (ref. Bernard Auriol, Yoga and Psychotherapy, Chapter 5). 

It is enlightening and surprising to see that St Thérésa of Avila (1577) named as second house for the castle of the soul, the same disturbances that tantras call "vrittis":

Psychonalysis

Instinctual Zone of Orality

The organ of perception of the svadhishthana is taste (A. Avalon). Let us notice the phonetic proximity of adhi-sthana and adhi-stanam which means "close to the breast, on the breast"! It will be noticed that one could also extract from it "svad" which means "pleasant to the taste". The tantric organs of perception are very close to the "erogenous zones" of psychoanalysis. This is why it is justified, natural and very enlightening  to systematically relate the organs of perception and of action of chakras with the erogenous zones of psychoanalysis and more precisely with the instinctual zones as stated by S. Freud and J Lacan.

The baby learns about the world with its mouth and hand, it carries to its mouth any object of discovery. Firstly, all surrounding objects, then only the objects of interest (Spitz). It is actually a question of acting and perceiving, followed by acting to perceive... It is a question of perceiving because it is a question of enjoying. The baby seeks like every other human being self-satisfaction. According to Freud, the mouth is an essential erogenous zone.

In utero already, the fetus sucks its thumb: this shows that the oral pleasure drive is genetically registered and at the service of life instincts which rely on it [12] to allow the infant to nourish itself and to satisfy its own needs ! The discharge of primitive sexual energy (libido) is obtained by the suction of the breast and the contact of the maternal body: the baby sucks, kneads the breast with its hand ("rooting"), enjoys the mother's face (first "organizer" of Spitz [13] ). Failing that, it sucks its thumb, or other fingers, or the edge of its hand; unless a dummy, a pacifier is provided.

Incorporation and Identification

Sucking gives pleasure, but it is completed, supplemented, perfected in the action of swallowing, incorporating, assimilating the object within the digestive framework. Spitz reminds us that the first myelinized nervous formations are those which manage the vestibular ear, the mouth, the stomach...

The taste is not only organ of pleasure, but also organ of relation with the world and others. The specific mode of relation to this stage is the incorporation which, in phantasms, is not attached only to the oral activity but can be transposed on breathing, vision, etc.

Incorporation makes it possible to appropriate the object, however by making it vanish! In the sphere of the oral organization of the libido, the grip of love on the object coincides with its destruction.

This appropriation becomes an identification of a cannibalic type: the subject has the phantasm to become what he incorporates and assimilates. This process is necessarily ambivalent since it comprises to make vanish, to destroy the object of love.

Ambivalence : good  fairy/wicked fairy

Cannibalism will persist, beyond weaning, in the form of phantasms of counter-aggression: "the other can wish to eat me since I wish to eat him/her and that he/she is similar to me": phantasms of devoration, testified for example by the fairy tales of the ogre (Lafon). This secret complexity and this ambivalence of the first human bond, are the source of ambivalence to be found in any human relationship.

Svadhishthana governs the love/hate relationship, which can be found in the very primitive ambivalence as clarified by Karl Abraham and Melanie Klein, and further investigated at experimental level by R. Spitz.

The hand and the grasping (the action organ of svadhishthana is the hand)

The need to grasp enters as first bond with the mother as underlined by J. Bowlby [15] in his study describing the reaction of grasping jointly with the smile and babbling of the infant, within the general framework of a "behavior of attachment" which also includes tears or cries and suction, as primary "instinctual reactions" making it possible to survive.

The baby kneads the mother's breast to stimulate the externalization of milk. He becomes acquainted to each object by grabbing it - when the object is reachable - in order to bring it to its mouth.

Freudian (and Jungian) topography : The Id

Charles Baudouin showed that it was possible to establish direct links between the main chakras and the Freudian and Jungian psychoanalytical components. In this perspective, he suggested a kind of "dissection" of our psyche, presented in the following diagram:

personality components according to Freud and/or Jung (Charles Baudouin)

Freud considered that the topic  "Unconscious, Preconscious, Conscious" should be replaced by the tripartition "Id, Ego, Super-ego". Svadhishthana chakra corresponds well to what he names the "Id":

Id

Nietzsche considers "id" "... that what is non-personal and, so to speak is necessary to our being by nature".

The term "id" was used by Georg Groddeck in 1923, and conceptualized by Sigmund Freud the same year. The id [16] constitutes the instinctual pole of the personality, the reserve of psychic energy; its content is for one part hereditary and innate, and for the other part, repressed and acquired [17] . All instinctual loads are to be found in the Id.  

"The Id...  is the obscure, impenetrable part of our personality". It is like an unconscious and unorganized instinctual tank, a true chaos of unknown forces [18] , " untamed passions", impossible to control.

It is the reign of the principle of pleasure. It is associated to desires, physiologically expressed by salivary or genital secretions and, by the erection of the penis or the stimulation of the clitoris. This phenomenon is constant during the phase of paradoxal sleep (sleep REM), which connects the Id to the experience of dream, related to this type of sleep.

Eros, the desiring (life instincts) and thanatos, the accomplished one (death instincts) fight within the frame of the Id. Thanatos aims at  rest [19] and is opposed to Eros peace-disturber. These impulses are opposed but coexist, both necessary to the dynamics of life.

Id and orality

According to tradition, the svadhishthana chakra would be connected in particular:

- with physical, psychical and spiritual thirst
- with craving to absorb, bite and with the fear of being absorbed
- with desire
- with greed
- with pure spontaneity, letting go, the orgastic pleasure
- with non channeled hyperactivity, taste for innovation and change

The perception organ of this chakra being the taste and its action organ being the hand, we can only recognize its connection with the instinctual zone of orality.
Charles Baudouin, showed that this chakra corresponds to instinctual and in particular sexual desires. He sees it as a psychoanalytical component close to the "Id" .
Taking that both assumptions are founded, the question is now whether they are compatible ?

In fact, Freud explicitly binds the "Id" and the oral phase when he states that "after the primitive oral phase, one can only admit that the investment of objects are the result of the Id, which experiences erotic tendencies as needs." he believes that, "the oral erotism is the first erotic manifestation just as the nipple is the first sexual object."

The experience of satisfaction which provides the prototype for the fixation of the desire onto a certain object is an oral experiment; one can make the assumption that desire and satisfaction are marked forever by this first experiment. (J. Laplanche and J.B Pontalis, 1973)

Freud states elsewhere that the primal experience of the oral stage constitutes the lost paradise at the base of the whole sexual life: "the act which consists in sucking the maternal breast becomes the starting point of the entire sexual life, the ideal ever reached of any later sexual satisfaction, ideal to which imagination aspires in the moments of great need and great deprivation."

Second part : Embryology / Anatomy / Physiology

Transition between Tradition / psychanalysis and anatomo-physiology
Psychanalysis and Embryology
O Fenichel dares to state that "the ego is to the Id what ectoderm is to the endoderm"
(O. Fenichel, psychanalytical theory of neurosis, PUF, p.18).

For Lafon, this is an illusion ! Undoubtedly he was right, if one was to take these links literally. If one considers them as evolutionary continuities, convergence of points of view, reciprocal "cross-references" taking the term of "cross-reference" according to the value it takes when we refer to "a footnote at the bottom of a page or the end of a text", we escape from serious objections which would happen if there were considered as identities. Segmentation in psychodynamic instances lies on segmentations of a less subtle, more basic, coarser range. One may pass from evolutive biological, embryological, anatomo-physiological level, onto neuropsychological, psychophysiological, psychodynamic, psychosociological and even - it is the bet of tantrism - onto nousologic level, or even ontology and metaphysics ! In this perspective, it is advisable not to agree with a simplist syncretism which would be satisfied with analogies. (Ref. R. Lafon, Vocabulary of Psycho-pedagogy, PUF, 1963-1979)

Chakras and occidental anatomy

Sivananda and many others offered a comparison bringing together the chakras, as described by the tantric tradition, and the data obtained through anatomic research, embryology and experimental physiology.

This action of bringing them together is very suggestive and convergence is sometimes dazzling. However we must keep in mind that they are untight bonds, but in fact a fuzzy superposition of two groups with vague contours. The method ofapproach have been rather internal (meditation, body experience) on one side, very external on the other side (scalpel, microscope, chemistry, etc). This does not mean that the first traditional knowledge is less interesting than the latter.

Embryologic cephalo-caudal axis

The human being is structured, from its most primitive structure, around an axis which can be called "apico-caudal" ("anteroposterior", from fore to back, from head to tail or root-foliar: from roots to leaves). Along this axis, the observation enables us to distinguish a high or/and fore part and a low or/and posterior part. Distribution in height being done according to gravity (and also according to light distribution), the fore-back distribution being based on the usual movement of the organism considered in the front part.

This axis is already present in chromosomes of practically each and every specie.

This very general structure is already in the ovule of a fly: the former pole is recognizable with micropyle, structure of the hull which allows the entry of the spermatozoon. The ovule comprises a chemical distribution decreasing from the fore part to the rear (regarding the ARN messenger bicoïd) and from the rear to the fore (regarding the ARN messenger nanos). Between fore and rear the ratios of concentrations of these two proteins define an axis of co-ordinates: each point along the axis is characterized by a single ratio of the two proteins. It results the transcription from it of the necessary genes to specify the segmentary identity of the organism: head, thorax, abdomen, etc. (Nobel-ptize 1995 : Nüsslein-Volhard et al.. 1987, Gilbert, 2004).

This axis gives various subdivisions by addition of intermediate parts: for example, tripartition: head, thorax, abdomen. In fact, one observes even a subdivision very detailed in the form of what is called "metameres" or "somites", kinds of varied rings, but preserving the same plan. It is what we can see on a very elementary level in worms. These gathered metameres, makes it possible to find the apico-caudal or tripartite structure that was mentioned earlier.

anatomical situation of svâdhishthâna

Svâdhisthâna is at the level of the belly with two or three centimeters below the navel, above the sexual organs, at the base of pubic hairs and at level of the lumbosacral joint. This second Chakra is a center related to the sacrum, meaning "sacred bone", "because it is the only bone that the ancients used to offer in sacrifice to the gods" (Meletius) or "because it is adjacent with the ashamed parts that nature hides. Because one also called sacred what was execrable like Sernius teaches after Petronius on these words of Virgile (Eneid 3, 57): `auri sacred fames' (the damned hunger for gold) "(Bartholin d'après Bert, p.7).

vegetative nervous system

The svadhisthana chakra is located at the spinal genitals center and would fit the hypogastric plexus (or the sacral plexus). It is thought to manage sexual energy.

That plexus deal with colon, rectum, hemorrhoids, anus, urinary bladder, urethra and sexual organs (such as ovaries, uterus, menstruations, vagina, vulva, Bartholin's gland, clitoris, Cowper's gland, testicles, prostate, penis, erection, ejaculation.

Ruling part of the brain

Mac Lean (1972) believes that our head contains not one but three brains: a "triune" brain. Like the layers of an archeological site, each brain corresponds to a different stage of evolution. Each brain is connected to the other two, but each operates indivually with a distinct "personality". The oldest of the three brains, the "reptilian" brain, is a midbrain reticular formation that has changed little from reptiles to mammals and to humans. This "brain" comprises the brainstem and the cerebellum. The brainstem rules the autonomic nervous system (respiration, heart beat, sleep). It is responsible for species-specific behavior: instinctive behavior such as self-preservation and aggression.

This brain reptilien already present in the snake and the crocodile, ensures an immediate response to the present It reigns on our fundamental impulses: hunger, thirst, sexuality, aggressivity, imitation.
It privileges the sense of smell and taste.

A major part of this structure (hypothalamus and pituitary gland) deals with the autonomic nervous system and endocrinian regulations [1 ]. It is overhung by the "paleo mammalian brain " appearing in the mammals (limbic system), and by the neo-mammalien brain , which is linked to higher chakras.

The Three Brains of MacLean
Brain Structure	Main Role	Corresponding Chakras
reptilian brain (snake, crocodile)	Instinct	muladhara svadhishthana
mammalian brain (ram, antelope)	Emotion	manipura anahata
neo-mammalian brain (ape, human beeing)	Cognition	vishuddha ajna

 

Conclusion

If we were to devote more time to this chakra, we could have tried to show its connections with its closest chakras (muladara and manipura).

We could have also tried to explore the spontaneous or technical processes, of the awakening of the kundalini and the dynamic phenomena concerned.

With the Svadhishthana chakra we have tried to outline an example of what could be a bridge between objective applied sciences and subjective (yet verifiable) spiritual knowledge.

The experience of centuries has made it possible for the tantric yogis to describe a way of awakening which rests on a deeper knowledge of the lived body.

They suggest a subjective, however verifiable approach to anatomy and psycho-physiology, and have discovered instinctual phenomenon described later in psychoanalysis.

They bring us to consider a solid systematic study approach of psycho-somatic diseases as well as a trans-religious approach to the stages of a spiritual life.

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© Copyright Bernard AURIOL (email : )

MAJ January, 30, 2010

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