In the Dark Forest of Fear

Fur, Feather, Tooth and Nail" by Arthur Rackham

“In the middle of the journey of our life I came to myself within a dark wood where the straight way was lost. Ah, how hard a thing it is to tell what a wild, and rough, and stubborn wood this was, which in my thought renews the fear!”

Dante, The Divine Comedy

In her article, The Dark Forest, the folklorist, Terri Windling, writes:

To know the woods and to love the woods is to embrace it all, the light and the dark -- the sun dappled glens and the rank, damp hollows; beech trees and bluebells and also the deadly fungi and poison oak. The dark of the woods represents the moon side of life: traumas and trials, failures and secrets, illness and other calamities. The things that change us, temper us, shape us; that if we're not careful defeat or destroy us...but if we pass through that dark place bravely, stubbornly, wisely, turn us all into heroes. 

If we look at this in relation to the chakra-system, you could say that the more awake we are the more that we notice that chakras hook into and penetrate the painbody, as well as the grids that surround us. They hook into the deepest layers of the painbody, Ego, and the energetical blueprint that composes our physical body as well as the very outer layers of conditioned reality that compose our universe.

In my booklet on the chakras, The Nine Gates of Middle-earth, I call the first chakra, which is associated with the body: The Dark Forest. Our first chakra has to do with grounding, our ancestral history, and hierarchy-of-needs-type issues. Hierarchy of needs has everything to do with fear and survival instincts. Issues with money, fears of having enough food to eat, a place to stay, and day-to-day-type issues are here. This is also a place our ancestral and family issues are stored.

The first three chakras are difficult to clear because they contain most of the trauma we, our ancestors, and families have experienced. Most people have issues with their first chakra. Our views on sexuality, our fears, and our ancestral patterns rule our lives until we are able to process them appropriately.

If our first chakra is out of balance we will feel ungrounded, feel fear (oftentimes irrational to the present moment), and have financial issues or a feeling of constant lack. We will feel constantly in fight or flight – meaning that our nervous system is constantly engaged and in an alarm state. We will feel blocked from moving forward in our lives and feel separated and isolated. Since the lower chakras are connected with the ground, with nature, with Mother Earth, it is natural that an unbalanced first chakra, would be reflected in a dark forest.

"The sense of secrets, silence, surprises, good and bad, is fundamental to forests and informs their literatures," notes Sara Maitland in Gossip from the Forest. "In fairy stories this is sometimes simple and direct: Hansel and Gretel get lost in the woods, and then suddenly they come upon the gingerbread house. Snow White runs in terror through the forest and suddenly stumbles upon the dwarves' cottage; characters spending scary nights in or under trees suddenly see a twinkling light -- and they make their laborious way towards it without having any idea what they will find when they arrive.....

"The forest is about concealment and appearances are not to be trusted. Things are not necessarily what they seem and can be dangerously deceptive. Snow White's murderous stepmother is truly the 'fairest of them all,' The wolf can disguise himself as a sweet old granny. The forest hides things; it does not open them out but closes them off. Trees hide the sunshine; and life goes on under the trees, in thickets and tanglewood. Forests are full of secrets and silences. It is not strange that the fairy stories that come out of the forest are stories about hidden identities, both good and bad."

Emotionally, feelings of fear, shame, deep anger, and grief are stored in our first chakra. Traditionally grief and anger are housed in higher chakras, but when we experience a huge amount of grief or anger that is not culturally appropriate for us to express, or we experience it at a very early age, it will be pushed down into this chakra. In-utero experiences and early childhood emotions are stored in the first chakra.

Those of us who have significant difficulties with unprocessed materials in our first chakra will typically either be totally dissociated from our physical bodies, especially our lower bodies (lower abdomen to feet).

Developing an exercise routine, spending time in nature, developing healthy sexual habits, and find passion in life or in a hobby are all excellent releases. The fundamental grounding exercise for this first chakra is the Harameditation, but also the yoga cycle and relaxationmeditation.

When this first chakra opens we will feel being grounded and physically in our body, increased interest in life, a desire to be physically active and healthy. Proper eliminations will occur, both physically and energetically. Addictions and other disassociations will begin to be naturally worked through.

When the first chakra is in the process of opening, the material it brings up can be difficult to process. Our darkest fears about being alive, birth, death, traumas, sexual history, and ancestral issues will come up to clear. Thankfully this is often not all at the same time except in the most sudden awakenings.

Related texts:

The Nine Gates of Middle-earth (free booklet)

Meditation as an Art of Life – a Basic Reader (free Ebook. Here you can find the exercises).