The Chakras

The chakras are the points on our bodies that receive and transmit energies between the body and its Aura and the energy fields of other people, animals, plants, the Earth and the Cosmos. These energies penetrate both the physical body and the spirit or etheric, body. The etheric body is the essence that may survive death and, some believe, can move independently during out-of-body and near death experiences.

Chakras are the vital concept in Hindu, Tibetan, Buddhist and Yogic traditions. They were first popularised in the West in the late nineteenth century by the Theosophical movement. There are a large number of major and minor chakra points in the body, but western spirituality usually concentrates on the seven main ones that correspond to the seven colours of the spectrum. The word chakra is Sanskrit for “wheel”, and the chakras that exist on the psychic rather than the biological level are usually pictured as whirling, multi-coloured circles, sometimes like lotus petals.

Because the chakras themselves do not exist on the physical level, they cannot be seen or measured, although Japanese experiments have demonstrated that energy levels of people who have worked with chakra energies over a period of years were discernibly stronger, especially over the hypothesised chakra points, than those of a control group.

Most traditions locate the chakras along the vertical axis of the body, either on or just in front of the backbone. However, they are linked with, and take their names from, locations on the front of the body, such as the navel, heart, throat and brow. They are generally reached in healing through the front of the body, through the root, or base, chakra is usually healed at the base of the spine or through the feet, where the energy makes contact with the Earth. The chakras link with each other and with the areas of the body they control through nadis, thousands of tiny psychic energy lines. There are three main symbolic energy channels: the sushumna, a central channel that begins at the base of the spine and rises to an area at the base of the brain, and the ida and pingala, which extends from the base of the spine to the brow and ends at the left and right nostrils. They criss-cross the sushumna in a twisted spiral like the entwined snakes of Mercury’s staff, known as the caluceus.

The universal life filters down via these channels to the chakras, each of which transforms the energy into the appropriate form for the function it governs.

Chakra energy itself is said to derive from a psychic Earth energy (the female power) called kundalini-shakti in the Hindu Tantra, and tumo in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra. The kundalini energy is described as a coiled snake sleeping at the base of the spine until activated. It is identified with the female energy Shakti, a name given to consorts of the Hindu Father God. The mingling and transference of all the energies creates a state of mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being.

Because these are psychic rather than actual physical centres, there is much debate over their precise location.

When healing others it is therefore important to trace not only the chakra locations but also the channels that join them. You will find that their paths will be specific to the individual, through following a general pattern.

Patricia Milner

International Psychic Medium, Reiki Master, Spiritual Teacher, Trainer and Author

www.patriciamilner.com

www.yourspiritualworld.com