Chakras Explained by Barbara Brennan.pdf

Barbara Brennan's explanation of the chakras

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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

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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

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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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