The solar plexus chakra is located over the solar plexus, above the seventh thoracic vertebrae.

Sanskrit name: Manipura.

Associated with the color yellow

The solar plexus has 10 petals or spokes.

The Pancreas is the endocrine gland associated with the third chakra.

The areas of the body the solar plexus chakra governs are stomach, liver, gall bladder and nervous system.

Planet: Mercury.

Astrological signs and planets for the solar plexus chakra are: Leo/Sun (warmth, strength, recognition, power), Sagittarius/Jupiter (growth, expansion, wisdom, synthesis), Virgo/Mercury (analysis, classification, organizing), Mars (self-assertion, activity, energy, personal power).

Associated sense: sight.

Associated element: fire.

Musical note: Mi.

Hindu mantra: Ram.

This chakra is sometimes referred to as the power center, or personal will center. It is thought to have much to do with the manifestation process on the physical plane. It is also associated with the mental body and its functions. A fully functioning solar plexus chakra can bring the power of being sensitive to coming changes and their appropriateness, enhancement of one's personal power, and directing the personal will appropriately.

Author Comments:

Man Myth & Magic, Vol. 3 (1985) editor in chief, Richard Cavendish writes this chakra and its influence on the material body confers "mastery of the arts of alchemy...a metaphorical sense of magical transformations of consciousness, in which the base metal of ordinary existence is transmuted into the gold of spiritual illumination."

In The Chakra Handbook (1999), Shalila Sharamon and Bodo J. Baginski say, "Our relations with others, our likes and our dislikes and the ability to enter into a long-term relationships are for the most part controlled by this center. For the ordinary person, the third chakra represents the foundation of his or her personality. Here we find our social identity and seek to confirm it, either by personal assertion, the will to achieve, a striving for power, or adaptation to social patterns. The most important task of the third chakra consists of purifying the desires and wishes of the lower chakras."

In his book Chakra Breathing (1994), Helmut G. Sieczka says open energy flow in the third chakra brings a sense of well-being, motivated action, centeredness, ability to overcome physical and mental limitation, ability to resolve conflicts, and a strong digestive system. Blockages in this chakra, according to Sieczka, are inability to surrender, yearning for a conflict-free environment, hunger for power, egotism, unrefined emotionality, repressed emotions, inexplicable sadness, listlessness and apathy, defensiveness, insecurity, and frequent feelings of boredom.

In Healing With The Energy Of The Chakras (1998), Ambika Wauters says that balance in the solar plexus chakra creates self-confidence and the ability to take life into our own hands, breaking away from dependency on people and situations which undermine one's sense of self worth. This chakra is a point of self-empowerment.

Shirley Maclaine, in Going Within (1989), claims that the "largest obstacle to our growth and balance of the third chakra is ego."