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Year III - 2014

Synthetic Final Paper

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The Chakras or Force Centers Student: Lam Van Kiet

Table of content

Table of figures ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 3 I. Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………… 4

What is a Chakra or force center?………………………………………………………………… 4 The etheric body ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 5 The nadis …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5 Major, minor, and minute centers …………………………………………………………………. 7 Description of an etheric center……………………………………………………………………. 8 The size of the centers ……………………………………………………………………………… 12 The petals of the centers…………………………………………………………………………… 13 Three aspects of a center………………………………………………………………………….. 16 The etheric webs……………………………………………………………………………………… 16

II. Seven Major Chakras………………………………………………………………………………… 22

A. Centers in the region of the head ……………………………………………………………. 22 1. Head center…………………………………………………………………………………… 22 2. The ajna center:……………………………………………………………………………… 25 3. The alta major center………………………………………………………………………. 26

B. Centers in the torso………………………………………………………………………………. 28 4. The throat center ……………………………………………………………………………. 28 5. The heart center …………………………………………………………………………….. 30 6. The solar plexus …………………………………………………………………………….. 31 7. The sacral center……………………………………………………………………………. 33 8. The center at the base of the spine……………………………………………………. 36 C. Tabulations of centers ………………………………………………………………………….. 36

III. The Chakras in the Head ………………………………………………………………………….. 38 IV. The Spleen and the Pranic Triangle ………………………………………………………….. 42 V. The Awakening of the Chakras………………………………………………………………….. 45

VI. The Transferences of Energies between Chakras ……………………………………… 48 Transference of energy automatically involves illness and death …………………….. 54 VII. Kundalini fire and three Triangles of Centers……………………………………………. 55

Three at-one-ments of Kundalini fire …………………………………………………………… 58 1. The first blending is the merging of the fire of matter and the fire of prana.. 58

2. The second blending is the blending of the fires of matter with the fire of mind: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 59

3. Third blending………………………………………………………………………………… 62 Summary on the Kundalini fire: ………………………………………………………………….. 64

VIII. Chakras and Diseases……………………………………………………………………………. 67 IX. Centers and Glands…………………………………………………………………………………. 70 X. Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 73 Appendix …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 74 Twelve attributes of heart center ………………………………………………………………… 74

Table of figures

Figure 1. Structure of a nadi………………………………………………………………………………. 6 Figure 2 - Dual structure of a nadi………………………………………………………………………. 6 Figure 3 - The chakras as described by C.W. Leadbeater………………………………………. 9 Figure 4 - Chakras as described by Barbara Brenan and Choa Kok Sui …………………. 10 Figure 5 – The location of the chakras according to Tansley…………………………………. 11 Figure 6 - Chakras as described by Master D.K………………………………………………….. 12 Figure 7 - Location of the centers……………………………………………………………………… 14 Figure 8 - Etheric webs along the spine …………………………………………………………….. 17 Figure 9 - Etheric webs in the head…………………………………………………………………… 18 Figure 10 - The head of a statue of the Lord Buddha at Borobudur in Java. ……………. 22 Figure 11 - The Head center facing downwards………………………………………………….. 24 Figure 12 - The ajna center……………………………………………………………………………… 25 Figure 13 - The solar plexus as the central center ………………………………………………. 32 Figure 14 - The heart center and the solar plexus ……………………………………………….. 33 Figure 15 - Two triangles of forces……………………………………………………………………. 34 Figure 16 - The pranic triangle …………………………………………………………………………. 44 Figure 17 - First period of transference ……………………………………………………………… 50 Figure 18 - Second period of transference …………………………………………………………. 51 Figure 19 - Third period of transference …………………………………………………………….. 52 Figure 20 - First stage of transference ………………………………………………………………. 53 Figure 21 - Second stage of transference ………………………………………………………….. 54 Figure 22 - Third stage of transference ……………………………………………………………… 54 Figure 23 - Three spinal channels…………………………………………………………………….. 55 Figure 24 - First blending ………………………………………………………………………………… 59 Figure 25 - Second blending ……………………………………………………………………………. 61 Figure 26 - Third blending……………………………………………………………………………….. 63 Figure 27 – Centers, related glands and organs (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 203) …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 68

I. Introduction

There is so much interest in chakras or force centers today. One century ago there were only a few books on the chakras in Western countries. They were either works of the authors’ own research or the translations of some Indian or Tibetan Tantras. In the Theosophical Society we find only The Chakras by C.W. Leadbeater, but H.P. Blavatsky did not mention the force centers in her writings except in some papers to the Esoteric Section. Outside the Theosophical circle we find The Serpent Power by Arthur Avalon, a

translation and annotation of two Indian Tantras. It seems that our predecessors’ cautiousness has its good reason. As Master DK warned us, once we start to work with the force centers we are in reality playing with fire. In this case, the saying “little knowledge is more dangerous than no knowledge” may be truer than the adage “half a loaf is better than none.”

Master D.K frequently warned us about the extreme dangers of unlawful infringing with the serpent fire or Kundalini. The dire results can be obsession, insanity, physical death, dire disease in some part of his body, or over-development of the sex life (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 125). We can easily find a lot of evidence of His warning on the internet. So we students of Occultism should be careful and have a strong discrimination on these matters. He also advised his disciples to compile a book on this subject from his writings, for “the true aspirant must be given the needed information.” (Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, 1960, p. 336).

This paper is mainly a compilation from the blue books, which, in the writer’s opinion, are the only reliable source of information on Chakras today. Master D.K claimed that He purposely scattered the teaching on centers throughout many books to protect the knowledge from the unfit person. “The centers constitute a menace when prematurely awakened or unduly energised, and this entire subject can prove most dangerous to the curiosity-impelled man and to the ignorant experimenter.” (Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, 1960, p. 337).

What is a Chakra or force center?

Chakra is a Sanskrit word which means a wheel. Master D.K called it a center of force or force center. They are whirlpools of force that swirl etheric, astral and mental matter into activity, forming saucer-like depressions in these bodies. These forces are poured down from the Ego, who in its turn transmits them from the Monad. So, the true source of the centers is the Monad, the Divinity Aspect in man. This also explains the fact that when

the Ego gains control over the personality, or later when the Monad comes into dominance in the life of a person, the centers are rapidly developed. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, pp. 165-6)

This paper mainly deals with the centers in the etheric body because they are well-known by the public.

The etheric body

The etheric body is called the etheric double by the later Theosophists. This appellation implies a mold upon which the dense physical body is built. In fact, this body is composed of the matters of the four etheric subplanes of the physical plane and “it permeates every part of the dense vehicle. It is the background, the true substance of the physical body.”

(Bailey, The Light of the Soul, 1927, p. 218). This body is also sometimes called the etheric web because it is said to be composed of myriads of nadis, or channels for prana—Master D.K said that they are of tens of thousands. These nadis “are woven together and form in certain localities in this energy body various focal points of force, of which the most important are the seven centers.” But we should not confuse this appellation with the true etheric webs that lie between the centers in our body. We will return later to this topic in the chapter on the etheric webs.

The nadis

Nadis are minute channels of force and there are millions of them in the etheric vehicle. They in their totality make up the etheric body. They are the counterpart of the nervous system, or in other words, the nervous system is the externalization of this nadis network. Each nadi is fivefold in its structure and is composed of five strands or fibers of forces knit closely together within a covering sheath of a different force. Five types of major pranas flow through these five strands and they energize, galvanize and control the entire human organism. “There is no part of the physical body which this network of energies does not underlie or ‘substand’”. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 591). (See figure

1).

One interesting point is that when a man make more progress on the path of evolution, life forces flow more freely along these nadis and through the centers. The flow and the distribution of forces are more rapid, and consequently, the radiance of the body is greatly increased. This process goes on until personality integration is achieved, then the separating walls between the strands within the enclosing sheath of the nadis dissolve under the impact of soul energy. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 594)

Now the nadi takes a new form in which soul force flows unimpeded through the central channel while the other pranas flow around it. (Fig. 2) The nadis now symbolically reflect the duality of the disciple. He is now soul and personality integrated.

Figure 1. Structure of a nadi

Figure 2 - Dual structure of a nadi

Major, minor, and minute centers

D.K said that a major center is where the nadis cross each other 21 times. A minor center is where the nadis cross 14 times, and a minute center is where these lines of force cross 7 times. Should these numbers 21, 14, and 7 be understood literally or symbolically? We do not know, but they somewhat give us a concept about the relative sizes of these centers. Master D.K told us that there are in fact ten major centers, but the three lower centers are not mentioned in white magic because they relate to the function of physical perpetuation and should not be the subjects of direction of Egoic energies (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 1156). So usually we count only seven major centers in the etheric body. The names of these seven major centers also vary according to the authors. In The Chakras C.W. Leadbeater listed seven major centers as follows:

1. The base of the spine, four petals.

2. The spleen center six petals.

3. The solar plexus, ten petals.

4. The heart center, twelve petals.

5. The throat center, sixteen petals.

6. The head center in its twofold divisions:

a. Between the eyebrows, consisting of ninety-six petals, one-half of the lotus being rose and yellow, and the other half blue and purple.

b. The very top of the head. A center consisting of twelve major petals of white and gold, and nine hundred and sixty secondary petals arranged around the central twelve.

Master D.K in His book Initiation, Human and Solar followed the same listing, but in later books the major centers are listed differently. The spleen center was dropped out from the list and the sacral center took its place. The spleen center has a purely physical function of absorbing and distributing prana to the entire body. The sacral center is related to force of generation and has been a powerful center in humanity since the Lemurian Race.

Besides seven major centers there are also 21 minor centers (see Table 1) and hundreds of minute centers throughout the body. The minute centers may be the acupuncture points in Chinese medicine. One important point students frequently forget is that the major centers conditions all lesser centers, thus emphasizing the vital role of the major centers in our body. (Bailey, Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, 1950, p. 144)

Table 1 – The minor chakras (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, pp. 465-466)

Chakras Location on the Physical Body

2 “There are two in front of the ears, close to where the jaw bones are connected.” 2 “There are two just above the two breasts.”

1 “There is one where the breast bone connects, close to the thyroid gland. This, with the two breast centers, makes a triangle of force.”

2 “There are two, one each in the palms of the hands.”

2 “There are two, one each in the soles of the feet.”

2 “There are two, just behind the eyes.”

2 “There are two, also, connected with the gonads.”

1 “There is one close to the liver.”

1 “There is one connected with the stomach; it is related, therefore, to the solar plexus, but is not identical with it.”

2 “There are two connected with the spleen. These form one center in reality, but such a center is formed by the two being superimposed one on the other.”

2 “There are two—one at the back of each knee.”

1 “There is one powerful center which is closely connected with the vagus nerve. This is most potent and is regarded by some schools of occultism as a major center; it is not in the spine, but is no great distance from the thymus gland.”

1 “There is one which is close to the solar plexus, and relates it to the center at the base of the spine, thus making a triangle of the sacral center, the solar plexus, and the center at the base of the spine.”

Description of an etheric center

Centers are called lotuses in ancient scriptures in the East, and this appellation comes from their appearance. C.W. Leadbeater describes a center as having the shape of a flower of the convolvulus type whose stalk springs from a point in the etheric spine. The opening of the bell of the flower is at the surface of the etheric vehicle. Master D.K emphasizes that all the centers are not within the dense physical but exist in the etheric aura some inches outside the dense physical body. (Bailey, Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, 1950, p. 146).

Two interesting points that should be noted are that C.W. Leadbeater describes centers along the spine facing towards the front of the body (Fig 3); and some clairvoyants like Barbara Brenan, Choa Kok Sui, and Anodea Judith describe centers along the spine as having two parts: one facing towards the front of the body, the other facing towards the back. (Fig 4). In Esoteric Healing Master D.K definitely describes the throat center as being located at the back of the neck. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 151). Also in Esoteric Psychology Volume II we find His instruction to the students “learn to work and think with the spine and head and not with the forefront of the body”. This may assert the fact that centers along the spine are at the back of the body, not at the front “as the average psychics assume.”

Figure 3 - The chakras as described by C.W. Leadbeater

Figure 4 - Chakras as described by Barbara Brenan and Choa Kok Sui

c. Let him “learn to work and think with the spine and head and not with the forefront of the body”, as the ancient rule can be translated. The idea is that the average psychic regards the solar plexus and throat centers (the only two about which they seem to know anything) as existing in the front and center of the torso or the front of the throat. This carries the energy downwards by the involutionary route and not upwards by the evolutionary route of the spinal column. This is of moment. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 589)

Unfortunately, there are no diagrams in the blue books showing the locations of the chakras according to Master D.K’s description. In the Radionics and the Subtle Anatomy of Man David V. Tansley illustrates the locations of the major chakras as in Fig. 5.

Figure 5 – The location of the chakras according to Tansley.

In his diagram the five centers along the spine are represented with solid lines, which means that these centers are behind the body, and only the ajna center is represented with a dotted line, which implies that it is in front of the body. From the teaching of Master D.K I have redrawn the diagram of the centers in the etheric body as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 - Chakras as described by Master D.K

The size of the centers

Master D.K does not tell us about the size of centers, but one can be sure that the size, the speed of rotation, and the radiance of a center reflects the stage of a man on the ladder of evolution. C.W Leadbeater says that the centers of an undeveloped person appear as small circles about two inches in diameter, and in an advanced person they are seen as “blazing, coruscating whirlpools, much increased in size, and resembling miniature suns.” Choa Kok Sui also says the same: the size of centers varies from two inches to six inches in an average person, but for a Saint or a very advanced person they may measure up to 18 inches. (Choa, 2012)

Not all centers are located on the same subplane of the physical plane. On chart VIII of A Treatise on Cosmic Fire we find four centers (base of the spine, sacral, spleen, and solar plexus) on the fourth subplane; the throat center on the third subplane, the heart center on the second subplane, and the head centers on the first subplane. Likewise the

astral centers are also on the corresponding subplanes of the astral plane. On the mental plane we only have information regarding the four mental centers (base of the spine, sacral, spleen, and solar plexus) and no hints about the remaining centers. Perhaps these remaining centers are located or replaced by centers in the egoic lotus.

The petals of the centers

Each center has a different number of petals, and this increases from the lowest to the highest center. In the book The Chakras C.W. Leadbeater describes the formation of the petals of the centers, and adds that he is not sure about the relation of the petals to moral qualities. Master D.K says that the petals are expressions of forces and describes their apparent effects in the matter. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 199). So the larger a number of petals a center has the more types of energies a center can express and handle. D.K advises us that we should not pay much attention to the colors of the centers because such information is either erroneous or in the nature of a blind (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 190). Also information on the number of petals, their arrangement… in a center practically has little value because we cannot prove its accuracy. Instead, we should “pay attention to the service angle of the centers,” and to the focussing and the use of energy in service. It will form the basis of the new occultism in the New Age. This may be so, but until now we are not given practical and clear information on the nature of the types of energies related to each of the centers. Only in the case of the heart center has Master D.K. given us twelve virtues that are related to this center, as described in Discipleship in the New Age (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 173).

I - Adi or the plane of the logos 1

Universal Life

2 3 4 5 6 7

II – Monadic 1 1

Monadic Life

2 3 4 5 6 7

III - Atmic Plane 1

Divine Purpose

2 3 4 5 6 7

IV - Buddhic 1

Pure Reason

2 3 4 5 6 7

V – Mental 1 2

VI - Astral 1  Heart 2

^{ Head (Crown + Ajna)} Throat

 Base  Solar Plexus  Sacral  Splenic 4 5

 Head (Crown + Ajna)

^{VII - Etheric} Heart

First Etheric subplane

 Throat Third Etheric subplane

 Base  Solar Plexus  Sacral  Splenic

Fourth Etheric subplane

^Physical Gaseous subplane Liquid subplane

Second Etheric subplane

by Nicole Reciniti

Solid subplane

Figure 7 - Location of the centers – Redrawn from the diagram in The Etheric Centres

The petals of the centers

Crown center 960+12 = 972

Ajna center 96 = 2×48

Throat center 16

Heart center 12

Solar plexus center 10

Sacral center 6

Base of spine center 4

Master D.K gives us some hints on the number of petals of centers as follows:

The total number of petals in the centers, if we eliminate the spleen which has a purpose all its own, and the three lower organs of creation, is one thousand, one hundred and ten, the total number signifying the perfection of the microcosm,— ten the number of perfected personality, one hundred the number of causal perfection, and one thousand the number of spiritual [81] achievement. When every petal vibrates in all the dimensions, then the goal for this manvantara is reached. The lower lotus is full blown, and reflects the greater with precision. (Bailey, Letters on Occult Meditation, 1922, p. 81)

We have: Petals of crown + Ajna + Throat + Heart + Solar Plexus + Base of spine = 972 + 96 + 16 + 12 + 10 +4 = 1110.

It will be noted that the sum total of the force petals in the centers (excluding the two head centers) amount in all to forty-eight petals. These energies in their two aspects of physical vital energy and soul qualities make up the ninety-six aspects or vibrations of the two petals of the Ajna or eyebrow center. It must be remembered also that the word ‘petal’ only symbolizes an expression of force and its apparent effect in matter. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 199)

We have: Petals of centers below the Ajna center: 16 + 12 + 10+ 6 + 4 = 48.

48 x 2 (two aspects of physical vital energy and soul qualities) = 96 = number of petals of the Ajna center. So the Ajna is the synthesis center of the five centers below it. When it is awakened it will absorbs into itself the energies of the lower five centers.

Three aspects of a center

Like all other entities in the universe, each center expresses in itself three Aspects of Divinity.

1. The point at the center of the chakra represent the First Aspect—that of Life. This aspect lies latent at the center of the chakra until the entire chakra is unfolded. 2. The petals represent the Second Aspect—that of Consciousness.

“the related energies or petals are indicative of the state of consciousness which that Eternal One is able—at any stated point in time and space—to express. This may be the relatively undeveloped state of consciousness of the savage, the consciousness of the average man or the highly developed consciousness of the initiate up to the third degree, or the still more vibrant awareness of the initiate of still higher grades. It is ever concerned with CONSCIOUSNESS; the petals concern the second or the consciousness aspect, and this must be most carefully borne in mind. (Bailey, Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle, 1950, p. 169)

3. The sphere of radiation of a center represents the Third Aspect—that of Form. The aura of a person indicates the subjective condition of the personality and reflects the unfoldment and activity of the centers. Through it the disciple can effectively affect the environment and inspire other people. It is in reality a potent instrument in service, and its extent and purity of contact should be cultivated by the pledged disciple.

The etheric webs

Along the etheric spine there are four etheric webs, and each lies between a pair of two adjacent major centers and separates them. These etheric webs are composed of “a curious blend of etheric and gaseous substance.” (Fig. 8) (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 592)

Regarding the number and the arrangement of the etheric webs in the head there seems to be a discrepancy among Master D.K’s books. In Esoteric Healing it is said that there are two etheric webs bisecting the skull horizontally and vertically, forming thus a Cross:

There are four of these webs. When the fourfold personality is highly developed and the ajna center is awakening, then these webs slowly and gradually, normally and automatically disappear. The webs in the head are of much higher quality and bisect the skull horizontally and vertically. Thus they symbolise the Cross upon which a Son of God is crucified. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 187)

Figure 8 - Etheric webs along the spine - (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 187)

But in A Treatise on White Magic Master D.K said that there are three etheric webs in the head which are arranged in the form of a cross upon the Union Jack as in the figure below (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 592):

I am in favor of the second hypothesis because it is said that between each pair of adjacent major centers there is a separating etheric web, and this should hold true for major centers along the spine as well as in the head. Figure 9 explains my argument.

The etheric webs in the head are composed of a higher grade of matter than those along the spine, perhaps of second and third ethers. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 187).

Figure 9 - Etheric webs in the head

Many clairvoyants confuse these webs with the centers because the webs also have a radiance and light of their own, and rotate at a specific rates, which differ for the different centers and according to the point in evolution of the system of centers concerned. Master D.K said that only when these webs are burnt away will the true centers be seen. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 592)

These webs prevent the free flow of force from the head center to other centers, so that there is very little energy coming from the head center to these centers in an average man. Thus, one of the conditions for rising the Kundalini fire is that these webs “have to be burnt away and dissipated” before there can be the free play of the fires of the body. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 592)

How can the etheric webs be destroyed? Master D.K taught us that they are normally dissipated “as purity of life, the discipline of the emotions, and the development of the spiritual will are carried forward.” (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 186) When a disciple has purified his emotions and developed spiritual will, and has put his life under discipline then:

the fire of the soul, which is literally the fire of mind, causes the centers also to increase their vibration, and this increased activity sets up a contact with the protective “webs”, or disks of pranic energy found on either side of them. Thus, [593] through the interplay, they are gradually worn away, so that in the course of

time they become perforated, if I might use such an inadequate term.” (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 593)

This burning away of the etheric webs frequently causes a sensation of burning or of pain in the part of the spine where the etheric webs are located. Many aspirants make the mistake of assigning this phenomena to the arising of the Kundalini fire. The etheric webs adjacent to the sacral and solar plexus centers are frequently worn and destroyed because these two centers are the most active now in an average man and woman.

Simultaneously with this destruction of the etheric webs, the nadis in the etheric body become dual in their structure, soul energy flows in the central channel and other forces flow around it. The disciple is then also able to utilize the two channels along the spine— ida and pingala—to transfer forces up and down, and from these channels pour them out into the “nadis”, utilizing the area around any of the major centers as distributing areas and thus galvanizing, at will, any part of the mechanism into activity, or the whole mechanism into coordinated action… Next the “sushumna” or central channel can be slowly utilized.

There is also another kind of etheric web which can be called a protective web. This etheric web separates the astral body from the physical vehicle and has its location midway between the second and the third subplanes of the physical plane. C.W. Leadbeater mentioned this etheric web in this passage of The Chakras:

I have said that the astral and etheric centers are in very close correspondence; but between them, and interpenetrating them in a manner not readily describable, is a sheath or web of closely woven texture, a sheath composed of a single layer of physical atoms much compressed and permeated by a special form of vital force. The divine life which normally descends from the astral body to the physical is so attuned as to pass through this with perfect ease, but it is an absolute barrier to all other forces—all which cannot use the atomic matter of both the planes. This web is the protection provided by nature to prevent a premature opening up of communication between the planes—a development which could lead to nothing but injury. (Leadbeater, 2013)

This seems to confirm these passages in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire:

[1] When a man has reached the point where he can sense and see the fourth ether, he is ready for the burning away of the etheric web, which has its location midway between the third and second subplane matter which composes his physical body. When this disintegration is effected, the man merges with his astral vehicle, establishing a consequent continuity of consciousness. [TCF 58]

[2] The etheric web, separating the lower physical consciousness of the brain from the astral plane begins to undergo a lengthy process of destruction, and the first “rents” in the web occur. It is through these that the student becomes aware of the inner planes, becomes conscious in the physical brain of the inner happenings, and can (if a disciple) make his contacts with his Ego and (via that ego) with his Guru.⁷⁴ This marks a very important development. [CF 864]

[3] The etheric web is literally the fine network of fiery threads which spreads itself over the center, and forms an area of fairly large dimensions. It separates the two bodies, astral and physical. A similar corresponding area will be found in the solar system. Through it the cosmic forces must pass to the different planetary schemes. [CF 944]

[4] In two places in the human body there are orifices of exit, if I may use so cumbersome a phrase. One opening is in the solar plexus and the other is in the brain at the top of the head. [501] Protecting both is a closely woven web of etheric matter, composed of interlacing strands of life energy.

During the process of death, the pressure of the life energy beating against the web produces eventually a puncturing or opening. Out of this the life force pours as the potency of the abstracting influence of the soul increases. In the case of animals, of infants and of men and women who are polarized entirely in the physical and astral bodies, the door of exit is the solar plexus and it is that web which is punctured, thus permitting the passing out. In the case of mental types, of the more highly evolved human units, it is the web at the top of the head in the region of the fontanel which is ruptured, thus again permitting the exit of the thinking rational being.

In psychics and in the case of mediums and lower seers (clairvoyant and clairaudient people) the solar plexus web is permanently ruptured early in life and easily therefore they pass in or out of the body, going into trance, as it is called, and functioning on the astral plane. But for these types there is no continuity of consciousness and there seems no relation between their physical plane existence and the happenings which they relate whilst in trance and of which they usually remain totally unaware in the waking consciousness. The whole performance is below the diaphragm and is related primarily to animal sentient life. In the case of conscious clairvoyance and in the work of the higher psychics and seers there is no trance, obsession or mediumship. It is the web in the brain which is punctured and the opening in that region permits the inflow of light, information and inspiration; it confers also the power to pass into the state of

Samadhi which is the spiritual correspondence to the trance condition of the animal nature.

In the above quotes Master D.K talks about a kind of etheric web that separates the physical body and the astral vehicle, preventing the free flow of forces between the two bodies. When these webs are punctured or destroyed the communication between higher worlds and the physical plane is unobstructed. In the case where the etheric web over the solar plexus center is destroyed the man can see and hear on the astral plane (lower clairvoyance and clairaudience) but without continuity of consciousness. If the web over the head center is ruptured then the man gains the power to pass consciously into the state of Samadhi, registers in his brain what happen on the inner planes, make contact with his Ego, and receive an inflow of light and inspiration. Professor Michael D. Robbins calls the webs that are located between the major centers in the etheric body the intra vehicular webs, and the protecting webs that separate the astral centers from the etheric centers inter-vehicular webs. Below is his explanation:

So there is etheric circulation in a particular vehicle (this would be intra-vehicle circulation) and then there is inter-vehicle circulation which perhaps involves those specialized webs which prevent the complete flow of energy from, say, the astral chakras to the etheric chakras.

There seem to be different webbing functions:

1. The generalized etheric web separating the dense physical body from the astral vehicle.

2. The webbing up the spine and in the head of any particular vehicle in the personality, separating the lower from higher chakras.

3. The webbing which covers the chakras and seems to relate to inter vehicular energy transmission. (Thus we must distinguish between intra vehicular webs and inter-vehicular webs. The first allows chakras in the same vehicle to affect each other. The second allows chakras in different vehicles to affect their lower or, probably, higher, correspondence.) (Robbins)

It seems to me that this explanation is satisfying. Both intra-vehicular and inter-vehicular webs are necessary to prevent a premature circulation of energies between centers. When these webs are destroyed there will be a free circulation of forces between the centers in the same body and between centers of different bodies.

II. Seven Major Chakras

In this chapter I collect facts about the centers from DK’s books and put them in tabulated form for easy reading and reference.

A. Centers in the region of the head

1. Head center

∙ This center is described as composed of twelve petals on the inner circle and nine hundred and sixty petals on the outer circle. The exact arrangement of these petals is not shown in the blue books, but there are some occult drawings (like one in The Chakras by C.W. Leadbeater) which picture a sage with an elevated head center shaped something like a cone. It seems that these tiers of petals are arranged, one above the other, ascending in the form of a cone.

Figure 10 - The head of a statue of the Lord Buddha at Borobudur in Java. Source: The Chakras, C.W. Leadbeater

In another place Master D.K describes the crown center in an alternate way as being composed of ninety six petals around the inner tier of twelve petals:

In connection with the etheric centers, we should note the fact that the major head center is twofold in structure, and consists of a lotus of ninety-six petals between the eyebrows, and of a twelve-petalled lotus at the top of the head, with ninety-six petals in a subsidiary whorl. The significance of these figures is profound. In every case the figure twelve is met with, showing a definite relation to the basic psychic lotuses on egoic levels. Twelve multiplied by eight stands for the twelve petals in each case, while in the figure eight lies hidden the idea of duality. [CF 860]

Professor Michael D. Robbins comments that the enigmatic phrase “twelve multiplied by eight stands for the twelve petals in each case” can be explained in this way:

98. There is perhaps given a hint concerning the arrangement of the subsidiary 96 petals in the head center. It appears that they could surround the major twelve petals in eight circles of twelve petals each. Each of the major petals of the heart in the head center would, therefore, be related to eight subsidiary petals, making nine in all (repeated twelve times) 9 x 12 give us the 108—the number of the totality of Kumaras, the 108 Kumaras.

99. It is, perhaps, in this connection that we may analyze the following foregoing puzzling sentence: “Twelve multiplied by eight stands for the twelve petals in each case,…”

100. How the 96 are expanded into 960 is not revealed. Perhaps each of the ninety-six petals contains ten subdivisions.

∙ The crown center is awakened after the third initiation and reaches full activity after the fourth initiation. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 145)

∙ It only comes into conscious function when the kundalini fire has risen in three spinal channels and blends with the fire of spirit.

∙ It is the most important center in man, the Shamballa center in the physical body, and is the agent of the First or Father Aspect. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 64)

∙ It is the organ for the distribution of monadic energy, of the will aspect of divinity. ∙ It is the organ of synthesis because, after the third initiation and prior to the destruction of the causal body, it gathers into itself the energies of all the three aspects of manifested life. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 145) ∙ This is the only one of the seven centers which at the time of perfected liberation retains the position of an inverted lotus, with the stem of the lotus reaching upwards into “the seventh Heaven,” thus linking the initiate with the first major planetary center, Shamballa. [EH 145]

Figure 11 - The Head center facing downwards

Source: (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 715)

∙ It is the point of entry and exit of the soul; there is the great radio station of reception, and the distributing center for direction. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 64)

∙ The stimulation of the centers throughout the body is paralleled or duplicated by the concurrent vivification of the many-petalled lotus. It is the meeting place of the three fires, those of the body, of the mind, and of the Spirit (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 136)

∙ At liberation this center displays a glorious radiance above the top of the head, a fiery display which makes all the other centers dim by comparison. From the heart of this thousand-petalled lotus issues a flame of fire having the basic hue of a person’s soul ray. This flame mounts upward and attracts downward a sheet of electric light, which is the downflow from the spirit on the highest plane (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 170)

∙ The crown center controls the will and destiny of the soul in incarnation, directs all the other centers and links one to one’s higher self.

∙ It is developed chiefly through meditation and the development of organised purpose, imposed by the will upon the daily life. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 192)

∙ Its externalization is the pineal gland and until now not much is known about its function. The reason is that the crown center has not been awakened in an average man.

The main hormone of the pineal gland is melatonin. In humans, however, the function of melatonin is not well understood. Its production is high in infancy and childhood and declines with age, and abnormally high levels of melatonin in children are associated with delayed sexual development.

Melatonin has been used to treat conditions such as depression, insomnia, and jet lag, but its efficacy for these purposes is controversial. The fact that melatonin is available (like the other centers’ hormones) suggests that the awakening of the head center has begun in humanity.

∙ If awakened prematurely, the head center can cause inflammation of the brain, brain tumors, and insanity in the case of an advanced man. In the average person energy can pour through the head center to one of the five centers in the body where the consciousness is focused and there causes problems.

2. The ajna center:

∙ This center is described as having only two real petals, and is not a true lotus in the same sense as are the other centers. Each of these real petals are composed of 48 lesser petals, making in total 96 lesser petals. These lesser petals do not assume the flower shape of the other lotuses but spread out like “the wings of an airplane to the right and left of the head”.

Figure 12 - The ajna center

Source: (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 715)

∙ This center is related to the Third Aspect and is the controlling center in the personality life, and from it goes all personality direction and guidance to the five lower centers which it synthesises. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 527)

∙ This center focusses the abstracted energy of the five centers up the spine and is the seat of personality power. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 553)

It will be noted that the sum total of the force petals in five centers along the spine is forty-eight petals (4+6+10+12+16 = 48). “These energies in their two aspects of physical vital energy and soul qualities make up the ninety-six aspects or vibrations

of the two petals of the Ajna or eyebrow center.” (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 199)

∙ The awakening of the ajna center is primarily the result of the development of a man’s personality to the point of integration. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 535). So we can understand why this center achieves full functioning activity by the time the third initiation is taken. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 149)

∙ The ajna center like the throat center is related to creation, but is not the organ of creation. It registers or focuses the intention to create and embodies the idea lying behind active creativity.

∙ Its externalization is the pituitary body, often called the master or conducting gland because of its importance in the operation of the physical body. It has two lobes (anterior and posterior) held together by a stalk. It was only recently discovered that it excretes ten hormones. The ajna also has strong links with the hypothalamus, which governs the autonomic system. It is closely related to the two eyes and to all frontal areas of the head, including the nose. (Norris, Maggie & Siegfried, 2011)

3. The alta major center

There is little information given out about this chakra, which is one of the three that are indispensable to the opening of the Third Eye. The Occultist Douglas M. Baker calls it the Jaw center because it lies in the region near to the jaw. This, together with the ajna and the crown centers, form a triangle within the head, called the manasic triangle. This center lies just below the base of the skull. Master D.K sometimes referred to it as a physical center:

The alta major centre, or that nerve centre at the top of the spine, where the cranium and the spine make approximate contact. When this congery of nerves is fully developed, it forms a centre of communication between the vital energy of the spinal column (the kundalini fire) and the energy of the two head centres above enumerated. It is the physical correspondence to the antaskarana on higher levels. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 961)

The alta major is formed of the lowest grade of etheric matter, matter of the fourth ether. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 1130)

Between this center and the throat center there is a gap which must be bridged by a temporary channel in etheric matter, so that the fire of matter on its way of ascending

towards the head can blend with the fire of mind. This channel is a reflection in physical matter of the antahkarana.

There is also another gap between the alta major center and the supreme head center which is a correspondence to the gulf found between the plane of the Ego and the lowest point of the Triad, the manasic permanent atom. When man has constructed the antahkarana that gulf is bridged and the Monad and the Ego are closely linked. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 1160)

Douglas M. Baker says that the Jaw “lies on the surface of the physical body in etheric matter,” but unlike other centers, “it is dual.”

There are two small vortices which open on each side of the neck on the surface of the skin. They coincide almost exactly with their related endocrine glands which are the two small carotid bodies, each lying in the bifurcation of the external and internal carotid arteries (see diagram). In this anatomically strategic position the Jaw comes into close contact with the centres at the pineal and pituitary glands. Very close by there lie also the two roots of the Vagus nerve as they emerge from the brain-stem and, near to these structures, the respiratory centre.

As the twin vortices become aroused through stimulation, the effects are felt at a position lying half-way between them and in a sagittal plane. The effect is to produce a ‘winged wheel’ (see previous illustration of the winged wheel), the wheel growing in size and rotational speed with spiritual unfoldment rather than the two whorls on the surface of the skin. Such a winged structure would give some basis for the phenomenon of the winged serpent and the winged caduceus of various mythologies.

The Jaw is peculiar in that it has no petals in the sense that we assign, for instance, 96 to the Brow and 960 to the Crown. Nevertheless, its energies do blend with these other two, adding qualities of a high order to them. In the final blazing forth of the Head centre, all three chakras merge, the Brow having its petals incorporated into the Crown. The result is a rotating sphere with the three chakras moving at right angles to each other (see previous illustration). (Douglas, 1995, p. 29)

The externalization of the alta major is the carotid glands lying on two sides of the neck, near the fork (bifurcation) of the carotid artery. Science now does not identify it as a gland and just calls it the “carotid body”. Perhaps they have not yet discovered its hormones. Its function is described as:

to detect changes in the blood as blood flows through it. IT mainly detects the oxygen, carbon dioxide, acidity, and temperature of the blood. When there is low

blood oxygen or high blood carbon dioxide, the carotid body signals an area in the brainstem called the medulla oblongata to change the respiratory and cardiac patterns.¹

The Occultist Douglas M. Baker says that the alta major governs the uptake and capacity to uptake of prana, the capacity to assimilate it and to express it through chakras above the diaphragm.

Unlike metabolic energy, which can be stored virtually without limit in the form of fat deposits, pranic energy is taken up and stored only in certain chakras, depending on the degree to which they are opened and functioning. A labourer on the roads may well use up much prana, but this would be fed to him from chakras mainly below the diaphragm. His intellectual capacities would be in no way enhanced unless he had an awakened Jaw chakra taking up and storing its own prana, for no individual gets more spiritual energy than he can use. The more that he can apply that spiritual energy, the more eligible he is for greater supplies of it; and his eligibility finds its reward in the regulatory mechanism of the Jaw. (Douglas, 1995, p. 29)

B. Centers in the torso

4. The throat center

a. This center belongs to the torso and is the highest in the etheric spine. It has sixteen petals, lies at the back of the neck and is exceedingly powerful and well developed in average humanity. Its petals reach over the shoulders and down to the two lungs. As evolution goes on its petals rise towards the two ears and include the medulla oblongata and the carotid gland. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 155).

b. The energy flows into this center from the back through the spinal column between the seventh cervical and the first thoracic vertebrae.

c. This center is related to the first initiation and is exceedingly active when a man achieves that point of evolution. It is the organ for the distribution of creative energy, of the energy of the third aspect by souls at the above point of evolution. Three centers: the ajna, the throat, and the sacral are related to and the major expression of the third ray or aspect, but each at a different stage of development upon the path:

a. The sacral center for the undeveloped and the average man.

¹ http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Neurology/Carotid-Gland/show/578907

b. The throat center for the aspirant and probationary disciple.

c. The ajna center for disciples and initiates.

d. Its externalizations are the thyroid and parathyroid glands. It governs the whole respiratory tract and the entire digestive system from mouth to anus (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 45). The creative consciousness of the soul is focused in the throat center (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 304). Premature awakening of this center may lead to hyperthyroidism and bad consequent effects on the heart and the metabolism of the body. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 536)

e. Criticism, hatred, and all unkind judgement to each other have disastrous effects on the digestive system or other organs under the influence of the solar plexus. These negative energies work out from the throat center down to the solar plexus and affects the organs under its control. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 39). Criticism is a virulent poison, especially when voiced, —it hurts and damages the person criticized, but at the same time also the one who criticizes. However, purity of motive, true love and a large measure of detachment will help the person under attack keep his subtler bodies immune from the poisonous energies, but the effect on his physical body is definite. Master DK says, “Where there is any physical weakness or limitation, there will be found the localization of the projected poison” (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 617).

f. Just as the sacral center functions to create physical life through regeneration, so the throat center is the focussing point of the true, as an expression of the divine. The inability to live up to the ideal setup for a particular incarnation may result in rheumatism. Rheumatism comes about as the consequences of our inability to express the truth in our life. “There will be no real expression of ‘the true’ until the forces of the creative centre below the diaphragm are raised to the creative centre of the throat” (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, pp. 567-8).

g. In some persons the energies of the sacral are raised to the throat but this center is not awakened enough to absorb those energies. The consequence is the troubles in the thyroid and parathyroid glands. Another case is that in the mystic life, there are some periods wherein the mystic can bring down the energy of the soul to the personality. But before that he has not learnt sexual control and has not regulated the sex life to its right proportion. So this energy of the soul goes straight down to the sacral center instead being arrested at the throat. When this occurs, perversions of the sex life may take place, or an undue importance may be attached to the sex activity, or an over-activity of the sex life may appear in some form or another. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 538)

5. The heart center

a. This center has twelve petals and is located just below and between the etheric shoulder blades, not in the place of the physical heart center as some psychics describe. (Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age - Volume I, 1944, p. 248). Its place is on the second subplane of the physical and astral plane. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 817).

b. The feeling consciousness of the soul is focused through the heart center, just as the mental consciousness works through the head and the creative consciousness, the throat. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 304). This center is also where the life stream from the monad anchors.

c. Its energy flows from the love petals of the egoic lotus (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 817).

d. Its externalization is the thymus gland. The thymus is active during childhood and is atrophied in the adult. The reason for this is that “at present, the general imbalance of the endocrine system militates against the safe and full functioning of the thymus gland in the adult,” and “as the race of men learns the nature of responsibility we shall have [160] the first indications of soul alignment, of personality decentralization and of group awareness, and then—paralleling this development—we shall find the thymus gland becoming correctly active.” (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, pp. 159- 160).

e. The activity of the heart centre never demonstrates in connection with individuals (Bailey, Discipleship in The New Age - Volume II, 1955, p. 113), so it may be called a “group center”. When the heart center begins to open people are more “awakening to the consciousness of brothers' reactions and more readily identify with them”. In later stages of its unfoldment man develops group consciousness and awareness of the Plan.

f. This center starts functioning after the second initiation, it then acts as a distribution center of hierarchical energy via the soul. This initiation marks the period when the man has controlled his emotional nature and transmutes the desire of the personal lower self into love. The energies of the solar plexus are definitely transferred to the heart center.

g. Like the solar plexus, it is the center of fusion, just as the head center is the organ of synthesis. As the heart center becomes active, the individual aspirant is slowly drawn into an increasingly closer relation to his soul. Then two happenings may take place:

1. He is drawn into the Ashram of one of the Masters and becomes an accepted disciple. This is possible because the Master can reach him via his soul, whom he is constantly in contact with through his heart.

2. He increases his service relationship with humanity and his sense of responsibility to serve and work. Eventually he too becomes the heart of a group or of an organization.

6. The solar plexus

a. The solar plexus center lies at the back, well below the shoulder blades. It has six petals and is exceedingly developed in most of humanity. It came into full activity in the Atlantean times and has replaced the sacral center as the controlling center in the life of the average man since then.

b. The solar plexus is the most separate of all the centers because it stands at the midway point, between the throat and the heart centers—above the diaphragm—and the sacral and basic centers—below the diaphragm. Master DK calls it “the clearing house” of all centers below the diaphragm because the energies of these centers are transferred to it before being deflected to higher centers. So it is also a synthesis

center.

c. Because most people are now polarized on the physical plane, the solar plexus is the central factor in their lives. It is the recipient of all emotional reactions and of desire impulses and energies coming to them from inside as well as from outside.

d. It is the outlet for the astral body into the outer world, and the instrument through which emotional energy flows. It is the center through which most mediums and clairvoyants work and function. Later, the ajna center will replace this center and these people will learn to work as intermediaries, consciously and intelligently using their powers. Clear perception will supersede clairvoyance.

e. The problem of all aspirants today is the over-activity of the solar plexus. Their goal is to control this center and transfer its energies to the heart. This means that desires are transmuted into aspiration. In the early stages of the evolution people achieve this through “the pressure of life itself and of circumstances,” but later, when they enter the Path, they will be taught methods to scientifically carry out this transference.

f. This center is consequently a most disturbing center in the body, and is a basic cause of the majority of stomach complaints and troubles connected with the liver. The entire area immediately below the diaphragm is in a constant state of turmoil, where average man is concerned; this is due to individual and collective causes.

Figure 13 - The solar plexus as the central center

g. In their effort to control the emotional body, aspirants often resort to a process of direct inhibition and suppression, resulting in the solar plexus becoming a “great reservoir of drastically retained energy” (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 239). This causes many problems, even cancer, in the pancreas, stomach, liver, gall bladder, or intestines. This is an error often made by people and the right method is the transmutation of the emotions into aspiration, altruistic devotion, as well as love and directed control.

h. The dense physical externalization of this center is the pancreas, with a secondary externalization in the stomach and the liver. Master D.K says that the control of the solar plexus center, and the right reception and release of the energies focused in that center would bring about a major purification, an intensive strengthening and a vital protection of the three vital organs to be found in that area of the human physical mechanism.

i. The petals of the solar plexus center are reaching upwards towards the heart center. This, in reality, means that emotional energy, desire and ambition (in the race of men as a whole) are striving upwards towards the higher way.

Figure 14 - The heart center and the solar plexus

Source: (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 715)

j. One exceedingly occult piece of information that has revealed to us, for the first time, is the fact that there are two points of vital light within the solar plexus centre, which makes this centre of dominant importance and a clearing house for the centres below the diaphragm to those above it. All other centers in the body have only one vital point of energy, but that the solar plexus itself has two points of dynamic energy—one most ancient and awakened, being expressive of the life of the astral or lower psychic body, and the other waiting to be brought into conscious activity by the soul.

k. The Meditation I/II given by Master DK to His group of disciple aims at transferring the energy of the solar plexus to the heart center.

7. The sacral center

a. This center has six petals and is located in the lower part of the lumbar area. It has been widely opened since Lemurian times in most people.

b. It concerns the animal desire nature, the sexual life, and the physical plane life of a person.

c. Its higher correspondence is the throat center, the center of higher creativity. At the first initiation its energies are transferred to the throat center, and this transference goes on for a long time, perhaps for many lives. The right transmutation is that the energies are raised, but not all energies are gathered up into the higher one. The lower center still maintains its proper activity and is controlled by the higher one. During this period of transference a line of light appears and connects the two head centers (the ajna and the crown centers), permitting a free interplay between the ajna center and the crown, as well as between the pineal gland and the pituitary body. The first initiation can then be taken. (Bailey, The Rays and the Initiations, 1960, p. 672)

d. The sacral center forms together with the spleen and the basic centers a triangle of force related to matter, forms, creation, vitality and persistence in forms:

1. The spleen, the organ of prana.

2. The sacral center, the predisposing agent towards physical generation.

3. The center at the base of the spine which (until the will aspect is aroused in man) feeds the life-giving principle, the will-to-live, to all parts of the human frame.

This triangle is a reflection of a higher one, composed of

1. The throat center, corresponding to the sacral center.

2. The pituitary body, corresponding to the spleen.

3. The pineal gland, corresponding to the basic center.

Figure 15 - Two triangles of forces

d. The sacral center is also connected with the ajna center; the two together create a functioning duality which is productive of that subtle quality which we call personality.

e. This center is the home or the field of work of the lunar Lords, and that of the solar Lord is the throat center. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 304)

1. The sacral centre the mental elemental life

2. The solar plexus centre the astral elemental life.

3. The centre at the base of the spine the physical elemental life. The life of the soul is focussed in the three higher centres.

1. The head centre the mental consciousness. 2. The throat centre the creative consciousness. 3. The heart centre the feeling consciousness.

f. Three centers below the diaphragm express three aspects of divinity and are a reflection of the three centers above the diaphragm:

Basic center First Aspect

Sacral center Third Aspect

Solar plexus center Second aspect

Heart center Second Aspect

Throat center Third Aspect

Head center First aspect

g. The dense physical externalization of this center is the gonads (testes and ovaries, with their hormones testosterone, estrogen and progesterone) and the whole reproductive system, including the breasts. Any physical problem in these areas implies sacral involvement.

h. It is the storehouse of the ancient racial fears and deep-seated, personal desires. So it is advised that one not concentrating on this center, lest this will “bring these ancient inheritances to the surface”. (Bailey, Discipleship in The New Age - Volume II, 1955, p. 747)

8. The center at the base of the spine

a. The base center has four petals and is symbolized as a four-petalled lotus, a powerful symbol linked to the Mother of the World, the Earth, the Cross, the Square, and the fourth kingdom of nature. It is located near the coccyx of the spine, about two to six inches outside of the dense physical body in the etheric spine. It is found on the fourth ether of every plane (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 817).

b. This center lies at the base of the spine and supports all other centers. It is like the root of a tree, so it is also called the root chakra. “If the root is weak, the tree is weak. Similarly, if the basic chakra is weak, the body is also very weak.” (Choa, 2012)

c. This center is the home of the kundalini fire. This serpent fire is said to be coiling and sleeping in this center. This center is relatively inactive in most people for it only comes into its true functioning activity when two major fusions have been effected: that of the fusion of the three bodies into one coordinated personality, and when soul and body are at-oned (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 435).

d. It responds to the will-to-be in incarnation. An initiate, by gauging the status of this center, can tell how long a man will be in incarnation. Just as the life principle is “seated in the heart”, so the will-to-be is seated in this center at the base of the spine.

e. This center is the last chakra to be fully awakened, and is thus aroused only when the crown centre is awakened, fully functioning and exerting influence on the base. It is aroused into full activity by an act of the will, directed and controlled by the soul.

f. Its externalization is the adrenal glands, and these look like hats on top of the kidneys. The hormones of the adrenals are adrenaline and noradrenaline. Adrenaline fuels the basic drive to human activity, most noticeable whenever there is an emergency wherein the “fight or flight” mechanism is set in motion. “Biologically, the adrenal glands are double in origin: the medulla, of nervous tissue origin; and the cortex, from primitive kidney origin. The adrenal function reflects this double origin. The medulla is in charge of helping the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, while the cortex is involved in the regulation of the metabolism, mainly through the glucose and sodium balance.” (Hopking, 2005)

C. Tabulations

Tabulation 2: Major centers and Three Aspects

Tabulation 3: Centers – Rays – Planets

Tabulation 4: The seven major centres and their allied glands (EH 624)

1. The head centre The pineal gland.

2. The ajna centre The pituitary gland.

3. The throat centre The thyroid gland.

4. The heart centre The thymus gland.

5. The solar plexus centre The pancreas.

6. The sacral centre The gonads.

7. The centre at base of spine The adrenal glands.

III. The Chakras in the Head

When the disciple nears the portal, the Greater Seven must

awaken and bring forth response from the lesser seven upon

the double circle.

Rule 8 – Rules of Applicants for Initiation – IHS

In the late 19^th century, H.P. Blavatsky, for the first time, mentioned Seven Master centers in the head in one of her Instructions to the students of the Esoteric Section:

Our seven Chakras are all situated in the head, and it is these Master Chakras which govern and rule the seven (for there are seven) principal plexuses in the body, and the forty-two minor ones to which Physiology refuses that name…

When the time comes, the members of the E.S.T. will be given the minute details about the Master Chakras and taught to use them; till then, less difficult subjects have to be learned. If asked whether the seven plexuses, or Tattvic centers of action, are the centers where the seven rays of the Logos vibrate, I answer in the affirmative, simply remarking that the rays of the Logos vibrate in every atom, for the matter of that.²

(http://books.google.com.vn/books?id=eAXVx6OmTlMC&pg=PA507&lpg=PA507&dq=Our+seven+Chakra s+are+all+situated+in+the+head&source=bl&ots=p5tlTPncIG&sig=RPuF0xhGYXMGQXT42BlgV17t9-

She calls them the Master Chakras because they rule and govern the seven major centers, called by her principal plexuses. She also acknowledged this was a difficult subject. Besides this there seems to be no other information on these master chakras in the literature of the Theosophical Society as far as I know.

In the early 20^th century Master D.K revealed more details on these seven centers in the head in his two books Initiation, Human and Solar and Letters on Occult Meditation:

I would point out that the vivification of any one center causes an accession of force in all, and I would further point out that in the head are seven centers (three major and four minor) and that these centers directly correspond to one or other center in the body. They are the synthesis, and, on the stimulation of their corresponding center, receive themselves a corresponding acquisition of rotary power. (Bailey, Letters on Occult Meditation, 1922, p. 74)

Each of the seven centers in the body, as you know, has a counterpart within the head. It is in the linking up of the center with its counterpart in the head that illumination comes. This,—in the case in point—has been accomplished by the student. He has connected the heart with its head center. (Bailey, Letters on Occult Meditation, 1922, p. 290)

Some facts can be gathered from the above quotes:

∙ They are the synthesis centers.

∙ They are the correspondences of seven major centers.

∙ Stimulation of every major center causes its correspondence in the head to increase its vibration.

∙ It is in the linking up of the center with its counterpart in the head that illumination comes.

In another book, Initiation, Human and Solar, Master D.K. also says that the awakening of these master centers also affects the vibratory activity of correspondent centers in the body. The interaction between the master centers and their correspondences is reciprocal.

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It is not necessary to enlarge upon this point beyond pointing out that as the seven centers within the head become responsive to the Ego the following seven centers

The head, considered as a unit,

The heart,

The throat,

The solar plexus,

The base of the spine, [201]

The spleen,

The organs of generation,

are also affected, but affected along the line of purification and control. (Bailey, Initiation, Human and Solar, 1922, pp. 200-1)

And in the same book the disciples are advised to awaken these master centers, by which they “bring forth response from the lesser seven”.³

One difficult question arises in the above quote: what are the seven correspondences of these master centers? The quote lists these centers:

The head, considered as a unit, [1]

The heart,

The throat,

The solar plexus,

The base of the spine,

The spleen, [2]

The organs of generation, [3]

[1] The head considered as a unit, may include the two centers: the crown and the ajna, and perhaps also the alta major, which is usually referred to as a major center in the head.

[2] This is affirmed in this quote:

The splenic center, being the vehicle of prana, is specially developed under evolutionary law, and its energy is not transferred to another center, but is consciously diffused. When its correspondence in the head center is awakened, this becomes the organ of occult healing; through it the healer (by an

³ Rule 8 of Rules of Applicants for Initiation

act of will), absorbs prana and vitality from the ethers, and then breathes it out again upon the object to be healed by an act of compassionate healing. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, pp. 859-860)

[3] This may refer to the etheric center, the sacral center. Also note the unusual order of the centers: the basal center is above the spleen and the organs of generation.

But perhaps the most perplexing point is that the crown center or the thousand-petalled lotus is said to be the synthesis of all these master centers:

Just as the Monad is the sumtotal of all the three aspects, and of the seven principles of man, so is the head center a replica of this, and has within its sphere of influence seven other centers with itself for synthesis. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 169)

This is, as Professor Michael D. Robbins comments, like “the tail wag the dog.”

The continuing problem with this enumeration can be put colloquially as, “How can the tail wag the dog?” In other words, how can one of the seven head centers be considered more powerful than the “head considered as a unit”, especially if that unit includes the many petalled ajna center and the “thousand petalled lotus”?

This is what is so upside down to me—taking the head center as a whole, and thinking that it is directed by a center within the head. To me, this would be like Vulcan directing and controlling the Sun! (Robbins)

Another argument is that the crown center may be one of these seven master centers. But the following passage in A Treatise in Cosmic Fire explicitly confirms that they do not belong to the seven master centers:

6. Spiritual man to the fifth Initiation.

a. The heart.

b. The seven head centers.

c. The two many-petalled lotuses.

In the above quote Master D.K explicitly distinguishes between the seven head centers and the two many-petalled lotuses.

So, there are still many unresolved mysteries about these master centers and it is difficult as yet to get a full understanding of this subject. In the meanwhile it is best to follow Master D.K.’s advice:

I realise that this is all intricate and technical. It has its place and value however, and much that here is communicated will find its usefulness when you are all passed over to the other side and a fresh band of aspirants will follow in your footsteps. The training of the mental body has a value, and many evade such technicalities, hiding behind an emphasis upon the life side of truth, all due to an inherent mental laziness. This that you now receive is but the A. B. C. of esotericism. Waste not time however in too detailed deduction. All that is now possible is a broad general outline, patient reserve, a willingness to recognise physical brain limitations and the accepting of a hypothesis. Believe these hypotheses possible unless your intuition revolts or they are contradicted [Page 364] by past teaching given by other of the Lodge's Messengers. I do not dogmatise to you. I only in these instructions give you certain information,—the correctness of which I leave the future to demonstrate. I simply ask that you make record and in the coming years much that may now seem peculiar or mayhap even contradictory will be elucidated, slowly unravelled, and more easily comprehended. A little knowledge leads to much confusion unless laid aside for future use when the years of instruction have increased the store. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, pp. 363-4)

IV. The Spleen and the Pranic Triangle

Solar prana is one of many kinds of solar rays emanated from the Sun. These solar pranic emanations stimulate and vitalize the life in all atoms, cells, and beings. They have a constructive effect on the physical body—as far as man is concerned. Other solar rays are destructive to forms. Some produce accelerated motion; others produce retardation

(Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 78). Master D.K call it “a vital and magnetic fluid which radiates from the sun.” (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 90)

The solar prana on the way to our earth is relayed by great devas of a very high order who have golden hues. They assimilate and focus the solar prana in their body and transmit it toward the earth (or any planet) with all beings on it.

The planet absorbs solar prana, transmits it to its dense physical globe, assimilates what is needed and radiates the remainder under the form of planetary prana. So, it is actually solar prana tinged with the planet’s distinctive quality. The planetary prana is “caught up and transmitted via a particular group of devas, called the ‘devas of the shadows,’ who are ethereal devas of a slightly violet hue.” (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 92) These devas “focalize and concentrate the emanations of the planet, and of all forms upon the planet”. Their role is similar to that of the golden-hue devas mentioned above.

Man in his turn repeats the process within his physical body. The etheric body receives solar prana from golden devas and planetary prana from violet devas. The etheric body

assimilates enough prana for the well-being of the dense physical body and radiates what is left as surface radiation, called often the health aura or animal magnetism. The prana absorbed is used for the work of vitalizing and keeping the cells, organs, and atoms of the man organized. The remainder of the prana is transmitted to animal or subhuman kingdoms.

In the etheric body of man there are three centers specialized for receiving prana. These are the centers:

1. Between the shoulder blades,

2. Above the diaphragm,

3. And the spleen.

They form a triangle through which solar and planetary prana are received and absorbed into the physical etheric body. They are usually called the pranic triangle or the triangle of prana. “The main center for the reception of prana at present is a center between the shoulder blades. Another has been allowed to become partially dormant in man through the abuses of so-called civilization, and is situated slightly above the solar plexus”.

(Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 98)

The prana received by either of the centers circulates three times around the pranic triangle before it is transmitted to the entire etheric body. The etheric spleen and its dense physical correspondence assimilate the prana and transmit it to the blood stream. Depending on the condition (healthy or unhealthy) of the spleen center the prana absorbed will be intensified or devitalized accordingly.

This vital fluid “finds its point of departure for the entire system at the further side of the spleen to that at which the prana entered.” (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, pp. 99-100) As the prana or fluid circulates through these three centers and the etheric body, it is affected by the quality and health of the centers, the spleen, and the etheric body.

Below is an attempt to pictorially illustrate the process of absorbing prana into the physical body.

Figure 16 - The pranic triangle

V. The Awakening of the Chakras

A major center evolves over time and moves from a sluggish semi-dormant state to an active fully developed state. This evolution can be portrayed using five symbols as with all atoms in the universe. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 172)

At any given time the seven centers of a human are not at the same stage of development, and the three most developed centers form the dominant triangle in the energy system. Master D.K lists some of these triangles in two of his books A treatise on Cosmic Fire (pp. 169-170) and Letters on Occult Meditation (pp. 74-5). For an average person the most active and potent centers are the three centers below diaphragm:

a. Base of spine,

b. Sacral center,

c. Solar plexus center.

These centers should be “reorganized, reoriented, and to be brought from a state of positivity into that of negativity” and the four centers above the diaphragm “must be awakened and brought from a state of negativity into that of positivity”. The immediate goal of an aspirant is to function consciously through the higher centers and subordinate the lower ones. How do we achieve this? Master D.K shows us that there are two ways to achieve this goal:

∙ First, by the transference of the positive energy of the lower centers into that of the higher. This is produced by character building and by purifying the three lower vehicles.

∙ Secondly by the awakening of the head center by the demonstration of the activity of the will. This is achieved by practicing occult meditation, developing organized purpose, and imposing the will upon the daily life. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 192)

In Esoteric Psychology Volume II, Master D.K reveals to us a new and interesting point on the structure of the centers. Master D.K says that the centers are composed of petals arranged into two tiers or circles, not in one circle as usually described by many authors.

The outer half is awakened on the probationary path, by purification and character building. The inner circle is awakened on the path of discipleship. But the center of the chakras is intensified when the disciple carries out the Techniques of Fusion and of Duality. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 385)

When the heart center and the throat are awakened a definite relation is set up and there is a vibratory interaction between the two. This in its turn invokes a response from the crown center. This responsive activity and interaction brings about two results:

∙ First, the appearance of the light in the head.

∙ Secondly, the center between the eyebrows (the Ajna) begins to awaken.

The awakening of the centers in the early stages proceeds under the urge of the evolution and is very slow. However when a man treads the Path he is taught the methods to hasten this process. Master D.K lists nine means to awaken the centers in the order of their importance, from the standpoint of the average student, as follows (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, pp. 201-2):

1. Character building, the first and essential requisite.

2. Right motive.

3. Service.

4. Meditation.

5. A technical study of the science of the centers.

6. Breathing exercises.

7. Learning the technique of the Will.

8. The development of the power to employ time.

9. The arousing of the Kundalini fire.

He also says that “most aspirants are at the stage of the third and fourth points and are just beginning to work at the fifth and sixth.” These nine points can be grouped into two categories:

- The natural methods: point 1 to 4

- The hastening methods: point 5 to 9.

In the natural methods the student does not concentrate his mind on any center, nor does he seek to awaken or energize it. His main attention is to purify the three lower bodies and discipline his thoughts and emotions. This means that he is “working all around the centers and is dealing with their environing matter and with the living substance which

completely surrounds them”. This stage is absolutely safe and all aspirants are advised to follow this method.

The second group, the hastened, can be carried out only as the bodies (mental, astral, physical) of the aspirant have been purified enough and the physical body is without disease and in good condition. It must be carried out under the supervision of an able teacher who has the capacity to ascertain the rays (Ego and personality) of the aspirant. Besides, it also requires many hours of seclusion and of freedom from interruption. This requirement is really difficult in our modern age, but this, Master D.K says, is beneficient

instead of being deplored because “only one in a thousand aspirants is at the stage where he should begin to work with the energy in his centers and perhaps even this estimate is too optimistic”. (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 590)

One interesting point is that any centre which has no large organ (such as the heart or stomach) connected with it will develop more slowly and should be carefully protected in the process of awakening. For instance, the ajna centre is related to the pituitary body but there is “no large physical organism to carry off the energy contacted; the etheric web is, therefore, in this locality specially reinforced and the activity of the centre more slowly generated.” Other centers like the solar plexus and the heart center that have the pancreas and the physical heart connected with them will develop relatively more quickly. At the same time, the energy pouring through those centres can be deflected into certain large physical organisms—such as the heart and the stomach. These centres, therefore, when being developed or stimulated, carry far less physiological danger than those which are not so related. (Bailey, Discipleship in the New Age - Volume I, 1944, p. 114).

VI. The Transferences of Energies between Chakras

Three centers below the diaphragm—the solar plexus, the sacral, and the base of the spine—have their higher correspondences above the diaphragm, which are the heart, the throat, the crown. In the evolution of the lower centers there comes a time when the centers become over-active and radiate, and their energy begins to be transferred to their

higher correspondences. Basically there are three often-mentioned transferences:

1. From the sacral center to the throat center. The energy of physical creation is transmuted into artistic creativity.

2. From the solar center to the heart center. The energy of individual, emotional consciousness is transmuted into group consciousness.

3. From the base of the spine to the head center. Material force is transmuted into spiritual energy. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, pp. 214-5)

Transferences (1) and (2) last for many lives and transpire in the later stage of the Probationary Path and the early stage of the Path of Discipleship. They are referred to as the first period of transference. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 528) The transferring of energy from the sacral to the throat is not direct but always through the solar plexus, which he calls the great clearing house of all centers below the diaphragm. Master D.K says that the energies of the sacral and all other minor centers below the diaphragm must be first transferred into the solar plexus, and from thence they are transferred to the higher center.

When these transferences are accomplished, the heart and the throat centers become active and dominant, then “the man is creatively intelligent along some line or other and is slowly becoming group conscious. As yet, however, his reactions are still selfishly motivated though—at the same time—he is subject to cycles of vision and periods of spiritual effort. The mystical life is definitely attracting him. He is becoming the mystic.” (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 525)

After the first period of transferences the second period of transference ensues, carrying the energies of the throat and the heart to the ajna center, which governs the integrated personality. This covers the later stage of the Path of Discipleship up until the Third Initiation. The three centers that are active at this stage are the ajna, the throat, and the heart.

During this period, we find the intelligently creative or the powerful man will come to the zenith of his personality life. The centers below the head will all be active and functioning, but the centers below the diaphragm will be subordinated to and controlled by those found above. They are subject then to the conditioning will of the man who is governed at this time by ambition, intellectual expediency and that form of group work which tends to the expression of his personality potency. (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 526)

The mystic life and tendency is temporarily dormant, only to reawaken in the next stage, and this change is necessary for the rounded-out development of a man.

Then comes the third period of transference which carries the energies of all the lower centers to the highest center, the head. Two characteristics of this stage are:

a. The soul begins to pour its energy into all the etheric or vital centers, via the head center.

b. The point at the heart of each center comes into its first real activity; it becomes radiant, brilliant, magnetic and forceful, so that it “dims the light of all that lies around.” [527] (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 527)

In this stage the Kundalini fire is raised to the head center and “then the great Polar opposites, as symbolized and expressed by the head center (the organ of spiritual energy) and the center at the base of the spine (the organ of the material forces) are fused and blended and from this time on the man is controlled only from above, by the soul.” (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, p. 527)

Figure 17 - First period of transference

Figure 18 - Second period of transference

Figure 19 - Third period of transference

Master D.K says that these transferences are not carried forward in a sequential order as tabulated above, but they may overlap each other and spread over many lives.

The process involved is spread over many lives of unconscious transmutation in [215] the earlier stages, and as a result of bitter experience and of conscious effort in the later stages, and becomes increasingly dynamic and effective as the various stages upon the Path are trodden by the aspirant. (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 215)

The process of transferring energy from a lower center (for example the solar plexus) to the higher one (the heart) can be divided into three stages, and are pictorially illustrated in the diagrams below:

Stage 1: the energy of the lower center becomes intensely active prior to rising upward. This will produce over-activity of the organs in the physical area governed by the center, with consequent congestion, inflammation, and usually disease.

Stage 2: The higher center increases its activity and attracts the energy from the lower center. At the same time the lower center slows down and lessens its activity. In early stages of this period “the forces swing back and forth between the two centers, accounting for the uneven life of the mystic in the earlier stages of his unfoldment. This is particularly the case in connection with the solar plexus. The energy is rejected at first by the higher center and is then reabsorbed into the lower only to be elevated again and again until the higher center can absorb and transmute it.” (Bailey, Esoteric Psychology Volume II, 1942, pp. 548-9)

Stage 3: the energy is raised definitely into the higher center. This leads to a difficult period of adjustment and of tension, again producing physical ills but, this time, in the area controlled by the higher center.

Figure 20 - First stage of transference

Figure 21 - Second stage of transference

Figure 22 - Third stage of transference

Transference of energy automatically involves illness and death

In the process of transference of energy there will always disorders, troubles, and illnesses in the related organs. In stage 1 when the lower center is intensely active the organ related to the lower center is affected. The result is the inflammation, congestion, and dis-ease of that organ. In the third stage when energy of the lower center is definitely raised to the higher one, the organ in the area of the higher center is affected. Master D.K says that transference of energy implies death, for death occultly means “a disruption and a removal of energy”. This death affects the atoms in the organs involved and causes the preliminary stages of ill-health, disease and disruption.

VII. Kundalini fire and three Triangles of Centers

Kundalini is defined by H.P. Blavatsky as “the great pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter”. It is called serpent fire “on account of its spiral-like working or progress in the body of the ascetic developing the power in himself.” (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 136 footnote)

In the etheric body, around the base of spine center, there is the three-fold fire of the kundalini, or serpent fire. Kundalini fire is said lying coiled within the center at the base of the spine center and provides life for the atoms of the physical body. The kundalini fire has three channels which rise upward along the spine to the head. These three channels are the etheric counterpart of the threefold spinal column and are called ida, pingala, and sushumna in Sanskrit.

The Ida channel is related to matter, or the intelligence aspect; the pingala is related to the Soul or the love-wisdom aspect; and the sushumna is related to the Monad or the will aspect. We are told that the middle channel, the sushumna channel, is responsive to the head center, but we are not given information regarding other channels. “The sushumna channel is not used correctly and safely until the antahkarana has been built and the Monad and Personality are thereby related,” and this means after the third Initiation. Then “the Monad, the Father, the will aspect, can reach the personality in a direct manner, and can arouse the basic center, and with it blend, unify and raise the three fires.”

One channel is used for the energy feeding matter, another for the consciousness and of sensitive psychic unfoldment. The third, the sushumna, is the path of pure spirit.

Figure 23 - Three spinal channels

The picture above shows us a symbolic representation of the energies flowing through the three channels, and we are warned “be not betrayed into placing these interlaced spheres of living energy on the right or the left of the spinal cord. Constantly a movement, an interplay and a reversal is going on.”

The three channels are related to three Rays and also to the three stages on the Path. The sushumna channel is related to the Path of Initiation; the other channels are related to the Path of Evolution and to the Path of Discipleship.

Through these three channels the Kundalini fire rises up to make three at-one-ments with the pranic fire, the fire of mind, and the fire of spirit.

Master D.K says that there are three important triangles in the human body: 1. In the head (or the manasic triangle): The triangle of the three major centers, a. The pineal gland,

b. The pituitary body,

c. The alta major center.

2. In the body (the pranic triangle) : The triangle of prana,

a. Between the shoulders,

b. Above the diaphragm,

c. The spleen.

3. At the base of the spine (the basal triangle): The three lower centers, a. A point at the bottom of the spinal column,

b. and c. The two major sex organs in the male and female.

These three triangles lie in three parts of the body, two pointing upwards and one pointing downwards. These triangles hold an important part in the functions and rising of the Kundalini fire, and Master D.K discloses only few hints and little information on this topic. We note also that there is a mixture of physical centers and etheric centers in these three triangles. For example, the triangle in the head is composed two glands and one center (alta major center). For the triangle at the base of the spine we have a combination of a point at the bottom of the spinal column and two major sex organs. There are some questions that need to be answered here:

(1) Should we understand the physical organs in the place of the etheric centers? In some passages Master D.K explicitly talks about physical head centers and physical triangles (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 964). So there seems to be some blinding

here. Of course, there are definite correspondences between centers and glands, between triangles of centers and triangles of glands. But, should we distinguish between triangles of etheric centers and triangles of their externalizations?

For example, in A Treatise Cosmic Fire the Alta major center is said to be composed of matter of the fourth ether:

The Alta Major ……..is formed of the lowest grade of etheric matter, matter of the fourth ether, whereas the etheric centers of the disciples are composed of matter of the higher ethers [TCF 1130]

But in another passage the Alta major center is referred to as “congery of nerves” at the top of the spine,

The Alta major center, or that nerve center at the top of the spine, where the cranium and the spine make approximate contact. When this congery of nerves is fully developed, it forms a center of communication between the vital energy of the spinal column (the kundalini fire) and the energy of the two head centers above enumerated. It is the physical correspondence to the antaskarana on higher levels. [CF 961]

(2) Does “a point at the bottom of the spinal column” mean the entire center at the base of the spine or just a point? And does “two major sex organs in the male and female” signify two gonads in the case of a man and two ovaries as in the case of a female? I am in favor of a portion or a point instead of the entire center at the base of the spine, together with two gonads (or ovaries in the case of a female) forming the lowest triangle.

Anyway, three triangles express three Rays of Aspect as in this table:

* The assigning R2 and R3 to two sex organs is suggested as a hypothesis and remains questionable.

Three at-one-ments of Kundalini fire

It is said that in the evolution and rising of the Kundalini fire there are three at-one-ments of different fires—the fire of matter, the pranic fire, the fire of mind, and the fire of spirit.

1. The first blending is the merging of the fire of matter and the fire of prana.

∙ The fires from the base of the spine and the splenic triangle are fires of matter. They have no spiritual effect, and concern themselves solely with the matter in which the centers of force are located.

∙ It is often said in an average human Kundalini lies at rest at the center of the base of the spine, and this is partly true.

∙ In average humanity Kundalini fire is not at rest, and one-third of its fire has been raised along one of the three channel and blended with pranic fire at a point between the shoulder blades.

∙ This blending with the pranic fire took place a long time ago and without conscious effort.” (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 139) The remaining two-thirds of its energy is for feeding the organs of generation and the function of vitalization of the body.

∙ After this blending the centers become three dimensional.

∙ The centers of force are always directed by manas or mind, or by the conscious effort of the indwelling entity; but that entity is held back in the effects he seeks to achieve until the vehicles through which he is seeking expression, and their directing, energizing centers, make adequate response. Hence it is only in due course of evolution, and when the matter of these vehicles is energized sufficiently by its own latent fires that he can accomplish his long-held purpose.

∙ Hence again the need of the ascension of the fire of matter to its own place, and its resurrection from its long burial and seeming prostitution before it can be united with its Father in Heaven, the third Logos, Who is the Intelligence of matter itself.

Figure 24 - First blending

2. The second blending is the blending of the fires of matter with the fire of mind:

a. The second blending is that of the united fire of matter with the fire of mind at a point in the throat center. In the first part of this blending the throat center is the source of the fire of manas. After that, the blended fire moves further into the head and make contact with the alta major center. Between the center on the top of the spine and the ajna major center there is a gap which needs to be bridged by a temporary channel in etheric matter. This channel is a reflection of the antahkarana which man builds to connect the personality and the spiritual Triad. After the gap

is bridged, the fires of matter blends with the fire of mind. At this stage the alta major center replaces the role the throat center as the source of the fire of mind and the triangle of manas is now composed of three centers as said at the beginning of this chapter:

a. The pineal gland,

b. The pituitary body,

c. The alta major center.

This blending is accomplished when the Kundalini fire rises upwards into another spinal channel.

Perhaps we should quote Master DK’s passages on this abstruse subject here for easy understanding and discussing:

1. The junction of the two fires of matter is effected early in the history of man, and is the cause of the rude health that the clean-living, high-thinking man should normally enjoy. When the fires of matter have passed (united) still further along the etheric spinal channel they contact the fire of manas as it radiates from the throat center. Clarity of thought is here essential, and it will be necessary to elucidate somewhat this rather abstruse subject. The three major head centers (from the physical standpoint) are the:

a. Alta center,

b. Pineal gland,

c. Pituitary body. [137]

2. They form a manasic triangle, after their juncture with the two fires of the two lower triangles, i.e., when they become synthetic.

3. But the purely manasic triangle prior to this merging is,

a. The throat center,

b. The pineal gland,

c. Pituitary body.

This is during the period when the human unit consciously aspires and throws his will on the side of evolution, thus making his life constructive. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, pp. 136-7)

b. The results of this blending are:

1. It completes the perfecting of the personality life, and this perfecting brings a man to the portal of initiation. This may be the first initiation.

2. The energizing of the sumtotal of the atoms of the matter of the body. This is the secret of the immense staying power of the great thinkers and workers of the race.

3. A tremendous stimulation of the three higher centers in the body, the head, the heart, the throat and in the electrification of this area of the body. These higher centers then form a field of attraction for the downflow of the third fire, that of Spirit.

4. The many-petalled head center at the top of the head becomes exceedingly active. It is the synthetic head center, and the sumtotal of all the other centers. 5. The centers become fourth-dimensional.

Figure 25 - Second blending

3. Third blending

This blending is with the fire of Spirit at the point where the two united fires of matter and of mind issue from the top of the head. This happens after the third Initiation until the fifth. The Kundalini fire rises along another channel and when the arousing of the Kundalini fire is completed, the three channels become one channel. A similar happening occurs when five strands of nadi become one channel through which soul force flows. This blending has following results:

∙ The centers become sixth-dimensional.

∙ A steady increase of vibration of all centers and atom in three bodies— etheric, astral and mental. This has a dual effect:

a. It causes the elimination of all that is coarse and unsuitable.

b. It attracts matter that is keyed up to its vibration into these three bodies

∙ Kundalini has two effects upon the etheric web, as it is called.

a. By its gradually increasing action it purifies that etheric form and cleanses it from “dross,” as the Christian expresses it.

b. Eventually, after the two fires of matter and the fire of mind have begun to blend (a slow and gradual process), the web itself is [185] destroyed, and by the time the third Initiation is reached, the man should have continuity of consciousness. This is so unless for certain work and for certain specific ends, the man consciously and willingly foregoes the burning of the web, a thing which can be brought about by the conscious action of the will. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 185)

Figure 26 - Third blending

Summary on the Kundalini fire:

1. The Kundalini Fire is threefold and is in reality “the union of three fires [fire of friction, fire of mind, and fire of spirit], which are focused by an act of the enlightened will, under the impulse of love, in the basic center. Only initiates of a degree higher than the third can safely raise this triple fire from the base of the spine to the head center.

2. The erroneous idea is that the kundalini fire is something which must be “raised,” and when it is raised all the centers will then come into functioning activity and the channels up and down the spine will be cleared of all obstruction. This is a reversal of truth. The conditions for raising the Kundalini fire is that all the centers are awakened and the channels up the spine are cleared. Master D.K says that when the centers are awakened the separating webs (intra-vehicular webs) will be destroyed by their radiation. All that hinders their radiation will be burn up, and so it prepares the path for the uprising of the fire.

3. The method to raise the Kundalini fire, its geometrical uprising and the order of its progression depend on many points:

∙ The Ray of the Monad and Ego

∙ Sex

∙ Point in evolution

∙ The condition (balance) of the centers

∙ The threefold nature of the centers themselves,—etheric, emotional and mental

∙ The brilliance of the light in the head (showing the measure of soul control) ∙ The rate of vibration of the webs and of the centers

Etc…

Hence the need of working under the instruction of a clairvoyant teacher who has synthetic vision and see a man “whole”, judiciously work with the pupils. It also need hours of seclusion and working without disturbance. So we can understand why Master D.K says that “it is most difficult to raise, and can only be done by a definite act of the will and through the intense mental focussing and concentrated attention of the man, seated on the throne of consciousness in the head.” (Bailey, A Treatise on White Magic, 1934, p. 594)

4. The immediate effects of the rising of the Kundalini fire is the elimination of coarse and unsuitable matter and the absorption of purified matter into these three bodies. 5. The inter-vehicular etheric webs, especially those above the head, are dissipated, and the man attains continuity of consciousness.

Quoting from A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, my notes are at the end of the quote.

When the threefold basic fire and the threefold pranic fire meet and merge, then evolution proceeds with greatly increased velocity. This is effected definitely at the first Initiation when the polarization becomes fixed in one or other of the three higher centers—which center being dependent upon a man’s ray.

The result of this merging leads to a change in the action of the centers. They become “wheels turning upon themselves,” and from a purely rotary movement become fourth dimensional in action, [1] and manifest as radiant whirling centers of living fire.

The three major head centers (the sequence varying according to ray) become active and a similar process is effected between them as was effected in the pranic triangle. [2] From being three centers that react faintly to each other’s vibratory movement (feeling the warmth and rhythm of each other, yet separated), the fire leaps from center to center, and each whirling wheel becomes linked by a chain of fire till there is a triangle of fire through which the kundalini and pranic fires radiate back and forth. Circulation is also carried on. The fire of kundalini produces the heat of the center, and its intense radiance and brilliance, while the pranic emanatory fire produces ever increasing activity and rotation.

As time elapses between the first and fourth Initiation, [3] the threefold channel in the spine, and the entire etheric body is gradually cleansed and purified by the action of the fire till all “dross” (as the Christian expresses it) is burnt away, and naught remains to impede the progress of this flame.

As the fire of kundalini and prana proceed with their work, and the channel becomes more and more cleared, the centers more active, and the body purer, the flame of spirit, or the fire from the Ego, comes more actively downwards till a flame of real brilliance issues from the top of the head. This flame surges upwards through the bodies towards its source, the causal body.

Simultaneously with the activity of these fires of matter and of Spirit, the fires of mind, or manas, burn with greater intensity. These are the fires given at individualization. They are fed continuously by the fire of matter, and their heat is augmented by solar emendatory fire, which originates on the cosmic levels of mind. It is this aspect of the manasic fire that develops under the forms of instinct, animal memory, and functional recollection which are so apparent in the little evolved man. As time progresses the fire of mind burns more brightly and thus reaches a point where it begins to burn through the etheric web—that portion of the web that can be found guarding the center at the very top of the head,

and admitting entrance to the downflow from the Spirit. By its means certain things are brought about:

The kundalini fire is consciously directed and controlled by the mind or will aspect from the mental plane. The two fires of matter by the power of the mind of man are blended first with each other, and, secondly, with the fire of mind.

The united result of this blending is the destruction (under rule and order), of the etheric web, and the consequent production of continuity of consciousness and the admission into the personal life of man of “Life more abundant,” or the third fire of Spirit.

The downrush of Spirit, and the uprising of the inner fires of matter (controlled and directed by the conscious action of the fire of mind) produce corresponding results on the same levels on the astral and mental planes, so that a paralleling contact is brought about, and the great work of liberation proceeds in an ordered manner.

The three first initiations see these results perfected, and lead to the fourth, where the intensity of the united fires results in the complete burning away of all barriers, and the liberation of the Spirit by conscious directed effort from out its threefold lower sheath. Man has consciously to bring about his own liberation. These results are self-induced by the man himself, as he is emancipated from the three worlds, and has broken the wheel of rebirth himself instead of being broken upon it.

It will be apparent from this elucidation that the exceeding importance of the etheric vehicle as the separator of the fires has been brought forward, and consequently we have brought to our notice the dangers that must ensue should man tamper injudiciously, ignorantly or wilfuly with these fires. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, pp. 124-5)

[1] In other passage we are told that the centers become fourth-dimensional after the fire of matter perfectly blended with the fire of mind:

When kundalini has blended with the pranic fire, the centers become three dimensional. When it blends with mind or solar fire and the two fires are perfectly united, the centers become fourth-dimensional. (Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, 1925, p. 184)

So this perhaps takes place after the blending of the fire of matter and the fire of mind.

[2] The similar process is effected between three heads centers may be a blending and merging between these centers as in the case of the pranic triangle. Here it may refer to the second blending with the fire of mind. After this merging and blending the three head

centers then make up a real triangle. Before that blending they seem to work separately from each other.

[3] The process of blending, including three at-one-ments, proceeds from the first initiation to the fourth initiation.

VIII. Chakras and Diseases

The centers with their related system (glands, nadis, nerves, blood) hold an extreme importance in determining the health of an individual. We can tabulate facts regarding the effects of this system to the health of a person:

1. The major center governs and conditions the area of the physical body around it, including all the lesser centers of energy and plexi of force which may be found therein.

2. The area of this influence depends on the extent of the unfoldment of the center. This unfoldment is itself dependent upon the point of development reached by the individual and the preponderant type of energy to which the individual reacts.

3. Each major center has two main functions:

∙ Receiving energies from outside and from the higher planes.

∙ Differentiating these primary energies into forces and distributing them to the organs in its sphere of influence through the system of nadis.

The rate of the process of transmutation, the strength of the resultant aggregation of forces, and the subsequent radiatory activity are dependent upon the extent of the unfoldment of the center and its awakened or unawakened state.

4. These resultant forces are then transmitted through the system of nadis which are the etheric counterpart of the nerve system. This network of nadis forms a definite life pattern which varies according to the personality ray.

5. The nadis, the nerves, and the glands are the material correspondences to the three divine aspects—life, quality, and form.

Figure 27 – Centers, related glands and organs (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 203)

Nadis Life – Spirit

Nerves Quality – Soul

Glands Form – Matter

They are esoterically responsive to the three aspects and “make the man upon the physical plane what he is.”

6. These three groups (nadis, nerves, glands) are conditioned, via the seven centers, by the inner vehicles—the astral, the mental, and the integrated personality. Later they are also conditioned by the soul which uses the personality as a transmitting and transmuting

agency, and—at the close of the Path of Discipleship—by the monad, via the antahkarana, “using that self-created path as a direct channel of communication to the seven centers and from there to the threefold system of nadis, nerves and glands.”

7. The hormones excreted by the glands are conveyed to every part of the body through the blood stream; so the life, the quality and the energy which these three system represent are expressed in the entire physical vehicle.

8. When the centers are awakened throughout the body, the man will then be automatically resistant to disease, either innate, hereditary, or of group origin because the glands are then in well-balanced condition and the nervous system is highly responsive the energy carried by the nadis system. The vitality and life pouring through the entire body will then be of tremendous potency reflecting the condition of the centers.

9. The balanced condition of the system of centers is the vital condition for the good health of a person. Where there is imbalance, over-development or underdevelopment there will be trouble and diseases. The rude health of the undeveloped person or of the unskilled and unintelligent laborer is largely due to the quiescent state of practically all the centers. But the unawakened state of the centers also makes them easyly prone to infectious diseases.

10. In no one, except a Master, are all the centers awakened in a well-balanced condition, so inevitably there are diseases in some parts of the body.

In no human being, except a Master, are all the centers properly awakened and functioning in a balanced manner, nor are they properly related through intensive radiation; in no human being is the nervous system correctly responsive to the centers. There are two reasons for this, and both are related to the cerebro

spinal system: (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 209)

In most people the development is uneven: some centers unawakened, others over stimulated. The flow of the energy throughout the body is arrested at some points where the center is unawakened, or if awakened, still non-radiatory. These uneven conditions produce strong effects on the nervous system and on the glands, leading to over stimulation in some cases, subnormal conditions in others, lack of vitality, over-activity, and other undesirable reactions which inevitably produce disease. Such diseases arise from within the body itself as the result of:

∙ inherent or hereditary tendencies or predispositions, present in the bodily tissue; ∙ the radiation or the non-radiation of the centers, which work through the nadis; ∙ external impacts or contact ─ such as infectious or contagious diseases and epidemics.

11. The transferences of energies from the lower centers (the basal, the sacral, and the solar plexus centers) to the higher ones definitely involves diseases throughout the entire process. In the first stage of the transference the lower center is over-active and this will produce congestion, inflammation, and disease in the organ controlled by that center. In the last stage when the energy is raised definitely into the higher center there will also be disease, but this time in the area controlled by the higher center. [EPII 548-9] Table 1 describes diseases due to the over-stimulation of a specific center.

Tabulation 5: Centers and related diseases due to over-stimulation

This also explains why many initiates before the third Initiation are prone to a lot of ills. At the first three initiations soul energy pours into the etheric body and the centers in their etheric body are put into the status of disorder, with one center is more dominant than the rest, and this will create a battle “between the energies and the forces,” which “creates the acuteness of the tests for initiation.” (Bailey, Esoteric Healing, 1953, p. 595)

IX. Centers and Glands

There are two kinds of glands in the body: endocrine and exocrine. An endocrine gland secretes a substance called hormone and exports it, via the bloodstream, to the target cells in distant organs. The exocrine glands produce substances, but not hormones, that are transported through a duct to the cavity of a body organ or to the surface of the body. For example, the salivary glands pour saliva into the mouth through tube-like ducts. In

contrast, the endocrine glands are ductless and must use the blood vessels of the body as their communication channels. The cells of endocrine glands are in close contact with blood capillaries and pour their hormones directly into these vessels. Thus, endocrine hormones have a much wider distribution than do exocrine products.

Both the endocrine system and nervous system help to coordinate the functioning of organs and processes in separate parts of the dense physical body. However, there is an important difference in the activity of these two systems. In general, the endocrine system is in charge of body processes that happen slowly, such as cell growth. The nervous system controls faster processes like breathing and body movement.

Master D.K says that these glands are the dense physical externalizations of the chakras. Table 6 lists known hormones and their functions for some of the glands (Norris, Maggie & Siegfried, 2011). The pituitary gland has two lobes, anterior and posterior, and the hormones are listed separately for each lobe. Because the pituitary secretes a lot of hormones which affect other glands, the pituitary is often called the “master gland” of the body. This may confirm the teaching that the ajna center is the synthesis center of the five centers below it.

Recently, science has discovered the important role of the hypothalamus as an endocrine gland that controls the operation of the pituitary body. The hormones that the hypothalamus produces do not have target cells in the body. Instead, the hypothalamus synthesizes the hormones hypothalamic releasing hormone and hypothalamic release

inhibiting hormone and releases them into small blood vessels that connect to the anterior pituitary. The pituitary responds to these hormones by synthesizing and releasing its hormones, which have target cells in distant organs. The Occultist Douglas M. Baker says that the region of the hypothalamus is the site of one of the seven head centres which are opened in initiation. (Baker, 1976)

Tabulation 6: Glands and hormones

* The table is adapted from Anatomy & Physiology For Dummies^®, 2nd Edition, by Maggie Norris and Donna Rae Siegfried, Wiley Publishing, Inc. and The Chakras and Esoteric Healing by Zachary F. Lansdowne.

X. Bibliography

Bailey, A. A. (1922). Initiation, Human and Solar. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1922). Letters on Occult Meditation. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1925). A Treatise on Cosmic Fire. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1927). The Light of the Soul. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1934). A Treatise on White Magic. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1936). Esoteric Psychology Volume I. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1942). Esoteric Psychology Volume II. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1944). Discipleship in the New Age - Volume I. Lucis Trust. Bailey, A. A. (1950). Telepathy and the Etheric Vehicle. Lucis Trust. Bailey, A. A. (1951). Esoteric Astrology. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1953). Esoteric Healing. Lucis Trust.

Bailey, A. A. (1955). Discipleship in The New Age - Volume II. Lucis Trust. Bailey, A. A. (1957). The Externalization of the Hierarchy. Lucis Trust. Bailey, A. A. (1960). The Rays and the Initiations. Lucis Trust.

Baker, D. M. (1976). Esoteric Anatomy, Volume I. Little Elephant.

Choa, S. K. (2012). The Chakras and Their Functions. The Institute for Inner Studies Publishing Foundation.

Douglas, M. B. (1995). The Theory and Practice of Meditation. Little Elephant. Hopking, A. (2005). Esoteric Healing. Blue Dolphin Publishing, Inc.

Lansdowne, Z. F. (1986). The Chakras and Esoteric Healing. Samuel Weiser, Inc. Leadbeater, C. W. (2013). The Chakras. Illinois: The Theosophical Publishing House.

Norris, Maggie, & Siegfried, D. R. (2011). Anatomy and Physiology For Dummies, 2nd Edition. Newyork: Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Robbins, D. M. (n.d.). Letter answer to the writer's questions.

Tansley, D. V. (n.d.). Radionics and the Subtle Anatomy of Man. C.W. Daniel Company.

Appendix

Twelve attributes of heart center

5. Then, bearing in mind that the heart center is the repository of twelve forces or energies, seek to develop them by pondering upon the twelve virtues through which these energies express themselves, taking one each month for a year.

a. Group love, embracing individuals.

b. Humility, signifying your personality attitude.

c. Service, indicating your soul’s preoccupation.

d. Patience, signifying the embryonic immortality and persistence which is a soul characteristic.

e. Life, or expressed activity which is the manifestation of love because it is essential dualism.

f. Tolerance, which is the first expression of buddhic understanding.

g. Identification with others, which is embryonic [Page 661] fusion, carried eventually to synthesis when the head center is developed.

h. Compassion, which is essentially the right use of the pairs of opposites.

i. Sympathy, which is the consequence of knowledge and of the unfoldment of the knowledge petals. Such energy then is in touch with the heart center.

j. Wisdom, which is the fruit of love and indicates the awakening of the love petals of the egoic lotus.

k. Sacrifice, which is the giving of the heart’s blood or life for others. (Bailey, Discipleship in The New Age - Volume II, 1955, p. 659)