Overview
Chakra (Sanskrit: चक्र, cakra, meaning "wheel" or "circle"; Pali: cakka) refers to a meditation-aid conceived as a psychic or psychospiritual energy-centre in the subtle body. The concept is visualised across a variety of Hindu and Buddhist tantric yoga and meditation practices, where chakras serve as focal points for inner contemplation.
The number of chakras differs across traditions and texts. Medieval Buddhist works from around the 8th century CE mention four or five chakras, while Hindu sources record varying numbers. The best-known variant describes seven chakras, popularised through Sir John Woodroffe's 1919 book The Serpent Power, which drew upon Pūrṇānanda Yati's Ṣaṭ-chakra-nirūpaṇa ("Explanation of the Six Chakras," 1577).
From the late nineteenth century onwards, the chakra concept entered modern Western Occultism, where it came to be regarded as referring to actual, though esoteric, centres of energy. This interpretation was introduced in the 1880s by H. P. Blavatsky and other Theosophists, and was further shaped by Woodroffe's The Serpent Power and by Charles W. Leadbeater's The Chakras, published in 1927.
Subsequent writers added a range of associations to the system, including psychological attributes, the colours of the rainbow, and correspondences with other esoteric and symbolic systems such as alchemy, astrology, gemstones, homeopathy, Kabbalah and Tarot divination. These layered associations are largely a feature of modern interpretations rather than the older Indic textual traditions, which present chakras primarily within the framework of yogic and tantric practice.