Barbara Brennan's explanation of the chakras
The chakras according to Barbara Brennan (diagnostic view)
diagram from Hands of Light, Bantam New Age books, 1988, p.46.
The contemporay holistic healer Barbara Brennan goes into some detail regarding the chakras. In this she is following the Theosophists like Leadbeater, Alice Bailey, David Tansley and many others. Like them, she adopts the Tantric model of seven chakras but modifies it quite drastically, the chakras being no longer organs of yogic consciousness but rather etheric (and astral, and mental...) vortexes (see above illustration), which serve as transformers that receive and process cosmic energy, as well as enabling expression and healthy functioning of the individual's own consciousness and psycho-physical make-up. Barbara Brennan's unique contribution is to have not one but two rows of chakras, arranged in pairs located at the front and rear. These are given specific psychological characteristics, the front ones being associated with Feeling, the rear with Will, and the upper three with the Intellect. One is reminded here of the psychological triads of Steiner and Gurdjieff, and even more of the Kabbalistic idea of left and right columns of Mercy and Severity - here transposed front and rear, and the supernal triad of "intellectual" sefirot (as explained by the occultist McGregor Mathers and others). The following table lists the psychological associations of each of these chakras in more detail (as well as links to respective pages):
| MAJOR CHAKRAS AND ASSOCIATED PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION
Click on swirl (left side of table) to find more information on each individual chakra
|
| MENTAL CENTERS: |
ASSOCIATED WITH: |
| 7
|
Crown Center |
Integration of total personality with life, and spiritual aspects of mankind |
| 6A
|
Forehead Center |
Capacity to visualize and understand mental concepts. |
| 6B
|
Mental Executive |
Ability to carry out ideas in a practical way. |
| WILL CENTERS: |
|
| 5B
|
Base of Neck |
Sense of self, within society and one's profession. |
| 4B
|
Between Shoulder Blades |
Ego will, or will towards the outer world. |
| 3B
|
Diaphragmatic Center |
Healing, intentionality towards one's health. |
| 2B
|
Sacral Center |
Quantity of sexual energy. |
| 1
|
Coccygeal Center |
Quantity of physical energy, will to live. |
| FEELING CENTERS: |
|
| 5A
|
Throat Center |
Taking in and assimilating. |
| 4A
|
Heart Center |
Heart feelings of love for other human beings, openness to life. |
| 3A
|
Solar Plexus |
Great pleasure and expansiveness, spiritual wisdom, and consciousness of universality of life. Who you are within the Universe. |
| 2A
|
Pubic Center |
Quality of love for sexual partner
giving and receiving physical, mental and spiritual pleasure. |
