How Many Chakras Do You Have?
Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Cyndi Dale, author of a number of books, including The Complete Book of Chakra Healing and the new Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Chakras.
Pop quiz: Which answer reflects how many chakras you have?
- Seven
- Twelve
- Three
- Dozens
The correct answer is any of the above, depending on your cultural perspective.
Chakras are subtle energy organs. Just like your physical organs, such as your liver or heart, each chakra runs a part of the body. But each also manages psychological and spiritual concerns, which makes them incredibly important.
If you’ve ever taken yoga, you were probably told there are seven in-body chakras. The truth is that there are dozens of cultures that add the numbers differently, depending on their point of view.
For instance, one of the earliest Hindu sources of chakra knowledge presents six chakras, although yet another contemporary text outlines eight chakras, which, if meditated upon, grant magical powers, including the ability to become tiny. Ayurveda medicine utilizes 107 to 117 “marmani points,” which are subtle energy centers, and Zulu, Jewish, and Kamitic systems incorporate ten-plus chakra-like spheres placed on a Tree of Life.
Plato described three parts of the soul that relate to three different bodily parts, which are eerily similar to chakras; one Incan system counts nine chakras; a Sufi schematic counts five main centers; a Korean philosophy offers eleven main chakras and several minor ones; and several Hindu systems pinpoint so many secondary chakras, many extending beyond the physical body, that the numerical count far surpasses a dozen.
The beauty of learning about these systems is that you can customize your spiritual work to your own personality. So, the next time you are asked how many chakras you have—you can decide for yourself!
Our thanks to Cyndi for her guest post! For more from Cyndi Dale, read her article, “Chakras Around the World: Are There Really Seven Chakras?.”
