The Depth and Paradox of the Fourth Chakra for Animals
The Heart Chakra carries so much: dimensions of love, compassion, self-acceptance, forgiveness and joy that can’t live in any other energetic chamber. It is where joy and grief can sit next to each other simultaneously. How appropriate for this time of year, the holiday season.
Because the holiday season can be joyful and heavy at the same time, I’d love to bring some levity. While my new book Animal Chakra Healing breaks down each chakra into energetics, emotions, symbolism, physical reality (as in structure, organs, body parts and meridians), it puts all of together. It also reviews what each chakra looks like in behavior, dynamics and relationships as well as super fun stories and the shadow side.
But let’s have a little animal fourth chakra fun, shall we?
Excerpted from Animal Chakra Healing, Bringing Balance, Health, and Joy to Our Animal Companions by: Joan Ranquet (Findhorn Press/Inner Traditions, 2025):
Fourth Chakra Species-Specific/Wild and Domestic
For the most part, for most animals, the size of the heart is a fraction of their actual size. I love to geek out on weird wildlife facts, so I thought I would share. Some have unusual hearts, some hearts enable great speeds, and the rest are just huge hearts. While we don’t walk along beside these wild animals and their heart chakra, we definitely open our hearts with childlike wonder to them.
Did you know . . .
Big hearts:
- Blue whales: their heart weighs 440 pounds!
- African elephants have giant hearts to fill in and support that big body. And, to love and nurture their extended family.
- Manatee, itdoesn’ttake a biologist to discover this. Manatees are all heart!
Unique hearts:
- Crocodiles have an extra “hole” or valve from the heart to the stomach that pumps blood and carbon dioxide to help it digest big meals.
- Zebra fish have unusual heart cells that can regenerate heart tissue after extensive damage.
- And whilewe’rein the sea, did you know that an octopus has three hearts!
- The emperor penguin has a diving heart rate way slower thanit’s resting heart rate, which helps them to circulate oxygen and stay in frigid temperatures for up to 18 minutes!
- Of course, the dog has the highest heart-to-body ratio.
Speed
Some animals are just built for speed, and the big heart is part of that equation.
If you’ve ever been outside and chased by a horsefly, you won’t be surprised to find out that they can fly up to 90 mph!
But the peregrine falcon has the horsefly beat. Peregrine falcons have been clocked in midair dives at 200 to 240 mph. WOW. They have an aerodynamic build, kind of like the cheetah, the greyhound, and the thoroughbred. And they have a very long wingspan, enabling them to fly long distances. They tuck in their wings when they dive through the air. You will find that wings are part of the heart chakra when we get to the anatomy part of this chapter.
Wildebeest have a deep barrel for a big heart, and they claim speed as a superpower.
Springbok might be the fastest antelope, with an impressive top speed of 55 mph.
Dragonflies can travel at 30 mph—crazy!
Black Marlin are the fastest fish, coming in at 80 mph!
