Awakening Your Creative Energy

Lisa Erickson

“A woman may also give birth to her own creative work, in which she has had to plumb her own depth as a woman and labor to bring it forth. The work comes out of her and draws from her talents and experience, and yet it has its own life.” - Jean Shinoda Bolen, Crossing to Avalon


(Image: Shakti Goddess Banner - Goddessgift.net)


This is one of my favorite quotes on creativity, because it connects our creative and procreative drives. Throughout women’s spirituality writings, this is a common theme – that a drive to create in some way is essential to women. Physically, we are built to gestate and nurture a new life, and all too often throughout history, we have been solely defined by this. But our drive to create can manifest in many different ways, and when we open to them, our natural link to the act of creation can become an important foundation of our spiritual path.

From the perspective of the chakras, the second or sacral chakra is the root of both creativity and procreation, and plays a special role in women’s energy bodies. Physically, the second chakra corresponds to our womb area low in our pelvis, and within energy medicine traditions it corresponds to our entire reproductive system. In spiritual traditions, our sacral chakra is our link to the power of creation – the raw energy and inspiration that drives us to want to create something new and birth it into the world. Either way, the sacral chakra is a doorway – an entrance point for newness in this world.

This is true for both men and women, but in women the sacral chakra is ‘ground zero’ of our energy being, and so creativity plays a special role in our awakening. It is central to our sense of self and personal power, and often to our spiritual explorations as well. And it is fascinating to think of all the other manifestations of sacral chakra energy – passion, sensuality, and sexuality – all of which have been denigrated or at least seen as problematic in many organized religions. Historically, they were often seen as moving us away from spirit – as distractions at best or sinful at worst.

Thankfully, that has changed in the last 50 years, and there is a growing acknowledgement of creativity as a vital part of spirituality, especially for women. When we create, when we open ourselves to inspiration in any form, we find what is larger than ourselves, and allow it to come through us. We are humbled and empowered at the same time.

We don’t need to create a masterpiece work of art to have this experience. We may simply change the organization of our room, arrange some flowers, combine our clothes in a new way, experiment with a recipe, or come up with a new way of doing something at work or home. We have dozens of opportunities each day to activate our creative side.

The actual act of creating something involves many functions, and so it involves more than our sacral chakra. It may involve expression (throat chakra), organization (third chakra), envisioning things in a new way (third eye), or any number of other skills and manifestations of our energy. But the inspiration itself, the drive itself to do things differently or to birth something new, is pure sacral energy – pure shakti, or feminine divine. Whenever we open ourselves to that energy, we have touched Creation in its purest form.

Whenever you are feeling you need a little more of this energy in your life and path, try this little movement meditation for awakening your creative energy:

1.     Stand with your feet about hips distance apart and close your eyes. Begin to slowly sway back and forth, allowing your arms to swing, and your body to feel fluid and free. Do this for as long as it feels good.

2.     Gradually add a gentle twisting motion to your movement, rooted in your pelvic area – twist from this point up. Don’t stress your back, but allow your arms and body to flow with you from side to side.

3.     Do this for as long as it feels good, and when you are ready, gradually slow your twisting and swaying. Return gracefully to a still position.

4.     Place your hands on your pelvic area and take a deep belly breath. As you do so, raise your arms out to the side, as if they are being inflated by the air you are taking in. On your exhale, release your hands back down to your pelvic area. Do this several times, taking in more and more air each time.

5.     Gradually return your breathing to normal, and rest your hands gently on your pelvic area. Visualize a beautiful orange flower bud in your sacral area. Visualize this flower opening one layer of petals at a time, until you have a vibrant open flower in your sacral chakra area.

6.     Now visualize light from this flower flowing upward into your navel, heart, throat, forehead, and crown of your head. Imagine roots for this flower flowing downward through your legs and feet into the ground.

7.     Stand for a moment holding the visual of this beautiful flower with roots extending through your feet into the ground, and light emanating upward through your whole being and out the top of your head.  Enjoy this vision of your natural creative self.

This meditation draws upon many themes of the sacral chakra – fluidity, sensuality, openness, and the color orange – as well as the flower visual representing the nature of creativity as grounded in the earth, but extending to the heavens. Enjoy it – or a variation you create yourself! – whenever you are feeling like you need to reconnect to your inspiration and drive to create.

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Lisa is a meditation teacher, energy worker, writer, and mom to three. She loves helping people heal and explore the unseen aspects of themselves through chakra (energy center) meditation and related energy body work. She specializes in women's energetics - the distinct characteristics and phases of women's subtle bodies, and the special spiritual doorways available to women through their feminine divinity. In her work she draws on many diverse traditions, including Vajrayana Buddhism, Tantra, Zen, gnostic Christianity, shamanism, yoga, astrology, and several energy healing systems, most particularly the work of Cyndi Dale. She writes on all these subjects at her blog Mommy Mystic (http://www.MommyMystic.com), as well as writing regularly on Buddhism for Bellaonline (http://buddhism.bellaonline.com/Site.asp), where she is the Buddhism site editor. She offers classes, workshops and personal sessions through The Maat Institute (http://www.themaatinstitute.com.) Lisa's column here is entitled, "Women's Energetics."