Chakra
A chakra is, in the traditions of yoga and Hindu Tantrism, an energy center located along the spinal axis of the subtle body. The best-known system counts seven of them, from the perineum (Muladhara) to the crown of the head (Sahasrara).
Origin and etymology
The Sanskrit word cakra means wheel or disk. The concept appears in medieval Hindu Tantric texts, notably the Kubjikamatatantra (c. 1000) and the Shat-chakra-nirupana (16th century) by Purnananda. Tantric doctrine presents the chakras as junction points where vital energy (prana) circulates between the nadi, the energy channels of the subtle body. The Tibetan Buddhist Tantric tradition recognizes a different system, generally with five chakras. The Western diffusion of the concept dates from the 19th century, through the theosophists Helena Blavatsky and Charles Webster Leadbeater. The latter published The Chakras in 1927, the work that fixed the English-language version at seven centers and codified their associated colors.
Evolution and tradition
The modern Western seven-chakra system is largely a 20th-century theosophical construct, partly unfaithful to the original Tantric sources which describe variable systems (4, 6, 9, 12 chakras). The seven Western chakras are: Muladhara (perineum, red), Svadhisthana (sacrum, orange), Manipura (solar plexus, yellow), Anahata (heart, green), Vishuddha (throat, blue), Ajna (forehead, indigo), Sahasrara (crown, violet). This rainbow grid was popularized by Christopher Hills in Nuclear Evolution (1968) and then by Anodea Judith in Wheels of Life (1987). Transpersonal psychology contributed to associating each chakra with psychological themes.
Practical use
Practices linked to the chakras have multiplied: guided meditations on each center, yoga postures, mantras (Lam, Vam, Ram, Yam, Ham, Aum, silence), work with sound and color. Reiki, energy healing and magnetism techniques use the chakras as a map of intervention. On Tarotoui, the chakras are documented among the classical spiritual concepts. Correspondences have been proposed between chakras and astrological signs, or between chakras and tarot cards, but these grids are modern extensions without support in the original Tantric sources.
Going further
Academic Indologists, such as David Gordon White, emphasize that the popular Western seven-chakra system is not authentic Tantric doctrine but a syncretic theosophical construct. The chakras have no anatomical existence in the physiological sense. This does not disqualify their metaphorical value for mapping inner life, but it qualifies biomedical claims. The practice of the chakras gains from being situated in its history.