Judith - Wheels of Life: A Users Guide to the Chakra System

Llewellyn Publications

Woodbury, Minnesota

Copyright Information

Wheels of Life 1987 and 1999 by Anodea Judith.

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First e-book edition 2012

E-book ISBN: 9780738715957

Second Edition

Sixteenth Printing, 2012

First edition, seventeen printings, 1987

Cover design: Adrienne W. Zimiga

Cover art: Women Meditating photolibrary.com/Alfonse Pagano; Tranquil Lotus photolibrary.com/stereohype

Figure illustrations: Mary Ann Zapalac

Second edition book design: Christine Nell Snow

Second edition editing: Christine Nell Snow and Kimberly Nightingale

Permissions:

The Wheel of Life by Paul Edwin Zimmer, 1981.

The Chakras by C.W. Leadbeater. Quest Books, Wheaton, IL, 1972.

The Black Pagoda by Robert Eversole. University Presses of Florida, Gainsville, FL, 1957.

Kundalini Yoga for the West by Swami Sivananda Radha. Timeless Books, Porthill, ID, 1981. Color plates of Chakra Set are available from Timeless Books.

Sexual Secrets by Nik Douglas and Penny Slinger. Destiny Books, Rochester, VT, 1979.

Energy Matter and Form by Christopher Hills. University of the Trees Press, Boulder Creek, CA, 1977.

Llewellyn Publications is an imprint of Llewellyn Worldwide Ltd.

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FOR MY SON ALEX

Acknowledgments

In the many years in which I have worked with the chakras, there have been numerous memorable people who have crossed my path and shared their wisdom. At the top of that list are the students and clients who have undertaken the daring work of healing and personal growth. Your struggles and triumphs, your questions and comments, have all been a guiding force in my work. May the words in this book help guide you in return.

Then there are those steadfast members of my personal life who have believed in me, worked with me, and supported me in a myriad of ways. Topping that list is my husband, Richard Ely, for loving me and cheering me on, for editing, and for making sure my science is accurate. I would like to thank my son, Alex Wayne, who contributes computer graphics and makes me laugh. And I would like to thank my long-time friend and teaching cohort, Selene Vega, who first inspired me to write a book about the chakras. She has helped develop the material shared in our workshops and was co-author of my second book, The Sevenfold Journey.

I would like to thank Carl Weschcke for publishing this book the first time around before chakras were popular, and the many fine folks at Llewellyn who have been part of this re-Vision: Jim Garrison, Christine Snow, Kimberly Nightingale, and Lynne Menturweck. I would also like to thank Mary Ann Zapalac for artwork, and Carlisle Holland, D. O., Robert Lamb, D. C., and Michael Gandy, L. Ac., for sharing their professional expertise.

Most of all I am grateful to the indelible spirit that keeps us alive and to the Chakra System itself, for being such a profound gateway to the mysteries of life.

It is a great honor to be of service to you all.

CONTENTS

And the Wheel Turns

Chakra One: Earth

Chakra Two: Water

Chakra Three: Fire

Chakra Four: Love

Chakra Five: Sound

Chakra Six: Light

Chakra Seven: Thought

The Return Journey

How Chakras Interact

Chakras and Relationships

An Evolutionary Perspective

Fostering Healthy Chakras in Children

Preface to
the Second Edition

It has now been twenty-five years since I first discovered the word chakra . At that time I rarely found the word in an index or card catalog, yet there are now countless references and scores of New Age books on the subject, not to mention tuning forks, colored candles, incenses, t-shirts, and the usual paraphernalia that embellish any archetypal theme awakening in the collective consciousness. While I am duly flattered by those who credit the first edition of this book as seminal in that trend, I believe it is instead part of a larger cultural thirst for models of integration and wholeness. In short, the Chakra System is an idea whose time has come.

As we begin the third millennium of the current era, we are facing a time unparalleled in human development. Our history books have shown us that the systems we use to organize our lives have an enormous effect on our collective reality. This knowledge makes it imperative to innovate systems that serve us intelligently. As we pass through this particular cusp in history, we must build bridges between past and future, not only creating models that fit new realities, but continually updating old models to keep them viable in a rapidly changing culture. If the Chakra System is going to be meaningful in the twenty-first century, it must reflect the underlying fabric that has always existed, while still having the flexibility to be relevant to the demands of modern life. The ancients created a profound system. We can now marry its wisdom with modern information about the natural world, the body, and the psyche to create an even more effective system.

When I first injected chakra theory with such ideas as grounding , or proposed the idea of a downward current of consciousness, some were skeptical. Most interpretations of the chakras focused on transcending our physical reality, portraying it as inferior or degenerate. Life is suffering, we are told, and the transcendent planes are its antidote. If life is suffering and transcendence the antidote, the logic of this equation implies that transcendence is counter to life itselfa view that I seriously question in this book.

I do not believe that we need to sacrifice our zest for life and its enjoyment in order to advance spiritually. Nor do I see spirituality as antithetical to worldly existence, or that spiritual growth requires intense domination and control of our innate biological natures, hence of life itself. I believe this is part of a control paradigm, appropriate to a former age but inappropriate to the current challenges of our time. These challenges require models of integration rather than domination.