Plant Alchemy: 22 Essential Oils For Activating, Opening and Balancing the Chakras
BY CANDICE COVINGTON
photo: sharon pittaway
Essential Oils to Stimulate the Chakras
There are many essential oils that resonate with each chakra. Like all of creation the chakras arise from the tattvas, and essential oils that carry the energy of a particular tattva can directly affect the associated chakra. In fact, essential oils that vibrate with the energy of more than one tattva can stimulate more than one chakra. Jasmine is a noteworthy example: This essential oil is often associated with the sexual aspect of nature and its healing power focused on the second chakra.
This is true and a very good fit, but equally as true in the Vedic tradition is the fact that this plant, in conjunction with mantras, is dynamic for mind training, so it is a good stimulant for the sixth chakra. Remember as you read these profiles that each plant’s vibration is multifaceted. In our discussion of chakra essential oils, we are focusing here on just a small aspect of each oil’s healing power. I have found these essential oils to be especially potent for the chakras I’ve listed with them, and to keep things from getting confusing I will focus on the aspects of each essential oil that directly relate to the chakra listed with it.Black Pepper (Piper nigrum)
+ Element: Fire
+ Stimulates: Third chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Living your personal code of conduct, precision, being a specialist
The name for this essential oil in Sanskrit is marich, meaning “sun.” As its name signifies, this oil holds vast amounts of solar energy and illuminates the mental body (ayurveda teaches that the mental body is produced by the third chakra). Black pepper essential oil at the third chakra allows you to release and transform rigid patterns held by the mind, brings the knowledge that you do not have to repeat the past, and lights the way to seeing new solutions to old problems. This oil also brings the gift of refining an idea into its best expression and living in integrity.
Where to get it: Organic Black Pepper
Blood Orange (Citrus sinensis)
+ Element: Water, with seed of fire
+ Stimulates: Second and third chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Emotional warmth, positive inner child, creativity
This warming chakra essential oil brings the gifts of being happy, emotionally regenerated, strongly self-confident, and sympathetic. If you are troubled by depression, apathy, or an obsessive nature, or if you are healing from emotional abuse, this essential oil will support you
Where to get it: Organic Blood Orange
Blue Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)
+ Element: Ether, with seed of water
+ Stimulates: Fifth and second chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Wisdom, communication, expansion
This sagacious chakra oil helps you cultivate a profound knowledge base on any particular topic; it helps you understand ideas from past eras. It supports you in opening up to guidance from your higher self and spiritual guides, stabilizing this connection, and allowing you to communicate your discoveries. It is a very good oil for writers and artisans.
Where to get it: Organic Blue (German) Chamomile
Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum)
+ Element: Fire, with seed of water
+ Stimulates: Third and second chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Feeling encouraged, enthusiastic, and confident
This motivational chakra essential oil stimulates creativity, opening unexplored parts of the psyche that bring new perspective and understanding. It is an incredible oil for dissolving the patterns of being inflexible, judgmental, and contrary; in turn, this shift opens the ability to work in collectives in a joyful manner.
Where to get it: Organic Cardamom
Elemi (Canarium luzonicum)
+ Element: Fire, with seed of ether
+ Stimulates: Third and fifth chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Elevating, illuminating, changing perspective
This fascinating resin takes its name from an Arabic term meaning “above and below,” and, not surprisingly, elemi essential oil is dynamic for connecting the mind and spirit and for supporting an understanding of the microcosm/macrocosm relationship. This in turn allows your own higher guidance to open you to different perspectives on life, supporting you in taking actions that allow true growth. It is also helpful for exploring your experience of self.
Where to get it: Therapeutic Grade Elemi
Frankincense (Boswellia carteri)
+ Element: Ether
+ Stimulates: Fifth chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Inspiration, mysticism, expression
This remarkable essential oil opens the ability to read energy in environments so that you understand how best to react in the moment from an evolved space. This chakra oil also brings the gifts of refinement in speech, helping you to find the right words for yourself and to use words to affect your environment. It also allows you to tap into your inner muse for authentic self-expression.
Where to get it: Organic Frankincense
Jasmine (Jasminum grandiflorum)
+ Element: All of the elements
+ Stimulates: All of the chakras, but especially the second and sixth
+ Key Vibrations: Sensitivity, nonordinary senses, refinement
In Vedic thought this oil promotes psychic ability that makes the mind open and insightful. Traditionally this chakra aromatherapy oil has been used for making the mind sensitive to the frequency of mantras, so it can be of benefit for a chanting or prayer practice. It also has a refining quality.
Where to get it: Organic Jasmine
Lavender (Lavandula officinalis)
+ Element: Ether
+ Stimulates: Fifth chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Healing, soothing, cushioning
Lavender harmonizes more aspects of the human condition than any other essential oil. This remarkable oil encourages you to deeply engage with the world, sharing your unique gifts and light. This chakra balancing essential oil heals feelings of being overly delicate, withdrawn, or fearful and brings spiritual growth by helping you integrate your experiences, which brings an expanded awareness and perspective.
Where to get it: Organic Lavender
Lemon (Citrus limon)
+ Element: Fire in association with the third chakra; prabhava* in relation to the sixth chakra.
+ Stimulates: Third chakra; sixth chakra
+ Key Vibrations in association with the third chakra: Deep purification, versatility, clarity of mind
This electrifying essential oil is very stimulating; it helps organize the mind and brings concentration, boundless energy, and freshness of thought. If you are struggling with mental fatigue that leads to mental blocks and inner turmoil, this chakra scent offers relief. It can also be helpful for overcoming feelings of bitterness or hypersensitivity and for the individual who has lost their sense of humor.
Key vibrations in relation to the sixth chakra: Light, awareness, illumination
This chakra oil has the ability to bathe the pineal gland with light, helping to awaken latent gifts of the third eye. It offers the gift of connecting the mental body to intuition, creating mental versatility and an expanded thought process, while simultaneously helping the mind organize the influx of new information so you do not become overwhelmed with all the new information flowing in.
* This Sanskrit word translates to mean “special quality.” Plants (that essential oils are distilled from) occasionally rise above the general schemata for understanding their behavior and have specific qualities that transcend thought, displaying uniqueness beyond any general rules. Lemon falls into this category.
Where to get it: Organic Lemon
Lime (Citrus aurantifolia)
+ Element: Prabhava
+ Stimulates: Seventh chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Release, detachment, freedom
This essential oil is beneficial for energetic cord cutting and detaching from the collective. Use it in chakra aromatherapy to enhance your perception of the truth inside any situation, which allows you to release any illusion that keeps you ensnared in a projected reality.
Where to get it: Organic Lime
Neroli (Citrus aurantium)
+ Element: Air, with seed of water
+ Stimulates: Fourth and second chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Spirituality, completeness in self, serenity
This refined essential oil is a delight! Bringing the energy of pure love and lightness of being, she melts away sorrows and brings a peaceful, stable calm. This chakra oil is indispensable for healing trauma from childhood abuse or anytime you are in an emotional crisis or suffering from sadness; she fosters a sense of hope and leads you from fear. Neroli also opens you to love within yourself and the freedom of allowing love to flow freely.
Where to get it: Organic Neroli
Patchouli (Pogostemon cablin)
+ Element: Earth, with seed of water
+ Stimulates: First and second chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Unruffled, lucid, gathering personal energy back to self
This self-contained, aromatherapeutic essential oil gives the gift of enjoying being alone with yourself in a content, relaxed state; this in turn gives rise to having a large energy store so you can get things done. It can be very supportive in helping you reach your goals, from clarification of what you desire to having the tenacity to do what is needed to reach fulfillment. This chakra essential oil also helps you overcome fatigue and feeling downhearted.
Where to get it: Organic Patchouli
Pine (Pinus sylvestris)
+ Element: Air, with seed of fire
+ Stimulates: Fourth and third chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Self-love, self-forgiveness, trust
Pine is a key essential oil for restoration of the heart when your emotions have hardened. This loving heart chakra oil releases you from old wounds, letting you move forward without the baggage of the past, bringing the ability to experience your emotions in real time versus playing out echoes from the past. This shift allows your emotional body to be nourished and replenished, bringing growth, inner peace, a strong sense of well-being, and the ability to engage in loving relationships.
Where to get it: Therapeutic Grade Wild Pine
Pink Pepper Seed (Schinus molle)
+ Element: Fire, with seed of water
+ Stimulates: Second and third chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Inner trust, inner warmth, expressiveness
This spicy essential oil for chakra balancing opens your erotic, rapturous nature and love to be in your body. This gives rise to ecstatic sexuality and supports the healing of shame, body image issues, frigidity, and feelings of vulnerability.
Where to get it: Organic Pink Pepper
Red Spikenard (Nardostachys jatamansi)
+ Element: Prabhava
+ Stimulates: Balances all of the chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Grounding of spirituality, body wisdom, access to ancient information
Red spikenard addresses subconscious traumas. It is grounding, but not in a dulling way; it allows you to gain control of your life and help stabilize you when you are feeling unsafe in your physical body. Use this chakra oil to shunt the energy from your upper chakras to your first chakra to ground those energies for practical use. Also beneficial for those on a spiritual path, to balance the mundane with the elevated as in the Zen saying “Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.”
Where to get it: Organic Spikenard
Chinese Rice Flower (Aglaia odorata)
+ Element: Prabhava
+ Stimulates: Seventh chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Study, mysteries, thresholds
This profound chakra essential oil is beneficial for contemplating life’s great mysteries and acts as a portal between the temporal and the divine. It is supportive when you are reading philosophy or spirituality books, as it helps you understand how to transform ideas into action. One of the more fascinating gifts that this oil imparts is the ability to hold on to an idea that feels too big, too vast—without shutting down or leaving the process—until your mind is finally able to penetrate its mystery.
Where to get it: Wildcrafted Chinese Rice Flower
Rose (Rosa damascena)
+ Element: Prabhava
+ Stimulates: Fourth and seventh chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Love, grace, enlightenment
Rose essential oil stimulates the desire to work toward enlightenment via the path of the heart. Love being the key to unfolding the path at each stage of development, this is a route filled with grace that teaches strength in gentleness, which results in harmonious actions. It is a very good oil if you do not want to attend the school of hard knocks along the way.
Where to get it: Organic Rose Damascena
Rosewood (Aniba rosaeodora)
+ Element: Air
+ Stimulates: Fourth chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Protection, cushioning, comfort
This beautiful essential oil encourages free-flowing emotions, the ability to harmonize what you are feeling with your thoughts, and the capacity to express a full range of emotions, especially those related to releasing pain and sadness. This oil offers strong energetic protection and can help you maintain a clean and enclosed aura. Use this chakra scent for releasing constricted feelings stored in the chest, internalized grief, melancholy, and repressed emotions.
Where to get it: Organic Rosewood
Sandalwood (Santalum album)
+ Element: Prabhava
+ Stimulates: Sixth chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Enlightenment, meditation, connection
This wise chakra oil brings an inner awareness and a sense of ease engaging with higher consciousness, which is helpful for insights into blockages on your spiritual path, whether internal or external, and allows a gentle processing at your deepest levels. Ultimately sandalwood helps break down illusions, helping you align with your most authentic self. This is an excellent oil for meditation, spiritual practice, and healers.
Where to get it: Organic Sandalwood
Vanilla (Vanilla planifolia)
+ Element: Water
+ Stimulates: Second chakra
+ Key Vibrations: Positive sexuality, commitment, fulfillment
This sweet-smelling essential oil is highly viscous, and its physical form reveals many of its energetic traits. Using this essential oil for chakra balancing helps you create emotional bonds and the desire to follow your heart. It gives rise to personal passion, sexuality, wildness, and touch as a form of communication. It helps heal emotional conflicts, oversensitivity, bitterness, hostility, insincerity, and resentment. It gives rise to being unselfish and truly understanding what is required to be in a balanced partnership.
Where to get it: Organic Vanilla
Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides)
+ Element: Earth, with seed of fire
+ Stimulates: First and third chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Integrity, protection, serenity
This rich essential oil brings the gifts of being grounded and centered in self. This in turn cultivates the traits of strength, being honorable, and a strong mind-body connection. If you are struggling with loss of purpose and finding the correct direction, this is an excellent chakra essential oil to aid you with finding the right path forward.
Where to get it: Organic Vetiver
White Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera)
+ Element: All of the elements
+ Stimulates: All of the chakras
+ Key Vibrations: Growth, soul, spirit
White lotus holds the vibration of the entire path of enlightenment and is a powerful teacher and guide. This radiant oil first stimulates you at the unconscious level, bringing the desire to become self-actualized, and then supports this path as your budding consciousness learns the lessons offered from each chakral center. Of course, the ultimate goal of this chakra balancing oil is to usher you into a state of enlightenment. This is an excellent oil to reach for when you cannot quite name what has you stuck, but you know you need relief, as lotus supports your whole life journey and circumstances.
Where to get it: Organic White Lotus
Summary of Chakra Essential Oil Correspondences
First (muladhara/root):
Galangal, massoia bark, patchouli, red spikenard, vetiver, white lotus
Second (svadhishthana/sacral):
Agarwood, blood orange, blue chamomile, cardamom, galangal, jasmine, massoia bark, neroli, patchouli, pink pepper seed, red spikenard, vanilla, white lotus
Third (manipura/solar plexus):
Betel leaf, black pepper, blood orange, cardamom, elemi, kaffir lime leaf, lemon, pine, pink pepper seed, red spikenard, vetiver, white lotus
Fourth (anahata/heart):
Kaffir lime leaf, massoia bark, neroli, pine, red spikenard, rose, rosewood, white lotus
Fifth (vishuddha/throat):
Agarwood, betel leaf, blue chamomile, elemi, frankincense, lavender, red spikenard, white lotus
Sixth (ajna/third eye):
Jasmine, lemon, red spikenard, sandalwood, white lotus
Seventh (sahaswara/crown):
Chinese rice flower, lime, red spikenard, rose, white lotus
This article is excerpted from Essential Oils in Spiritual Practice by Candice Covington, foreword by Sheila Patel, M.D. © 2017 Healing Arts Press. Printed with permission from the publisher Inner Traditions International. InnerTraditions.com
About The Author
Candice Covington is a certified aromatherapist, healing arts master, and energy worker. A former instructor at Ashmead College in Ayurvedic theory and aromatherapy, she is now the primary aromatherapist at the Chopra Center. The founder of Divine Archetypes, an essential oil company, she lives in Oregon City, Oregon. Visit her website: divinearchetypes.org
