Chakra 3
Please see an overview of the Chakras in the Chakra 1 post.
Chakra 3 is digestion and all its components. It therefore governs all digestive organs, the process of metabolism, absorption, and elimination, though elimination, especially the descending colon, is more associated with Chakra 1 and the earth, and the intestines are more associated with Chakra 2 because of their location and mostly liquid manner in which they function. The diaphragm also straddles Chakras 3 and 4, (and, as a muscle, 2) because of its location and function. It is literally the border between the thoracic and abdominal plexi, so how you functionally breathe via your body’s most important respiratory muscle must be considered in Chakra 3 understanding.
Power is the central experience; taking in the world through all the senses but especially the eyes is the moment-by-moment experience of Chakra 3. Your name, an inescapable utterance of your identity in the most regular formulaic of ways, is a core part of your own experience of Chakra 3. Depression and anxiety as disorders take root in this chakra.
The aforementioned plus-connection running through chakras 1-3-5-7 makes chakra 3 more immediately powerful in those with a strong 1-3-5-7 channel; these are most often men. There is no intrinsic reason that any one group’s 3rd chakra should be more meaningful or impactful than any other group’s, but we can consider through basic mathematics the functionality, connection, and efficiency of linking odd numbers with odd numbers. If your basic makeup comes from a current managed from the ground up, it’s reasonable to see that this place could be a more natural, steady, and easeful way of expressing your natural energies. That power is the central experience of the 3rd chakra and means that those with an even or positive current may not immediately have as clear or strong access to this as those with the negative charge.
There does seem to exist a historical power imbalance between men and women in society as we have formed it so far, as all major religious texts designated God as a man and as the English word “power” is etymologically and financially defined. “Power” derives from the Latin word “posse,” or to be able; financial health (1st chakra) is the only way health can be achieved globally, regardless of the wealth of any given nation.
I advance the idea that the third chakra is about being. To be is to be who you are both in (3rd) and with (4th) yourself, the latter of which is also to be with others.