Early Western Mystics and Esoteric Orders
The true human being...is the meaning of the universe. He is a dancing star. He is the exploding singularity pregnant with infinite possibilities.
David Zindell
Every individual is more than he or she appears to be. We are beings walking in a grounded way on this earth, but we each carry a stellar message with the potential to become a masterpiece. This was certainly true of the early mystics such as Paracelsus and Gichtel, whose profound insights spurred systems and philosophies that still ring true today.
In this chapter we skip through the development of chakra knowledge in the West across a span of approximately four centuries, meeting independent thinkers who could be considered “parents” of esoteric movements that include chakras among their mysteries. Thus we prove the point that though individually we might each be but a singular star, we can all help to birth an entire galaxy of chakra knowledge.
A Profile of Paracelsus: A Mystical Light Bridging East and West
An excellent place to start our discussion of esoterica and esoteric orders is Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim (1493–1541). Known as Paracelsus, he was a key figure who serves as a doorway between the East and West for chakra-related principles and ideas. Although he didn’t specifically name the chakras, the concepts he shared were so similar that today he is considered a vital channel of chakra knowledge.
Paracelsus was a brilliant Swiss physician, alchemist, and occultist, authoring 106 books on esoteric subjects including astrology, healing plants and minerals, cosmology, the subtle anatomy, elemental beings, sleep, dreams, and more. His discoveries were remarkably aligned with Eastern mysticism, although he maintained that his information came from his own intuition and observation. He dictated his writings spontaneously, not from notes, and was said to have been given the “Philosopher’s Stone,” an allusion to wisdom, from a teacher named Solomon Trismosinus.
Here are a few of his main ideas that relate to our present journey. As you will see, there are parallels with chakras and the subtle anatomy.
- • Everything is animate. In ways quite similar to animist communities in indigenous populations, Indian belief in Brahman, and the tantric principle of the bindu, Paracelsus believed that everything comes from one divine source. Stones, plants, animals, people—the only difference is the organic structure; all are expressions of the consciousness of Spirit.1 As he states in one of his books, Sympatheticall Mumie, “No moving thing can be equall (sic) in power with the Mover.”2
- • The human being has two bodies: the visible body, which belongs to the earth, and the invisible body of heaven, attuned to the imagination and spirituality.3 Here we find the same belief in the material and subtle bodies that is present in Vedic philosophy.
- • The physical body is surrounded by a magnetic body or vital envelope Paracelsus called the Archaeus. This force attracts or repulses other forces and potentially calls negative “astral influences” to us if we do not resist them. (In fact, many medieval and esoteric philosophies describe the astral plane or world; I first delved into astral and other planes in chapter 20, and we’ll return to the topic in chapter 31.) According to Paracelsus, this envelope resembles a luminous sphere and can act at a distance for good or for bad, either curing or causing disease. He also maintained that magnets, planets, and stars all had the ability to influence the energy in the envelope.4 This force is similar to the electromagnetic and auric fields we discussed earlier.
- • As well, Paracelsus outlined “inner parts of the body” that could not be seen except through a form of magic perception. He also attested to the individual’s ability to send thoughts and healing at a distance and to use powers such as clairvoyance and prescience.5 Here we find beliefs comparable to tantric, Hindu, and yogic beliefs in siddhi and the chakras.
- • Paracelsus proposed a similarity between the macrocosm and the microcosm, just as many tantrists, Hermeticists, and other key groups did. The universe is a microcosm or duplicate of a greater creative effort and is itself a macrocosm or template to our solar system. Man, in turn, is a microcosm of the solar system. We are all one constellation, harmony, and breath.6 Paracelsus also makes an analogy between the planetary body and the organs inside the physical body. For instance, the moon influences the brain, and Venus, the kidneys.7 There are similar viewpoints in Traditional Chinese Medicine, other Eastern medical practices, and most systems that are inclusive of the chakras, which are often called “mini universes” that mirror the entire person as well as the external world.
These points illustrate just some of the ways in which Paracelsus formed a bridge between East and West, laying the groundwork for the spread of chakra knowledge.
A Foundational Esoteric Order: The Rosicrucians
Moving now in our early esoteric history from a key individual to a mysterious and pivotal organization, we find many aspects of chakra medicine interwoven in the tenets of the Rosicrucian Order, also called the Secret Society of the Rose Cross and the Fraternity of the Rose Cross. These facets include chakras, psychic activity, and the existence of several planes of reality. Drawing on the knowledge of alchemists and sages, this order influenced the arts, sciences, religion, and politics.8
First, some background. The “Highly Illuminated Father C. R. C.” (Christian Rosencreutz), a German who pursued mystical studies in several areas of the Middle East, including Damascus, Damcar, and Fez, started the order in the 1400s. While he was in Fez, Arab magicians taught him how to communicate with the elementals—supernatural beings described in alchemical works. Father C. R. C. then returned to Europe, where he translated a book of mystical secrets called M that he had brought back from his travels. Despite being widely ridiculed, he gathered a secret society of eight followers who transcribed these teachings. It is said that Paracelsus, while not a member of the fraternity, was so impressed with the manuscript’s contents that he used the information contained in it to become the leading physician of Europe. Most likely, the tenets of the Rosicrucian system perpetuate the secrets of Egyptian Hermeticism as well as the Kabbalah.
As you will see in discussions about Charles Leadbeater in this and following chapters, Rosicrucian ideas about the chakras were brought to the West in the book Theosophia Practica, written by German Bavarian mystic Johann Georg Gichtel in the seventeenth century ce. Gichtel was probably a Rosicrucian himself, and his book marks the Rosicrucian Order as a significant conduit of Hindu knowledge.9
The Rosicrucian Cosmos
Comprehending the Rosicrucian view of the chakras is best done within the context of Rosicrucian concepts of the cosmos. As Max Heindel, a Rosicrucian and Christian occultist, portrayed in his 1909 book The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception,10 humans occupy seven worlds, and while these realms are depicted in a hierarchy, they actually interpenetrate, differing in rates of vibration and density.11
These worlds were not created instantaneously, nor will they all endure until the end of time. The higher worlds were created first, and the lower worlds “devolved” over time from the higher ones. Within this framework the hope is that humans and the lower worlds will eventually evolve; then, when they have been rendered unnecessary, the lower worlds will disappear.
The seven worlds belong to the lowest of the “cosmic planes,” which also number seven. These planes are states of spirit-matter that permeate one another. God, the architect of the solar system, dwells in the highest division of the seventh cosmic plane.12
The seven worlds where we humans dwell are as follows: the World of God and our highest self; the World of Virgin Spirits and who we were or are before taking the pilgrimage through matter; the World of Divine Spirit and our own divine spirit; the World of the Life Spirit and our own life spirit; the World of Thought and our human spirit and mind; the World of Desire and our own desire, with components including our soul, feeling, passion, wishes, and impressionability; and the World of Physicality, including our vital and dense body. Multiple regions exist within these several worlds.13
Two of the Rosicrucian symbols representing the views of the order that relate to the chakras are the rose and the cross. The rose is a flower of Venus that enables transformation. It is dualistic in nature, representing seeming opposites such as earthly passion and heavenly perfection, as well as the desirous Venus and the sacred Christ. Among Rosicrucians, the rose symbol is red and has five petals, with the number five representing a magical pentagram considered to contain the four elements plus Spirit. Famous greats including Leonardo da Vinci employed concepts related to the Rose Cross and these geometric concepts in their work.14 For instance, da Vinci incorporated the pentagram in his iconic Vitruvian Man figure shown in Illustration 83.
Illustration 83—Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man”: Affiliated with the Rosicrucians, da Vinci illustrated the golden ratio of the pentagram, one of the symbols of the Rosicrucians, in his depiction of the human figure. The golden ratio is also called the divine proportion and phi. illustration by elisabeth alba
The cross represents the union of polarities and the possibility of transcending from the mortal to the immortal state. It speaks of the descent of the Spirit as well as to the potential ascent of our own spirit. Visually, the rose is attached to the center of the cross, speaking to the soul’s journey (the cross) and its goal (the rose).15
Rosicrucians believe that we humans can graduate from our physical, anchored state by “removing” the rose from the cross. To do this we must detach from the material world. The nails denote the points of attachment between the material world and our spiritual nature. Through the use of three alchemical rites, initiates can draw out these nails and invite in their divine nature emanating from the cross.16
The Rose Cross is also popular among several other esoteric circles, including the Knights Templar, the Golden Dawn, and the Freemasons, and has been referenced by many famous philosophers, scientists, and artists. The Knights Templar, founded in 1118 ce, was a mystical order that incorporated Hermetic ideas.17 Fighting in the Crusades and supposedly destroyed, this brotherhood likely acknowledged the chakra system, at least according to Rudolf Steiner, a famous philosopher discussed later in this chapter. Steiner says that the Knights Templar had contact with mystical non-Christian beliefs in the Middle East and learned about the chakras there.18 The Golden Dawn and the Freemasons are described later in this chapter.
In regard to the chakras, it is thought that when the rose blooms on the cross, the chakras are open. When the rose appears as seven images surrounding the crossbeams of the cross, the same is true. An image of this cross appears in Illustration 85 below.
Illustration 84—The Rose Cross Lamen: This symbol of the Golden Dawn is a synthesis of tenets embracing the existence of rays, elements, Kabbalah sephiroth, geometric figures, the balance of opposites, and the opening of the chakras. See the insert for a color version of this image. illustration by james clark
In the Golden Dawn, the rose and cross—called the Rose Cross Lamen—are depicted with a number of rays and symbols. This portraiture is a synthesis of the merging of positive and masculine and the rainbow scale of color (similar to the imagery of kundalini). The four ends of the cross relate to the elements, the white portion to the Spirit and the planets, and the twenty-two petals of the rose to the twenty-two paths of the Kabbalah. This depiction is shown in Illustration 84.
In the Fraternity of the Rose Cross, the Rosicrucian Rose is blended with Kabbalistic philosophy to incorporate the number ten and kundalini concepts. The rose is considered a yoni symbol, and its blossoming is related to spiritual unfoldment. The red color is the blood of Christ; a golden heart, concealed within, is the spiritual gold within the human heart.
The number ten was considered perfect by the Pythagoreans. Ten circles or a tetracys can create a pyramid, each layer also relating to a different sephiroth. An image of the tetracys is shown in Illustration 86 below. Some esoterics, including Rudolf Steiner, embrace the image of a black cross, a symbol of the baser elements and our material impulses and passions. We are to picture seven red roses (presumably the chakras) around the crossbeams of the cross as the expression of the issues we have purified.19
Illustration 86—The Power of Ten: In the Fraternity of the Rose Cross, the Rosicrucian Rose is often shown with ten petals, relating it to the Kabbalah. Ten is a reminder of the perfect Pythagorean number, which can be organized like a pyramid, each level containing levels of the sephiroth. illustration by llewellyn art department
Hindu and Rosicrucian philosophies both begin with the first chakra, related to the earth element and the yellow square. This square or cube can be filled with additional cubes, as depicted below, to form a cube with six sides and a clear rose image. Within the central square esoterics form a cross portraying a male body, its head to the east and arms extended north and south, with a woman assuming a position astride this form. At this point, the female energy or Shakti becomes the rose on the cross of Shiva’s body.20 The rose is commonly compared to the Rose of Sharon in the Old Testament, Sophia (Wisdom), Mary Magdalene, and Mary, Mother of Jesus, underscoring the universal story of Shakti and Shiva in many different storybooks.21
Chakras as Psychic Lamps
One of the Rosicrucian legends about chakras comes from the story of the vault of Father C. R. C. and leads to one of the purposes of the chakras: as lamps to guide psychic activity.
According to the story, brother N. N.—the third successor to Father C. R. C. (after Brother D. and Brother A.) and the head of the fraternity—reported discovering the vault of Brother C. R. C. behind a hidden door. The vault had seven sides and seven corners.
The vault teemed with symbolism—including meaningful depictions of the golden proportion, the pentagram, Jesus and other key figures from the Bible, the Kabbalah, planetary associations, and the tarot. There were also seven burning lamps. Metaphysically these lamps are the chakras, also called the interior stars or metals of the alchemists, each linked to a different planet, angel, and metal, as shown in this chart.
|
Planet |
Angel |
Metal |
Chakra |
|
Venus |
Anael |
Copper |
Throat (fifth) |
|
Mercury |
Raphael |
Quicksilver |
Cerebrum and pineal (seventh) |
|
Moon |
Gabriel |
Silver |
Pituitary (sixth) |
|
Saturn |
Tsaphkiel |
Lead |
Center at base of spine (first) |
|
Jupiter |
Tzadkiel |
Tin |
Solar plexus (third) |
|
Mars |
Kamael |
Iron |
Center below navel (second) |
|
Sun |
Michael |
Gold |
Heart (fourth) |
Each of the planetary angels corresponds to one of the seven sides of the vault, a personification of the seven powers basic to manifestation. They are also called the Seven Spirits, whose powers extend through the cosmos.
The meanings of these angels, starting at the door and going clockwise around the heptagon, are as follows:
Anael: Grace of God
Raphael: God the Healer
Gabriel: Man of God
Tsaphkiel: Contemplation of God
Tzadkiel: Righteousness of God
Kamael: Severity of God
Michael: Like unto God 22
One of the main roles of the chakras, according to Rosicrucian teachings, is as psychic centers. Defined this way, the four psychic centers are located at the heart, throat, pineal, and pituitary—the fourth through seventh chakras.23 Mark Stavish, the Director of Studies for the Institute of Hermetic Studies and an expert on several esoteric organizations, defines a psychic center as a place where the etheric body allows exchange of energy and information between the subtle psychic consciousness and the rational mind; in other words, these psychic centers are chakras.24
Cultivating these four psychic centers is vital. Most individuals are disengaged from their psychic sensitivities and the spiritual world, as the connections between their physical and etheric bodies are too close. It’s as if there is no “breathing room” for Spirit. In sensitive individuals the connection between the two vehicles is looser. It’s not enough, however, to simply open the psychic gifts. A person must want to cultivate the gifts. When someone chooses to develop their psychic sensitivities, their intuitive experiences will be positive and life-giving. When someone feels victimized by their gifts—if they are simply “too open” or hyper-psychic—their experiences of the intuitive will be negative.25 This means that we must actively—and ethically—nurture the gifts in order to encourage enlightenment. Following are a few of the Rosicrucian guidelines for amping up the psychic centers correctly, which you can practice yourself.
Exercise: Living as a Rosicrucian
The health of our energetic centers is dependent on our lifestyle. Consider living for a week as would a Rosicrucian, then reflect upon the change in your energy levels and mental state.
- • Rise with a prayer of gratitude. Inhale fresh air seven times, concentrate on each of the psychic senses before bathing, and then drink a glass of cold water before eating.
- • When retiring, give thanks for the day and ask the cosmic hosts to use your psychic services while you sleep. Embrace thoughts of love for all living beings and invite them into the peace and harmony of the universe.
- • Before each meal pray over your food, palms over the plate, that the food be magnetized with spiritual radiation.
- • Before accepting any blessing from the world, including money, mentally say: “I receive this and pray that it may help me better fulfill my mission in life.”
- • Acknowledge that your path of mysticism is a portal to helping many and that it is helping you to be a trustee of the cosmic.
- • Respect and honor all, help the afflicted, and be of service to the Masters.
- • Maintain your home in a way sacred to you.
- • Avoid all extremes in thought and action, and subdue your passions.
- • Attempt no radical or sudden change in the natural scheme of things. Remember—it is not by revolution but through evolution that all things are accomplished.26
The gifts can be further fostered by using the following guided meditation, a version of one offered by Mark Stavish, who found it among the papers of his late great-uncle, a Rosicrucian.
Exercise: Rosicrucian Meditation for Chakra Healing and Prayer
Use this Rosicrucian meditation whenever you need to cleanse your chakras in preparation for petitioning the Divine through prayer.
- • Breathe into your heart and visualize your fourth chakra bathed within a pink cloud of energy. Hold your breath to the count of six.
- • Continue holding your breath, this time for a count of twelve, raising the pink cloud three inches over your head.
- • Slowly release your breath for eight counts, simultaneously expanding the pink cloud to include your head and upper body.
- • While your lungs are empty of breath, hold for twelve counts and visualize the pink cloud.
- • Breathe, and then repeat the process. This time use the color blue and visualize it in your throat or fifth chakra.
- • Repeat the process again, this time starting the exercise in your pituitary gland or sixth chakra, between the brows and about one-half inch behind your forehead. Visualize a brilliant white light around your head. Now raise it until it is about three inches above your head.
- • Counting to eight, release your breath and allow your sixth chakra to join with the center of your head. As they become one, feel the resulting white light brighten the entire room.
- • When your breath is expelled, count to twelve and notice the sunlike white light expanding, including your upper body above the waist.
- • Relax and sit within this stillness for about three minutes. While doing so, petition the Divine for a need.
- • Before you rise, say to yourself, “Let good befall the world.”27
The Order of the Freemasons
Freemasons, or Masons, belong to the largest fraternal organization in the world, boasting such noteworthy former members as thirteen signers of the Constitution and fourteen presidents of the United States. Famous members have crossed the centuries and more recently included Charles Leadbeater, who wrote a book on the topic called The Hidden Life in Freemasonry,30 and Manly Hall, a twentieth-century expert in Western mystery teachings. Freemasonry embraces chakra medicine ideals as far flung as the planetary meanings of the chakras.
Freemasonry uses ancient architectural symbols and crafts as means to building good men. Its actual origins are hidden in the mists of time, although many scholars believe it was initially a guild of stonemasons who built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages.31 Some believe it originated in the building of Roslyn Chapel near Edinburgh; its construction began in 1440, and it is believed to be an exact replica of Herod’s Temple in Jerusalem, erected around 20 bce.32 Others contend that Freemasonry formally started in 1717 with the aim of making God central during a time of great religious strife.33
Yet others harken the group back to King Solomon, who, as King of Israel around 1000 bce, erected the famous Temple of Jerusalem. This original holy temple was destroyed in 586 bce and then rebuilt for the second time in 516 bce, after which time it was destroyed again. Herod’s Temple, mentioned above, was a replica of the original Temple of Jerusalem built by Herod to gain the faith of the Jewish people, yet destroyed a few decades later. It is said that Herod required the assistance of Hiram, the King of Tyre, whose people were distinguished for their great architectural skills. Many of these masons were also members of a mystic society, the Fraternity of Dionysian Artificers, and they and/or Solomon—possibly versed in Jewish and Arabic secrets of magic—formed the secret society of the Freemasons to guard the ancient mysteries hidden in the temple’s geometry and symbology.34
Another twist is that the Freemasons incorporated symbols of alchemy stemming from the Hermetic tradition of the Egyptian sage Hermes Trismegistus. The Egyptians credited Hermes as the author of the arts and sciences. He was also known as Thoth to the Egyptians, Mercury to the Romans, and Hermes to the Greeks. In the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries, Hermeticism was linked with alchemy; many esoteric orders, especially in England, were introduced to these ancient symbols, which included knowledge of the chakras, Kabbalah, kundalini, and other instruments of enlightenment. These concepts are alive today in Masonic lodges around the world, often included in initiation rituals called “degrees.”35 The three primary degrees represent the body, mind, and soul and the process of self-development in all three areas.36 Many sects, however, present thirty-three degrees, although it is generally understood that the degrees above the primary three are only additional, not higher.37
According to Manly Hall, these teachings actually go as far back as Atlantis and are repeated in all great mystery teachings and religions. Regarding Freemasonry, Hall compared the thirty-three degrees to the thirty-three segments of the spine and the number of years Christ lived, as well as to Jacob’s Ladder, which connects earth and heaven. These are the segments one must ascend in consciousness to reach the top of the mountain. Within the spine are the seven centers related to seven worlds, and it is incumbent upon us to rise through these centers via the path of the serpent or kundalini to attain a higher state. Geometry serves as the skeleton for this process.38
The chakras serve many other vital roles in Freemasonry, some of which Leadbeater explained. Each of the officers in a Masonic lodge represents one of seven master energies, which are also present in the chakras and serve as foci for these higher energies. An officer also represents a specific deva that can actually build a thought form, inviting an outpouring of forces.39 Leadbeater wrote that the first degree often enables the rising of the ida, or feminine channel, so the candidate can best control his passion and emotion. The second degree invites a clearing of the pingala, or masculine energy channel, to allow control of the mind, and in the third degree the kundalini is aroused so it might rise up the sushumna.40
Leadbeater also pointed out that the ceremony of admission into the Masonic Order had three steps: the explanation, the climax, and the actual admission. At the third step the correlated chakra opens and power flows through it.41
The Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection employs many alchemical symbols in the fourth through fourteenth degrees. The chakras play a particularly important part in the twelfth degree, which is centered on the image of a six-pointed star comprising two interlaced triangles. The upright triangle, representing fire, and the upside-down triangle, water, symbolize the unity of opposites. Also featured are a diagram of the North Star and the seven stars of the Big Dipper, which most likely represent the seven chakras, also referenced as the seals of the planets. The chakras are located in the traditional Hindu placements and are also linked to a planet and metal in this way:
|
Chakra |
Metal |
Planet |
|
First |
Lead |
Saturn |
|
Second |
Iron |
Mars |
|
Third |
Tin |
Jupiter |
|
Fourth |
Gold |
Sun |
|
Fifth |
Copper or Brass |
Venus |
|
Sixth |
Silver |
Moon |
|
Seventh |
Quicksilver |
Mercury 42 |
As old as the Masonic magic is, it is kept very much alive through the use of the ancient mysteries, including those of the chakras.
The Early “Easterner”: Johann Georg Gichtel
We owe special tribute to Johann Georg Gichtel, who was a student of Jacob Boehme. Boehme was a mystical philosopher who was affiliated with the Rosicrucian movement. A Bavarian who lived between 1638 and 1710, Gichtel had the gift of clairvoyance and could see the seven chakras, which he called force centers, through visions. Correlating them with the sun and planets, he linked the sun with the heart center and the other planets with other chakras.43
Gichtel’s teachings were adopted by many of the Theosophists, including Charles Leadbeater, who used his visual depictions of the chakras in his own work. Most noteworthy is that Gichtel saw the second chakra located above the spleen, a belief that Leadbeater also held.
Gichtel’s cosmology reflects the teachings of Boehme, who catalogued his philosophies in the work Three Principles and Seven Qualities and Forms.44 Boehme’s fundamental belief was that the basis of reality is the Abyss, which contains everything and nothing, like an acorn that holds the potential for a forest of oak trees. Within is the Will or God, which desires only to express and manifest; hence the creation of the universe. As is depicted in so many cosmologies, the Will serves as the Infinite Father with a mirror of the Infinite Mother; together, these dual figures beget a Son.
Boehme laid out three main principles inherent in manifested reality: (1) the Supreme (one principle), which is a unity of two contradictory elements: (2) Fire, which is a compilation of forces, and (3) Light, which represents law and order. Fire is the dark principle of God, representing the unmanifested potential upon which Light must act. Light is essentially love, which brings order into the darkness. These seemingly opposed properties, like Shakti and Shiva, are the creative power of the universe and add up to the Supreme.
Boehme also lists seven properties through which nature operates, which is comparable to the seven tattvas and the lower sephiroth of the Kabbalah. They are the qualities of contraction, or magnetic attraction between things; friction, an expansive force that creates action; sensibility, which creates circulation of energy; fire, which transforms opposing forces; love or light; vital sound; and supreme bliss.45
Gichtel adapted these seven qualities to the chakras, first adding a fourth principle to Boehme’s three: that of God as Sophia or Wisdom, reflecting the Self to the Self. His goal, however, was to deal with the natural state of darkness man inhabits; he did not comment on the first two chakras but labeled the third chakra as related to anger. In embracing alchemy, he adopted the role of the chakras as vehicles of transmutation: tools for gradually uplifting one’s vibrational level. He continued the alchemical views of the chakras as locks, gates, or furnaces of the soul, each of which enables the focus of the three-plus rays coming from the planets.
According to alchemical principles, each planet sends three different rays outward; these rays correspond to the three phases of transformation. The rays are named Sal, Sulphur, and Mercury, and they correlate with these respective phases: Nigredo, which represents blackness and Sal; Albedo, which relates to whiteness and Sulphur; and Rubedo, which is redness and Mercury. Each chakra is affected by each of these three rays, or phases. For instance, the first chakra is impacted by the moon when in the Nigredo phase; by both the sun and Saturn in the Albedo phase (which often has two parts, a path of contemplation and a path of heart), and by the sun in the Rubedo phase. Metals, rituals, and other processes are used to assist the chakras—and therefore the person—to move from the lowest vibrations to the higher ones. As this occurs, the chakras are attuned to the highest levels of planetary vibrations.
Gichtel was the first to present an all-inclusive explanation of this process, starting from the position that the planets first cause negativity in the soul, in correspondence with Nigredo, or blackness. At this level the chakras are each affiliated with a different vice and receive the following vibrations, all at the lowest levels:
First Chakra: Sal from the moon
Second/Splenic Chakra: Mercury
Third Chakra: Venus
Fourth Chakra: Sal from the sun
Fifth Chakra: Mars
Sixth Chakra: Jupiter
Seventh Chakra: Saturn
An example of the correlated vices is that the heart chakra is related to self-love, the throat is the center of envy and avarice, and the higher centers radiate pride. At this level Gichtel also considered fire as dwelling in the heart, water in the liver, earth in the lungs, and air in the bladder.46 Unfortunately, much research stops here with the vices, failing to understand that Gichtel also believed the planets can work together positively so vices can be transformed into virtues. This change occurs because of a spiral line that connects the planets and the chakra seals, showing a way out of blackness to whiteness. If one sees this process starting at the heart, there is a new sequence of planets called the Path of the Heart. It if begins at the crown, it is called the Path of the Mystic.
The planets and chakras associated with the Path of the Mystic on the Albedo level are as follows:
First Chakra: Sun
Second Chakra: Venus
Third Chakra: Mars
Fourth Chakra: Mercury
Fifth Chakra: Jupiter
Sixth Chakra: Moon
Seventh Chakra: Saturn
The planets and chakras linked to the Path of the Heart on the Albedo level are as follows:
First Chakra: Saturn
Second Chakra: Moon
Third Chakra: Jupiter
Fourth Chakra: Mercury
Fifth Chakra: Mars
Sixth Chakra: Venus
Seventh Chakra: Sun
These two paths are still only intermediary steps toward the highest level, that of Rubedo, which is encoded by alchemists in a seven-pointed star. When this symbol is placed on a circle, it is represented by a Latin phrase—Visita Interiora Terra Rectificando Inuenies Occultum Lapidem, or VITRIOL—which means “Travel to the bottom of the earth, perfect it, and you shall find the hidden stone.” Stones can therefore be considered supportive of altering the chakras and affecting our transformation.
The planets and chakras, as well as the stones, associated with the Rubedo level are as follows:
First Chakra: Sun, Ruby
Second Chakra: Moon, Pearl
Third Chakra: Mars, Yellow Topaz
Fourth Chakra: Mercury, Emerald
Fifth Chakra: Jupiter, Sapphire
Sixth Chakra: Venus, Diamond
Seventh Chakra: Saturn, Amethyst 47
Swedenborgianism: Representing the Spiritual World
Swedish scholar Emanuel Swedenborg (1688–1772) was the founder of a movement that came to be known as Swedenborgianism, a blend of science and mystical traditions. While he didn’t attest to a chakra system, Swedenborg’s theology has been considered an important part of Western mysticism, and therefore a steppingstone inviting Western acceptance of the chakras.
According to Swedenborg, all things in the natural world relate to specifics in the spiritual world and are also sustained by the spiritual world. Made in the image of the greatest (God), we are each a “Grand Man,” with different parts of heaven relating to different parts of the body. Even after death, asserted Swedenborg, we do not turn into vapor; rather, there is a spiritual body that can communicate with other spiritual bodies.48
Fundamental Swedenborg assertions, and their comparisons with some of the chakra-related principles we’ve been learning, include the following:
- • The existence of seen and unseen forces that join to unfold God’s plan. Here we find the basic assumption of Vedic and other spiritualities and the existence of subtle (unseen) and physical (seen) energies.
- • According to Swedenborg’s philosophy of the organism, there is a vital force that “tremulates,” or moves in small vibrations, between the soul and the body. This belief is similar to that of prana, and, as we saw in Part 5, is one way to explain the microcurrents that flow in the body creating health or disease; see chapter 22.
- • There is an infinite something that manifests as a single mathematical point, which contains the latent energy of the universe. Herein is the idea of bindu, which was most thoroughly explored in chapter 22.
- • This latent energy emanates in a circular or spiral fashion and creates four aspects of the cosmos. Chakra and other subtle energies move in a circular fashion, as we discussed in chapter 1 and have since further explored.
- • These four constituents are gravitation, magnetism, ether, and air. While Swedenborg’s labels of the four forces in the universe differ from spiritual protocol, his ideas are comparable to those of the elements. His theory of gravity as a fundamental energy in the universe is mirrored in the quantum theory featured in chapter 19, which suggests an important relationship between gravity, chakra functions, and zero-point energy. Swedenborg also postulated that ideas are vibrations in the soul and that the human soul is magnetic. Our scientific discussion of how beliefs work and the link between magnetic fields and psychic phenomenon, both featured in chapter 20 in discussions on biofields and auric fields, underscore Swedenborg’s statements.49
As the gods revealed truth to the rishis of the Vedic tradition, so did Swedenborg serve as a channel for higher forces—in his case, angels. Sprinkled through his texts are narratives about his conversations with the angels, sometimes in dreams and often when meditating, especially when meditating on a single point. His spiritual journey had begun as a child when he noticed, during morning and evening prayers, that by slowing and controlling his breathing, he could gain inner awareness.50 Here we find the basic yoga principle of using pranayama, or controlled breathing, to achieve higher awareness.
Swedenborg’s intense visions started in 1744 at the age of fifty-six, and he spent his remaining twenty-eight years exploring the spirit world.51 In one of his works, Apocalypse Revealed, he related that one particularly important part of the body is the forehead, which signifies the “good of love.”52 “Good” love is distinguished from “evil love,” and it is the forehead that expresses or reveals one’s motivation. He asserted that the Lord looks at angels in their foreheads, who, in turn, look at God through their eyes.53 It is interesting to note that Swedenborg is pointing out the area of the sixth and seventh chakras—which govern vision and spirituality, respectively.
In the same book Swedenborg shares a vision about seven stars and seven golden candlesticks held by the Lord. These images are heavily featured in the Book of Revelation in the Christian New Testament and are, according to Manly Hall, representative of the seven chakras. In chapter 27, in the section “Christian Chakras,” we discovered a Christian system linking images from Revelation to chakras, much as did Swedenborg. In chapter 32 we find Edgar Cayce doing the same.54 Overall, many of Swedenborg’s philosophies will be interwoven through the next few centuries with occult, alchemical, yogic, and other disciplines.
Mesmerism: Of Hypnotherapy and Animal Magnetism
Nearly every book about the chakras features Franz Anton Mesmer (1734–1815), a German physician who left us the word mesmerism and a movement of the same name. While Mesmer did not name the chakras, his ideas continued a tradition of invoking hypnotic or trance states that is as old as the human race and one usually incorporated in chakra-based practices.
Shamans, the priest-healers of a community, have always entered a trance state in order to mediate between heaven and earth. Mesmer coined the phrase “animal magnetism” to describe a universal force that is easiest to access when we are in a trance state. According to Mesmer, this is the substance that enables us to reach toward a higher reality, access the inner abilities of the mind, and subordinate matter to spirit. As well, it comprises the unseen forces that can restore harmony to an ill body.
Mesmer employed what we would call hypnotic techniques, initially using magnets, to bring about changes in his patients’ health. He would also pass his hands over a patient’s body, using his own animal magnetism as an energetic force for change.55 Many modern esotericists theorize that Mesmer’s animal magnetism was comparable to prana and that Mesmer was shifting prana so as to clear the chakras.56
Homeopathy: Like Cures Like
Homeopathy was a medical movement that resulted in a nontraditional approach to health care that currently embraces the use of the chakras for healing. It was founded by Samuel Hahnemann (1755–1843), who observed that disease is an imbalance in our life force, which itself is an extension of a universal spirit called dynamis. Because disease is the body’s way of asking for restoration of balance, its symptoms should be supported. If the body “hears” the message, nature will take its course. Homeopathic remedies are therefore made of the vibration of the diseases or maladies themselves. Many homeopathic methods now employ the chakras for diagnosis and treatment.57
The Od: Nature’s Unceasing Natural Force
Conceived by Baron Karl von Reichenbach (1788–1869), plants, animals, and humans are all affected by a cosmic influence called Od, Odylic, or the Odic force. The Odic force produces a field that is energetic, like a wave, and particulate, like a fluid. According to von Reichenbach, we can achieve health by adjusting the polarities of this force so they are balanced. (It is interesting that von Reichenbach observed that the left side of the body is negative and the right is positive. As we discovered in chapter 25, this is an established fact in Taoism and TCM.)58
This Odic force is still referenced among many yogic communities, and in Jain practices it is contrasted with the Actinic force. The Odic force emanates from our physical body and merges with the magnetism of other people. Actinic force is considered a purer energy, representing the central source of life. Jain meditators are encouraged to learn how to access both forces through the chakras.59
The Golden Dawn
Another order that emerged from the Hermetic tradition is the Golden Dawn. It originated in the late nineteenth century, its founders were involved in Freemasonry or Rosicrucianism, and it still exists today.
The Golden Dawn combines theurgy, Neoplatonism (discussed in “The Greek Shoulders Upon Which We Stand” section in chapter 27), Egyptian philosophy, tarot, alchemy, and more. It influenced celebrities, including Irish writer William Butler Yeats and English author Aleister Crowley, and quickly became one of the most important occult influences in the West.60
One particular Golden Dawn order, the Thelemic Order of the Golden Dawn, offers a path of self-initiation through seven stages or grades. These seven grades are based on the seven yogic chakras, seven planets of astrology, and seven metals of alchemy. A blend of Kundalini yoga, mystical alchemy, and Kabbalistic ideas, it represents just the blend of East and West we’ve been discussing.61
Manly Hall Integrates Chakras Across Time
According to Manly Hall, an expert in Western mysteries, all the great teachings of the past can be integrated. (Hall was born in 1901 and wrote until his death in 1990; we discuss him in this section because he wrote about the ancient thoughts and esoteric orders featured in this chapter.) According to Hall, every great teaching tells the same “once upon a time…” story, and the chakras play a central role. My own synthesis of the points he made in his book The Occult Anatomy of Man is as follows.62
Hall points out that all priests of the ancient world recognized that the functions of nature and consciousness are imprinted in the human body. We could therefore study the human body to interpret the cosmos, and vice versa. According to the Mystery Schools, the world is divided into three parts, as is the human body. On top of the world are the heavens, the dwelling of God, and at the bottom is hell, in which dwell the forces of evil. In between, according to the Scandinavians, is Midgard, or the middle garden, connecting to the heavens via a rainbow bridge and the lower world through volcanic activity. In the middle lies Nature. Comparably, the worldly heavens are found in the skull, which passes manna down the spine just as God did for the Children of Israel in the desert. The skull is equivalent to the lotus found in Hindu mystical systems and the “upper room” discussed by Jesus in the Gospel of John, in which we learn of higher truths. Its twists and turns are also comparable to the spans and arches of the holiest temples in the world, which were studied by individuals including the Freemasons. Here, too, lies the imprint of every organ in the body and two embryonic human forms, the yin and the yang, the magnetic and the electrical. King within is the pineal gland, the all-seeing eye that, until the time of Lemuria, an ancient era, enabled the sense of the spiritual world. It is now incumbent on us to turn this organ back on and so gain insight into the true reality.
Linking the higher and lower worlds of the body is the spine, the serpent of kundalini fame. The three canals of the spinal column—the ida, pingala, and sushumna—form a caduceus that points the way upward from the lower regions of hell in the body, the reproductive system. Along the spine are seven chakras or centers that mirror seven centers of consciousness in the brain and seven spirits that stand before the Throne of God, clothed as planets.
This lower world is actually formed from the Logos or God, who descended along the spine into the bottom echelons of the body. He left his fire at the base, which must be returned to the brain to restore us to a higher state.
One of the lower centers, the solar plexus, is said to be a particularly dangerous one, for it is here that we receive the thoughts of outside groups. We must be careful when opening ourselves to these outside forces. Likewise, we must embrace the beauty of each of the lower centers. For instance, the womb, the second chakra, enables us to pass through each of the developmental stages of life while in utero, appearing as reptile, fish, and less-developed mammals and finally as a full human, revealing our inner nature and evolutionary path. Of course, we share very ancient genes, which are expressing in the womb.63 Hence we are born by degrees, not all at once.
And finally, we must concentrate on the heart, which lies in the center of the spine, and the rainbow bridge of the chakras. Considered the center of love, the heart is acknowledged as the ultimate teacher and guide.
As does the Trinity, asserts Hall, so do we manifest into a balanced state. Moving from the top downward, each of us is the Father that manifests through our thoughts, the Son created through our emotions, and the Holy Spirit that emanates through our actions. And in the center is God.
Spiritism: Communicating with the Dead
The modern Spiritism movement officially began with the 1857 publication of The Spirits’ Book by French educator Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail, under the pen name Allan Kardec. It is a summation of responses to questions asked of spiritual or otherworldly beings and outlines matters about the spiritual world, the existence of God, and the relationship between spirits and the material world.
Kardec’s book, an instant success in Europe, testified to the already-present interest in séances and spiritual matters. The subsequent boost in Spiritism influenced people including Franz Mesmer and several founders of Theosophy.64
Spiritism was essentially the study of spirits, or the deceased, and their relationship with the physical world. The basic belief is that humans are immortal spirits that only briefly dwell in a body, and then for the purpose of evolving morally. Connecting with out-of-body spirits through a medium could potentially benefit the living and the deceased. (Many Spiritists also postulated the existence of nonhuman spirits such as angels and devils.) There were many methods for connecting with the other side. Included was the achievement of a trance state using meditation and breathing techniques, and talking boards such as Ouija boards. As time went on, mediums also employed aura reading, the use of gemstones, and other practices we’d now call “energetic.”
You have met a sampling of prominent “modern” esoteric professionals and orders in this chapter, starting with Paracelsus, a sixteenth-century mystic and a bridge between Eastern and Western mysticism. His understanding of subtle energies and structures ushered us into the modern world, where Eastern principles and Western knowledge integrated, forming the basis for what we know about chakra medicine today.
Our tour of relatively modern Western times started with a review of esoteric orders, including the Rosicrusians, Golden Dawn, and the Freemasons, all of which perceive the chakras as stepladders toward higher consciousness. We explored other “isms,” such as Odinism, Mesmerism, and Spiritism, proving the point made at the beginning of this chapter: a single mind can birth a unified system that includes the chakras.
Next, in chapter 31, we will look in great depth at a single esoteric movement. Contributing their beliefs, musings, and flashes of brilliant insight, the principal personalities of Theosophy contributed significantly to the field.