Green is the Open Heart
Secure in her image of self
The seeker rises above self-awareness only.
She sees all the other beings in the world
And becomes aware of her connection to them.
She begins to see the world from their perspective;
She now can feel compassion for all life.
When the heart is opened
Love energy flows in and out through the heart chakra.
I feel love for all peoples and creatures.
I sense their joy, sadness, and pain,
As keenly as I feel my own.
When someone has attained Selfhood the focus changes from Self to Others. I have become complete; now where do I direct my energy? Away from myself and toward the rest of the world. I notice others who are going through what I went through and I feel a desire to help them, especially if I was helped on my earlier path. But this shift in focus does not happen quickly. It is a very large evolutionary step, usually requiring more lifetimes to attain than the step of self-realization. Normally, a person cannot develop empathy for the suffering of others without first experiencing struggle himself or herself.
When compassion arises within you, your heart opens. The Dalai Lama has said, “The reason I am happy is power of compassion. Compassion makes me feel at one with everyone.” John Nash quotes the Theosophist Alice Bailey: “An important goal is ‘to work through the centers above the diaphragm and to transmute solar plexus activity (which is so dominant in the average person), turning it into heart activity and the service of your fellow man’ “.1 To whatever degree we can be unconditionally accepting of self and others, to that extent we have the power to heal and uplift others.
We have reached a major milestone when we feel a sense of compassion for others in need. It is most real when we feel it toward persons in our immediate lives—when we notice unfairness or silent suffering in someone we know. We can then take some action to help that person if we are able, but even if we seem powerless in the situation, just the thought energy of the recognition may bring about changes beneficial to the person through the unseen interplay of the forces that create reality.
But “all love that we wish to extend to others must start with love for ourselves.”2 We begin by bringing to awareness all those qualities within ourselves that have a negative effect, that interfere with who we want to be right now. We realize that at one time in our lives they seemed like the best response to the situation, perhaps the only response we were capable of. By clearly identifying them and then forgiving ourselves for still having remnants of them, and by forgiving if possible all others who were involved, we become open to healing. We can then ask for that healing to take place. It may not happen immediately. But by seeing those faults from a distance, we loosen their power over our behavior. We can be more sure of our own validity and worth.
Through self-acceptance and detachment, the spirit is made free and the heart can open. We are then a vehicle for the healing of others, through compassion that connects our heart to that of others we meet. To whatever degree we can be unconditionally accepting, to that extent we have the power to heal and uplift others. An opened heart, also, is one that is free to hope, to dream of future possibilities.
Green is also sympathetic connection to Earth. It is loving the Earth mother, listening to her, respecting her needs, being open to receiving sustenance from her. Nature can have a grounding effect and is a great source of peace because she is unconditionally accepting, Nature is nourishing to the spirit because she is simple and pure; devoid of the complications of humanly energies. The beauty of nature speaks directly to our heart and uplifts it.
Green music is compassion expressed in musical form. It is highly poignant and heartfelt. Hearing it opens the heart if the individual is ready for it. Often it seems amorphous and formless, but with a power behind the formlessness. If you are deeply moved at the heart level, you know it’s the Green energy.
Claude Debussy, the French composer of the late 1800s and early 1900s, gave to us a bounty of Green.
Certain parts of Clair de Lune and other works pull on your heart with such a deep longing, an indescribable yearning to love and be loved – this is the Green energy. This music maintains a fairly well-defined tonality. A lot of the Debussy music is more atonal, with whole-tone scales and other schemes outside of traditional tonality. Many of those compositions are sublimely peaceful and beautiful, but they do not necessarily have the Green quality. Debussy's music is impressionistic in nature, paralleling Impressionism in art. It uses dissonance so creatively that you hardly recognize it as dissonance. Debussy was a leader in the break from traditional tonality; however pieces like Clair de Lune retain enough tonality to carry the green power.
Chakra: Anahata (heart)
The seeker rises above self-awareness only.
She sees all the other beings in the world
And becomes aware of her connection to them.
She begins to see the world from their perspective;
She now can feel compassion for all life.
When the heart is opened
Love energy flows in and out through the heart chakra.
I feel love for all peoples and creatures.
I sense their joy, sadness, and pain,
As keenly as I feel my own.
When someone has attained Selfhood the focus changes from Self to Others. I have become complete; now where do I direct my energy? Away from myself and toward the rest of the world. I notice others who are going through what I went through and I feel a desire to help them, especially if I was helped on my earlier path. But this shift in focus does not happen quickly. It is a very large evolutionary step, usually requiring more lifetimes to attain than the step of self-realization. Normally, a person cannot develop empathy for the suffering of others without first experiencing struggle himself or herself.
When compassion arises within you, your heart opens. The Dalai Lama has said, “The reason I am happy is power of compassion. Compassion makes me feel at one with everyone.” John Nash quotes the Theosophist Alice Bailey: “An important goal is ‘to work through the centers above the diaphragm and to transmute solar plexus activity (which is so dominant in the average person), turning it into heart activity and the service of your fellow man’ “.1 To whatever degree we can be unconditionally accepting of self and others, to that extent we have the power to heal and uplift others.
We have reached a major milestone when we feel a sense of compassion for others in need. It is most real when we feel it toward persons in our immediate lives—when we notice unfairness or silent suffering in someone we know. We can then take some action to help that person if we are able, but even if we seem powerless in the situation, just the thought energy of the recognition may bring about changes beneficial to the person through the unseen interplay of the forces that create reality.
But “all love that we wish to extend to others must start with love for ourselves.”2 We begin by bringing to awareness all those qualities within ourselves that have a negative effect, that interfere with who we want to be right now. We realize that at one time in our lives they seemed like the best response to the situation, perhaps the only response we were capable of. By clearly identifying them and then forgiving ourselves for still having remnants of them, and by forgiving if possible all others who were involved, we become open to healing. We can then ask for that healing to take place. It may not happen immediately. But by seeing those faults from a distance, we loosen their power over our behavior. We can be more sure of our own validity and worth.
Through self-acceptance and detachment, the spirit is made free and the heart can open. We are then a vehicle for the healing of others, through compassion that connects our heart to that of others we meet. To whatever degree we can be unconditionally accepting, to that extent we have the power to heal and uplift others. An opened heart, also, is one that is free to hope, to dream of future possibilities.
Green is also sympathetic connection to Earth. It is loving the Earth mother, listening to her, respecting her needs, being open to receiving sustenance from her. Nature can have a grounding effect and is a great source of peace because she is unconditionally accepting, Nature is nourishing to the spirit because she is simple and pure; devoid of the complications of humanly energies. The beauty of nature speaks directly to our heart and uplifts it.
Green music is compassion expressed in musical form. It is highly poignant and heartfelt. Hearing it opens the heart if the individual is ready for it. Often it seems amorphous and formless, but with a power behind the formlessness. If you are deeply moved at the heart level, you know it’s the Green energy.
Claude Debussy, the French composer of the late 1800s and early 1900s, gave to us a bounty of Green.
Certain parts of Clair de Lune and other works pull on your heart with such a deep longing, an indescribable yearning to love and be loved – this is the Green energy. This music maintains a fairly well-defined tonality. A lot of the Debussy music is more atonal, with whole-tone scales and other schemes outside of traditional tonality. Many of those compositions are sublimely peaceful and beautiful, but they do not necessarily have the Green quality. Debussy's music is impressionistic in nature, paralleling Impressionism in art. It uses dissonance so creatively that you hardly recognize it as dissonance. Debussy was a leader in the break from traditional tonality; however pieces like Clair de Lune retain enough tonality to carry the green power.
Chakra: Anahata (heart)
Green Examples
| Bach | Prelude in D minor BWV999
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 / Adagio Lute Suite No. 1 / Courante |
| Beethoven | Symphony 6 (“Pastoral”) / I and II
“Spring” Violin Sonata / II String Quartet no. 13 Op. 130 / V |
| Chopin | Nocturne (op. 9 no.2) |
| Handel | Messiah / Pastoral Symphony; I Know that My Redeemer
Alexander Feast / Largo Viola Sonata HWV 364 / Larghetto |
| Haydn | Symphony 88 / Largo
Symphony 94 / Adagio |
| Holst | The Planets / Venus |
| Mozart | Piano Concerto no. 17 / II
Piano concerto no. 21 / II Piano Sonata K. 333 / II String Quartet in Bb (KV589) Symphony 29 / II Symphony 33 / II |
| Saint-Saens | The Swan |
| Schubert | Desire Waltz |
| Wagner | Tannhauaser / Tannhauser’s Pilgrimage, Venusberg music
Siegfried Idyll Siegfried / Forest Murmurs, Brunnhilde’s Awakening |
Notes:
1 Nash, The Soul and its Destiny, p. 200.
2 Redstone, Teaching the Heart to Sing, p. 169.
Next: Blue