The Seven Chakras

The Seven Chakras are an Eastern concept that has been adopted enthuastically by many in the West. The principles of the system are applied to everything from meditation and massage through to healing, therapy and more exotic concepts such as the third eye.

And, of course, as with anything in the West there is also a huge amount of chakra design stuff available to buy - music, art, jewelry etc.

What Are The Chakras?

The seven chakras are said to be the seven centres of certain forms of "energy" - kundalini - in the human body. The exact nature of these centres and the energy they contain is open to interpretation. To some the energy is physical, to others it is of a metaphysical nature whilst to others the concept is simply a useful metaphor.

The word chakra originates from the Sanskrit for "wheel" of "circle"; this is in keeping with the general approach of Eastern philosophy to seeing everything as a wheel. The word can also refer to an object of circular shape such as a lotus flower - the representation often used to visualise the chakras. They are usually thought of as lined up vertically in the human body with kundalini flowing through them.

Originally various sources used varying numbers of chakra, however this has now stablised to a generally accepted list of seven points of focus. These are:

Crown (Sahasrara)

Pineal / Third Eye (Ajna)

Throat (Vishuddha)

Heart (Anahata)

Solar Plexus (Manipura)

Sacral (Swadhisthana)

Root / Base (Muladhara)

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