This is the next in a series about how to utilize my Writing Through the Body Method™ which uses the chakra system as a practical tool for uncovering a character’s desires, wounds, and motivations. By exploring these psychological foundations, writers are able to portray their characters’ behaviors, reactions, and responses on the page with greater depth and emotional truth.
For example, the Third Eye (sixth) Chakra rules Mind Power. The third eye relates to the ability to distill wisdom from life experience, clarity about what is best for one’s highest good and joy—it’s about the intuition. The Third Eye Chakra says I SEE.
By considering how your characters connect to their intuition and ability to make meaning of life will give you clues about the ease with which they move through the world and within the story.
Below is a brief explanation of the Third Eye Chakra, its traits and characteristics, and some ways you might integrate its attributes into your character development.
Sixth Chakra – Third Eye Chakra
Location
Lower forehead, between the eyes
This does not directly apply to your character but is used for visualization purposes when doing certain exercises within the Writing Through the Body™ method, offered here as an FYI.
Primary strengths
Strong intellectual abilities/skills, self-acceptance, mental flexibility, ability for objective contemplation, high emotional intelligence, open to wonder
This is about how your character responds to situations that call for them to think beyond the here and now. This is how they make meaning (and have made meaning) of life, and what they do with that understanding.
Primary fears and fearful expressions
Fears of one’s shadow side/looking within, inability to self-reflect or identify illusion, pushing oneself to extremes, poor intuition/concentration, fear of unknown, judgmental/overly analytical, mental fog/overwhelm
This is where you’re able to start seeing your character respond in ways that may not make sense to them, as if they’re driven by something they don’t see or understand.
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Writing exercise
Take some time to sit quietly, and think about the aspects of the Third Eye Chakra as they relate to all your characters.
Write a sketch of a character that may not be materializing as fully as you would like, and answer the questions below as fully and exhaustively as possible.
Tip: Every time you arrive at a new place of understanding or identify a particular behavior or response in your character, ask “why?” Continuing to ask “why?” is how we get to the deep psychology of our characters.
Example: Your protagonist has just done something they are not proud of. There is one person in the world they trust—living or dead. Write a letter from your character to their trusted person.
Questions to begin your exercise:
• What is the thing they did?
• When did they do it? Was it recent or many years ago… something they’ve been carrying around, like a dead weight?
• What has moved them to disclose this now?
• What happens—both within them and in their life—after the disclosure?
Let me know what you discover in the comments.
As always… Sending you mad writing mojo…
Happy writing!
Johnnie
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