Here you will find past news and announcements.

• What to you think of our new website?
• Sacred Centers Mission Statement
• What do you mean by Sacred?
• What is a Kin-ship?
• Dancing Archetypes, a description of a 6th chakra process, taught in Psychology of the Chakras 7-day Intensive
• Global Heart Newsletter – March
• The Relative Importance of the Financial Crisis

What to you think of our new website?

Our all new website was designed and created by Alex Wayne, artist and animator of the award-winning DVD, THE ILLUMINATED CHAKRAS. Anodea is proud to claim that Alex is her son, who also designed her very first website when he was only 15, and many of her graphics including the large chakra banner, and most of the charts and graphics in Eastern Body, Western Mind. Alex now works full time for a cutting edge web design firm, Hologenesis. Shanon Dean, Office Manager of Sacred Centers, worked closely with Alex and brought the website to life, furthering the development and implementing the graphics and complex array of information.

We also thank Will Zero for use of his art. If there are other pictures here that we have inadvertently plagiarized, please accept our apologies and let us know. We would be happy to remove them or give proper credit. We ask the same, and that you do not use images from our site without permission.

No doubt, there are still mistakes in a website of this size, so if you find one, let us know. And we welcome your comments and encouragement as well. Comments on the new site?

Send to Shanon Dean – Office Manager – at office@sacredcenters.com

Alex Wayne can be found at Beautiful Pixel

Sacred Centers Mission Statement

Sacred Centers is a teaching organization founded by Anodea Judith in 1999 to promote Sacred knowledge for the transformation of individuals and culture. The name, Sacred Centers, refers to the divine center within each one of us, to the seven major energy centers known as chakras, and to the need to be centered in the sacred in our daily life.

The aim of Sacred Centers is to restore a sense of the sacred in the world again, through returning to spiritual practices such as yoga, meditation, various forms of healing, ritual, trance, poetry, art, music and dance that bring us into deeper contact and connection with ourselves, each other, and the web of life. We feel that periodically touching into sacred space, whether it is daily, weekly, or seasonally, informs all other actions in the mundane world and makes them more meaningful and effective.

Sacred Centers does not endorse or condemn any particular religion. We believe that there are many paths to the sacred that are viable for different individuals and cultures. While the chakras come from the yoga tradition of India (see history) they are universal centers that exist within each of us, regardless of race, creed, color, gender, or any of the many isms that contribute to a sense of separation.

At a time when the world seems to be falling apart, we seek ways to come together, to find our common ground, our universal spirit, and contribute to an awakened global heart.

Anodea Judith, October, 2008

What do we mean by Sacred?

Artwork by Will Zero

The word sacred refers to something numinous, filled with meaning, beyond the ordinary, a gateway to something greater. A sacred experience is spiritually expansive, special, and precious. What happens within sacred space requires a consciousness of loving attention, the way one would hold a sacred object – carefully, with reverence.

Sacred Space means that physical space is designed with beauty, treated with respect, and used consciously for opening to higher realms.

It also refers to the Sacred Space within each of us, and the seven Sacred Centers of the chakra system.

Sacred Kin-ships refer to groups of people around the world who meet in sacred space, whether it be a yoga or meditation class, seasonal ceremony, or healing session, and invoke principles of reverence, respect, celebration, and learning. These kin-ships, are like lifeboats of sanity, while the mainstream culture spins into chaos.

Sacred Events are those that create an expanded sense of presence with self, others, and the environment, realizing that these are all part of the divine.

Sacred Events take us to something larger than ourselves, to the needs of the planet and its people/animals/environment.

Sacred Lore refers to spiritual texts, mythological stories, magical teachings, ritual guidelines, music, poetry, stories, books, and video.

Sacred Work is work that is aimed toward mending the web of life. This could refer to our own healing, the healing of another, or the healing of our world.

What is a Kin-ship?

In the old model of civilization kingdoms were an area of land inhabited by people who were ruled by a king. Kingdoms were what people knew, how they identified themselves. Kingdoms had a top-down organizing principle that began with the king and trickled down hierarchically to the common people, who were of unequal status.

Sacred Centers Kin-doms are communities of like-hearted people who enjoy coming together in Sacred Community for spiritual practice, seasonal celebrations, and life-affirming events. Kin-doms are self-organizing systems that are fostered in kin-ship – the recognition that we are all kin, working together cooperatively and collaboratively. Our kin-ship refers not just to people but to the plant and animals kin-doms as well.

The concept of Sacred Centers kin-doms is still in its infancy. It is propagated by Sacred Centers graduates who live in various geographical areas and have an affinity with the teachings and philosophy of Sacred Centers, the chakras, and the sacredness of life. Though we do not adhere to a rigid belief system, we do have some commonalities:

• Reverence for life and the earth
• Sacredness of the body
• Compassionate relationships
• Care and concern for the larger world
• Dedication to personal and global evolution
• The power of consciousness to create

Find a Kin-ship near you!

Dancing Archetypes, a description of a 6th chakra process, taught in Psychology of the Chakras 7-day Intensive

Created and written by Selene Vega

In the 6th chakra trance session of Psychology of the Chakras 7-day intensive, participants emerge from the deepest part of the trance into a room in which tarot and other cards with visual images have been spread out on the floor. Wandering through the pools of illustrations and symbols, each person is asked to choose a card that they are drawn to, as well as one that they are uncomfortable with. In these sessions, having done the work of the first 5 chakras, we create a safe space to explore relationships with these parts of life as they manifest in our inner and outer realms. Without the context of the entire journey through the chakras, the community formed by the workshop setting, and the expertise of the facilitator, a better way to begin this exploration is to work first with the images to which you are drawn.
Begin by coming to center, sinking into your somatic self. Let your gaze rest on the visual image you have chosen, taking in the feeling of what you are looking at, then close your eyes and allow that image to form inside you as the archetype flows through you. Let each breath evoke that energy from deep within you, drawing to you all the rich history and universality of that archetype. If the archetype is human or animal, let your body begin to take on the characteristics of that archetype’s body. Even if your focus is something that we don’t think of as having a body (the Moon, for example, or the Ocean), allow your body to take on the qualities of that energy. Follow your feelings rather than your thoughts, letting your intuition guide you.

Open your body to the archetypal energy by imagining that you are a statue of that archetype, finding a pose that expresses those qualities. As you hold that pose, feeling the energy flowing in you, allow the archetype to use your body to manifest its energy, dancing its dance with your arms and legs, expressing its countenance in your face, bringing its timeless way of being to this present time in its interaction with your somatic self. Explore the many dimensions of the archetype, the parts that feel easy and familiar… the parts that take you to your growing edge… the parts that surprise you and introduce you to new ways of being.

When you are ready, bring your archetypal dance to a close. Let the energies that you have invited to dance in you drain out of you, knowing that you can invite them back in again another time. Sink back into your own center, breathing into your Beingness, aware of the larger field that you participate in, and also aware of your own individual self.
Opening to an archetypal energy can give us access to a larger perspective and a greater wisdom than we usually are able to bring to bear on the situations in our lives and our understanding of our place in them. Often this exercise opens a window we didn’t know was available. One student was able to find a source of patience with herself that had eluded her until she worked with the great mother archetype. As she identified with an image of Gaia, earth mother, she connected with the long history of our planet as a huge container to hold the speeding, irritable, restless feelings she had been having. The expansive movements that emerged in her dance created a spaciousness that she could not imagine before, and she found her way to a sense of humor and compassion for her situation.

Written by Selene Vega

Vega, S. (2004). Movement practices for self-relations. Walking in two worlds: The relational self in theory, practice, and community. S. Gilligan and D. Simon. Phoenix, AZ, Zeig, Tucker, & Theisen.

Contact Selene

Global Heart Newsletter (March)

Written by Anodea Judith, Phd.

It’s been awhile since we’ve put out a Global Heart News bulletin, but lots has happened since then!

1. Barack Who’s Sane Obama (whose name literally means Blessed Unity of Mother and Father) has been fairly elected and begun the great work of unscrambling the damage of the past and opening the way to a glorious future. (Scramble the letters of his name, by the way, and you get “Abraham is back one US.”)

2. The economy has tanked -several times – signaling that the contractions of our initiatory birth process are getting closer together. And closer together is what these contractions are forcing us tdo: compressing humanity’s individualistic consciousness into a global awakening unlike anything we have ever witnessed on this planet, it is that big. that puts our evolving complexity into harmony. dissolving the boundaries of separation and opening to a heart unity begins the vibration of harmony that lets us handle all this complexity at a higher level. By following the laws of harmony and sound, the fifth chakra lifts us up out of the third toward our new birth in the heart.

The contractions of the economy, oil, water, or food shortages, are all warnings that a reorganization on the other end is vitally necessary for birth to occur. Every contraction forces a reorganization, and that these contractions are getting more frequent tells us, Soon it will be transition time.

As any mother knows, the contractions that begin labor (and they don’t call it labor for nothing) signal that it’s time to cease all other activities and focus on the coming birth. Contractions are painful if we’re not opening somewhere else.

Transition is when the birthing process has gotten to the point of no return, where all consciousness of mind and body are focused on the task at hand. It is the time when change takes place with a life of its own, whether you like it or not, ready or not. Its the moment that calls for “all hands on deck.”

Our global crises are likely to call this forth, as they are calling a new organizing principle that requires participatory co-creation. To this end, they must get bad enough that they shake us loose from our moorings, so that we are forced to let go and reach for each other’s hands in a new formation.

The formation begins locally, but is universal. This is our intitiation into godhood, and humans are figuring it out: nothing less than how to manage the complexity of the entire planet in a way that serves rather than ends evolution.

This is the tipping point, an organic process that comes in the baby’s own time. We are the hospice workers of the old world, midwives of the new, and the ones being birthed all at the same time.

The Relative Importance of the Financial Crisis

As I watch the world reverberate with news of the financial crisis, I find something both curious and alarming about the amount of attention this issue draws. Not that I’m surprised that it’s cause for big concern when someone’s retirement, college fund, or private home suddenly goes up in smoke through no fault of their own. Not that we shouldn’t all take notice when the indicators of our collective economy plummet off the charts, taking the whole world with them. These are not only cause for alarm but we should be deeply alarmed at their causes – human greed and folly.

What I find curious is that this financial crisis is nothing compared to the real wealth that is being squandered, right under our nose, in much greater proportions and with much less attention than the electronic ones and zeroes we use to prophesy our personal fortunes.

I am speaking here of the wealth that is the future of life itself: the forests and oceans, the air and the water, the topsoil and the climate. These too have been squandered by giants, ripped off from our heritage, and sold back to us piecemeal at inflated prices. The fish and the trees, the topsoil and water, oil and natural gas – these things have been filling our bellies and building or heating our homes as long as we can remember, with very little of the goods in this warehouse replaced for future use. Unlike a fluctuating stock market, many of these things can never be recovered once they are gone. It takes hundreds of years to grow a redwood tree, water shortages lead to dessert conditions, and too many degrees higher on the global thermometer will permanently change life as we know it. Those who die from food and water shortages, whether whole species or individual humans, will not have a second chance.

What will we cry when this realization dawns upon us? Who will we blame? And why is it that we can’t be wise enough to cry out now? Is it just because the dollars and cents of our 401Ks seem more immediately measurable?

The global financial crisis can be seen as the collapse of what is unreal so that we return to what is real. This is the purpose of initiatory challenges, to learn to separate illusion from reality, spin from truth, the temporal from the eternal. We do not need more of anything. We need to sit up and pay attention to what we have, what we’re doing with it, where it comes from, and how to preserve it before it’s too late.

We need to realize that our real wealth is being squandered, and now is the time to become concerned. Before it’s too late.

It is interesting that our crises are all related to first chakra: health care, economy, and environment. First chakra is survival, the element earth, and our bodies. If we do not attend to these issues both personal and global, our very survival is at stake.

Isn’t this a little more important?