I love you. Thank you.

A friend sent me this link to a page at innerself.com that compares the chakras to astrology. What got my attention is that the second chakra, the spleen chakra (right below the belly button) is associated with Jupiter, which is my ruling planet (seeing as how I'm a Sagittarian Sun and ascendant) and also is the planet closest to my ascendant. That got my attention, because I have a large, heavy ceramic "plate" showing the six-petalled symbol for the second chakra, Svadisthana.

I once heard a story about a woman who had seen a landscape painting for sale. She loved everything about it except for a little millhouse. After some deliberating, she did decide to buy it, only to find that someone else had beaten her to it. The seller told her that he had another one just like it, but, he apologized, it was without the millhouse (!). She got her painting exactly as she wanted it!

That story has been with me for some 20 years. It was told to me as a lesson that if you really want something, you'd love to have it, you will get it. I sometimes wondered how true that was.

About 8 years ago, a friend of mine had an acquaintance, Suzanne Lasher, who made pottery and had developed her own glazing techniques. Three of us went to see an exhibit she was having. Most of her stuff was pleasing to my eye, and I was thinking I'd like to buy something. Then I saw what I wanted: Off in a corner hung a large, round disc, with a funny symbol that looked like a lower-case A surrounded by six flower petals. "It's the spleen chakra," I was told. It was a very simple design, in colors I liked. There was just one thing wrong with it: An iron pocket in the clay had burst during heating and created a huge blister on the surface. That ruined the disc for me.

I thought about buying something else, but really wanted that chakra disc. My friend said maybe I'd find something else I'd like at Lasher's studio; it would also probably be cheaper since there wouldn't be a gallery charge. We visited Lasher and got a tour of her studio. One of the first things I saw casually lying on a counter was the chakra disc! Without the huge iron blister! It became mine, just as I wanted it. I was also amazed that the millhouse-in-the-painting story had come true for me.

Some things are just meant to be. Why this disc? The spleen chakra has to do with joy and creativity. Now I have found out it is also associated with Jupiter, the planet of expansion and optimism. My chakra disc still makes me happy; I feel balanced, at ease when I look at it.

About the disc: It's about 36 cm in diameter, 1 cm thick. In the flower petal at the 3 o'clock position, you can see a small iron blister. I find this one charming; it adds to the organic feel.