We have looked at six of the seven chakras that are generally spoken about in the context of White Magic. There are three that are not spoken about and you can guess why. We now come to the last chakra on our list. This centre, the seventh, situated at the top of the head, is somewhat different in construction from the other six. It is described in Indian books as the thousand-petalled lotus, though the actual number of radiations of the primary force is 960. In addition to this, it possesses a sort of subsidiary whirlpool or minor activity in its central portion, which has twelve undulations or spokes of its own.
When fully active, this chakra is perhaps the most resplendent of all, full of indescribable chromatic effects and vibrating with almost inconceivable rapidity. The central portion is gleaming white, flushed with gold at its heart. The centre receives, in its outer portion, the violet ray, which passes through the Throat centre, while in its central portion, it receives the green ray from the Heart centre. The arousing of the corresponding emotional centre rounds off and completes the emotional life, endowing a person with the perfection of their faculties.
With most people, the emotional chakras corresponding to the sixth and seventh etheric chakras both converge upon the pituitary body, this organ being practically the only direct link between the physical and higher planes. With monads in the later stages of their sojourn through the 4th Kingdom of Nature however, while the sixth chakra is still attached to the pituitary body, the seventh is bent or slanted until it coincides with the atrophied organ known as the pineal gland, which with these individuals, becomes a line of direct communication with the mental envelope. It achieves this without apparently passing through the intermediate emotional plane in the ordinary way. Quite how it manages this I do not know. This explains the emphasis sometimes laid on the development of the pineal gland.
The awakening of the crown etheric centre enables a person, through it, to leave the physical body in full consciousness and also to re-enter it without the usual break in memory, so that their consciousness will be continuous through night and day. This we have often spoken about as “continuity of consciousness”.
The real reason for priests shaving their hair on the top of their head, known as a tonsure, as practised by the Roman Catholic Church and also for that matter by Samurai warriors, was to leave uncovered the brahmarandra chakra, as the crown chakra is known in India. This is done so that there is not even the slightest hindrance in the way of psychic forces, which in their meditations the candidates intended to try to arouse. As an aside, since I was about 18, I have always worn a hat while outside the house, day or night, rain or sunshine. It was just instinctive. I did this for precisely the opposite reason; to protect this chakra. I have never liked anyone touching the top of my head, much to the dismay of my wife.
Let us now go on and look at something else linked to the flow of energy in our bodies; that of discharges. Just as the dense physical body uses up its materials and discharges its waste products through the five excretory organs – the skin, lungs, liver, intestines and kidneys – so does the etheric body use up the material with which it is supplied. It gets this energy through physical food and the absorption of the Vitality Globule. These are discharged as waste particles in various ways.
A diagram of these discharges is presented here, the results it shows being described as follows:
Through the breath and the pores of the skin are expelled both the bluish-white particles from, from which the prana has been extracted. These particles are still charged with rose-coloured Prana. They are superfluous to the requirements of the body. Along with these particles are the atoms from the blue rays used by the throat centre.
Through the excretory organs pass the emptied atoms of the orange ray, from the digestive system and also, in the case of most of humanity, those of the red-orange ray. Through the top of the head pass the atoms from the dark blue and violet rays. In a spiritually developed person, however, who has achieved the deflection upwards of the red-orange ray from the base of the spine, the particles from this ray are discharged through the top of the head. These form a fiery cascade, frequently shown as a flame in ancient statues of Buddha and other saints.
Atoms which have been emptied of Prana become once more like any other atom. Some of them are absorbed by the body and enter into the various combinations which are constantly being made, while others, which are not required, are thrown off through any convenient channel.
DIAGRAM XI
In addition to what has been described so far, the matter of the Etheric Double itself is also constantly being thrown out of the body through the pores of the skin, just as is gaseous matter. Consequently, people who are near one another are liable to absorb each other’s etheric emanations. That would make for a novel chat-up line. “Come closer and let me imbibe your etheric emanations”. Don’t try this unless you are very sure of who you are propositioning or you will spend the rest of your life alone.
The radiation of etheric matter is strongest from the ends of the fingers and toes: hence the great importance of scrupulous cleanliness in these parts of the body: a person with dirt under the fingernails, for example, is continually pouring forth a stream of unhealthy influence into the etheric world. Tell that to your children as you scrub them in the bath.
The physical emanations of the body, consisting largely of finely divided salts, appear to clairvoyant sight as multitudes of tiny forms, such as dice, stars, and double pyramids. The character of these tiny particles may be affected by loss of health, by a wave of emotion, or even a definite train of thought. In this connection, it has been reported (a) that the material emanations of the living body differ according to the states of the mind, as well as the conditions of physical health; (b) that these emanations can be tested by the chemical reactions of some salts of selenium; (c) that these reactions are characterised by various tints or colours according to the nature of the mental impressions and (d) that forty different emotion-products have been characterised so far by Prof. Gates in the last century.
Let us summarise what we have discussed so far regarding the etheric and emotional chakra systems and their link to the absorption and distribution of vitality globules, otherwise known as prana. Prana emanates from the sun and is an atom that forms a string with six other atoms. This forms a vitality globule. This is absorbed from the Emotional Plane via the Etheric spleen or sacral chakra into the body. This energy can be stored in the physical spleen and released into the body during the night, when the monad, along with its emotional and mental envelopes withdraw from the physical-etheric body.
The spleen-sacral chakra acts as a distribution hub and shifts pink rays, the primary ray, into the nervous system, to energise it. What is not used by the nervous system is expelled and forms a “mist” around the body. You can think of this as a vitality shell or aura. The more fully vitalised surplus energy that is excreted, the more resistant the physical organism is to disease.
The spleen circulates orange energy to the sacral centre, which nourishes the abdomen and reproductive organs. It sends orange and red rays to the Base of the Spine to warm the blood. Shown here is also energy flowing to the sex organs. I am not sure this is entirely correct, but I can not confirm it myself. What does happen in more advanced monads, is that energy from the Base of the Spine can be redirected up the spinal column to the brain, where it facilitates greater intellect, affection and spirituality.
Green rays are sent to the heart, which sends these on to the brain; to the central portion of the Crown chakra to be precise (12 spokes). The throat chakra receives two streams of energy, violet and blue from the spleen centre. This passes on, violet globules to the upper brain and blue ones to the lower and central brain. This also feeds into the Crown chakra, along with the green rays from the heart.
Visible in this diagram can be seen white flashes entering each of these chakra centres. These flashes indicate that each chakra is directly linked to its counterpart in the Emotional envelope, receiving the appropriately coloured ray energy directly. The special role played by the spleen centre is in the receiving and distribution of the vitality globules.
The last diagram in this series shows the connections between each chakra centre, the colour of the vitality globules moving between them, the entry of energy from the Emotional envelope, shown as white flashes and the activities each chakra fosters. Starting with the Base of the Spine, you have the Kundalini, which we will be dealing with next in greater detail. The sacral centre is linked to the sex drive and creativity, not to mention being the dynamo to vitality distribution and energising the nervous system, shown as the pink dot. The Navel or Solar Plexus centre is the centre of our emotion, due to its direct linkage with its counterpart in the Emotional envelope. It is also the seat of emotional clairvoyance. The Heart centre fosters understanding and empathy in a person when it is activated. This takes time, most people function from their emotional centre, thinking this as being what represents love and affection. When fully activated, the Throat Centre allows the persona to receive audible messages, from who or what we can debate, but it does not just represent speech and higher creativity but sound as well, which I guess is linked to speech.
The Brow receives energy, like all the other centres, directly from the Emotional envelope and I am not sure how this chakra centre is linked to the others. Finally the Crown centre, besides being connected to the other envelopes of incarnation, is also linked to the throat and the heart. A note is placed on this diagram that states that the vital force received from the higher planes is made up of all seven colours but one predominates in each centre.
In the next presentation, we go onto a topic, which I guess you will be very interested in; that of the Kundalini.