Chakras are the crux of our Energetic system. Also called energy centers or energy organs, they negotiate both physical and subtle energies, transforming one into the other and back again. There are dozens (if not hundreds) of centers and processes in attendance, but most agree that chakras are the dominant aspect.
The Hindu system alone, featured strongly in this section, has dozens of variations within it, including the Tantric and the yogic. Each variation offers “the” truth. In one tradition, there are four chakras; in another practice, there are eleven. The coloration, sounds, placement, and exact roles of the chakras differ, even though they are entirely within the same cultural tradition. We’ll look at the most commonly accepted versions, along with the most typical (Western) spellings and definitions, as well as systems from around the world. Know that each culture has established a unique stamp on its chakra tradition. Few energetic systems are identical; the word chakra and its associated concepts might mean something slightly different to an African shaman than to a traditional Chinese medical doctor.
See figure 5.8 for the seven-chakra system, which is most typically used by esoteric physicians.
AN OVERVIEW: WHAT IS A CHAKRA?
What are chakras and what do they do for us? Ancient traditions have been careful to pass “chakraology” from generation to generation. Let us explore the most commonly accepted ideas about the chakras, from both a historical and a scientific perspective, before presenting a few variations of the chakra system.
There are many definitions of chakra, but they all evolve from the Sanskrit meaning of the word: “wheel of light.” Most authorities agree that chakras are subtle energy centers that are located at the main branchings of the nervous system. They serve as collection and transmission centers for both subtle, or metaphysical, energy and concrete, or biophysical, energy.
Chakras are envisioned as either circular, or when emerging from the body, vortices that are conical in shape. According to various Sanskrit sources, a circle holds many meanings. For example, it describes a rotation of shakti, or feminine life energy, denotes yantras (mystical symbols) that direct reality, and references the different nerve centers in the body.2 These and other analyses of the word reduce to a simple definition of the word chakra:
FIGURE 5.1
ANATOMY OF A CHAKRA
Each chakra can be seen as a pair of conical vortices emanating from the front and the back of the body. Together, these vortices regulate our conscious and unconscious realities, the psychic and sensory energies, and our subtle and physical selves.
A chakra is a circular-shaped energy body that directs life energy for physical and spiritual well-being.
Chakra systems differ with regard to location of the chakras, physical function, numbering, and other details. Some commonly accepted systems are as follows.
THE HINDU CHAKRA MODEL
To the Hindus, the chakras are part of the esoteric anatomy. They are interconnected with the nadis, which are meridian-like channels that carry energy around the body. Some ancient texts defined four chakras plus a metaphysical one. Still other venerable texts report five, six, seven, or more chakras. The basis of this system proposes that the chakras interface with other energy bodies to assist in the rising of kundalini, a type of life energy that invites union with the Divine.
THE TANTRIC CHAKRA MODEL
In this system, chakras (often numbering eight) are emanations of consciousness from Brahman, the Divine. This higher energy descends from the spiritual realms through gradually lower frequency levels, until finally coming to rest in the base of the spine as kundalini, a sleeping serpent. Along the way, the different types of consciousness are preserved in various chakras: energy bodies that lie along the spine. Each chakra represents a separate level of consciousness. Through yoga, one reawakens the kundalini energy so it can rise through the higher chakras and eventually transform one back into the highest state. In other words, the chakras provide the path of returning to enlightenment.
THE TRADITIONAL CHINESE CHAKRA MODEL
The Chinese model presents the circulation of chi, or life energy, through the meridians rather than the nadis, but there are many similarities between this and the Hindu system. As with the basic Hindu model, the chakras are located in the cerebrospinal areas. They are part of the process of evolving into union with the deity. Depending on the system, there are six to eight chakras involved.
A WESTERN VIEW OF CHAKRAS
Arthur Avalon is a widely accepted Western authority on the Tantric yoga (or kundalini yoga) version of the chakras. Avalon perceives them as seats of consciousness, numbering seven (or six with an “extra one”). He also calls them lotuses or padma of the body. Avalon considers them subtle rather than physical centers, as he places them within the central nadi, the nadis serving as a subtle energy conduit system.
Unlike other Westerners, Avalon does not consider the chakras part of the nervous system itself, because layers of the spinal cord separate the chakra from the body. The goal is to awaken the kundalini or serpent power, which sleeps in feminine form at the base of the chakra system, so it rises and “pierces” the upper chakras. Once the kundalini reaches the top center, an aspirant is freed from the continual cycle of death and rebirth; he or she is “enlightened.”
Modern derivative chakra systems usually outline seven chakras, which ascend along the spine from the coccyx area to the top of the head. They are often affiliated with: an aspect of consciousness or a major theme; a color; an element; a sound; a lotus (with differing numbers of petals); and interactions with the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of being human. Each chakra is also frequently associated with a gland of the endocrine system and a nervous system nexus (plexus or ganglia). Nearly every cultural chakra system considers the chakras a vital part of an enlightenment or spiritualization process.
Most systems place the chakras at the same basic locations:
- First chakra Groin
- Second chakra Abdomen
- Third chakra Solar plexus
- Fourth chakra Heart
- Fifth chakra Throat
- Sixth chakra Forehead
- Seventh chakra In the top of the head
A few chakra systems place the seventh chakra atop the head, instead of above the head. C. W. Leadbeater, who wrote about the chakras in the 1930s, established the second chakra near the spleen, slightly higher than the third chakra, which he located at the navel. He also pulled the heart chakra slightly to the subject’s left.
Other esoteric professionals, including Barbara Ann Brennan, author of Hands of Light, postulate chakras above the typical seven, describing an eighth and ninth chakra above the head.4 Katrina Raphaell, author of The Crystalline Transmission, describes a twelve-chakra system, with another chakra at the top of the head, two out-of-body chakras above the head, another in-body chakra below the heart and above the solar plexus, and yet another out-of-body chakra beneath the feet.5 In general, however, most sources agree on the first seven chakras.
Researchers in subtle energy technologies, as well as those in the medical community, are evolving our understanding of the chakras. A synthesized definition of chakras from a scientific point of view might be this:
Chakras are energy transformers, capable of shifting energy from a higher to a lower vibration and vice versa.
As such, chakras interact with the flow of subtle energies through specific energy channels to affect the body at the cellular level, as reflected by hormonal and physiological levels in the physical body.
What are these amazing “wheels of light”? How did they become so popular across time and culture? Let us briefly examine the history of the human chakra system before discussing the scientific theories behind it.
A HISTORY OF CHAKRA KNOWLEDGE
Throughout the ages, diverse and widespread cultures understood that people are not solely composed of mundane matter. We are made of vibrations: frequencies that interact with, and sometimes react to, the world outside of ourselves. Our ancestors knew what Einstein asserted only recently: energy cannot be destroyed; it can only change form. We might therefore picture our ancestors as wearing “possibility glasses.” Through the optical glass of intuition, they were able to describe and work with the energy bodies that could turn gross (physical) matter into subtle energy, and subtle energy into gross matter. The chakras were clearly central to this conversion process.
Most researchers believe that the chakra system began in India more than four thousand years ago, a classification of esoteric anatomy, an outline of the various subtle energy bodies and channels that affect the human body. The knowledge descends from the Vedanta philosophy, which was written down in the Upanishads around 800 BC. Vedanta means “the end of the Vedas,” and refers to the name of four sacred Hindu texts originating in 1500 BC. These texts are called Tantras. In general, the chakra system branched into two sections: the Vedic and the Tantric (now alive within Ayurvedic medicine and Tantric yoga, for example).
The term tantra comes from two words: tanoti, or to expand; and trayati, or to liberate. Tantra therefore means “to extend knowledge that liberates.” Tantra is a life practice based on teachings about the chakras, kundalini, hatha yoga, astronomy, astrology, and the worship of many Hindu gods and goddesses. Tantric yoga originates in pre-Aryan India, around 3000 to 2500 BC. Many other varieties of Tantric yoga or spirituality have arisen from it, including Tantric Buddhism. Each system derived from Tantric yoga has a unique view on the chakras and their related gods, cosmology, and symbols.
The history of chakras, as complex as it sounds so far, is even more complicated. The chakra system is intertwined with—and maybe even created by—several different cultures. Although usually associated with India, Tantric yoga was also practiced by the Dravidians, who originated from Ethiopia, as is revealed in the many similarities between predynastic Egyptian and African practices and ancient Indian Tantric beliefs.
For example, numerous Hindu deities are rooted in “India’s black civilizations, which is why they are often depicted as black.”7 Some historians point out that early Egyptians were greatly affected by African beliefs,8 and in turn influenced Greek, Jewish, and, later, Islamic and Christian thought, in addition to the Indian Hindu.
Other cultures also exchanged chakra ideas. Many practices of the early Essenes, a religio-spiritual community dwelling in Palestine in the second century BC through the second century AD, mirrored those of early India.10 The Sufis—Islamic mystics—also employed a system of energy centers, although it involved four centers.11 The Sufis also borrowed the kundalini process from Tantric yoga, as did certain Asian Indian and American Indian groups.
The Maya Indians of Mexico, the Inca Indians of Peru, and the Cherokee Indians of North America each have their own chakra method. The Maya believe that they actually taught the Hindu the chakra system.
The chakra system was brought to the West in yet another roundabout way. It was first thoroughly outlined in the text Sat-Chakra-Nirupana, written by an Indian yogi in the sixteenth century. Arthur Avalon then delivered chakra knowledge to Western culture in his book The Serpent Power, first published in 1919. Avalon drew heavily upon the Sat-Chakra-Nirupana as well as another text, Pakaka-Pancaka. His presentation was preceded by Theosophic Practica, a book written in 1696 by Johann Georg Gichtel, a student of Jakob Bohme, who refers to inner force centers that align with Eastern chakra doctrines.13
Today, many esoteric professionals rely on Anodea Judith’s interpretation of Avalon’s work, to which she has added additional information about the psychological aspects of the chakras.
Steeped in history, embedded in the spiritual traditions of the world, chakras are now quickly moving to the forefront of yet another discipline: science.
