Chakras are subtle centres of energy and awareness that Indian tantric and yogic traditions locate along the spine, from its base to the crown of the head. The Sanskrit word cakra simply means "wheel," and the familiar seven-chakra map comes mainly from a single 16th-century text, the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa of 1577, popularised in the West by Sir John Woodroffe in 1919. The rainbow colours and personality traits now attached to each chakra are 20th-century Western additions.
That history matters because "chakras" today usually means a blend of three very different layers: medieval Indian meditation manuals, early 20th-century Theosophy, and 1970s–80s Western psychology and colour healing. Knowing which layer a claim comes from lets a reader use chakra language for what it was designed for, focused meditation, without mistaking a modern overlay for ancient doctrine or a meditation map for an anatomy chart.
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What does the word chakra actually mean?
Cakra is the ordinary Sanskrit word for a wheel or circle, and for most of its history it had nothing to do with points in the body. In the Rigveda it appears as a chariot wheel and as a cosmic metaphor; hymn 1.164 describes a twelve-spoked wheel of order turning around the heavens, a wheel of the year and of time. The same idea gave Indian political thought the cakravartin, the "wheel-turning" universal ruler, and gave Buddhism the image of the Buddha setting in motion the wheel of the Dharma.
None of these early uses describes energy centres inside a person. The word becomes a technical term for an inner "wheel" only when tantric meditation began to picture the body as a network of channels and junctions, each visualised as a lotus or circle.
Where did the chakra system come from?
The body-centre chakras come from medieval tantra, not from the Vedas. Before that, the older Upanishads already describe channels (nāḍīs) in the body; the Katha Upanishad says a hundred and one channels issue from the heart and that one of them rises to the crown of the head. What was missing was a fixed series of centres along those channels.
That series appears in Buddhist and Hindu tantric literature from roughly the 8th century CE onward. Buddhist tantras such as the Hevajra Tantra describe four centres, usually at the navel, heart, throat and head, with some systems adding a fifth. In Hindu Śaiva tantra, the Kubjikāmata Tantra, generally dated to around the 10th century, sets out a system of five cakras, the subject of Dory Heilijgers-Seelen's study The System of Five Cakras in Kubjikāmatatantra 14–16 (1994), and the wider Kubjikā tradition is where an arrangement of six centres plus a point above the head takes shape. Nāth and Kaula lineages, the so-called Yoga Upanishads (most of them medieval compositions), and hatha yoga manuals all worked with their own maps.
The number was never settled. Depending on the text and lineage, practitioners counted four, five, six, seven, nine, twelve or more centres, placed them in different spots and assigned them different deities and mantras. A chakra list in this literature is a template for a particular visualisation practice, not a census of organs.
Who fixed the seven-chakra model?
The standard seven-chakra model in the West goes back to one Bengali text and one English translator. In 1577 the tantric scholar Pūrṇānanda completed the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa, "Explanation of the Six Cakras," part of a larger work. It describes six centres along the central channel plus the thousand-petalled lotus at the crown, which is why a "six-cakra" text produced the seven-chakra system.
Sir John Woodroffe, a British judge in Calcutta who wrote on tantra under the pen name Arthur Avalon, translated and annotated it, together with the short Pādukā-pañcaka, in The Serpent Power (1919). His book became the reference work for Western readers and for many 20th-century Indian yoga teachers, and it froze one lineage's map into "the" chakra system.
The Theosophist C. W. Leadbeater then published The Chakras (1927), based on what he described as his own clairvoyant observation rather than on Sanskrit sources. His colour plates were widely reproduced, though his scheme departed from the Indian texts, most notably by placing a centre at the spleen in place of the sexual centre.
How did chakras get their rainbow colours and meanings?
The rainbow sequence and the list of psychological qualities are modern, and they were combined only in the 1970s. The Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa gives each lotus its own colour, and those colours do not run in spectral order: the root lotus is described as deep red and the brow lotus as white as the moon.
Historian Kurt Leland, in Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to Brennan (2016), traces the rainbow assignment to Western colour healers of the 1930s and the link to endocrine glands to the 1920s. He credits the bodyworker Ken Dychtwald, writing in 1977, with bringing together the colour healers' rainbow and gland list and the human potential movement's list of chakra qualities. Christopher Hills, author of Nuclear Evolution, was another 1970s writer who overlaid the rainbow onto the chakras. Anodea Judith's Wheels of Life (1987) then gave the combined system a psychological framework that most modern books and yoga classes still follow.
The seven chakras and what each is said to govern
Each chakra below is described first as the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa tradition presents it (location, petals, seed syllable or bīja, element) and then with the modern association that Western teachers attach to it. The modern associations are labelled as such; they do not appear in the Sanskrit sources.
- Mūlādhāra, the root. Traditional: at the base of the spine, a lotus of four petals, bīja laṃ, element earth; the resting place of the coiled kuṇḍalinī. Modern association: security, stability and grounding.
- Svādhiṣṭhāna, the sacral centre. Traditional: at the root of the genitals, six petals, bīja vaṃ, element water. Modern association: creativity, pleasure and emotion.
- Maṇipūra, the navel or solar plexus. Traditional: at the navel, ten petals, bīja raṃ, element fire. Modern association: willpower, confidence and personal power.
- Anāhata, the heart. Traditional: in the region of the heart, twelve petals, bīja yaṃ, element air. Modern association: love, compassion and connection with others.
- Viśuddha, the throat. Traditional: at the throat, sixteen petals, bīja haṃ, element ether or space (ākāśa). Modern association: communication and self-expression.
- Ājñā, between the brows. Traditional: between the eyebrows, two petals, bīja oṃ, the seat of mind rather than of a physical element. Modern association: intuition and insight, the "third eye" of popular usage.
- Sahasrāra, the crown. Traditional: at or just above the crown of the head, a lotus of a thousand petals, beyond the elements, where the meditation culminates. Modern association: spiritual connection and transcendence.
What are the nāḍīs: iḍā, piṅgalā and suṣumnā?
The nāḍīs are the channels that tantric and hatha yoga texts say carry prāṇa, vital breath, through the subtle body, and the chakras sit on them like knots on a cord. Texts speak of tens of thousands of nāḍīs, but three matter most. Suṣumnā runs up the centre of the spine; iḍā and piṅgalā run alongside it on the left and right and are linked with the left and right nostrils, the moon and the sun, and cooling and heating qualities.
In the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa, the goal of the practice is to rouse kuṇḍalinī, pictured as a serpent coiled at the root centre, and draw it up suṣumnā through each lotus in turn until it unites with the crown. That ascent is the "serpent power" of Woodroffe's title. Teachers in the tradition have long stressed that intense kuṇḍalinī practice belongs under experienced guidance, a point covered in the 4biddenknowledge article Is a kundalini awakening safe?.
Are chakras real? What science says
No anatomical structure or measurement corresponds to the chakras. Dissection, imaging and physiology have not found wheels, lotuses or channels matching the texts, and there is no accepted instrument that measures a chakra or shows one as "open," "blocked" or "balanced." Claims to the contrary rely on devices or readings that have not held up under controlled testing.
The popular equation of each chakra with an endocrine gland (adrenals, gonads, pancreas, thymus, thyroid, pituitary, pineal) is a 20th-century analogy, not a finding; writers do not even agree on which gland goes with the brow and which with the crown. Some chakra locations sit near major nerve plexuses or glands, which made the comparison appealing, but proximity is not identity. For what the pineal gland actually does, see the pineal gland explained.
What can be said fairly is that chakras work as a meditation map. The texts themselves present them as objects of visualisation and mantra, and meditation and breathwork do have measurable effects on attention and stress. Practitioners associate each centre with a quality to contemplate; that is a reflective practice, not a diagnosis, and chakra work is no substitute for medical care.
Billy Carson's reading
Billy Carson uses chakra language as a focus for meditation and frequency work rather than as a medical model. His guided sessions name specific centres; one example is his Journey To Inner Peace Meditation 432 Hz Binaural Beat Gamma Wave Heart Chakra, which pairs a 432 Hz soundscape and binaural beats with attention on the heart centre. The pairing reflects his broader interest in frequency, discussed in 432 Hz vs 440 Hz explained, and it is presented as a practice for stillness and reflection, not as a treatment.
Carson's wider framework treats meditation as the step from reading about consciousness to working with it. In his teaching on the third eye he starts from the principle that there is one universal mind of which every person is part, so inner faculties such as intuition become ways of tuning in to a consciousness that already exists, developed through steady discipline rather than a sudden breakthrough. His guide on how to open your third eye sets out that approach, and his Merkaba meditation uses the star tetrahedron in a similar way, as a map for focusing attention and intention. In that sense chakras, the Merkaba and the third eye function in his work as three related maps for the same inward practice.
Watch, read and go deeper
Billy Carson's guided sessions, including chakra-focused and 432 Hz meditations, are collected in the Meditation series on 4BK TV. For his own explanation of why he meditates and what he believes the practice offers, listen to his podcast episode on the benefits of meditation. To place chakras alongside the pineal gland, the Merkaba and the wider study of mind, start at the Consciousness topic hub.
Frequently asked questions
How many chakras are there?
Modern teaching usually counts seven, from the root at the base of the spine to the crown of the head. Historically the number varied: Buddhist tantras often describe four or five centres, the Kubjikāmata Tantra a five-centre system, and other lineages six, nine, twelve or more. The seven-chakra standard follows Pūrṇānanda's Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa (1577) as translated by John Woodroffe.
Are chakra colours ancient?
No. The rainbow sequence from red at the root to violet at the crown is a 20th-century Western addition, and historian Kurt Leland dates its combination with the modern list of chakra qualities to 1977. The Sanskrit texts give each lotus a colour, but those colours do not follow the spectrum.
Are chakras mentioned in the Vedas?
The word cakra is in the Vedas, but there it means a wheel, including the cosmic wheel of time in Rigveda 1.164, not a centre in the body. The early Upanishads describe channels in the body, and the chakra series itself appears in tantric texts from around the 8th century CE onward.
Is there scientific evidence for chakras?
No anatomical structure or measurement has been found that corresponds to a chakra, and the link between chakras and endocrine glands is a 20th-century analogy. Chakra practice is best understood as a meditation and visualisation framework. Anyone with a health concern should consult a qualified clinician rather than rely on chakra work.
What is the difference between chakras and kundalini?
Chakras are the centres along the central channel of the subtle body; kuṇḍalinī is the energy that tantric texts picture coiled at the root centre. In the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa, the practice consists of raising kuṇḍalinī up through each chakra to the crown, which is why Woodroffe titled his translation The Serpent Power.
Sources and further reading
- Pūrṇānanda, Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa (1577), in Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), The Serpent Power (1919)
- C. W. Leadbeater, The Chakras (1927)
- Dory Heilijgers-Seelen, The System of Five Cakras in Kubjikāmatatantra 14–16 (1994)
- Kurt Leland, Rainbow Body: A History of the Western Chakra System from Blavatsky to Brennan (2016)
- Anodea Judith, Wheels of Life: A User's Guide to the Chakra System (1987)
- Christopher Wallis, "The Real Story on the Chakras" (2016)
- The Katha Upanishad, in Patrick Olivelle's translation of The Early Upaniṣads (1998)
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This content is for information only and is not medical advice.
