Glossary · chakra
Muladhara
Also written the root chakra
Muladhara (‘root support’) is the root chakra, at the base of the spine. Its element is earth, it is drawn with four petals, and its seed sound (bija) is LAM. It is the first of the seven chakras and the ground the others stand on.
It is about safety: the body, money, home, routine, the ground under your feet. When the base holds, a person can take risks elsewhere in life, because the floor will not give way.
In balance and out of balance. In balance, Muladhara feels like steadiness: you sleep, eat and work on a rhythm, you can wait, and practical problems feel solvable. Out of balance it shows two ways. Shaken, everything feels like survival: worry about money or home, a body that will not settle. Over-held, it turns rigid: clinging to routine and possessions, afraid of any change.
Its planet is Shani (Saturn), the slow planet of time, effort and endurance. Saturn spends about two and a half years in a sign, so its weather here is long. Sade Sati, the seven-and-a-half years when Saturn crosses the signs around your birth Moon, and Saturn's passage through the 4th and 8th signs from it, are often felt first at the base of life: more work for the same security, tiredness, the need to rebuild something solid. This pairing of planets and chakras is a modern bridge between yoga and Jyotish, not a rule from the classical texts, and the familiar rainbow colours are modern too.
A simple practice. Sit or stand with both feet flat. Breathe slowly down into the base of the spine for five breaths, then sound LAM once, low and long.
Questions
Which planet rules the root chakra?
In the pairing used by withAshoka, Saturn (Shani) rules the root chakra, Muladhara. Saturn governs time, effort and endurance, the qualities a stable base is built from. The pairing is a modern bridge between yoga and Jyotish rather than a classical rule.
What is the seed mantra of the root chakra?
LAM. It is sounded low and steady, with attention at the base of the spine.
How does Sade Sati affect the root chakra?
Sade Sati is Saturn's long crossing of the signs around your birth Moon. Read through the chakras, it is often felt as pressure on the root: work, money, home and the body asking for more patience and more structure. It is a season to build, not a sentence.
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