SELF KNOWLEDGE: THE 7 MAJOR CHAKRAS AND THE ENERGY VESSELS – Introduction to other relevant energy centers

“The Human Being is a rainbow,
It is made of all the specrtum of the seven colors:
This is his/her beauty and it is also his/her problem.
The Human Being is multidimensional, he/she has multiple facets.
Its nature is not simple, it is an incredible complexity;
And from that complexity there comes the harmony
That we call God: the divine melody. […]
“Man is a rainbow, I say, because a rainbow
 will provide you with the global perspective in which human kind can be understood:
From the lowest point to the highest.
The Rainbow has seven colors,
The human being has seven centers of his own nature.
The allegory of the number Seven is very ancient;
In India it took the form of the seven chakras:
The lowest is the Muladhara, the highest is the Sahasrara
And between these two there are five steps, five more chakras.
Man must go through all these seven chakras, seven steps to the divine. “
Osho
(excerpt from the book “Chakra: the Power of Life “)

Chakra is a Sanskrit term that in our language corresponds to the word wheel, disc. In esoteric terms it indicates each of the centers of Energy reception and transmission of the human body. These centers are real living, intelligent, swirling, entities through which the human body absorbs and metabolizes the universal prana in the right amount and most appropriate way.
Basic components of the Aura and the subtle bodies, the chakras, depending on their position in the body, carry out a myriad of fundamental tasks for our functioning and our good health and also for our spiritual growth and evolution. Each of them plays an essential role with regards to the connection to the various levels of consciousness, to multiple dimensions and ultra-visible worlds, to the archetypal elements, to the phases in life development, to colors, to sounds and to many other aspects of existence.

To keep one’s chakras clean, harmonious and in perfect health is the basis for one’s wellbeing.

According to the ancient traditional esoteric texts, there are 88,000 chakras in the human body. This means that each section of our body, even the most infinitely small one has its own Chakra although infinitely tiny. There are therefore countless secondary chakras of which about forty are of some importance. They are scattered throughout the body, in correspondence with organs, minor glands, joints and bones, etc.

Most esoteric schools take into account only the seven major chakras because of their control over the major endocrine glands (and also for their size), but some schools, taking the cue from the esoteric texts of A.A. Bailey, include more chakras; for example, the Pranic Healing Academy takes into account eleven chakras, considering them, by reason, of relevant importance.

In this article, we are going to give a general overview about all the chakras, also providing some information on some of the minor ones that may have a delicate function and need not to be underestimated; we are also going to give hints about the energy vessels and conduicts, as they are strictly engaged in the dissemination of prana throughout the whole body, and will also explain how the energy moves within them. In the future essays we shall reserve a specific space to each Chakra by examining them one by one in a detailed way.

Each main Chakra is positioned along the spine, starting from the sacrum, up to the highest part of the head in the center of the skull. Only the first and the last chakras look respectively downwards and upwards, while the others stick out from the front and, for some, from the back of the body. Each of these centers is connected to the main ganglia of the nerves that root in the spine.

In General, the chakras absorb and assimilate the prana from the sun, the air and the earth and then spread it to the various parts of the body. Since, as we said, they are intelligent entities, they are able to manage the energy flows both inwards and outwards in order to optimize the well functioning of the body and mind of the human being, as well as to set the ground for his/her inner spiritual evolution.

The 7 major chakras have the delicate function of controlling and energizing the major endocrine glands, and, among them, those located from the cardiac area up to the head, are also in charge for the development of the psychic human abilities; hence their importance as main Chakras.

Yet, it is also interesting and useful to know that there are at least 4 more very important chakras that deserve to be taken into greater consideration for the relevance of their function and they are:

-The spleen Chakra: ( located on the side of the spleen, this one being the secondary lymphoid larger gland of the lymphatic system), which has the essential task to act as a gateway for the globules of vitality of the air to enter the body, granting the sufficient amount of energy to all the other chakras. Also, being so close to the spleen (which yet has its own Chakra) it helps it in purifying the blood from disease-carrying germs and unealthy entities;

-The Meng Mein Chakra: located in the back, precisely in the lumbar area between the root chakra and the navel chakra (right by the kidneys and the adrenal glands, which it controlls and energizes); it is in charge for the blood pressure levels and has the peculiar function of pumping the prana from the root chakra up to all the other chakras: if this chakra is malfunctioning, all the other chakras will not receive adequate energy;

-The Navel Chakra: which is closely related to the intestines and responsible for the vitality of the human being;

-The Forehead Chakra: (located slightly higher than the Ajna or Third eye Chakra), which has the delicate function of controlling the entire nervous system and, together with the Crown Chakra, of controlling and energizing the pineal gland.

Looking at their conformation, each chakra appears to be composed of petals that vary in number, increasing from bottom to top for each chakra; hence the association with the idea of the flower, for which they are also given the name of Lotus.
  Just like the flowers, to the esoterically expert’s eye they appear to have a root based in the corresponding energy duct, a stem, and a crown, as well as a protective membrane that filters the incoming energies, banning harmful elements and germs.
Moreover, as for the flowers, their size 

varies according to their development and their minor or greater closure or disclosure; this variation in size and development determines the good or bad health of the body and organs they control as well as the psychological conditions of the individual. A Chakra can be empty, thus hypo-active when not completely closed, or congested and hyper-active, thus excessively open.

On a psychological level, all the thought forms created by a human being in the course of his/her life through his/her experiences, especially those of one’s childhood, are impressed in his/her chakras, together with the related convictions and subsequent conditionings and the emerging mental attitudes about one’s self and the world around.
If one suffered a specific trauma, the relative energy congestion generated within a particular chakra can become a real block that does not allow him/her to live their lives in a harmonious and fulfilling way. This happens because all the emotional imprintings of all the events experienced by an individual are recorded in each Chakra, together with the significance these events where given through the person’s capacity of interpretation, thus contributing to create the foundations of his/her behaviour habits which may or may not allow the person’s best individual expression. What we are describing here is the process through which the so-called conditionings are formed, resulting in manifestations of possible low self-esteem, victimhood, non-acceptance, fear, inability to communicate one’s feelings, isolation, rejection, and so on.

Carl Gustav Jung, who based his psychoanalysis research on the esoteric alchemic knowledge and the oriental wisdom, considered the path for accessing the abyss of the unconscious mind a process linked to the work of opening all the chakras and releasing the present congested energy, process which he referred to as “individuation”. Such a process, according to his theories, leads to the awakening of the dormant potential power present in every human being which, if adequately promoted, brings to the self-actualization of the individual through the transition from the ego to the impersonal self.
The same process, according to the Oriental disciplines is referred to as “enlightenment” and, just like in Jung’s approach, corresponds to the liberation of the human being from all the unconscious limitant behaviour patterns and habits, with the consequent rising to higher levels of consciousness and full manifestation of the true nature of the self. 

On an energetic level the main chakras are connected to the main energy channel, called Sushumna, located inside the spinal cord, that, staring from the bottom, along the spine, goes from the sacral bone (site of the Kundalini, which is the divine energy that is believed to reside in quiescent form in each individual) to the center of the head, letting energy flow upwards and downwards.
On the sides, by Sushumna, there are two other smaller vessels: – IDA,  a feminine energy duct that, in carrying the prana, seems to have a calming effect, giving serenity and activating the psyche; and – PINGALA, a masculine duct, which activates a person’s will, providing vitality and active creativity. They both, like Sushumna, are rooted in the sacrum and reach respectively the left nostril and the right nostril.

Sushumna, Ida and Pingala are part of the circuit of energy vessels which Hindu philosophy refers to with the name of NADI which, like the chakras, depending on the size, are scattered in the human body in hundreds of thousands, mainly, with regards to the Nadi, inside the nervous system.
The energy of the Kundalini, when it is appropriately awakened, rises from the sacred bone at the base of the spine up to the crown through Sushumna, Ida and Pingala flowing through the pineal gland, activating it and generating the awakening of the higher consciousness.

As it goes up the Kundlini penetrates into each Chakra which it activates and purifies, thus elevating the capacity of its auric field to resonate and connect with highly refined subtle energies, leading to the transmutation of all the blocks and energy congestions, then bringing the entire Aura of the individual back to its original integrity and providing the ability to experience reality directly, for what it is, in the “here and now”, without the filters and distortions of past experiences.

If a chakra is either emptied, congested or blocked, it will not allow the energy to flow freely along Sushumna, negatively affecting all the other chakras and the individual as a whole, on both a physical and a mental/psychological level. On all planes of existence, the free flow of energy is essential to make it possible for Life to manifest from the invisible into the visible through an upwards and downwards rithmical motion that generates two currents referred to as “the ascending (or liberating) current” and “the discending (or manifesting) current.”

As a matter of fact, peculiar to the phases of creation is the law of bipolarity, that is, the continuous swinging of the vital energy between two extremes, two opposite poles, in a continuous dance of ascension and descent, inhalation and exhalation, give and take, attraction and repulsion, etc.
It is the Yin and Yang concept of duality, jus like day and night, light and darkness, life and death, and so on.
Each of the polarities contains one seed of the opposite one and, at the completion of each transformation cycle, they turn one into another (e.g. the day, in a 12 hours cycle turns into night).

Men and women are reversely polarized so that the positive charges of a man correspond to the negative ones of a woman. For this reason their chakras rotate alternating each in the opposite direction than the other (e.g. the female base chakra rotates towards left, while the masculine one rotates to the right, and so on for each chakra upwards the spine, alternately).
The Inhalation/exaltation process does not occur only within the microcosm (human being), it also takes place within the Macrocosm (the crescent and decreasing lunar phases are an example of inhalation and exaltation respectively).
To  have a clear idea of the way it all takes place, we can imagine the manifesting current (flow of consciousness) as an iridescent white light that enters the Crown Chakra and flows downwards, determining the Path of Immanence. At the same time, we can imagine the current of liberation (flow of matter/energy) as a white iridescent light that enters the Root Chakra and flows upwards determining the Path of Transcendence.
Our proper grounding into the matter and our rising up towards higher consciousness levels depend on the right balance between the flow of these two currents: we would be too attached to the physical and material aspects of existence and prevented in our evolution if the flow of the current of manifestation were preponderant or, on the contrary, too absorbed in our inner perception, thus incapable of having our part on the physical plane in managing material issues if the flow of the current of liberation were eccessively present.

Besides the Hindi energetic anatomic system, there is the Traditional Chinese Medicine (MTC)  organic system of meridians, also based on the polarity Yin/Yang, as well as on the connection of the body organs to the 5 elements (earth, metal, water, wood, fire), proper to the Chinese philosophy.

The above described process is what happens in what is esoterically defined the VERTICAL DIMENSION.
Precisely, since mankind is a combination of spirit and matter it belongs to both the vertical dimension and the HORIZONTAL DIMENSION.
On the horizontal level, on the other hand, the principle of giving and receiving (also called the Law of Reciprocity) rules, influencing the evolution of the human being. This law is based on the flowing through each chakra of a circuit of energy composed of the Receptive Current and the Expressive Current. If they are in a state of surplus or lack with respect to one other’s reciprocity relation, these currents can create blocks which can be solved only when the consequent conflicts between the two equal and opposite forces are again integrated and the flows brought back to balance. Such conflicts occur when an experience or event disturbs the natural coexistence of physical, psychological, hereditary, anthropological and of any other basic factor in a human being.

This crossing of dimensions finds its archetypal symbol in the Christian Cross, very often linked only to the widespread meaning of Jesus’ suffering.

The energy centers extend far beyond the microcosm of the human being into higher dimensions. Above the seventh major chakra, (the Crown Chakra), there exist a number of extra energy centers and corresponding energy bodies that connect to the higher planes of existence, stimulating the individual to carry out his/her spiritual evolution.
The next chakra right above the Crown is the chakra of the Incarnated Soul. This center is located several inches from the head and oversees the personality, spraying it when possible with its energy, until the human being voluntarily establishes a contact that allows its presence to integrate with his/her lower subtle bodies and provide guidance.
The Incarnated Soul is connected to the chakra of the Superior Soul which is located above it and in which the Spirit resides.
The relationship between these two chakras is like the one between a large jug and a cup, in which the chakra of the Incarnate Soul represents the cup receiving energy from the larger jug, the Superior Soul.
There are also countless other chakras that are said to reach the Divine source, which someone esoterically considers to be located at the center of the Milky Way.
These centers appear to the expert esotericist’s eye aligned one on the other to form a pillar of light called Antahkarana. This column of light is, in the beginning, as thin as a hair, as it needs to be constructed and thickened through meditation, in order to remain in stable contact with the upper planes.
The evolution of human consciousness, in fact, does not occur automatically like for the evolutionary phases affecting the lower reigns of nature, but requires a voluntary effort.
Building the Antahkarana means to tread the real path of the human being towards the Father, which completes when the individual joins the Incarnate Soul first, and then the Spirit. When this happens, the chakras residing inside the physical body related to the material plane also participate to the process making it possible for the Spirit to spray and sanctify the matter.
When the Spirit joins the matter the so-called Christ Consciousness activates in the Self, causing the experience of Enlightenment.

The Christ is the Love Principle of the Hierarchy of the Great Beings of Light. These Divine Beings assist the mankind and all the planet through the awakening process, starting from those who are ready and carry out spiritual practices, preparing the groung for the Christ to come back to Earth and perform redemption and healing from all lower and dissonant energies.
To build the Antahkarana is for mankind to build the bridge with the Great Beings of the Spiritual Hierarchy, for Planet Earth with other planets and for this Solar System with other solar systems.
What we have described above is referred to as the Return Path (or Ascending Phase).
At this stage it is considered evolutionary, since planet Earth and Mankind have come to a level of experience in the material plane where they are ready to ascend towards higher dimensions.
At the dawn of life on planet Earth, however, it was the Descending phase (tha fall described in the Old Testament), the process of incarnation and identification with material maniefstations, to be considered useful to the evolutional process.

Characteristics to the whole existence on all planes, in any case, are motion, change, creativity, continuous rebirth. Nothing remains the same and everything is transformed through fractal cycles in which the same events repeat on a higher octave, allowing all beings to integrate wider knowledge and perspectives, as they move forward into higher planes and levels of consciousness.

More precisely, according to Anthroposophy, the specific cycles of a human existence are well defined and last each 7 years. Throughout his/her life the human being is subjected to particular influences and is led to undergo certain experiences that allow him/her to mature all the aspects of each chakra on the physical level (with the corresponding renewal of all the cells of the body) and the mental/psychological/animic ones, moving every 7 years to the next phase. In this process only the 7 major chakras are affected, starting with the Root Chakra upwards to the seventh. Each stage is also subdivided in 7 smaller phases of one year each, corresponding, again, one by one, to the seven major chakras from the base of the spine upwards.
At the forty-ninth year of age, a full cycle is completed and a new cycle opens, on a higher octave, integrating all experiences and influences for the beginning of a new phase.

It is useful to know that even before our birth, our chakras go through specific phases with a reverse order. In this process, starting from the Crown Chakra, the vital energy descends through all the other chakras to the Root Chakra, where the complete growth of the fetus takes place together with its connection with the earthly world.

The main chakras are the following, starting from the bottom to the top:

Basic Chakra or Root Chakra – Muladhara:

At the base of the spine, in the area of the coccyx. It controls the adrenal glands and the sexual organs. It energizes the whole body, bones, muscles, blood and internal organs. It influences the vitality in general, the warmth of the body and the growth of infants and children. It is the center of the individual’s survival and self-preservation.
It relates to the earth and the physical world.
Stability, ability to achieve.
It has 4 petals.
Mantra: LAM.

Sacral Chakra or Sex Chakra – Svadhistana:

Pubic area. Sexual organs, bladder and legs.
Lower or physical creative center.
Primary feelings. Flowing with life, sensuality, eroticism, wonder and enthusiasm.
It has 6 petals.
Mantra: VAM.

Solar plexus Chakra – Manipura:

It is located in front and rear of the body. The front solar plexus chakra is located in the hollow area between the ribs and together with the back solar plexus chakra, which is located in the corresponding area on the back side of the body, controls the diaphragm, the pancreas, the liver, the stomach, and, to a certain extent, small and large intestines, appendix and other internal organs.
It acts as an energy clearing room. It also controls the body’s heating and cooling system.
Manifestation of one’s own personality. Assimilation of experiences and emotions. Structuring of one’s self. Influence, power and strength, improvements and wisdom that derive from experience.
It has 10 petals.
the Mantra: RAM.

Heart Chakra – Anahata:

It divides in front and rear. The front is located in the center of the chest, the rear in the corresponding area on the back of the body. The front controls the heart, the thymus gland and the circulatory system; the rear controls the lungs the heart and the thymus gland.
Qualities of love, compassion, participation, empathy, altruism, devotion, identification, sincerity.
It has 12 petals.
Mantra: YAM.

Throat Chakra-Vishuddha:

It is located in the center of the throat. It controls the throat, the thyroid gland, the parathyroid glands, and the lymphatic system.
Communication and manifestation of one’s creativity, of one’s Truth.
Evolution, autonomy, inspiration, superior creativity linked to access to the higher planes.
It has 16 petals.
Mantra: HAM.

Ajna Chakra or Third eye Chakra – Ajna:

It lies between the eyebrows. It controls the pituitary gland and the endocrine glands and, to some extent, the brain. Controls the other major chakras and the corresponding vital organs.
Intuition, discernment, inner vision, overview, integration and harmonization of the cerebral hemispheres, use of the abstract mind.
Will, capacity of achievement and realization.
It is made of 96 petals (2 x 48 petals)
Mantra: Ksham.

Crown Chakra – Sahasrara:

At the top, in the center of the head. Controls the brain and the pineal gland.
Enlightenment, inner contemplation.
Union with one’s Higher Self and universal consciousness.
Lotus with 1000 petals.
Mantra: OM.

• One last note is for the chakras that reside below the Root Chakra.
  They are not worth to mention since they exist, but the human being has now transceded them in the form of abandoned shells.

The techniques to heal and purify the chakras, bringing them to their original integrity can be learned and practiced on one’s self and others.
The most corroborated ones such as Reiki, Pranic Healing, but in general all the paths of inner growth, give the proper tools to operate an energy purification.
They also give the opportunity to enter into a state of acceptance and relaxation which is the starting point for the transformation of all conditions.
These techniques can be integrated with the use of some natural tools that allow the chakras to enter into resonance, at a pure state, with their corresponding harmonic vibrations free of blocks and congestions, such as crystals, essential oils, sounds, colors and the contact with nature.

“[…] So, it seems that the path through
The daily sufferings is an almost inevitable process
Also, since gold is obtained through the
Transmutation of lead, however, according to alchemy,
You have to have a small amount of gold.
This means that our events
of difficulties and suffering provide the basic substances
for an uplifting transformation,
But only if, inside, our heart is already,
At least slightly, activated, and if we are already
Able to produce a minimum of presence and
Awareness in the midst of the
Mechanical reactions of our personality.
Without these two assumptions
Nothing is achievable, because we wouldn’t know
Just where to start from.”
Salvatore Brizzi,
(Excerpt from: The Laws of inner change
From the blog: “The Golden Door” – “La Porta d’Oro”)

“[…] Well,
the first thing to understand about man
is that he still does not exist:
it’s just a possibility, a potentiality.
Human beings may be, man is a promise.
A dog exists, a rock exists, the sun exists …
the human being may be.
From this the anxiety and the anguish are born:
he may also lack that opportunity,
there is no certainty.
You can flower, you can not bloom;
hence the tremor, the disruption,
the inner trepidation:
“Who knows if I can do it, or not?” “
Osho

 

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Bibliography and references:- “Handbook of Chakras” theory and Practice of S. Sharamon & B. J. Bajinski;
– “Miracles with the Pranic Healing ” by Master Choa Kok Sui;
-From the web.
You can find them, along with the texts of Alice A. Bailey, at the following links:

     

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