Sahasrâra chakra the thousand-petalled crown center are copied, the larger dome of 960 petals first, and then the smaller dome of twelve rising out of that in turn. The head on the right is that of Brahmâ from the Hokké-dô Lotus Hall of Tôdai-ji Great Eastern Temple, at Nara in Japan (dating from A.D. 749); and it will be seen that the statue is wearing a head-dress fashioned to represent this center, though in a form somewhat different from the last, showing the coronet of flames shooting up from it.

It appears also in the Christian symbology, in the crowns worn by the twenty-four elders who are for ever casting them down before the throne of God. In the highly developed man this coronal center pours out splendor and glory which makes for him a veritable crown; and the meaning of that passage of Scripture is that all that he has gained, all the magnificent karma spiritual results of action that he makes, all the wondrous spiritual force that he generates, all that he casts perpetually at the feet of the Logos the Divine Word or Creator to be used in His work. So, over and over again, can he continue to cast down his golden crown, because it continually re-forms as the force wells up from within him.

OTHER ACCOUNTS OF THE CENTRES

These seven force-centers are frequently described in Sanskrit literature, in some of the minor Upanishads philosophical védic texts, the Puranas ancient mythological texts and in Tantric ritual and meditative works. They are used to-day by many Indian yogis practitioners of yoga. A friend acquainted with the inner life of India assures me that he knows of one school in that country which makes free use of the chakras force-centers, a school which numbers as its pupils about sixteen thousand people scattered over a large area. There is much interesting information available on the subject from Hindu sources, which we will try to summarize with comments in a later chapter.

It appears also that certain European mystics were acquainted with the chakras force-centers. Evidence of this occurs in a book entitled Practical Theosophy original: "Theosophia Practica" by the well-known German mystic Johann Georg Gichtel, a pupil of Jakob Boehme, who probably belonged to the secret society of the Rosicrucians. It is from this work of Gichtel's that our Plate III is reproduced by the kind permission of the publishers. This book was originally issued in the year 1696, though in the edition of 1736 it is said that the pictures, of which the volume is mainly a description, were printed only some ten years after the death of the author, which took place in 1710. The book must be distinguished from a collection of Gichtel's correspondence put forth under the same title Practical Theosophy; the present volume is not in the form of letters, but consists of six chapters dealing with the subject of that mystic regeneration which was such an important tenet of the Rosicrucians.

The illustration which we give here has been photographed from the French translation of the Practical Theosophy, published in 1897 in the Rosicrucian Library (No. 4) by the Chacornac Library, Paris.

An engraving titled "THE CHAKRAS, ACCORDING TO GICHTEL" (labeled Plate III in the text). It features a central human figure, labeled "THE NATURAL DARK TERRESTRIAL MAN / ACCORDING TO THE STARS AND THE ELEMENTS" original: "L'HOMME TERRESTRE NATUREL TENEBREUX / SELON LES ETOILES et LES ELEMENTS". Seven circular symbols are positioned along the torso and head: at the crown, the forehead, the throat (Mercury symbol), the heart (Sun symbol), the solar plexus (Moon symbol), and the lower abdomen and base of the spine (Mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn symbols). To the left of the figure, the four elements are listed: "of Fire" original: "du Feu", "of Water" original: "de l'Eau", "of Earth" original: "de la Terre", and "of Air" original: "de l'Air". To the right, their corresponding bodily locations are noted: "the Heart" original: "le Coeur" for fire, "the Liver" original: "le Foie" for water, "the Lungs" original: "les Poumons" for earth, and "the Bladder" original: "la Veisie" for air, each accompanied by an alchemical triangle symbol.