Root

Location in this educational map: base of the spine, sitting bones, legs, feet. Colour in this map: red. Neither is a medical fact, and red is not a clothes rule.

Root is the ground. Can I be here. Is there enough. Is the body a place I can live. Pentacles, Four of Pentacles, Five of Pentacles, Ten of Pentacles, The Emperor when he is a wall or a house.

Light: grounded, fed, housed, able to stop. Shadow: freeze, hoard, spend as panic, living as if the floor will vanish. Also: spiritual people who will not deal with rent.

Foods traditionally paired here: root vegetables, beetroot, carrots, potatoes, protein-rich meals, red apples or tomatoes. That pairing is a way of paying attention to ground. It is not medicine. Eating them will not physically heal a chakra. Eat like a person.

Practices: sit and feel the feet. Walk. Cook a meal. Sort one pile of post. A stone in the hand if you have one. Then do the practical thing you have been avoiding.

Discernment: do not tell someone their root is blocked instead of asking whether they have eaten, slept, or got heat in the house. Ordinary first.