From the book
Eastern Body, Western Mind — Psychology and The Chakra System as a Path to the Self
By Anodea Judith
The chakra system is a seven-leveled philosophical model of the universe. Chakras have come to the West through the tradition and practice of yoga. Yoga (which means yoke) is a discipline designed to yoke together the individual with the divine, using mental and physical practices that join our mundane and spiritual lives. This goal is achieved by passing through steps of ever-expanding states of consciousness. The chakras represent these steps.
A chakra is a center of activity that receives, assimilates, and expresses life force energy. The word chakra literally translates as wheel or dish and refers to a spinning sphere of bioenergetic activity emanating from the major nerve ganglia branching forward from the spinal column. There are seven of these wheels stacked in a column of energy that spans from the base of the spine to the top of the head. There are also 11 minor chakras in the hands, feet, fingertips, and shoulders. Literally, any vortex of activity could be called a chakra. It is the seven major chakras that correlate with basic states of consciousness, and it is these that we will examine in this book.
The chakra system originated in India, more than four thousand years ago. Chakras were referred to in the ancient literature of the Vedas, the later Upanishads, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and most thoroughly in the 16th century by an Indian yogi in a text called the Sat-Chakra-Nirupana. In the 1920s, chakras were brought to the West by Arthur Avalon with his book, The Serpent Power. Today, they are a popular concept linking areas Of a the body and psyche with associated metaphysical realms.
Chakras are not physical entities in and of themselves. Like feelings or ideas, they cannot be held like a physical object, yet they have a strong effect upon the body as they express the embodiment of spiritual energy on the physical plane. Chakra patterns are programmed deep in the core of the mind-body interface and have a strong relationship with our physical functioning. Just as the emotions can and do affect our breathing, heart rate, and metabolism, the activities in the various chakras influence I our glandular processes, body shape, chronic physical ailments, thoughts, and behavior. By using techniques such as yoga, breathing, bioenergetics, physical exercises, meditation, and visualization, we cam, in turn, influence our chakras, our health, and our lives. This is one of the essential values of this system—that it maps onto both the body and the mind, and can be accessed through either.
Thus the chakras are said to have a location, even though they do not exist in the physical sense. These locations may vary slightly from person to person, but remain consistent in their overall relationship to one another.
While they cannot be seen or held as material entities, the chakras are evident in the shape of our physical bodies, the patterns manifested in our lives, and the way we think, feel, and handle situations that life presents us. Just as we see the wind through movement of the leaves and branches, the chakras can be seen by what we create around us.
Based on their location in the body, the chakras have become associated with various states of consciousness, archetypal elements, and philosophical constructs. The lower chakras, for example, which are physically closer to the earth, are related to the more practical matters of our lives—survival, movement, action. They are ruled by physical and social law. The upper chakras represent mental realms and work on a symbolic level through words, images, and concepts. Each of the seven chakras has also come to represent a major area of human psychological health which can be briefly summarized as follows: (1) survival, (2) sexuality, (3) power, (4) love, (5) communication, (6) intuition, and (7) cognition.
