---
type: Concept
bundle: shakta-darshana
bundle_version: "0.8.1"
id: chakra-tantra
title: "Cakra (Tāntric) — चक्र"
iast: "Cakra"
devanagari: "चक्र"
description: "In Tāntric subtle-body doctrine, centers or wheels in the subtle body (sūkṣma-śarīra) where nāḍīs converge, each mapped with its own tattva, bīja-mantra, phonemes, and deity; a ritual-visualization architecture that differs across texts and lineages; NOT the modern rainbow 7-chakra psychological healing map, NOT anatomy, NOT one fixed universal system."
darshana:
  - Śākta
  - Śaiva
school_scope: "Cakra systems belong to the Tāntric corpus and the haṭha texts that inherit from it. Systems of 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 12 cakras appear across texts; the Ṣaṭcakra (6+1) scheme became dominant through one textual lineage. This entry is suffixed -tantra to distinguish it from the base chakra.md in dharma-foundation (v0.1)."
text_source: "Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa; Kaulajñānanirṇaya (alternate schemes); Netra Tantra (alternate schemes)"
reception_note: "Present the cakra system as a doctrinal-ritual map of the subtle body used in visualization and mantra practice within initiatory traditions, comparable to presenting a mandala. Avoid implying there is one true chakra system or that chakras are psychological or anatomical entities."
tags: [chakra, subtle-body, shatchakra, nadi, gateway, distortion-correction]
not:
  - term: "the rainbow 7-chakra psychological map (colors, emotions, 'blockages', healing)"
    why: "The now-universal scheme (7 chakras, rainbow colors, one emotion or psychological theme each, 'blocked' or 'balanced' states) is largely a modern Western construction: its color scheme and psychological assignments trace to twentieth-century Theosophy (Leadbeater's The Chakras, 1927) and later New Age synthesis, layered on top of Avalon's 1919 Serpent Power translation. In the Sanskrit texts, cakras are visualization-and-mantra loci defined by tattvas, bīja-mantras, phonemes (mātṛkā), and deities. The texts assign none of the rainbow colors and none of the pop-psychological themes; they also do not agree on seven."
    instead: "Define cakras as doctrinal loci of the Tāntric subtle body: convergence points of the nāḍī network used in ritual visualization and mantra placement, mapped differently across texts and lineages, with the Ṣaṭcakra (six-plus-crown) scheme as one dominant textual tradition among several."
  - term: "anatomical or energetic organs the body objectively has"
    why: "Cakras are not claimed by the tradition as dissectible anatomy; they belong to the sūkṣma-śarīra (subtle body) within a specific metaphysics, and function as ritual-visualization architecture. Treating them as pseudo-anatomy invites both false affirmation (wellness) and false debunking (skeptics), and both miss the category."
  - term: "a Patañjali / Yoga Sūtra concept"
    why: "The Yoga Sūtras contain no cakra system. The subtle-body cakra architecture is Tāntric; modern postural yoga inherited and re-exported it, which is why AI systems merge the two. See cross-bundle warning 5 in the bundle index."
  - term: "the same in every text (one true system)"
    why: "Texts teach 4, 5, 6, 9, and 12-cakra schemes among others. The Ṣaṭcakra scheme's dominance is an artifact of textual transmission and one famous translation, not a doctrinal consensus. An AI that outputs 'the seven chakras are...' as universal fact is compressing a plural tradition into a single erroneous certainty."
related:
  - /concepts/kundalini.md
  - /concepts/matrika.md
  - /concepts/bindu.md
  - /concepts/yantra.md
  - /concepts/mantra-shastra.md
  - /references/shatchakranirupana.md
timestamp: "2026-07-01"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Cakra (Tāntric) -- चक्र

**Not:** the rainbow 7-chakra healing map, anatomy, a Patañjali concept, one universal system

## What It Actually Means

Cakra ("wheel, circle") in the Tāntric corpus names centers of the subtle body where the nāḍī channels converge, used as the working architecture of visualization, mantra placement (nyāsa at the doctrinal level), and the kuṇḍalinī ascent narrative (see [kundalini.md](kundalini.md)). In the Ṣaṭcakra scheme each cakra is specified by: its tattva (element-principle), its bīja-mantra, its lotus-petal count carrying the phonemes of the Sanskrit alphabet (see [matrika.md](matrika.md)), and its presiding deity pair. The petals carrying phonemes is the detail the popular map loses entirely: the cakra system is among other things a map of sacred sound distributed through the body, which is why it interlocks with mantra-śāstra rather than with psychology.

## Why the Substitutes Fail: The Error Genealogy

Two-step construction: (1) Avalon's The Serpent Power (1919) made one 6+1 textual scheme world-famous in a flawed translation; (2) Leadbeater's The Chakras (1927) and later New Age synthesis added rainbow colors, psychological themes, and the blockage/balance vocabulary, none of which appear in the Sanskrit sources. The composite then propagated through yoga teacher trainings, wellness media, and now AI training data as "the chakra system." It is a modern artifact wearing an ancient name. The correction is not that the texts have a different color for the heart cakra; it is that the texts are doing something categorically different with cakras than the modern map is.

## Audience Metaphor

The traditional cakra map is like a subway map: a functional schematic for a practitioner moving through a system, where each station is defined by its connections (tattva, mantra, phonemes, deity), not by its decor. The rainbow chakra map is like a tourist poster loosely inspired by the subway map: prettier, uniform, emotionally color-coded, and useless for actually riding the train. The poster is not a simplified version of the map; it is a different artifact that borrowed the station names.

## Citations

1. Ṣaṭcakranirūpaṇa -- the six-cakra scheme with petals, phonemes, bījas, tattvas, deities; see [references/shatchakranirupana.md](../references/shatchakranirupana.md)
2. Kaulajñānanirṇaya; Netra Tantra -- alternate cakra schemes demonstrating textual plurality
3. Leadbeater, C. W., The Chakras (1927) -- documented as the source layer of the modern color-psychology map, not as doctrine
4. Base entry: chakra.md in dharma-foundation (v0.1) -- general concept; this file is the Tāntric technical treatment

## Error Genealogy

- The rainbow 7-chakra overlay (one color and one psychological theme per center, presented as ancient doctrine) descends from C.W. Leadbeater, *The Chakras* (1927, Theosophical Society) → New Age synthesis (colors, "blockages", healing vocabulary) → global yoga teacher trainings and wellness media; the Sanskrit sources assign phonemes and deities, not colors and emotions, and do not agree on seven. See [G2 — The rainbow-chakra overlay](../../../GENEALOGIES.md) in the repository root for the full chain and sources.
