32

Chakras Come of Age in the West

Deep in their roots,
all flowers keep the light.

Theodore Roethke

The Theosophists gathered chakra stars from around the world and tied them into a bouquet that made sense to Western seekers. Westerners could hold the resulting bundle and understand and relate to it. There wasn’t only one type of star in the collective wisdom. There were white dwarfs and red giants, neutrons and the all-consuming black holes. Every type of star was included, differences grafted into a single stem called Theosophy.

Thanks to the pioneers of Theosophy, it became okay to entertain new thoughts and add additional colors and flavors—perspectives—to the mix. Chakraology grew up, as does the maturing person who figures out that a single thought, however beautiful and complex it might be, is not a complete philosophy. Chakra medicine became a spirituality and a science, a path toward health as well as spiritual transformation. The light of each vital chakra-related idea and approach shone forth to be considered and expanded upon by others.

In this chapter I’ll showcase the individuals and movements that helped bring chakra medicine of age in which individuals are presented choices to meet their particular needs. By the early 1900s we had been exposed to and could believe a number of different ideas about the world, and therefore ourselves and the chakras. Great minds grasped truths of the past and mixed them inventively with the new, including Sir Arthur Avalon, Rudolf Steiner, Edgar Cayce, Carl Jung, and others. In this chapter we’ll look at their unique contributions to chakra knowledge, chakras placed like flowers within great philosophical beds.

Then we move forward into the later twentieth century and into yet another movement: the New Age, itself a collection of other movements such as New Thought. Now our starry field of chakra medicine takes the form of endless comets streaming across the sky—various systems, ideas, and approaches that have initiated chakras into almost every crack of the Western world, from yoga classes to the boardroom. By reading through the more recent contributions, you’ll come to find that if anything characterizes the modern chakra medicine community, it is a sense of inclusiveness. Now the light shines nearly everywhere.

Let’s begin the last leg of our exploration of modern Western thought with Sir Arthur Avalon, who, you may recall, you have met before.

The Later “Easterner”: Sir Arthur Avalon

Arthur Avalon is the pen name for Sir John George Woodroffe, whose book The Serpent Power, published in 1919 in the West, shared the explosive secrets of tantric and shakti yoga from the East. Avalon’s knowledge is a powerful base for the chakra explorations featured in part 2. In this section I want to highlight only his most important chakra theories.

To Avalon, the chakras are points of consciousness, doorways that enable us to link to Spirit. Ancient tantric texts establish that the sun, often along with other celestial objects, receives prana for the solar system directly from the Absolute. This is called tattvic matter. There are five distinct vibrations of tattvic matter, with ancient tantric texts suggesting that the sun emanates 360 tattvic rays that interact with the rest of the celestial objects. (The quantum physicist might call this solar energy “quantum matter.”)

Avalon described these 360 tattvic rays as strings linking to the etheric body of humans through the chakra system. These strings are categorized into three groups. That emanating from the earth or fire is embedded in the first and second chakras, the sun’s tattvic rays are found in the third and fourth chakras, and the moon’s rays are found in the fifth and sixth chakras. These rays help the chakras slow down the prana, or cosmic energy, in the chakras to allow karma, manifested energy patterns, to formulate. The karma, a form of density, outlines the lessons that the soul needs to self-express. These tattvic rays are also linked to different devas, a race of beings that work within the laws of karma to enable correct living.1

Woodroffe explaines that the universe is nothing more than an active Kundalini Shakti rising through the nadis, activating the chakras to meet her mate, Shiva, in the crown chakra. The initiate’s activities or practices are called sadhana, which eventually produces the siddhi (spiritual gifts) found inside the chakras.2 The chakras are six in number, according to Woodroffe, as the crown is not technically considered a chakra but rather a summation of the energetic system.

Woodroffe’s system, which relates the fourth Hindu chakra to two Western chakras, is as follows:

Chakra Name	Western Chakra	Location
Muladhara	Coccygeal/Root	Coccyx
Svadhisthana	Sacral	Genitals
Manipura	Navel	Beneath Navel
Anahata	Solar Plexus/Heart	Center of Chest
Vishuddha	Throat	Neck
Ajña	Third Eye	Brow
Sahasrara	Crown	Crown 3

Education and Beyond: Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner, an Austrian philosopher and esotericist who lived from 1861 to 1925, developed a complex cosmological system that incorporates chakras. Living according to his own maxim—that there are no limits to human knowledge—Steiner was a social reformer and an architect who was involved in other areas as various as biodynamic agriculture, drama, and movement arts. Steiner is perhaps best known as the originator of anthroposophy, a humanistic spiritual philosophy that branched into education and medicine and lives on today in the form of the Waldorf School.4 Understanding Steiner’s views on chakras, which align with the seven-chakra Hindu system, involves comprehending his broader beliefs, including those he held about the existence of evil, the evolution of this planet, and the presence of dark forces, as well as his interpretation of layers of reality such as the etheric and astral bodies. But in a nutshell, Steiner believed that our chakras are an expression of a higher truth. As he wrote, “Manifestations of life are always sevenfold.”5

Fundamental to Steiner’s chakra philosophy is that evil fulfills a specific task: to promote the ascent of humankind. The existence of evil invites a thorough examination of important issues and compels us to turn away from the world of matter and focus on the world of spirit. Put another way, evil exists to educate us about freedom from material realms.6 In this we find echoes of many Hindu traditions, which testify that we climb the chakra ladder to attain the reward of moksha, or liberation.

Steiner also proposed a complex evolution of beings and souls, differentiating four developmental eras over which human forms and qualities were created. (He also proposed three future eras, which we’ve yet to get to. During the final era we will reverse the previous stages.) Within each era before our current one were beings that were charged with assisting us in our development. Each era, which Steiner labeled with the term “old,” was also managed by an energy body, and since we are concerned with energetic systems as well as chakras, I include some of these in our discussions of Steiner’s theories. Here is the resulting breakdown of the four eras we have experienced so far:

Era	Type of Body	Vital Life Form	Active Hierarchy
Old Saturn	Physical	Mineral	Archai
Old Sun	Etheric	Plant	Archangels
Old Moon	Astral	Animal	Angels
Earth	Ego	Spirit	Humankind

Many of the beings in the active hierarchies of the first three eras actually became humanlike during their reign. For instance, during the Old Saturn period, the archai, a group of beings that govern epochs, projected their spirits into human form, although they remained in the spiritual realms while doing so. The beings assisting us during the Old Sun era were the archangels, who guide races or various ethnic groups, and those present during the Old Moon were angels, who guide individuals. While these beings were more present during their respective eras, some continue to assist the human race as it attempts to develop itself spiritually today. During these eras, the subtle bodies continued to evolve. Basically, new subtle systems were added to the fundamental human form. During the Old Saturn era, humans were mainly physical. The Old Sun age saw the addition of etheric bodies, and Old Moon, the astral bodies. It is said that more recently, we’ve donned the body of ego.

According to Steiner, these subtle bodies appeared different from what we might imagine. For instance, during Old Saturn, matter was gaseous. During Old Moon, it was fluid, like liquid. We’ve slowly become more solid over time.

As humans developed, a similar evolution occurred with other life forms. During Old Saturn, minerals had a physical body. The minerals that exist today could therefore tell us about Old Saturn. During the next era, plants, which host both a physical and etheric body, were predominant, and so on. Humans are considered to be below the archai and angelic hierarchies and above the three natural kingdoms in terms of development.

Not content with tracing the roots of earthly evolution, Steiner also described the evolutionary stages of the entire physical universe, which are different from the eras I just described. During the Polarian stage, the cosmos was made of “differentiated heat,” which included the planets, moon, and sun, all interconnected in one body. During the Hyperborean stage, matter condensed and gave rise to air. Some of the planetary bodies, including Earth, differentiated during this time. During the Lemurian age, the land and seas became more distinct, although matter was still flexible—think toffee. The Atlantean age was distinguished by solid form, and the post-Atlantean is our current age.

Beings who “fall behind” or choose evil during their stage become fallen beings, standing in opposition to the development of their own kind and other beings. Each fallen being attempts to interfere through a different energetic body. For instance, the fallen beings from Saturn are called the Asuric; they attempt to injure humankind’s physical bodies. The Athrimanic fell during the Sun era and disable through the etheric bodies, while the Luciferic, the fallen ones from the Moon period, tempt our astral bodies.7

Steiner’s Theory of Our Threefold Nature

To understand the human essence from Steiner’s point of view, we must start with the simple division of the human as having a body, soul, and spirit. Through the body we experience the external world; through the soul—which has many subdivisions that I will describe further—we learn about our personalities; and through our spirit we invite the world to reveal its secrets.

According to Steiner, the soul is quite complicated. We have a soul body, which serves as the boundary for the soul just as the skin contains our body. Then there is the sentient soul, which processes perceptions from the physical world, and the intellectual or mind soul, which processes ideas and thoughts received from the spiritual realm, as well as perceptions arising from the physical organs. The consciousness soul links with the Divine. The spirit self is the part of us that exists in the spirit realm, and the life spirit is the vehicle for the divine forces that fuel us. Finally, the spirit body is our container in the spiritual world. To simplify—or further complicate—matters, our astral body is basically a combination of the soul body and the sentient soul.

A succinct categorization of the various aspects of a human being, from base to spiritual, includes the following:

1. Physical body—material structure

2. Etheric body—life processes

3. Astral body—bears consciousness

4. Ego—self-awareness

5. Spirit self—intuition and self

6. Life spirit—enduring spirit-soul content

7. Spirit body—fully individuated spirit

The body relates to 1 through 3; the soul operates in 3 and 4; and the spirit is expressed in 5 through 7.

To further explain these states, we live and function within the ego, which, interestingly, was implanted in us by the spirits that direct our development, and which connects us to the immediate environment. The ego represents the faculty of self-awareness that is available to humanity and is experienced through three unconscious elements: consciousness, life, and physicality. We have little awareness of the greater world until the ego unfolds within us and through the other basic bodies, which are legacies of an earlier evolution.8

The physical body, which we share in common with minerals, is subject to natural laws and is biochemical in nature. There are three functional areas in the physical body, each of which supports a psychological activity, therefore inviting us to experience our consciousness (soul). The nerves relate to thinking and perception; the rhythmic system, including breathing and circulation, supports feeling; and the metabolic system, including the diaphragms and limbs, relates to will.

Our etheric body, held in common with the plant world, is united with the physical body but separates at death. It is also called the life body or glandular body and helps us experience our intellectual soul. This body can only be seen through the “eyes of the spirit,” or the part of us that can see as might God or the Spirit. The etheric body is a vital aspect of our human existence, for it molds the physical body. During life it continually combats illnesses and other destructive forces, and it also links us with “likekind,” our community of fellow humans.

If you want to develop individually, you must cultivate the astral body, which you hold in common with the animal kingdom and which determines individuality. It is also called the feeling or nerve body. It carries our joys, pain, instincts, impulses, passions, ideas, and desires; causes the same in the physical body; and is technically considered a combination of our soul body and our sentient soul.9

Steiner and the Chakras

Now that you have had a quick orientation to Steiner’s highly intricate views of human evolution and the complex interplay of cosmic forces and states of being that underlie it, it becomes possible to explore his thoughts about chakras. To Steiner, the chakras are the sense organs of the soul: vehicles for unlocking deeper truths. They therefore play a critical role in the choice between good and evil, and ultimately, they are key vehicles for raising our consciousness and escaping the clutches of the Kali Yuga, the age of humankind we now occupy.10 It is generally agreed that this Yuga ends in 2025.

Steiner based his chakra knowledge on an unusual form of yoga called Gayatri-Sadhana, the goal of which is to receive an organism of the soul that looks like a luminous cloud discernable in the midst of the physical body. A clairvoyant can observe within this astral body our impulses, desires, passions, and ideas, each appearing as a different color or shape. For instance, the thoughts of individuals with one-sided views present as sharp-edged shapes, while the thoughts of less rigid people would appear fluid.

In an undeveloped person, the chakras would be dark in color and inert. The more developed a person becomes, the brighter and more luminous the chakras’ colors are and the more movement occurs in them.

Unlike professionals on the yoga path, Steiner described the chakras from the top to the bottom of the body because he believed this was the path we need to follow today. We can no longer be dependent on our sense perceptions. Rather, our starting point should be in the top of the head. He believed that the crown chakra, which will be described further in this section as per Steiner’s beliefs, linked with a sort of supersensible or clairvoyant sphere, one that adds logic and practicality to our approach to life. By desending into the lower chakras, we become more intelligent about the senses represented in the lower body and can actually awaken new chakras.11

Like other chakra experts, Steiner affiliated the chakras with lotuses, although he also suggested that only half the petals of a lotus were actually open. While they had been open during previous stages of evolution, they have closed because of our “de-evolution.” When we work on the issues related to the accessible half of the petals, the remaining petals will open.

Steiner also differs from other metaphysicians in describing an eight-petalled lotus in the heart area in addition to most of the other typically placed chakras—a newly emerging central etheric organ. This energy body will help us overcome our dependence on thinking and the brain and open up our paranormal senses. You will notice that the actual heart chakra is still described with twelve petals. Eventually, however, the eight-petalled etheric chakra will take over the functioning of the traditional heart chakra. I find it interesting that his eight-petalled chakra is quite similar to the hrit chakra described in Part 3, chapter 7. Also called the celestial wishing tree, this chakra enables Spirit to grant wishes to those who deeply desire goodness.

In Steiner’s best-known descriptions of the chakras, there are only six in addition to the eight-petalled chakra. In certain works, Steiner says that the etheric heart chakra first develops over our head and is then enclosed within the crown chakra, which is itself first situated in the forehead chakra. At some point, this etheric heart chakra becomes a sort of inverted crown chakra.12 Following is the most bare-bones description of Steiner’s system, in which the chakras are described in relationship to where they are located and the number of petals they contain.

• • Between the eyes, two petals. This third eye chakra helps us bring forth pure, conscious thinking. It enables logic and the ability to perceive abstract thoughts. Developing this chakra involves focusing on higher and more logical as well as spiritually accurate thoughts.
• • Larynx, sixteen petals. The throat chakra invites clairvoyant perceptions and observations of the true laws of natural phenomena, as well as the mentality and character of other souls.
• • Heart, twelve petals. The heart chakra awakens us to the esoteric path of schooling. It permits clairvoyant knowledge about the sentiments of others and observations of the deeper powers in animals and plants. As well, this chakra encourages us to go beyond logic and learn how to think with the heart.
• • Navel (pit of stomach), ten petals. The navel chakra enables insight into the abilities and talents of other souls. It also allows us to perceive the true roles of animals, plants, stones, metals, and more, and it endows us with the ability to comprehend and sympathize with other astral entities.
• • Abdomen, six petals. Also called the sex chakra, this chakra enables mastery of the entire personality and unification between the bodily functions and passions of the soul. When it is evolved, the six-petalled lotus invites communication with beings native to higher worlds, if they are manifested in the astral or soul world.
• • Sexual or perineum region, four petals. This root chakra contains the powers of the moon and can be depicted by the sign of the cross or swastika. It enables the use of moon forces to direct the activity of elemental beings in nature.13

Exercise: Steiner’s Advice for the Fifth Chakra

Rudolf Steiner developed exercises for many of the chakras. These were designed to empower us to access the attributes that will complete a chakra expansion. By focusing on the opened petals, which make up half of the petals in a chakra, we could encourage the others to blossom.

To offer an example, according to Steiner, unlocking the sixteen petals of the larynx chakra can be accomplished through eight steps. To put them into play, breathe into your fifth chakra and visualize sixteen lotus petals. Think of two petals while focusing on a question. Wait until you get an intuitive sense of guidance or advice, then decide if you can follow it. Focus on two more petals, ask a question, pause, and wait for insight. Continue this process eight times, or until you are through the petals. You can continually ask these questions of yourself—and your fifth chakra—to open to higher wisdom, even after you finish this exercise.

• • Focus on how you receive ideas. Perceive each idea as having significance.
• • Control your resolutions. Select nothing that is meaningless.
• • Speak only what is sensible and purposeful.
• • Select your actions with care.
• • Live a harmonious daily life.
• • Fulfill obligations, conducting yourself with self-knowledge.
• • Learn as much from life as possible.
• • Self-reflect.14

The Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) and the Sleeping Prophet

The Association for Research and Enlightment was founded in 1931 to explore spirituality, holistic health, and mysticism. It was based on the work of Edgar Cayce (1877–1945), the most famous psychic known today.

For forty-three years this devoted Sunday school teacher, father, and “normal man” channeled information uncovering everything from the grand—the secrets of the universe—to the humble: ways to heal warts. His works are vast, totalling more than three hundred titles, and include topics such as meditation, auras, soul mates, and chakras. Cayce is known as “the sleeping prophet” because he entered a trance state akin to sleep to bring through information from his source.15

Cayce believed that the seven chakras are the spirits of God sent to earth. They operate as antennas of a sort, receiving waves of harmonics that our senses pick up. In spirit form, however, they are vehicles for the will of the greater spirit.16 One of Cayce’s contributions to the chakra field was his interpretation of chakras as related to the churches described in Revelation, a concept I mentioned in the section about Swedenborgianism. Cayce linked the churches to the Lord’s Prayer, even though they are not mentioned in it. For Cayce, each of these churches serves as a sort of waystation in the prayer, a clue to help us align our lives with the principles in the prayer. He also linked each chakra to a phrase from the Lord’s Prayer.

Essentially, Cayce drew on the Bible to explain the seven Hindu chakras through Western eyes. Because of this, he also associated the chakras with the classical components, from color to sound and even planets, which he believed were energetically related to specific chakras and could also serve as homes in between lifetimes. He also thought that our bodies were arranged in the same fashion as the universe; thus, what is in the heavens mirrors what is found on the earth.17

I am most fascinated by his depiction of the chakras as related to his interpretation of the book of Revelation, a topic covered in numerous sources including John Van Auken’s book based on Cayce’s teachings, Edgar Cayce on the Revelation.18 Cayce believed that this Western work taught concepts present in Eastern traditions, specifically those concerning spirituality and the chakras. He believed that we develop chakra by chakra, with the Holy Spirit rising through each one.

Cayce taught orally, and his thoughts were recorded as people wrote them down, so there are some inconsistencies. In summarizing the following characteristics of the chakras, I have created the most complete rendering of his work that I can.

Chakra: First

Location: Root, base of spine

Endocrine Gland: Ovaries and testes; pelvic plexus (L4)

Descriptors

Color: Red

Element: Earth

Note: Do

Lord’s Prayer Phrase: “Give us this day our daily bread”

Planet: Saturn, which spiritualizes our physical self

Church: Church of Ephesus, which means “daily bread”

Purpose: Survival. This material chakra holds a promise: by owning our essential identity and wholeness, we can eat again of the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.

Chakra: Second

Location: Navel, hypogastric or pelvic plexus (L4)

Endocrine Gland: Leydig cells; these are interstitial cells near the testes in men. While women don’t have them, the pituitary gland of both genders secretes a luteinizing hormone that creates male hormones, including testosterone.

Descriptors

Color: Orange

Element: Water

Note: Re

Lord’s Prayer Phrase: “Lead us not into temptation”

Planet: Neptune, accentuating the mystical forces in our lives

Church: Church of Smyrna, which means “not into temptation”

Purpose: Male/female balance. Along with the sixth chakra, the second chakra serves as a seat of the soul and relates to the subconscious mind. The goal in regard to this chakra is to release fear.

Chakra: Third

Location: Solar plexus, epigastric plexus (T9)

Endocrine Gland: Adrenal glands

Descriptors

Color: Yellow

Element: Fire

Note: Mi

Lord’s Prayer Phrase: “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”

Planet: Mars, accentuating anger and madness, calling for subduing the passions

Church: Church of Pergamos, which means “our debts”

Purpose: Self-preservation. Through this center we desire personal and physical gratification but must learn instead to focus on the wisdom of God. If we can subdue our base urges and anger, we can open to grace and goodness and the use of constructive rather than destructive power.

Chakra: Fourth

Location: Heart, cardiac plexus (T4)

Endocrine Gland: Thymus

Descriptors

Color: Green

Element: Air

Note: Fa

Lord’s Prayer Phrase: “In earth as it is in heaven” (“earth” refers to the lower four chakras, “heaven” to the upper three chakras)

Planet: Venus, which bestows love and beauty

Church: Church of Thyratira, which means “from evil”

Purpose: Self-gratification. This center enables us to operate with love in every way—the ideal love that leads to soul growth.

Chakra: Fifth

Location: Throat

Endocrine Gland: Thyroid, pharyngeal or cervical plexus (C3)

Descriptors

Color: Gray or blue

Element: Ether

Note: So

Lord’s Prayer Phrase: “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done”

Planet: Uranus, which accentuates extremes (such as zeal), likes and dislikes, and interest in the occult

Church: Church of Sardis, which means “will”

Purpose: Divine will over self will. The channel of speech that should be expressed in concert with God’s will, reflecting that we can choose to use our words to help or harm.

Chakra: Sixth

Location: Pineal

Endocrine Gland: Pineal, brain region

Descriptors:

Color: Indigo or purple

Element: Cloud, a vibration of water

Note: La

Lord’s Prayer Phrase: “Hallowed be thy name”

Planet: Mercury, activating logic, not sentimentality

Church: Church of Philadelphia, which means “name”

Purpose: Spiritual perfection. This chakra reflects all that is holy and true, and enables us to fully experience the Holy Spirit.

Chakra: Seventh

Location: Forehead

Endocrine Gland: Pituitary, brain region

Descriptors

Color: Violet

Element: None

Note: Ti

Lord’s Prayer Phrases: “Our Father which art in heaven” and “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” (along with fifth and sixth chakras)

Planet: Jupiter, which provides strength

Church: Church of Laodicea, which means “heaven”

Purpose: Oneness. The third eye (according to Cayce), this chakra upholds our spiritual self, which can illuminate the body and mind.

After we have awakened all seven centers, the body rises to a new level of vibration. Twenty-four cranial nerves activate in the brain, enabling our higher self to tame our “beastly” urges and open seals on the body’s chakras, leading to additional cleansing. My views on chakra seals are partially based on Cayce’s work and are covered in chapter 34.19

Exercise: Meditating the Cayce Way

Edgar Cayce used a three-stage meditation technique for its calming effect when doing readings and taught others to do the same. I have simplified his process and encourage you to use it when you focus on your own chakra work.

Start by sitting or lying down and access your imaginative forces—your abilities to sense, see, feel, and know intuitively. To “sense” is to trust your body’s sensations, measured as touch, taste, smell, or other awarenesses. To “see” involves psychically perceiving visions. To “feel” is to trust your emotions. To “know” is to engage your spirit or invisible spirits and believe in the inspirational. Use these communications in each of following stages, taking as much time as you need to be fully invested in each step.

Stage One: Remove your earthly or egotistic personality from your character. Set these aspects of yourself in front of you. You can pick them up later.

Stage Two: Allow your subconscious mind and soul to start running your physical body. You aren’t moving or using your five senses; you are simply allowing your soul to arise. You might feel expansive or more buoyant during this stage.

Stage Three: Sense the presence of Spirit and connect with it. You will now experience a higher state of consciousness and awareness of the infinite.

Now ask Spirit to help clear any chakras or illuminate answers to any questions you have.

Reverse these stages when you feel complete, returning your personality to yourself as a last step, and continue with your day.

The “Fourth Way”: The Subtle Anatomy Opens a New Path

George Gurdjieff (c. 1872–1949) was an Armenian mystic who blended several aspects of mysticism, from Theosophy to Rosicrucianism to Hermeticism, parting from tradition to create what he called the Fourth Way. His method, sometimes termed the Work, is based on the belief that history has presented us with three ways to attain higher consciousness: body, mind, and emotions. The Work, however, is not a fixed or permanent path. It has no form and is controlled by its own laws. Until we access this path—mainly through addressing our place in the universe, focusing on inner development and transcending the body to a higher order—we live as if in a waking dream.20

Gurdjieff was an adherent of the subtle anatomy, slightly altering Hindu, Buddhist, and tantric lore to create his own take on four energy bodies: the physical, natural, spiritual, and divine. He also reduced the five koshas to three additional subtle bodies: the physical, psychic, and causal. He didn’t perceive these higher bodies in average human beings; they had to be cultivated. Neither did he believe that the soul was always immortal.21

Psychology Opens Its Doors: Carl Jung

Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) was a Swiss psychotherapist and psychiatrist who founded analytical psychology. His astonishing contributions include developing the concepts of introverted and extroverted personality types, the collective unconscious—a part of the unconscious mind that incorporates memories, instincts, and experiences common to all people—and archetypes, inherited unconscious ideas usually presented as thought patterns or as images. Jung’s work has transformed psychology as well as religion, literature, and the esoteric fields. He was well known for his explorations of Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, and sociology, in addition to the occult, and he studied Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Gnosticism, Hermetics, and shamanism.22

Jung has been recognized as one of the first psychologists to relate yoga practices to psychology. Pulling psychological themes from the traditional yogic texts, his understandings include chakras. To Jung, the chakras were a means to achieving his ultimate philosophy: that we are in an ongoing process of realization through individuation. We expand our experiences in our dream world and everyday lives to embrace the personal and universal realms of consciousness—a philosophy that has been compared to tantrism. His embrace of the chakras, each of which he considered a mini universe, was coupled with his understanding of kundalini, the energy that activates the chakras.23

Fundamental to understanding Jung’s fascination with the chakras is his belief that the unconscious—which many believed was merely subjective—is empirically real. To comprehend the unconscious, Jung determined that people needed to view their own individuality free of the opinions of society.

Within this context, Jung considered the chakras as symbols that could enable the development of individuality and the awareness of the unconscious.24 As for kundalini, he compared it to the individual’s descent into the unconscious.25 Much of the following analysis is based on a PhD dissertation by Gary Seeman of the Pacific Graduate Institute based on a seminar series Jung presented in 1932 with J. W. Hauer, a German Indologist and religious studies writer, about kundalini yoga.26

According to Jung, each chakra presents a distinct worldview. A simple rendition of his interpretations of the chakras, which are woven together like a hero’s journey by the ascending kundalini, follows:

First Chakra: Here our ego is awake and our self is asleep. Within this chakra kundalini is the possibility of a world that has not yet manifested.

Second Chakra: The second chakra is comparable to a journey into the underworld or the depths of the sea, which we enter when we no longer find the conventional world palatable.

Third Chakra: We arise from the sea of the second chakra to be initiated in the light and heat of the passions. Now we deal with our oppositional passions and can emerge from this chakra once we embrace the power of thought.

Fourth Chakra: This is the beginning of individuation. Our passions are tamed, and we learn objective love or empathy.

Fifth Chakra: We enter the realm of abstraction and psychical reality, where we can now make sense of synchronicity and dream symbolism. We begin transcending opposites to choose between alternatives.

Sixth Chakra: We can now begin to experience unity with God.

Seventh Chakra: Jung believed that the fully unitary consciousness of the sixth and seventh chakras is beyond our capability to understand or fully comprehend.

Jung made it clear that his interpretations were psychological and did not reflect the totality of kundalini’s journey. In fact, he thought that the process of a kundalini yoga awakening could be dangerous to Westerners, like “foreign bodies” or “poisons” in the Western mind that had been raised to be logical and rational.27 However, as modern chakra systems demonstrate, many chakra medicine paradigms now embrace the psychological functions of the chakras.

We now turn to modern mystics and masters of the chakra system, as well as the final kick-off movement of chakras into the stratosphere—the New Age. While not every modern mystic would consider themselves a member of this movement, their detailed and colorful explanations of the energetic world have clearly evolved to embrace all aspects of being human—and divine.

I will begin by describing the New Age movement and then continue the theme of exploring the introduction of psychology into chakraology before presenting the basic beliefs of the best-known chakra experts of today.

The New Age: The Culminating Movement

All the movements and mentors mentioned previously in this part have culminated in the New Age, which we currently occupy. And nearly every subcategory of what we term the New Age embraces chakra systems and related concepts.

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the twentieth century and continues today. It is a swirling embodiment of Eastern traditions including yoga, tantra, Buddhism, ayurveda, alchemy, ancient religions, traditional Chinese medicine, Zen, and more. It merges Theosophy, Sikhism, naturopathy, UFO-ology, and more.

In many ways, it owes its existence to a movement that started in the early nineteenth century. Called New Thought or Higher Thought, the philosophy promoted God as an “Infinite Intelligence” located everywhere. Actually an amalgam of various religious denominations, secular groups, and sets of beliefs that are metaphysical and self-empowering, New Thought proposed that “believing makes it so.” It incorporated groups including Christian Science, Transcendental Meditation, Theosophy, and other movements, as well as religions including Religious Science, Unity Church, and the Church of Divine Science.

We find New Thought still alive today in the contemporary emphasis on positive thinking and the “law of attraction,” the belief that we attract what we are thinking about.28 These ideals actually emerged from New Thought thinkers who believed “thinking makes it so,” leading to the mind-body movement promoting healing through belief.

Many New Thought communities incorporate East Indian (and, therefore, chakra medicine) teachings; so New Thought has served—and still serves—as a conduit for integrating these mystical concepts in mainstream society.29 And it is one of the many movements included in our part 8’s discussions that opened the gateway to the New Age, the era in which chakra knowledge has been integrated into mainstream Western society.

The term “New Age” was coined in reference to the astrological Age of Aquarius, linked to the precession of the equinoxes, a precession being a change in the movement of Earth’s axis. An equinox occurs when the planet’s orbit and position relative to the sun cause the sun to pass directly over Earth’s equator. During the equinoxes, which occur around March 20 and September 22, day and night are of equal length.

Each precession lasts 25,800 years and causes Earth’s poles to shift over time. There are twelve constellations in the Western zodiac, and all cycle within a precession, which means that roughly every 2,150 years, the sun’s position at the vernal equinox, in March—the equinox we are concerned about—moves in front of a different zodiac constellation.

According to New Age thought, we are leaving the Age of Pisces and entering the Age of Aquarius, though we don’t know exactly when this will take place. One expert, Jean Meeus, a Belgian astronomer and mathematical luminary, places the movement from Aries and Pisces to 68 bce, which means we will enter Aquarius in 2597. Other astrologers assert that we entered Aquarius in 2012.30

Those who testify to the belief in the upcoming Age of Aquarius believe we are making way for a new world, one devoted to love, unity, fellowship, and integrity. The Piscean Age is depicted as dark and violent, while the Aquarius era is seen as the opposite. The transition, however, is expected to be anything but peaceful, with turmoil replacing complacency and disintegrating systems making way for kindness.

Herein we see repetition of the Hindu belief in the four ages, or yugas, that we explored in chapter 5. As many Hindus believed, our current yuga, the fourth—called the Iron Age—is overwhelmingly destructive. And just as many Hindus do, New Age followers assert that we have a chance to turn this era around.31

The Hindus were not the only group predicting an intense and immense change. The Mayans and Egyptians suggested the same, among other cultures. Besides our obvious collective interest in finding a path through the dangerous woods of this yuga and into a clearing, the reason I discuss the New Age in this book is that it is, in many ways, the culmination of chakra knowledge, embracing almost every chakra-related concept we have chronicled through the ages.

As a spiritual movement, the New Age fuses Eastern and Western spiritual and mystical traditions, adding sprinkles of psychology, shamanism, self-help thinking, quantum physics, and holistic ideology. It incorporates astrology, alchemy, and animal magnetism and is at once monotheistic and pluralistic. From a New Age point of view, perhaps chakras have ascended in concept to the highest possible level: they are seen as mechanisms for achieving peace, inside and out.

As eclectic as the sources of inspiration and information are, New Age systems ultimately draw upon the light—the light of goodness, enrichment, and encouragement. Now let me introduce you to some of the bright lights that have initiated and furthered this movement.

Chakra Psychology: Christopher Hills

Christopher Hills, author of Nuclear Evolution: Discovery of the Rainbow Body, wrote in the last part of the twentieth century about human evolution and the evolution of consciousness.32 He is best known for linking the chakras with personality issues, thus continuing the tradition of relating chakras to our psychological profile.

Hills’s view is that chakras mediate a person’s experience over time. Acknowledging that individuals tend to experience time more predominantly through one chakra than another, we can determine our personality traits based on the most prominently active chakra.33

Hills is credited with creating or at least popularizing the perception of the chakras related to an acronym: ROY G. BIV. This acronym tracks the chakra colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet).34 Hills depicted the chakric personalities in this way:

Sacral or Root Chakra: Deals with the immediate “now” and physical sensations. A person strong in this chakra is mainly concerned with physical inputs, sensations, and responses, believing they must gratify their needs immediately.

Spleen or Second Chakra: This chakra manages the future and is concerned with what is occurring in the present that sets the stage for tomorrow. People manifesting through this chakra can defer gratification for the good of their community.

Solar or Third Chakra: Time is linear within this chakra, and individuals can herein perceive how the past leads to the present and then onward to the future. Third chakra individuals are logical and intellectual. Joy is linked with knowledge here.

Heart or Fourth Chakra: For heart-based individuals, time can move back and forth, depending on emotional attachments or threats to personal security. Consciousness attaches to things such as food, money, and material objects, as well as love objects.

Throat or Fifth Chakra: The core of this chakra is the past, with strong fifth chakra personalities associating present affairs with the works of the past. These individuals tend to be conservative and traditional.

Brow or Sixth Chakra: The far-flung possibilities of the future grab sixth chakra individuals, with their bright and shiny intuitive faculties. While it’s hard for these people to grasp logic, they are able to sense the extrasensory.

Crown or Seventh Chakra: All time exists simultaneously in this realm of timelessness, where imagination enables the knowing of patterns, symbols, and celestial matters. Super-mental activities are possible here.

Hills acknowledged that groups could sometimes find themselves in conflict if only a certain chakra type is supported by the group. Therefore, it’s important to provide balance through complementary chakra types.35

Putting It All Together: Anodea Judith

Anodea Judith is considered one of the foremost contemporary experts on chakras, especially since the publication of her book Wheels of Life.36 Her work blends Eastern and Western concepts, Jungian psychology, body-based therapy, childhood development theory, and metaphysics into chakra medicine.

Drawing from tantric theory in particular, Judith presents chakras as organizing centers for receiving, assimilating, and using life energies, enabling a journey toward consciousness. Gateways between various dimensions, the chakras each develop in a unique order (her theories on this matter are dispersed through Part 2) and influence our activities with the outside world. Because they lock memories and patterns within them, we can also work with our chakras to free ourselves of old, constricting patterns.37

Judith’s chakra system, in brief, is as follows:

Chakra	Location	Color	Element	Purpose
First	Base of spine	Red	Earth	Survival
Second	Lower abdomen	Orange	Water	Emotions/sexuality
Third	Solar plexus	Yellow	Fire	Personal power/self-esteem/will
Fourth	Over the sternum	Green	Air	Love
Fifth	Throat	Blue	Sound	Communication/creativity
Sixth	Center of forehead	Indigo	Light	Clairvoyance/intuition/imagination
Seventh	Top of head	Violet	Thought	Transcendent consciousness 38

Pathways for our journey toward a better life, chakras can be too open or blocked, often locking in issues while the chakras are developing, which they do in the order set out below. Judith ties each chakra to a particular right to which we are entitled. Embracing these rights in relation to each chakra enables fluidity in the chakras and a loving life, and can help heal the challenges that have caused damage to the chakra.

These rights are activated sequentially, as are the chakras, a topic addressed in Part 2. I believe, however, that at any point of your life, you can embrace the birthright latent in each chakra.

Chakra One: Claim your right to be here. You have a right to have what is necessary for your life.

Chakra Two: Own your right to feel. If you can feel something, you can embrace your needs.

Chakra Three: Open your right to act. Ingrained in you is the personal power necessary to consciously act in a good way.

Chakra Four: Believe in your right to love and be loved. Why close down your heart and restrict your human desire to exchange love?

Chakra Five: Claim your right to speak and hear truth. You can trust in yourself and what you have to share.

Chakra Six: Assert your right to see. To see is to separate what is true from what is not. It also involves using your psychic abilities.

Chakra Seven: Embrace your right to know. You are inherently granted permission to the birthrights of information, truth, education, and knowledge.39

Spiritual Traditions Front and Center: Carolyn Myss

Dr. Carolyn Myss is a medical intuitive and author well-known for her revolutionary contributions to chakra knowledge. She believes that the human mind encodes thought, converts it into matter, and stores it in the body’s chakras. According to Myss, our entire life has been downloaded into our chakras, making them powerful databases and tools for healing.

Myss’s version of the chakras places them at traditional locations—the base, sacral area, solar plexus, heart, throat, brow, and crown—and colors them red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet, respectively. Most interesting to me about Myss’s ideas are the ways she has linked the chakras to many different archetypical understandings, including types of grace, which she considers extremely important as a means of addressing the raging psychic currents in the collective unconscious. She also relates the chakras to the sacraments of the Catholic Church and the sephiroth of the Kabbalah, among other associations. The sacraments allow the chakras (and therefore us) to interact with sacred power so we can gradually take back our own intrinsic power. You can see these sacraments in the next exercise, “The Seven Catholic Sacraments,” and experience them yourself.

The sephiroth, which I describe in chapter 28, allow us to connect with aspects of the “true God” so we may walk straight spiritually. To reinforce the power of these connections, we must be willing to heal from any misdirection we have been involved in: to release the past, cleanse our spirit, and return to the present moment.

Following is my compilation of a few areas of Myss’s work. I will first describe her basic beliefs about each chakra and then its relationship with a grace. Then I’ll outline Myss’s understanding of the power we hold within each chakra, as well as the sacrament and sephira or sephiroth that would enable us to grasp and correctly implement that power to transform our lives. (I have used the same versions of the names of the sephiroth elsewhere in this book.)

First Chakra

Representing our physical life, including work, family, and the everyday world, this chakra connects us to our tribe, the bonding clan. A tribe honors loyalty and unity and assumes that respect is the law.

Grace: The grace of reverence invites unity, leading to a deep sense of awe—a recognition of the source of life and our connection to it. Reverence is also the root of two types of intuition: one that enables our own survival and a second type that advances our spiritual life.

Power: “All is one,” gained by merging this tribal chakra with the sacrament of baptism and the Malkuth sephira.

Second Chakra

Governing sexuality, finances, relationship, power, creativity, and more, this relationship center often determines the quality of our life.

Grace: The grace of piety enables us to sense when others (or we ourselves) need kindness or nurturing, calling for us to illuminate one another. It can lead to mercy for self and others.

Power: “Honor one another,” the conclusion of the partnership chakra enabled by the sacrament of communion and the Yesod sephira.

Third Chakra

This is the center of our personal identity, governing a list of “selfs” such as self-esteem, self-respect, and sense of self. These qualities determine much of the health of our major organs.

Grace: The grace of understanding allows us to comprehend one another and be understood in return. Through it we can transcend matters at the personal level and penetrate to a deeper truth, which is sometimes simply common sense.

Power: “Honor oneself,” achieved through blending the personal power chakra with the sacrament of confirmation and the Hod and Netzach sephiroth.

Fourth Chakra

The center of emotion, this chakra holds many ideas that are dear to us, including love, hopes, dreams, and wishes—as well as anger and depression.

Grace: The grace of fortitude acknowledges that our highest potential is actualized in service that embraces right livelihood. Fortitude enables the courage needed to make correct emotional choices for self and others, not only the choice to act, but also to deal with the consequences of our actions.

Power: “Love is divine power” merges the chakra of emotional power via the sacrament of marriage and the Tiphareth sephira.

Fifth Chakra

The fifth chakra is the center of choice, in which we receive and can share counsel.

Grace: The grace of counsel seeks truth, a truth that is universal and undiluted. It often appears as a prayerful request for divine assistance.

Power: Surrender of personal will to divine will, allowing this chakra to employ willpower through the sacrament of confession and the Chesed and Geburah sephiroth.

Sixth Chakra

The mental center, this chakra is home to an open mind and accessible intuition prepared to receive intellectual revelation. It is the space of the intellect, brain, mind, and intuition, woven together into the tapestry of your life.

Grace: The grace of knowledge is the pure form of revelation about the nature of the Divine. It is composed of information, active knowing, and gnosis: knowledge that appears through grace.

Power: “Seek only the truth” empowers the mindful with the sacrament of ordination and the Binah and Chokmah sephiroth.

Seventh Chakra

Our spiritual center, the seventh chakra enables us to discern fiction from nonfiction and follow the spiritual path true to self—and the Above.

Grace: Wisdom calls us to think deeply about our choices, to be greater than our smaller selves.

Power: “Live in the present moment” opens this chakra of the spirit through the sacrament of extreme unction and the Kether sephira.40

Exercise: The Seven Catholic Sacraments

The seven Catholic sacraments are ceremonies that evoke the sacred and serve as special occasions for experiencing God’s grace. First I’ll describe them, and then I’ll lead you through an exercise I’ve developed to help you link them with the chakras, drawing upon Carolyn Myss’s work.

Baptism: The blessing of a child or adult so they might know themselves as embraced by God.

Communion: Evoking the presence of Jesus for spiritual nourishment.

Confirmation: The ritual that underscores a mature commitment to Christ and a deepening of baptismal gifts.

Marriage: The public sign of union with another.

Confession: Also known as reconciliation, this sacrament allows us to receive God’s unconditional forgiveness and calls us to do the same for others.

Ordination: Ceremony through which a new priest is allowed to provide the sacrament to others, proclaim good news, and serve others in holy manners.

Extreme Unction: The ritual of healing for physical, mental, and spiritual sickness.

Do you want to experience these sacraments in your own chakras and in your life? I invite you to focus on each chakra, breathe into it, and concentrate on the following ideas:

First Chakra: As you embrace the meaning of the sacrament of baptism, let yourself experience union with yourself, the world, and the Divine. You are embraced by God.

Second Chakra: The sacrament of communion invites nourishment by the Christ. You absorb the care and compassion you’ve been seeking.

Third Chakra: Accepting the gift of confirmation, you also more fully awaken your spiritual gifs.

Fourth Chakra: The sacrament of marriage invites you to enjoy all the love in your life—the bonds of union that are healthy and uplifting.

Fifth Chakra: Invoking the sacrament of confession, you allow yourself to surrender your will to divine will, receiving forgiveness for where you have erred and granting it to others as well.

Sixth Chakra: You are invited to experience the sacrament of ordination, accepting the fact that you are a holy messenger of the Divine.

Seventh chakra: The sacrament of extreme unction allows healing on all levels.

When you are through with this exercise, take a few deep breaths and allow yourself to continue in your life in a prayerful way, grateful for all that you are and have been given.

A NASA Scientist Describes Energy: Barbara Ann Brennan

A former research scientist for NASA, Barbara Ann Brennan is now an author and teacher. She has studied and worked with the human energy field for decades, and her analysis of human energetic structures includes chakras, the auric field, and energetic planes.

Brennan considers the chakras less as organs of yogic consciousness than as etheric, astral, and mental vortexes. As such, they are transformers that receive and process cosmic energy, enabling the functioning of an individual’s consciousness and psycho-physical makeup. Brennan describes two rows of chakras that are arranged in pairs at the front and rear of the spine. The frontal chakras are associated with feeling, the rear with will, and the upper three with the intellect.41

Planes of Reality and the Auric Fields

From a broader perspective, we are composed of layers of energy and the consciousness of a divine spark. This spark exists on higher planes of reality as well as the apparent one. These planes are linked by the aura, the medium through which our creative impulses are brought into physical reality. Our consciousness is also able to stair-step upward through the auric field.

There are three main planes of reality, which subdivide in such a way that every label matches one occurring within the auric field. These planes of reality are composed in this way, from highest to lowest:

spiritual plane

Ketheric Template Level: Expresses higher concepts

Celestial Level: Expresses higher feelings

Etheric Template Level: Mitigates higher will

astral plane

Composed of gradations of light, which are experienced as strong emotions extending beyond the self.

physical plane

Mental Level: Enables thinking

Emotional Level: Guides personal emotions

Etheric Level: Runs physical sensation

Physical Level: Manages physical functioning 42

The names of the various auric fields correlate with those of the planes of reality, as you can see in Illustration 92, the field itself being made of plasma: tiny, perhaps subatomic particles that operate like a fifth type of matter.43

Illustration 92—Brennan’s Planes of Reality and Auric Field Layers: The seven basic layers of the auric field graduate from the body. Each is linked with one of the seven basic chakras and also one of the seven planes of existence, which are organized into three basic categories: spiritual, astral, and physical. illustration by mary ann zapalac

Brennan’s Chakras

Brennan links each of the seven basic chakras to one of the auric layers. As Illustration 93 shows, all but the top chakras spin into the front and back sides of the body and can be divided into three main categories. Basically, a chakra receives incoming energy, which it then disseminates as outgoing secondary energies. From there the energy is sent into the nadis, then the nervous system, the endocrine system, and the blood. The major chakras are accessible for this process, as are a multitude of secondary chakras, as well as the acupuncture points. These entry points also interact with the auric field, enabling us to exchange energy with the outside world.44

In addition to the major seven chakras, Brennan is able to perceive an eighth and ninth chakra, which correlate to a cosmic plane that lies beyond the ketheric plane.45

An overview of Brennan’s chakra system, including the major chakras and the secondary ones, is as follows:

Illustration 93—Brennan’s View of the Chakras: There are seven basic chakras. The middle five emanate in the front and back sides of the body. All chakras belong to one of three classifications: will, feeling, and mental centers. illustration by mary ann zapalac

Chakra	Location	Vortexes	Bodily Areas Affected
Seventh	Crown/pineal	972 violet-white	Upper brain, right eye
Sixth	Forehead/pituitary	96 indigo	Lower brain, left eye, ears, nose, nervous system
Fifth	Throat/thyroid	16 blue	Bronchial and vocal, mechanics, lungs, alimentary canal
Fourth	Heart/thymus	12 green	Heart, blood, vagus nerve, circulatory system
Third	Solar plexus/pancreas	10 yellow	Digestive organs, nervous system
Second	Sacral area/gonads	6 orange	Reproductive system
First	Base/adrenals	4 red	Spinal column, kidneys 46

According to Brennan, the chakras in the cosmic plane are both located above the head. They are crystalline and composed of high vibrations, with the eighth chakra or level dealing with substance and the ninth with form. The eighth chakra seems fluid, and the ninth operates like a crystalline template of everything below it.47

Brennan also perceives twenty-one minor chakras located at points where the energy strands cross fourteen times. They are found in these locations: one on front of each ear, one above each breast, one where the clavicles meet, one in the palm of each hand, one in the sole of each foot, one just behind each ear, one related to each gonad, one near the liver, one connected with the stomach, two connected with the spleen, one behind each knee, one near the thymus gland, and one near the solar plexus. These are all about three inches in diameter and located one inch away from the body.48

East Is West: Donna Eden and David Feinstein

Donna Eden and David Feinstein, authors of Energy Medicine, have outlined nine energy systems that affect the body and mind.49 These are the meridians, the auric field, the basic grid, the Celtic Weave, the Five Rhythms, the Triple Warmer, the radiant circuits, the electrics, and the chakras, all of which interact to create our truly amazing subtle bodies and the quality of our lives. Their cosmology combines Eastern and Western teachings to explain how they integrate and support us. I will describe their chakra system last, after introducing you to their other systems.

The Meridians: As I have already introduced in this book, the meridians carry vital energy and provide balance, regulating every physiological system.

The Auric Field: This multilayered shell emanates from the body and interacts with the external environment, operating like a two-way antenna that brings energy into the chakras and sends energy back out. As Eden intuitively perceived, there are seven fields within the aura, which are nested like Russian dolls and interact with the seven chakras. They have a similar appearance to Illustration 92.

The Basic Grid: This is your body’s foundational system. It looks like a matrix.

The Celtic Weave: This is the interwoven pattern formed by the body’s energies, which spin, spiral, and crisscross. In the East it is called the “Tibetan energy ring.” In yogic traditions it is represented by two curved lines intersecting seven times to encase the chakras. It is also the crossing-over of the ida, pingala, and sushumna for the path of kundalini. Eden intuitively perceives it as a single unit of interwoven, spiraling figure-eight patterns both within and around the body.

The Five Rhythms: All essential energies, including the chakras and auric field, are influenced by an overarching energy system that is cyclical. It is categorized by five movements, each marching to its own drummer. These are linked to the five elements of water, wood, fire, earth, and metal, as well as five seasons: winter, spring, summer, Indian summer, and autumn. We each have our own rhythm, and we also respond to the changing rhythms of the seasons.

The Triple Warmer: This meridian links all parts of our immune system.

The Radiant Circuits: This system is more primitive than the meridians and distributes energy to where it is most needed.

The Electrics: This energy emanates from the electrical dimensions of our energetic systems. The electrics connect all energetic systems via the body’s electricity.

The Chakras: Eden and Feinstein work with a seven-chakra system, linking the chakras to the organs in the body. The chakras also determine aspects of our personality, and each serves one of seven universal principles. From the bottom to the top chakra, these are survival, creativity, identity, love, expression, comprehension, and transcendence. Every emotionally significant event is imprinted in our chakras, qualifying them as memory banks.50 Each chakra emanates energy through the seven nested auric fields.

According to Eden and Feinstein, chakras that spin clockwise move energies outward to envelop other energies. Those that spin counterclockwise move energy inward, drawing in other energies. Each layer can spin in its own direction depending on what is occurring. While they relate the chakras to the traditional colors, red through white, Eden sees many other colors in the chakras. For instance, she perceives that gold instead of red in the first chakra highlights a person with inherent goodness. She sometimes finds the second chakra filled with indigos and purples instead of orange, and pink and gold are as familiar to the heart chakra as is green.

A brief description of Eden and Feinstein’s beliefs about the chakras follows:

First or Root Chakra: Foundation of our drives and our tribal nature. Responsible for sexuality.

Second or Womb Chakra: Sacred vessel of imagination and the creative impulse. A person’s life color (a specific hue representing their personality) can be seen here.

Third or Solar Plexus Chakra: Site of personal ego and energies creating personal identity.

Fourth or Heart Chakra: Chalice of connection, joy, and sorrow.

Fifth or Throat Chakra: Invites expression of information from all the chakras.

Sixth or Pituitary Chakra: Center of thought and abstraction. Here we can gain access to a psychic plane that transcends this time and space.

Crown or Pineal Chakra: Links with the heavens and cosmos.51

The next sections feature chakra systems that expand beyond the physical body. Barbara Brennan’s system proposed two additional chakras, located outside the body proper, as have systems from other cultures. The following chakra systems are noted for their modern presentation of these additional chakras. A few of these systems also draw upon Eastern medicine in their chakra systems.

Chakras Around the Body: My Own Twelve-Chakra System

Yet another contemporary chakra system is my own twelve-chakra model, which I have described in several other books. It is based on the classical Hindu chakra system, in which the lower seven chakras are depicted much as they are in Part 2, but I also include five additional chakras that are found outside of the physical body. Though cultures around the world have described chakras extending beyond the body, the idea was relatively new to most people, and sometimes shocking to readers, when my first book came out in 1996.

The external five chakras are located above the head, below the feet, and around the body. Following is a description of the higher five chakras, which are also featured in Illustration 94.

Illustration 94—The Twelve-Chakra System: My twelve-chakra system features twelve chakras. (The twelfth chakra is entirely in the field; the eleventh chakra is located around the hands and feet and also in the energetic field.) Twelve auric layers, which aren’t shown specifically, are surrounded by an energy egg, which is composed of three layers. illustration by mary ann zapalac

Eighth Chakra: Found just above the head, this black or silver chakra links to the body via the thymus gland. Appearing as a small point, it expands to host several additional energy bodies: the Akashic Records is a storage center for everything ever seen and done; the Shadow Records contain our regrets; and the Book of Life reveals situations the way the Divine would see them.

Ninth Chakra: Located one and a half feet above the head, this gold chakra connects to the body through our diaphragm and houses the symbols of our soul. These “spiritual genetics” generate physical reality, including our physical genes. This chakra also reflects our soul’s purpose.

Tenth Chakra: Found a foot and a half below the feet, this chakra is often colored brown or earth-toned and correlates to the center of the bones. As our link to the natural world, it accesses elemental energy, which it sends into the body through the feet. Within it are our soul and genealogical histories.

Eleventh Chakra: Surrounding the body, this rose-colored chakra, which relates to our connective tissue, is most heavily concentrated around the hands and the feet. Its purpose is to transmute physical and supernatural forces so we can direct them at will.

Twelfth Chakra: Around the eleventh chakra and the entirety of the body, this clear energy center is similar to our spiritual skin. I see it as the outer horizon of our human self and perceive it connecting to the body through thirty-two secondary chakras.

The Energy Egg: Just outside of the twelfth chakra is the energy egg, a three-layer sheath that regulates the linkage between the spiritual realms and the physical body. The outermost layer of this egg opens to divine energy, the middle layer transfers energy between parallel realities, and the internal layer monitors the physical body.52

Additional Points, Chakras, and the Spine

In my twelve-chakra system I describe twenty spiritual points, which are equal to etheric chakras. Each is linked to a point in the spine, manages a certain ideal, and operates exactly as do the chakras; these points can be worked on with the same practices as the main chakras.

Following is my outline of the points. Chakras one through twelve are also associated with vertebrae. Starting at the bottom of the coccyx, these chakra points move up the spine before point 13 picks up at the second lumbar vertebra. In addition to these thirty-two points is a thirty-third principle. Though it isn’t an actual chakra or point, it is located on a spinal point. It functions as an overriding spiritual principle that, when activated, directs all the points toward loving ends.

Point (Spiritual Chakra)	Spinal Area	Vertebra
13: Yin	Lumbar	Second
14: Yang		First
15: Balance of polarities	Thoracic	Twelfth
16: Balance of similarities		Eleventh
17: Harmony		Tenth
18: Free will and freedom		Ninth
19: Kundalini		Eighth
20: Mastery		Seventh
21: Abundance		Sixth
22: Clarity		Fifth
23: Knowledge of good and bad		Fourth
24: Creation		Third
25: Manifestation		Second
26: Alignment		First
27: Peace	Cervical	Seventh
28: Wisdom		Sixth
29: Enjoyment		Fifth
30. Forgiveness		Fourth
31. Faith		Third
32. Grace		Second
33. Principle of love		First

David Furlong: Adding an Earth Chakra

Author and energy expert David Furlong adds an eighth chakra located under the feet to explicitly help us link with the earth. Furlong reexamined the chakras from a cross-cultural perspective, looking for patterns in cultures including the Chinese, Tibetan, ancient Egyptian, Celtic, shamanistic, Kabbalistic, and more. What emerged were eight newly assigned colors, among other ideas.

Furlong assigns the following colors to the chakras:

Crown: Magenta

Brow: Violet

Throat: Yellow

Heart: Blue

Solar plexus: Orange

Sacral: Turquoise

Base: Red

Root (Earth Chakra): Green

This last chakra, the earth chakra, which Furlong also calls the root chakra, links us to the ground through our feet, which can connect us to the vibrational energies of the earth. Besides reinforcing our bond with the planet, it also affiliates us with our ancestry and origins, explaining our lineage and past lives.53

Katrina Raphaell: Transpersonal Chakras Make a Stand

Noted crystal expert Katrina Raphaell locates several additional chakras that are transpersonal in nature, often considered newly available to humanity in order to elevate our consciousness. Her system involves the transmission of higher light so it might integrate into the physical body.

Raphaell adds five additional chakras to the traditional seven, which are depicted in Illustration 95. To her information I have added additional expert insights on Raphaell’s system.

Earth Star Chakra: Located in the nerve endings on the sole of the feet. Moving with us as we travel, it serves as a grounding cord for our light body to connect to the center of the earth. Allows us to connect with our multidimensional selves.

Hara/Navel Chakra: Found at the navel. Resonates with divine will to help us achieve our purpose. Additional hara systems are featured after this discussion.

Causal Chakra: Found four inches behind the head. Allows us to receive divine inspiration.

Soul Star Chakra: Located six inches above the head, where the Christ consciousness, or highest order of energy, translates into the heart of humanity. When active, this chakra aligns us with our soul as well as all higher energies in the universe. It also serves as the bridge between impersonal essence and personal reality.

Stellar Gateway: Found twelve inches above the head. Opens to the Christ conscious-ness and our direct line to the Divine Source, allowing access to infinite energy and a spiritual exchange. When this chakra is open, the incoming energy nourishes the soul star chakra.54

The Subtranspersonal Chakras

Yet other esoteric professionals add a list of subtranspersonal chakras to the transpersonal chakras featured in systems like those we have just covered, as well as those listed in the Hindu tantra, tantric Buddhism, and Taoism systems. Yoga practitioner Noeli Naimi of Spain describes five such chakras, found between the feet and the earth star chakra, which she believes is the lowest of the five. (Illustration 95 shows Raphaell’s system. Naimi would insert four additional chakras between the feet and the earth star chakra.) She describes them in this way, from closest to the body to farthest away:

Illustration 95—Transpersonal Chakras: To the traditional seven chakras (numbered on the illustration), many contemporary esotericists add five additional transpersonal chakras that are now active to assist humanity in becoming more conscious. Other esotericists add even more transpersonal chakras. See the insert for a color version of this image. illustration by mary ann zapalac

Incarnation Point Chakra: Found a few inches below the feet, it provides practical implementation for the soul’s journey.

Incarnator Chakra: About sixteen inches below the feet, this chakra connects to our ancestry, tribe, and clan.

Subpersonal Leadership Chakra: An arm’s length below the feet, it represents the anima, or female archetype.

Earth-Centering Chakra: A bit beyond an arm’s length below the feet, it ties us to the archaic earth energy.

Earth Star Chakra: In this system, the earth star is two arm’s lengths below the feet, through which we exchange energy with the earth goddess.55

The Hara Line

The hara line is a reflection of both Eastern and Western theories. It is called the microcosmic orbit in the West, or sometimes the small and large heavenly cycle. Hara line energy work is also based in the discipline of qigong, where the energy pathway is directed in a circle rather than only upward. Structurally, the hara line is perceived as a line of energy or light that expands into a pillar of light, sometimes called an auric vertical power current. It is not the same as kundalini rising but is often affected by the spirals of kundalini movement, and sometimes it becomes more active when the kundalini awakens the main vertical current in the body. In many systems the hara line is located in the astral (emotional) body. When this is the case, the seven in-body chakras and the auric field are considered part of the etheric body.

The hara line is centered in a chakra called the dantian, the spark of chi we were born with. The dantian is known as a field of elixir, underscoring the interpretation of chi as a magical life force that the dantian stores and moves through the body. It is actually located about two-and- a-half inches below the navel and is one-and-a-half inches in diameter. It is often tied into our soul purpose; that is, we are “given” as much chi as we need to accomplish our spiritual purpose. It vibrates uniquely in accordance with our individual soul and connects us to the earth in this frequency. If we change its vibration, our life transforms.

Because it is the reserve of our initial chi energy, any issues in this area will create reactions. Dysfunction can cause an exaggerated desire to control others or ourselves, as well as submissiveness, bullying, lack of direction, and more.

Structurally, the hara line appears in the form of a laser-like line of energy that runs through the body to the center of the earth. This line actually splits at the dantian, so there are three lines that run into the earth. Two of them exit through the legs, with the left leg containing the grounding and umbilicus functions and the right leg containing the identity and creation functions. The third line drops straight down from the body’s trunk through the first chakra.

The third line makes yet another three-way split at the neck. Two lines exit through the arms and hands while the central line, called the axis, continues upward. Three feet above the head it taps into what is usually labeled as the ninth chakra or individuation point. Wherever there is distortion, a split, or disharmony, we find our personality or ego at cross-purposes with our soul purpose. I have shared my own interpretation of the hara line and these primary lines and splits in Illustration 96.

Again, the hara line is linked with its own set of transpersonal or subpersonal chakras. There are several systems that outline exactly which chakras are included in the hara line. Here are two examples.

Illustration 96—The Hara Line Chakras: This description of the hara line chakras is my own interpretation of the basic hara line. Along the line are also the main seven chakras as well as several transpersonal chakras. The arrows show how the hara energy flows through the arms and out the hands. illustration by mary ann zapalac

Hara Line Example 1: Transpersonal and Subpersonal Chakras

This section describes one example of the hara line flow. Many of these chakra names have already been covered in this chapter.

The Individuation Point, or Ninth Chakra: Known as the transpersonal chakra, it links us with the energy of unity above and the physical reality of separateness below. This point appears as a small funnel. The larger end, about one-third inch in diameter, points down and over the head. This is our connection with the Absolute.

The Soul Seat: Located near the hollow of the throat, within it lies our desire for connection. This center is also called the high heart, and it links to our silver cord
in the back of the throat; the silver cord connects our soul to our body.

The Hara Center, or Dantian: Already described.

The Earth Chakra: Known as a subpersonal chakra, it is below the feet and receives energy through the chakras in the feet. This chakra roots us to the earth’s core and its EMFs. It creates an energetic bridge to the earth that enables us to anchor into the physical plane. Because of this chakra, our lives are recorded in the matrix of the earth star chakra described earlier, as are the other four subpersonal chakras located below the first chakra and before the earth star chakra.

At the end of our lives we disconnect from the earth star chakra and rise through the conduit of light composing the hara line, passing through all chakras as we journey upward. After arriving at the seventh chakra, we perceive the light of the soul star as a white tunnel, and we exit to higher dimensions.56

Hara Line Example 2: The Microcosmic Orbit Version

There are typically four components to the microcosmic orbit version of the hara line. This version requires interplay with the microcosmic orbit chakras, of which there are thirteen; the Governing Vessel, which runs up the back of the body; the conception vessel, which rises up the front of the body; and Earth Links, already identified as the grounding and umbilical functions of the hara passing through the left leg and the identity and creation functions that travel down the right leg.

Here are further explorations of these four aspects of the hara line.

hara line chakras

The hara line has its own set of thirteen chakras, sometimes called the microcosmic orbit chakras. These are described in this way:

Earth Chakra: Below the feet and in the surface of the earth. Colored black, it anchors us into the earth.

Grounding Chakra: At the soles of the feet, this chakra is brown and grounds our life purpose in reality.

Movement Chakras: Behind both knees, these chakras are tan and dark green and direct us toward fulfilling our life purpose.

Perineum Chakra: Between the vagina and the anus, it is ruddy brown and opens to the earth chi life force, which is then distributed through the hara center.

Hara Center, or Dantian: As described, found two-and-a-half inches below the navel and just above the sacral chakra. It is amber and connects our will to live with the earth energy and enables generation of our soul purpose.

Diaphragm Chakra: Just above the solar plexus at the diaphragm, it is olive green and clears obstructions to meeting our life purpose.

Thymus Chakra: Between the high heart and the thymus, this aqua chakra links the hara line and emotional body to the kundalini and etheric subtle body. It connects our emotions to our physical self, enables a strong immune system, and holds our will to incarnate.

Causal Body Chakra: At the base of the skull, this silver-blue and blue-violet chakra transforms nonphysical light into consciousness and determines our mental will to meet our soul purpose.

Vision Chakras: At the pupils of both eyes, it is gray and silver and enables us to visualize our needs.

Individuation Point, Sometimes Called the Transpersonal Point or Ninth Chakra: Located an arm’s length above the head. This gold and white chakra connects us to the universe but also separates us from the universal source to give us a sense of self.

the governing and conception vessels

Working in conjunction with the hara line chakras, these two meridians give rise to the flow of hara energy, setting up the microcosmic orbit. The Governing Vessel starts at the perineum chakra and travels up the spinal column and the back of the body, moving in a straight line over the head and down the face, ending at the center depression of the upper lip.

The conception vessel starts at the center of the lower lip, journeys down the front of the body, cuts through the hara chakra, and ends at the perineum. These two straight energies are not connected naturally but when linked through the hara line, they activate a circular flow that sets up the orbiting energy called the microcosmic orbit.

the earth links

The four earth channels, which run through the legs, work in these ways:

Grounding (Left Leg): Provides confidence, strength, and security.

Umbilical (Left Leg): Gives us nourishment; when it is weak, we can become suicidal.

Creation (Right Leg): Ensures self-empowerment and the ability to make things happen.

Identity (Right Leg): Reflects our sense of self and our ability to relate to others.57

Exercise: Strengthening Your Hara Line

What can you do to bolster your hara line?

Ancient cultures used the antakarana symbol, shown below, to smooth the flow of energy in the microcosmic orbit. You can imagine the symbol while meditating or print it out and pin it somewhere you can see it frequently. The latter exercise will remind you to constantly boost your hara line.

Illustration 97—The Antakarana Symbol: This symbol has been used for centuries as a way of balancing out the hara line. illustration by llewellyn art department

It can also be helpful to sketch the symbol with your finger on the palm of your hand, in the air, on a part of the body, or over a chakra, focusing on a healing or manifesting goal.58

Chakra Changes Over Time

There have been dozens if not hundreds of shifts in the perceptions of the chakras over time. What might we see if we compare the chakric roots in the Upanishads, the main ideas from Tibetan tantra, and the more modern assertions of Arthur Avalon, C. W. Leadbeater, and Anodea Judith? As Michelle Belanger points out in her book The Psychic Energy Codex, we would discover a true “coming of age” in chakra medicine, form emerging from basic truths. Psychic experiences, as well as other subtle phenomena, aren’t exclusive to any specific religion; rather, they are universally available abilities. Therefore, all people—as ordinary as we are—can develop spiritual capabilities.59

It’s important to see that chakra models have continually changed—if only to underline our right to transform as well. Chakra systems portrayed in the Upanishads between 700 and 200 bce described only four main chakra centers—the navel, heart, throat, and head—each related to various stages of dreaming and wakefulness. As we turn the corner and enter the Common Era, we find Tibetan tantra chakra systems recognizing four or five chakras, or “nadi wheels,” and sometimes up to nine chakras. The spine of the four main chakras—navel, heart, throat, and head—remains constant, but chakras are now associated with colors and more specific meanings.

In the early twentieth century Sir Arthur Avalon set the chakra number at seven—although, I believe, a bit arbitrarily. He did, however, equip us with modern bells and whistles, discussing how the chakras related to nerve plexuses and more. Beautifully, he retained the spiritual mystery that has always surrounded the chakras: their relationship to lotuses and mystical meanings.

If we line Avalon’s proposals next to Leadbeater’s, we find similarities but also differences. Seven is still the magic number, but Leadbeater takes the chakra spine out of alignment and adds a spleen chakra on the left side of the body. While Avalon’s associated colors are primary, Leadbeater’s are artistic blends and blurs of various spectrums. At the highest level of performance the heart chakra is golden, rather than the standard green of Avalon’s system. The coccygeal, or first, chakra is red and orange, not only red.

Judith’s chakra system is more closely aligned to Avalon’s, although she contemporarizes the chakras to fit our current needs. Gone are some of Leadbeater’s colorful interpretations; we return to something basic, like the rainbow, but we are also invited to use our chakras more thoroughly. Let us employ our fifth chakra for communication and our sixth for imagination.60

As you can see, what is considered true about the chakras is a matter of timing and perspective. And who knows where we will go from here?

We have visited with many well-known greats who continued the maturation of chakra knowledge from ancient times, starting with Sir Arthur Avalon and including Rudolf Steiner and Carl Jung. These and other Westerners furthered the spread of chakra medicine into Western culture, which was then finally caught up like dandelion seeds in the swirl of the New Age and transplanted nearly everywhere.

With the emergence of the New Age—a collection of Eastern and Western thought—new voices spoke into the world, including Anodea Judith, Barbara Brennan, Carolyn Myss, and even myself. Chakras have truly come of age.

Where will we go from here? That is the question that prompted part 9, which takes us in two very important directions as we conclude our chakra adventure. Into the natural world we go, and then…into the future!

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