Anodea Judith - Llewellyns Truth About Chakras

About the Author

Anodea Judith is the founder and director of LIFEWAYS in Northern California. As a professional healer and bodyworker, she has studied acupressure, yoga, bioenergetics, psychic healing and reading, gestalt therapy, radical psychiatry, ritual magic, and shamanism. She serves as Priestess and President of the Church of All Worlds, helping run its subsidiary organizations, Forvever Forests, Nemeton, and the Holy Order of Mother Earth.

Copyright Information

The Truth About Chakras 1990, 1994 Llewellyn Publications. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever including Internet usage, without written permission from Llewellyn Publications, except in the form of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

As the purchaser of this e-book, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. The text may not be otherwise reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, or recorded on any other storage device in any form or by any means.

Any unauthorized usage of the text without express written permission of the publisher is a violation of the authors copyright and is illegal and punishable by law.

First e-book edition 2013

E-book ISBN: 978-0-7387-3846-8

Interior art Llewellyn Art Department

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

Llewellyn Publications does not participate in, endorse, or have any authority or responsibility concerning private business arrangements between our authors and the public.

Any Internet references contained in this work are current at publication time, but the publisher cannot guarantee that a specific reference will continue or be maintained. Please refer to the publishers website for links to current author websites.

Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

2143 Wooddale Drive

Woodbury, MN 55125

www.llewellyn.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

THE SYSTEM OF CHAKRAS

A chakra is a spinning vortex of energy created within ourselves by the interpenetration of consciousness and the physical body. Through this combination, chakras become centers of activity for the reception, assimilation, and transmission of life energies. Uniting the chakras is what we experience as the self. It is through our chakras that our self grows and changes and interacts with the world.

The word chakra comes from the Sanskrit word for wheel or "disk and originated within the philosophy of the ancient yoga systems of India, most specifically from the Tantric texts. In this system, there are seven major chakras arranged vertically along the spine, starting at the base of the spine and ending at the top of the head (see Figure 1 ). In the physical body, these seven chakras correspond to major nerve ganglia, glands of the endocrine system, and various bodily processes, such as breathing, digesting, or procreating. While the chakras do exist within the physical body, exhibiting strong influence on such things as body shape or health, they are not made of any physical components themselves. A physician could not operate on a chakra anymore than an emotion, yet both can and do affect us physically.

Figure 1

In the psychological realm (by which I include the mental, emotional, and spiritual) the chakras correspond to major areas of our lives, such as survival, sex, power, love, communication, perception, and understanding (see ).

Taking the original meaning of the word chakra one step further, the chakras within us can be seen as our internal floppy disks that store our programming about how to function in life. The base chakra contains our survival program, such as what we like to eat and when we need exercise; the second chakraour sexuality program, such as ethics and preferences; the upper chakrasour modes of perception and information storage. Our body is like a computer, with each of us being a slightly different model, programmed in a distinct language with a unique operating system. Ideally, ones work on the chakras is to examine the programming we have been given on each of these levels, eliminating destructive programming and consciously recreating something more beneficial.

Philosophically, the chakras correspond to major archetypal concepts, such as the elements of earth, water, fire, air, sound, light, and thought. The elements describe the essential nature of that chakras function, such as earth that contains, water that flows, or fire that transforms. Numerous other correspondences, such as colors, sounds, herbs, and gemstones, have also been correlated to the chakras and can be used as tools for accessing and developing them.

There are many smaller chakras throughout the body, such as those in our hands and feet. These are functioning centers like any of the others but are not usually attributed to major philosophical areas. Yet those working with their hands are likely to have well-developed hand chakras, and a runner might have well-developed channels through their foot chakras.

As a composite system, the seven chakras describe a set of patterns that are evident through many aspects of life. In terms of cultural evolution, they describe the stages the human race has been through and where we are going, from the (first chakra) survival consciousness of the Paleolithic era to the power-dominated (third chakra) consciousness of the present era.

In terms of individual development, the chakras describe the progression from infancy to early adulthood that repeats itself again from adulthood to old age as we establish our survival strategies, form sexual relationships, develop our personal power, communicate, dream, and learn. As we understand the significance of these levels, we can better develop appropriate strategies for coping with our situations, whether personal or cultural.