Gem City

Gem City is the beautiful name of the third chakra, located in the region of the solar plexus. This is the seat of personal power, where the self comes into its own. I am particularly attached to the name of this chakra because it brings up an image for me of many facets, polished and gleaming, turning to reveal its different aspects at different times, and all of them shining out like my own personal sun.

When I was younger it used to confuse me that people would form very strong impressions of me that all seemed quite true and yet were conflicting. My grandmother would say, "You are just so stubborn. Even when you were a baby, people would come up to you and smile and baby talk at you and you would just fix them with a glare. You were always very definite about what you liked and didn't like." A friend would say, "You're so easygoing. Everything that comes up you just say okay and follow along." In high school I was a bookish stressed out workaholic, while my college buddies couldn't believe how mellow I was about exams. To a co-worker at one point in my life I was the "Queen of Calm". I particularly enjoyed that one because I never really FELT all that calm, and especially in that particular work context, so it was a revelation to me that I came across that way. At that same workplace, another co-worker made me a pin that says "Gentle Spirit" because to her that's what I was. A lover later saw the pin and couldn't stop laughing; she thought the pin should say "fiery vortex of passion and fury". I didn't think it was that funny myself.


I've always thought of myself as a patient person, having spent a huge amount of time in my life waiting for buses, trains, and subways, and coping with plans and schedules gone astray, but when I described myself as patient to my partner, she thought I was out of my mind. "Patient? Really???," she said.

And maybe she's right. But so am I, and so is everyone else. What I finally understood is that I contain all of that within me and there is no contradiction. Contradiction is what we see when we look through human eyes. But I am formed of the universe and there is star stuff in me. I contain both chaos and order and all the possibilities. The more I look within the more facets I can find and polish and show to the world. It's all just more evidence that we don't actually live in a binary either/or world but in a we've got it all both/and world, where contradiction lives and is held sweetly by continuity. You can never get lost in Gem City.

copyright 2007 J. Autumn Needles