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Ajna Third Eye Chakra: Seat of Intuition

A blue and purple star of david on a black background.

Introduction to Ajna Third Eye Chakra

As we ascend the chakras, we get closer to communication with source energy and the higher self. This communication happens at the Ajna third eye chakra. Ajna is the seat of our intuition, inner knowing, and imagination.

Ajna is known as the gateway to our inner world or the eye of the soul. Meditators concentrate on this chakra to help them journey within. It relates to dreams and inner vision, perception of reality, and psychic abilities of clairvoyance and clairaudience.

Ajna Third Eye Chakra Associations

  • Sanskrit name: Ajna
  • English name: Third eye or brow
  • Etymology: Ajna = command, wisdom, perception
  • Location: Between the eyebrows
  • Color: Indigo
  • Element: Light
  • Power word: Intuition
  • Physical associations: Pituitary gland, brain, face, eyes, nose, sinuses, and hearing
  • Planet: Saturn
  • Animal: Garuda eagle
  • Deity: Shakti – Divine mother
  • Lotus: Two petals symbolizing the two opposite nadis
  • Keynote: A
  • Solfeggio frequency: 852 Hz
  • Nature sound: Space and ethereal realms
  • Seed mantra: Sham
  • Affirmation: I feel connected to my intuition and inner wisdom
  • Crystals: Amethyst, fluorite, lapis lazuli, sugilite, labradorite, tanzanite, sodalite
  • Essential oils: Clary sage, lavender, rosemary, frankincense, sandalwood
  • Mineral: Chlorine
  • Metal: Silver
  • Foods: Blackberries, blueberries, cacao, purple grapes, licorice, red cabbage, eggplants, purple kale, and omega 3 rich foods such as walnuts, flax, and chia seeds.
Cacao helps to open and balance Ajna chakra

Ajna Third Eye Chakra Characteristics

It is in the Ajna third eye chakra where we can connect to the innate wisdom that we have gained over our lifetimes. We can access this insight through deep meditation and activation of the Ajna chakra.

Ajna can inspire us with divine vision and cosmic downloads – that sense of knowing what you need to do without knowing how you know. In a powerful combination with Anahata heart chakra, this guidance from our intuition and heart wisdom will always steer us in the right direction.

Ajna third eye chakra is where we can perceive subtle energetic patterns and movements, and the less substantial forms of reality. Tuning into Ajna enables us to access a higher and more refined type of vision. The lines between our concept of reality as tangible and concrete blur into the dreamlike, ethereal realms of higher consciousness and divine cosmic connection.

Through these subtle perceptions, we can begin to attain union – the union of the five elements in their pure form into light, and the union of the five senses into the sixth sense of intuition and psychic ability. More importantly, union in the sense of the dissolving of perceived separateness – where we transcend duality and the idea of a separate self, an independent ‘I’ that is detached from the rest of existence. We realize that we are all constructed of the same energy as each other and as the entire cosmos.

Through Ajna third eye chakra, we transcend the limited way of viewing reality based on duality – light and dark, good and evil, masculine and feminine, yin and yang, and see reality for what it is, boundless, timeless, and formless. We are becoming prepared for complete union with cosmic energy at Sahasrara, free from the bondage of consciousness based on duality and time.

Symptoms of an Unbalanced Ajna Chakra

If your Ajna third eye chakra is blocked, you may have trouble connecting with your inner wisdom, causing you to feel lost and disconnected from your higher self. You may be unable to see things from different perspectives, creating a fixed view of self and reality, unable to see the bigger picture.

Underactive Third Eye Chakra

If you lack Ajna energy or you have a blockage in this chakra, you may experience symptoms such as poor memory, a lack of imagination, closed-mindedness, and an overly rational way of thinking. The inability to visualize can be a sign of low Ajna energy, as can the inability to connect with your intuition and wisdom from your higher self.

Dismissing the spiritual realms and disconnecting from divine source energy, blocked psychic abilities, and resistance to new ideas and ways of seeing the world are all low Ajna issues. Scattered thinking and inability to focus stem from an underactive Ajna, as do fears of progression and the future, resistance to change, and failure to see things from other people’s perspectives.

Overactive Ajna

Too much Ajna energy can result in you getting caught up in illusion and fantasies that have no bearing on reality. If you are not grounded and balanced in the preceding chakras, you can become fearful and anxious about false perceptions and phantom visions that manifest in your mind’s eye and find it difficult to differentiate between fantasy and reality.

An overactive Ajna third eye chakra causes a constant stream of thought energy, making meditation difficult. This consistent mental chatter is rarely based on clear insight and truth; instead, it is a case of being caught up in an imagined future or reliving painful past memories. Balancing the Ajna chakra helps to calm this flow of unhelpful thoughts, making insight, meditation, and reflection much more effective.

Hallucinations, brain fog, lack of clarity, overwhelm, daydreaming, delusion and paranoia, being oversensitive, OCD, and a judgemental attitude all relate to an overactive Ajna third eye chakra.

Physical Symptoms of an Unbalanced Ajna Third Eye Chakra

Physical symptoms of too much or too little Ajna energy include headaches and migraines, insomnia, sinus problems, loss of smell, vision and eyesight disturbances, hearing problems, and seizures. Mental wellbeing issues may also arise from unbalanced Ajna – depression, anxiety, psychosis, eating disorders, nightmares, schizophrenia, and extreme confusion.

Trataka candle gazing meditation is excellent for Ajna activation

Signs of a Balanced Third Eye Chakra

When the third eye chakra is clear, you will feel a deep sense of inner knowing and can rely on your intuition to guide you. You will make decisions based on the wisdom of your higher self, and you will not be attached to the outcome. You can discern the difference between dreams or fantasies and the subtle layers of reality.

You can access your psychic senses and use these to guide your direction and interactions with others. You are open to spiritual visions, cosmic guidance, and vivid dreams that provide messages and insight.

You feel inspired to share your gifts with the world, and you know that your contribution is needed and worthwhile. You can self-reflect and make adjustments according to your realizations about yourself and how you relate to the world.

You are fearless and strong because you are connected to your higher self and divine consciousness and can see the bigger picture rather than fixating on small issues. You are flexible and adaptable; you can see things from different perspectives, which helps you to connect with the Anahata chakra and your sense of empathy and compassion.

How to Open Your Ajna Chakra

Before we go into the best ways of opening your Ajna third eye chakra, it is crucial to note the importance of the other chakras. Balancing your preceding chakras will help you to channel and process the vision and insight you activate when working with Ajna.

It is especially vital to ensure that you are grounded in your foundation and feel a stable connection to the earth through your Muladhara chakra. This rooted and robust foundation and balance in the other chakras will provide discernment when receiving information through Ajna and prevent you from becoming overwhelmed or swept off into illusion and fantasy. With that being said, here are our top ways of opening Ajna third eye chakra.

Meditation and Visualization

Meditation and visualization are deeply connected with Ajna third eye chakra and therefore are the very best way to open this chakra. Strengthening your visualization abilities is particularly effective. If you have trouble with visualization, it’s a good idea to practice daily.

Everyone can visualize to a certain extent – it’s part of how the mind processes information, a natural occurrence when you read or hear something. For example, if I tell you not to see the ocean in your mind’s eye, I bet you see the ocean anyway. That is visualization.

You won’t necessarily see a super clear image as if you were looking at the object or scene in real-life. Some people can visualize like that, but it takes practice. It may just be a rough or hazy image that comes to mind, and that is fine.

Also, it is important to note that visualization isn’t just about seeing; it includes the other senses. And if you are more dominant in hearing, or feeling, you may experience the visualization stronger in those senses. So, when you visualize the ocean, you may see a faint image, but you may experience a stronger sense of how you felt when you last went to the ocean, or you may hear the sound of waves more dominantly than the image.

A beautiful way to connect with visualization and meditation to open the third eye chakra is to imagine a bright indigo two-petaled lotus flower sitting at your Ajna point between your eyebrows. As you inhale, imagine pulling vital energy up from your Muladhara root chakra through your Sushumna Nadi (main energy pathway that runs up the spine, connecting the chakras) into Ajna.

As you exhale, see the lotus spin clockwise as your breath pushes the prana through the third eye. The color glows brighter as you clear and strengthen the chakra with the power of pranayama and visualization. When you feel the exercise is complete, rest without making any effort for a minute or so before gently coming out of the meditation.

If you prefer a guided meditation practice, you can try this Ajna third eye meditation.

Singing Bowls

Sound vibrations are excellent tools for retuning chakra energy. Singing bowls are particularly useful, especially if you use a bowl that is attuned to the frequency of the chakra you wish to balance. The Solfeggio frequency of Ajna is 852 Hz, and so using a bowl with this frequency is excellent for reharmonizing this chakra. Either play the bowl and allow the sound waves to wash over you, or, place the bowl on your third eye point and gently play it so that the vibrations enter the chakra directly. If you don’t have an appropriate singing bowl, listen to this Ajna sound bath.

Mantra Chanting

Bija mantras are seed sounds of the universe that align with cosmic energy. Each chakra has a different mantra, and the mantra for Ajna is ‘Sham.’ Chanting the mantra will realign the chakra energy as you are retuning the chakra from the inside out. Play some meditation music and allow the mantra to arise from your being in a way that feels appropriate. There is no right or wrong way to practice mantra; do what feels right for you. If you would prefer to be guided in this practice, try chanting along with this recording.

Trusting Your Intuition

The more you trust and work with your intuition, the stronger it will become. Using your inner guidance as much as you can during everyday life will open and balance your Ajna third eye chakra, as will using your imagination. Pay attention to your dreams as well – we recommend keeping a notepad and pencil by your bed so that you can write down any clear dreams as soon as you wake. Your dreams will tell you a lot about your mental state and how you feel about how your life is going. Pay attention to any symbols or images that are repeated over multiple dreams – there is a powerful significance that requires your attention.

Connect with your higher self to develop your intuition. The best way to do this is through meditation. Imagine you are meeting with your higher self and ask for guidance or answers to your most pressing issues. You already have all the answers you seek inside of you, sometimes you just need to go deeper within to access them. If you would like a guided practice on connecting with your higher self for ultimate guidance, check this one out on Insight Timer, out favorite free meditation app.

Yoga for Ajna Activation

Instead of asanas for balancing and opening your Ajna third eye chakra, we recommend the yogic purification practice of Trataka, also known as candle gazing. Trataka has been used for centuries by yogis to connect with the Ajna chakra, increase focus, concentration, and awareness, and increase psychic abilities and intuition.

Place a lit candle in front of you at a comfortable distance (three to four feet), in line with your eyes. Fix your gaze on the mid-point of the flame without blinking or blurring your vision. Your eyes will water a little, which is part of the practice. After a while, when your eyes feel like they are straining, and it is hard to maintain focus on the flame, you can close your eyes. You will see the image after you close your eyes, and you can instead focus on this after-image of the dancing flame. Try to maintain a dedicated awareness of the image, when your thoughts wander, bring them back to the practice. When you are ready to end the meditation, gently open your eyes.

Conclusion

We hope that you enjoyed learning about the Ajna third eye chakra and some different ways that you can balance and open this chakra to enhance your intuition and inner vision. Please put this knowledge into practice, and put any questions in the comments below, we will be delighted to help you.

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