Before the seven chakras we often hear about … before the red spinning wheel at the base of the spine, before the crown of a thousand petals, there is another chakra. It sits below the body, roughly 1 to 2 feet (or 20-60 cm) below the soles of your feet, depending on what your energy field is doing on a particular day.

It is sometimes called: the Earth Star, the zeroth chakra, or the Vasudhara Chakra. Though it's the easiest to overlook (it's not even inside the body, after all), it's the one that makes the rest of the chakra system workable for beings like us — living on this planet, in these bodies.

This is the first of a four-part series on the Vasudhara Chakra. In this post, we will introduce you to what it is, what it does, and why it matters. In the posts that follow, we'll cover what it feels like when the Vasudhara is blocked, what it feels like when it's flowing well, and some practices for tending the connection.