Third Eye Chakra (Ajna): Meaning, Symbol and Meditation

By the Awaken Library Editorial TeamEditorial Team · Updated October 23, 2026Oct 23, 2026 · How we write

The third eye chakra, or Ajna, is the sixth of the seven chakras: a two-petaled lotus between the eyebrows. The 1577 text pairs it with the mind and the syllable OM and names no element. The phrase “third eye” and the link to the pineal gland came later, from Western writers.

Third eye chakra at a glance

The left column is the classical text: the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa (“Description of the Six Centers”), which the Bengali teacher Purnananda completed in 1577 as part of a longer work. Verses 32 to 38 in Arthur Avalon’s 1919 translation cover Ajna. The right column is what Western writers put on top.

Two things in the left column surprise most readers: the text gives this center no element, and Avalon’s English for these seven verses never says “third eye”. Both ideas arrive with the right-hand column.

What is the third eye chakra? The meaning of Ajna

In the 1577 text, Ajna is the last of six centers on the spine, with the thousand-petaled lotus placed above them. Its name, ājñā, means “command”. The commentary on verse 32 gives the reason: the guru’s command is communicated here, from above. So the oldest meaning of the name is closer to instruction than to sight.

Verse 33 says the subtle mind (Manas) dwells inside the lotus. The same verse puts a lingam called Itara there, shining like a chain of lightning flashes, together with the first seed syllable of the Vedas. Verse 35 stacks more above it: the Pranava (OM), a crescent moon, a point (bindu) and a vibration (nāda). One way to read the layers is as a ladder of smaller and smaller objects for attention: a lotus, a triangle, a syllable, a crescent, a point, a sound.

The Western meaning is looser. Modern books describe the third eye chakra as the seat of intuition, imagination and insight, a way of “seeing” what is not obvious. That reading is a 20th-century one, built on the nickname “third eye”. Most people searching mean the second idea, so this page covers both and keeps them apart.

Where is the third eye chakra located?

Between the eyebrows. The commentary on verse 32 quotes an older passage that says the same: after going up through the throat and palate, the white lotus “between the eyebrows” is reached, with two petals and the letters Ha and Kṣa, “the place of mind”. Western books agree on the spot and often raise it a little, to the middle of the forehead.

To find it, rest a fingertip lightly between your eyebrows for a few breaths, then take the finger away and keep your attention on the spot where it was. In practice that is all “locating” means: the place is a point for attention, and no organ there would show up on a scan as a chakra. The pineal gland, which popular pages link to it, lies much deeper (see below).

Third eye chakra color and symbol

The color on every modern chart is indigo. The text itself says white. Verse 32 compares the lotus to the moon, and the two letters on its petals are white as well. Indigo appears nowhere in the verses.

It entered through other routes. C. W. Leadbeater, in The Chakras (1927), described what he saw of this center as two halves, one “predominantly rose, with a great deal of yellow”, the other “a kind of purplish-blue”. The single indigo came later. Kurt Leland, who traced the history of the Western system, reports that color therapists attached rainbow colors to the chakras in spectrum order from the 1930s on. Counted from red, the sixth step of the spectrum is indigo, and the seventh is violet.

Third eye chakra symbol. The classical picture is a circle holding two petals with the letters Ha and Kṣa (v. 32), a triangle (v. 33) and OM (ॐ) at the center (vv. 33, 35). Many modern drawings add an eye in the middle. The eye is not in the verses. What websites say the two petals “mean” (duality, left and right, two hemispheres) is their own commentary; the text only puts two syllables on them.

Third eye and the pineal gland

Almost every page about this chakra says it “corresponds to” the pineal gland. According to StatPearls, the pineal gland is a pine cone shaped endocrine gland, about 0.8 cm long and weighing about 0.1 g in an adult, set deep in the brain behind the third ventricle (the third ventricle is a fluid-filled space; the name has nothing to do with a third eye). Its job is to make melatonin, a hormone that helps set the sleep and wake cycle. Production rises in darkness and drops in light.

In StatPearls’ account the gland does not detect light itself: light is picked up by the retina, and the signal is relayed through the hypothalamus and nerves to the gland. The gland also calcifies with age, and those deposits show on an X-ray, which is why doctors use them as a landmark. You will see advice online about “detoxing” or “decalcifying” the pineal gland. Nothing in StatPearls supports clearing it with meditation or supplements.

So where does the link come from? Not from the 1577 text, which says nothing about glands. In 1927 Leadbeater tied the forces of the brow and crown centers to the pituitary body and the pineal gland, and later authors repeated the pairing. Cleveland Clinic calls the chakras a metaphor rather than something medicine recognizes, and that is the honest way to hold this one too. If you want to look after the part the gland actually plays, the advice is ordinary sleep habit: a dark bedroom and a regular bedtime.

Opening the third eye: what the text says, and what we don’t promise

Searches for “third eye opening symptoms” and “psychic abilities” point to verse 34. It says that the person who meditates on this lotus can “quickly enter another’s body at will”, becomes “all-knowing and all-seeing”, and acquires “excellent and unknown powers”. Woodroffe, in his introduction, reads promises of this kind as praise of the practice (stuti-vāda), not as a list of results to expect. We read it the same way.

The next two verses turn to experience. Verse 36 says that when the practitioner has gained the knowledge from the teacher and the mind “becomes dissolved in this place” through repeated practice, he “sees … sparks of fire distinctly shining”. Verse 37 adds a light “in the form of a flaming lamp”, lustrous like the morning sun. These are the text’s description of a deep state after long training with a guru. Verse 38 then turns to death, saying the yogi places his breath here at the end of life.

Hatha yoga manuals point the same way. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika says the mind may be fixed on the middle of the eyebrows (chapter 3) and describes a gaze practice, Sambhavi mudra, that it says is learnt from a guru (chapter 4). Nothing there is a quick exercise for beginners.

That is why this page makes no promise that you can open the third eye, see auras or become psychic. No study we know of shows that meditating on a point between the eyebrows gives any of that. What it can reasonably give is practice at holding attention in one place.

Blocked third eye chakra: signs and what they point to

Lists of blocked third eye symptoms usually include trouble concentrating, indecision, a poor imagination, cynicism, overthinking, headaches, eye strain, poor sleep and vision problems. They fall into two different kinds.

• Life signs such as scattered attention, endless second-guessing, being unable to picture next month, or not trusting your own read of a situation. These are real and ordinary. They often trace back to sleep, screens, stress or having too many open decisions.
• Body signs such as headaches, pressure behind the eyes, eye strain, flashes of light, floaters, blurred or double vision. No chakra practice can tell you the cause. Persistent headaches, flashes and any change in your vision are reasons to see a doctor or an eye specialist, and sudden changes are reasons to do it promptly.

The idea of a “blocked” or “overactive” chakra does not appear in the 1577 text; it belongs to 20th-century energy healing. If it works as a shorthand for “my head is full and I can’t see clearly”, use it, and follow with a concrete question: clear about what? The self-check at the top is built around that question.

How to balance the third eye chakra

In practice, balancing this center means giving your attention a place to rest, and giving your head a quieter day. In the tradition, work with the upper centers is done under a teacher over years. In everyday language the same words describe simpler things you can do on your own:

• One task at a time. Twenty minutes with the phone in another room. Count the urges to check it.
• Look far. Once an hour, look at the farthest thing you can see through a window for a minute. It rests the eyes and the mind together.
• A pause. Before you answer something that annoys you, take one slow out-breath. In a 2023 Stanford trial, five minutes a day of “cyclic sighing”, a breathing pattern with a long exhale, improved mood over a month more than mindfulness meditation did.
• A two-minute forecast. Before something new, write down what could go wrong and one thing you will do about each item. It is the practical form of “foresight”.
• A quiet minute at night. Sit and look back over the day without judging it.
• Dark nights. Dim the lights an hour before bed. The pineal gland section above says why that matters for sleep.

Third eye chakra yoga poses. Teachers usually suggest poses where the forehead rests on something: child’s pose (Balasana), a seated forward fold, and downward-facing dog with the head hanging. Stay for five slow breaths and notice the contact at the brow. Keep the pressure light. Skip any pose that makes your head throb.

Third eye chakra affirmations. Lines such as “I see what is in front of me”, “I can wait a moment before I answer” or “I trust what I notice” work best when they describe something you can do today. A line you don’t believe starts an argument in your head. If “I trust my intuition” feels hollow, try “Right now I am noticing my breath”, which is true.

Third eye chakra stones, mudra and signs of a blockage

Stones. Modern lists of third eye chakra stones name amethyst, lapis lazuli, sodalite and fluorite, deep blue and purple gems that match the rainbow chart’s indigo. The text gives Ajna two white petals and no stone; crystals and gemstones are a late 20th-century addition. Nothing measured so far shows a stone acting on a chakra, the pineal gland or intuition. Some people like a stone resting on the brow while lying down; it keeps them still, which is useful in itself.

Mudra. No hand gesture belongs to this center in the old text either. Modern chakra lists differ; the usual choice for the third eye chakra is the “mudra of the great head” or simply gyan mudra; the gaze toward the brow that the old manuals call Sambhavi mudra is learned from a teacher, as said above. A still hand position helps the gaze settle; see the mudras guide for what is old and what is new.

Signs of a block. A third eye chakra blockage, and the symptoms listed for it, is an idea from 20th-century energy healing, not something a test can show. Ask what you keep failing to notice, and see a doctor about headaches or eye trouble (see above).

A 5-minute third eye chakra meditation

This meditation takes its image from the old text: a small white lotus with two petals, “like the moon” (v. 32), and the syllable OM (vv. 33, 35). It adds a slow out-breath, which has real support (Balban and colleagues, 2023), and leaves out anything strained. Press Start and follow the highlighted step, each of which lasts a minute. You can also read the steps and use your own timer.

Keep your eyes soft; if they begin to ache, open them and look at something far away. The old hatha manual describes gazing at a small mark until the eyes fill with tears. We don’t suggest that, and anyone with an eye condition should check with an eye doctor before any gazing practice. And if a headache, dizziness or fear shows up, stop, open your eyes and look around the room. You don’t have to finish.

Third eye chakra vs crown chakra

Neighbors on every chart, these two get mixed up in lists of “intuition and spirituality”. The text separates them: Ajna is the last of the six centers, and the thousand-petaled lotus is placed above them. The crown chakra page has the full description.

A practical way to tell them apart: the brow is a point to look at, and the crown is an open space to sit under. All seven centers are collected on the chakras overview.

What comes from the old texts and what was added later

Each popular claim about the third eye is traced below to the earliest source we could find.

What this page does not promise. We can’t tell you that the third eye can be opened, that you will gain intuition or psychic ability, or that any practice changes your pineal gland. The self-check is not a measurement of a chakra or of your health. What the meditation can do is give your attention five quiet minutes to practice in, and some people feel steadier afterward. It does not treat headaches, eye problems, insomnia, anxiety or any illness. If something in your head, eyes or sleep has been wrong for weeks, see a doctor or a therapist before you try anything here.

How the self-check counts

The self-check looks at three parts of ordinary life that Western books file under the brow center. The six questions cover them two each: focus (questions 1 and 2), pause (questions 3 and 4), foresight (questions 5 and 6). “Rarely” gives 0 points, “Sometimes” 1 and “Often” 2, so each area scores 0 to 4. The area with the most points is where the result suggests you begin. If areas tie at the top, you see all of them. If no area has more than 1 point, the result says nothing stands out.

We ran the rule on every possible set of answers, all 729 of them, when the page was built. Each area comes out alone on top in 22.4% of answer sets, 29.2% end in a tie, and 3.7% leave no area above 1 point. The three areas are built symmetrically, so none is favored. The note under the bars depends on the total: 0–3 points (10.7% of answer sets), 4–8 (78.6%) or 9–12 (10.7%), and the highest band suggests talking to a professional if it has lasted.

The questions ask about things that happened, not about how you see yourself, because people tend to describe the person they would like to be. Nothing is sent anywhere. Close the page and the answers are gone.