Chakras Explained by Barbara Brennan, YOGA

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Barbara Brennan's explanation of the chakras
Page 1 of 5
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.
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Barbara Brennan's explanation of the chakras
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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):
BearCY
(slightly modified)
Table by
MAJOR CHAKRAS AND ASSOCIATED PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION
click on swirl (left side of table) to go to page for that chakra
(includes material from many sources as well as Barbara Brennan)
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.
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Barbara Brennan's explanation of the chakras
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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.
The parallel with
Kabbalah
mentioned above appears to be not very significant and
purely coincidental - in as much as anything in esotericism can be "coincidence" -
perhaps "archetypal convergence" (a term coined by the
Neo-Sabbatean
teacher
Yakov Leib
) is a better definition. Of greater relevance is the connection with the
centers of concentration used in the
Microcosmic orbit
, as defined by the modern-
day
Taoist
master
Mantak Chia
(below, left).
Here once again we have pairs of
chakras at the front and rear of
the body, as well as one at the
top and one at the bottom (giving
the symbolic four elements and
associated cardinal points, as
well as any number of associated
correspondences one may
choose to add).
It does not take much
imagination to realise there is
some connection here, a rather
more significant example of
archetypal convergence.
Certainly there are differences -
Mantak Chia specifically states
that these are centers of
concentration, not chakras,
although they do correspond to
specific acupuncture points
(which writers like
David Tansley
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Barbara Brennan's explanation of the chakras
Page 4 of 5
and others in turn associate with
minor chakras
).  There are no
etheric vortexes in the Taoist
version, little or no psychological
associations, and there are more
centers.  Moreover, the
microcosmic orbit, as it's name
indicates, is a a dynamic
conception involving the
circulation of Ch'i energy
.
The microcosmic orbit
diagram from
Mantak and Maneewan Chia
Awaken Healing Light
of the Tao
(Healing Tao Books, 1993), p.170.
In the formulation of Barbara Brennan, although front and rear chakras are paired,
there is no conception of a circulation of energy in a microcosm orbit that Mantak
Chia speaks of, nor is reference made to the Inner line of chakras as represented in
tantric yogic iconography. However, the distinction between Will, Feeling, and
Mental Centers is significant, and would seem to correspond pretty much to Mantak
Chia's distinction between the rear ascending yang governor channel (= will) and
the descending front yin channel (= feeling). I would suggets here that both are
describing the same realities, with the centers often in exactly the same locations,
albeit from different points of view. The circulation of ch'i is a higher movement
over the vortex in- and out-take of cosmic energy. One could even bring in
Kabbalah here as the macrocosmic equivalent. My understanding is what are
described here are what I have termed the "
Secondary chakras
" - i.e. the energic
(whether vortex or circulating) activity of the organs of the etheric bodies. By
studying phenomena like
chakras
,
auras
,
nadis
, etc, we understand more of the
nature of
the subtle body
indicated in the illustration below.
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Barbara Brennan's explanation of the chakras
Page 5 of 5
The chakras and the human aura according to
Barbara Brennan
- from
The Human Energy Field
page
diagram from
Hands of Light
, Bantam New Age books, 1988, plate 22-20
Links
PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF THE SEVEN MAJOR CHAKRAS
- from Barbara
Brennan's book
Hands of Light
  (
note
- this is
BearCY
's page where I got the excellent
coloured
table
from)
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page by
M.Alan Kazlev
page uploaded 2 March 1999, last modified 28 July 2004
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Chakras Explained by Barbara Brennan, YOGA

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