The Wawel Chakra and the Hanging Knife

06/08/2012 09:33

Here are two interesting Krakow tidbits that have absolutely nothing in common other than the fact that, unless someone points them out, you’ll likely miss them. Or, if you did see them you wouldn’t understand their significance.

The first is the Wawel Chakra. Actually, you can’t really see it, but you can often see people who claim to feel it. What is the Chakra? Well, there is a belief that the Hindu goddess Shiva threw seven sacred stones across the world. Inside each of us are seven points on our body that are related to these rocks. When you stand at or near one of the seven places where Shiva’s stones landed, you are infused with a special energy.

While most of the Chakra stones are supposedly in places of religious significance such as Mecca and Jerusalem, oddly enough one of the rocks is believed to have landed where Wawel Castle now stands. There are days, then, when you can see small groups of people standing with their backs against a corner wall in the main courtyard at a point where the energy is considered to be the strongest. It’s kind of strange to see them, actually. Wawel Castle does not mention this in any of their guidebooks, and in fact they try to play the whole notion down. It’s only when you get the scoop from ole’ Brianowski that the explanation becomes clear. Wawel workers won’t yell at you if you stand along the Chakra wall, but my guess is that if you need a quick burst of energy, your best bet is to walk about two hundred yards or so and get a cup of coffee at the Ukrainian restaurant. You can also stand alongside one of their walls, if that helps.

The second thing that you might not notice is actually located at one of the most highly trafficked places in town, the Sukiennice hall in the middle of the main square, where thousands walk in and out of the middle doorway every day but do not look three feet above their head. In an earlier Factoid, I told a brief story about why the two towers on the Mariacki Church are not quite even in height. If you recall, two brothers were tasked with building the steeples. Each brother built his portion apart from his sibling. As the towers neared completion, one brother got jealous because his tower didn’t stand as high as that of the other. Alas, in a fit of rage, the one whose tower was lower killed the other and threw his body from the top of church onto the square below. Many visitors to Krakow, in fact, quickly learn this story to take back home along with their pictures of the two-towered Mariacki. What most don’t know—are you ready—is that the knife that the jealous sibling used to kill his brother is still hanging barely noticed above one of the entrances to the Sukiennice! So now, you can not only take a picture of the two towers, but also the deadly chiv as well.

The knife hangs inconspicuously over the heads of tourists entering the Sukiennice.

People hanging out along the wall, just waiting for that mojo to kick in!