the chakras

Western Understanding:

• Introduced to the West by Theosophist HP Blavatsky

• Further popularized in Theosophist circles by Arthur Avalon (aka, Sir John Woodruffe) in The Serpent Power (1919)

• Occultist Edgar Cayce famously incorporated them into his readings and practices

• Carl Jung interpreted the chakras as stages of psychological development within the consciousness.

The chakras

• energy centers in the astral body according to hindu philosophy

• not biologically proven to exist but thought of as psycho-energetic centers of consciousness

• they are energy points that govern specific regions of the body

• in esoteric new age discourse, they are thought to govern states of being, emotions, etc.

history:

• first mentioned between 1500-500 BC in the Vedas of India, in the Yoga Upanishads (600 B.C.) and Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (200 B.C.).

• The chakras are part of yoga, a wellness practice with over 5000 years from the Indian subcontinent.

• Contemporary understanding of chakras comes from the Tantric text Sri Tattva Cintamani where chakras are detailed in the sixth chapter of the book titled Sat Cakra Nirupana (Swami Purnananda, 1526-70 CE).