The third Chakra is also called the Power-Chakra and is related to the outward motion and power of the element fire. It is located at the solar plexus area and relates to the diaphragm, stomach, adrenals, and liver.
In this Chakra we start the process of individuation, which gives us the possibility of experiencing our personal will and the drive to create the life we wish for.
This process involves overcoming unconscious habits which define our personality and our self-image. It develops through facing challenges, daring to be unique, expanding our own limits and risking disapproval for the integrity of our own truth.
In the Solar Plexus, we also encounter a long history of misunderstandings and abuses, where the concept of power is mostly used in a world of competition, comparison, and judgment.
We all carry those energies, consciously or unconsciously. We feel either powerful and in need to control everything around us, or powerless, weak and controlled.
One of the themes of the Third Chakra is the dynamic of the Dominator and the Victim, which are both distortions of power that creates suffering and separation.
In our process of individuation Judgments and Projections play an important and mostly unconscious role. By becoming clear of our Judgments of others we become aware of parts of ourselves, which we “disown” – our psychological Shadow – and project outside.
We spend a lot of energy creating strategies to hide our Shadows. As we learn to identify and to embrace them, we get back our integrity and reconnect with great sources of energy that can then become clarity and compassion.
The third Chakra and its issues develop mostly around the ages of eighteen months to four years, when the child starts asserting itself as separate from the mother, and again becomes very active in teenage time.