The chakras. A monograph

THE THROAT CHAKRA

The fifth center, the laryngeal (Plate VII), at the throat, has sixteen spokes, and therefore sixteen apparent divisions. There is a good deal of blue in it, but its general effect is silvery and gleaming, with a kind of suggestion as of moonlight upon rippling water. Blue and green predominate alternately in its sections.

THE BROW CHAKRA

The sixth center, the frontal (Plate IX), between the eyebrows, has the appearance of being divided into halves, one chiefly rose-colored, though with a great deal of yellow about it, and the other predominantly a kind of purplish-blue, again closely agreeing with the colors of the special types of vitality that vivify it. Perhaps it is for this reason that this center is mentioned in Indian books as having only two petals, though if we are to count undulations of the same character as those of the previous centers we shall find that each half is subdivided into forty-eight of these, making ninety-six in all, because its primary force has that number of radiations.

This sudden leap from 16 to 96 spokes, and again the even more startling variation from 96 to 972 between this and the next chakra force-center, show us that we are now dealing with centers of an altogether different order from those which we have hitherto been considering. We do not yet know all the factors which determine the number of spokes in a chakra force-center, but it is already evident that they represent shades of variation in the primary force. Before we can say much more than this, hundreds of observations and comparisons must be made: made, repeated, and verified over and over again. But meantime this much is clear: that while the need of the personality can be satisfied by a limited number of types of force, when we come to the higher and more permanent principles of man we encounter a complexity, a multiplicity, which demands for its expression a vastly greater selection of modifications of the energy.

THE CROWN CHAKRA

The seventh center, the coronal located at the crown of the head (see frontispiece), at the top of the head, is when stirred into full activity the most resplendent of all, full of indescribable chromatic effects and vibrating with almost inconceivable rapidity. It seems to contain all sorts of prismatic hues, but is on the whole predominantly violet. It is described in Indian books as thousand-petalled, and really this is not very far from the truth, the number of the radiations of its primary force in the outer circle being nine hundred and sixty. Every line of this will be seen faithfully reproduced in our frontispiece, though it

is hardly possible to give the effect of the separate petals. In addition to this it has a feature which is possessed by none of the other chakras force-centers, a sort of subsidiary central whirlpool of gleaming white flushed with gold in its heart, a minor activity which has twelve undulations of its own.

This chakra force-center is usually the last to be awakened. In the beginning it is the same size as the others, but as the man progresses on the Path of spiritual advancement it increases steadily until it covers almost the whole top of the head. Another peculiarity attends its development. It is at first a depression in the etheric body, as are all the others, because through it, as through them, the divine force flows in from without; but when the man realizes his position as a king of the divine light, dispensing largesse to all around him, this chakra force-center reverses itself, turning as it were inside out; it is no longer a channel of reception but of radiation, no longer a depression but a prominence, standing out from the head as a dome, a veritable crown of glory.

In Oriental pictures and statues of the deities or great men this prominence is often shown. In Fig. 2 it appears on the head of a statue of the Lord Buddha at Borobudur in Java. This is the conventional method of representing it, and in this form it is to be found upon the heads of thousands of images of the Lord Buddha all over the Eastern world. In many cases it will be seen that the two tiers of the

Two line drawings illustrate the ushnisha cranial prominence representing spiritual wisdom on the head of Buddha. The drawing on the left is a profile view, showing the hair in tight curls and a rounded dome at the crown. The drawing on the right is a frontal view, showing a more stylized hair texture and a multi-tiered prominence rising from the top of the head. Both figures feature elongated earlobes.