In humans, the positive side of the desire chakra has to do with finding the energy to create things. The negative side has to do with tearing things back down — perhaps to rebuild something new. Traditionally this chakra is considered most for its connection with sexuality, but I believe it is involved in the creation and destruction of everything else, too. Since this chakra deals with more than sexuality, I chose to name it the desire chakra.

When we look at the sexual aspects of this chakra we find that we use this chakra to express our desire for another person (or some other object). There are stories about how a man is not able to think with his brain when he sees a beautiful woman. (I’ve heard women can have the same thing happen to them when they encounter a desirable man.) The common myth is that there is not enough blood to supply the brain and other body parts at the same time. While I completely understand not being able to think, I believe the answer is more likely to be a shift of energy from one chakra to another, rather than a movement of blood. Physical creatures that we are, lower chakras often take precedence over the higher ones.

I may be biased, but I think sexuality is one of the reasons souls created bodies. Certainly, this chakra provides a very powerful attraction between people. It is difficult to resist and may lead to all sorts of problems when it is expressed too freely. In many discussions about reincarnation, the authors suggest that less spiritually advanced humans spend lifetime after lifetime returning for sexual pleasure. The implication is that these souls never experience the higher pleasures of moving closer to God.

Some disagree with the idea that moving toward God is all that important. As Mark Twain says, go to heaven for the climate, hell for the company.

In single-cell creatures, this chakra provides the energy for cell division. Other types of creative forces may also come out of this region, including the drive required to create a website. Freudian and Tantric traditions suggest that we sublimate or transfer sexual energy to form the drive to accomplish other things. It’s not that the plan or actions come out of this chakra — those come from other chakras. What comes from the desire chakra is the object of the desire and the energy to create it or tear it down.

In my way of looking at chakras, this is the lowest chakra that is actually in the body. That may mean it was the first chakra souls created as they tried to develop physical life.