Chakras
In Hinduism
According to Leadbeater
Ājñā chakra
Although in [[Hinduism] this chakra is connected to the idea of the Third Eye, in the Theosophical view this chakra is not so, at least when talking about the "spiritual" third eye. C. W. Leadbeater called this center the "brow chakra" and said it was connected with the pituitary, not the pineal, gland. The latter is connected with the seventh chakra.[1]
Leadbeater described the brow chakra as follows:
The sixth centre, the frontal (Plate IX), between the eyebrows, has the appearance of being divided into halves, one chiefly rose-coloured, though with a great deal of yellow about it, and the other predominantly a kind of purplish-blue, again closely agreeing with the colours of the special types of vitality that vivify it. Perhaps it is for this reason that this centre is mentioned in Indian books as having only two petals, though if we are to count undulations of the same character as those of the previous centres we shall find that each half is subdivided into forty-eight of these, making ninety-six in all, because its primary force has that number of radiations.[2]
Regarding its function, Leadbeater wrote:
When the sixth [chakra], between the eyebrows, becomes vivified, the man begins to see things, to have various sorts of waking visions, sometimes of places, sometimes of people. In its earlier development, when it is only just beginning to be awakened, it often means nothing more than half-seeing landscapes and clouds of colour. The full arousing of this brings about clairvoyance.
<bre>
The centre between the eyebrows is connected with sight in yet another way. It is through it that the power of magnification of minute physical objects is exercised. A tiny flexible tube of etheric matter is projected from the centre of it, resembling a microscopic snake with something like an eye at the end of it. This is the special organ used in that form of clairvoyance, and the eye at the end of it can be expanded or contracted, the effect being to change the power of magnification according to the size of the object which is being examined. This is what is meant in ancient books when mention is made of the capacity to make oneself large or small at will. To examine an atom one develops an organ of vision commensurate in size with the atom. This little snake projecting from the centre of the forehead was symbolized upon the head-dress of the Pharaoh of Egypt, who as the chief priest of his country was supposed to possess this among many other occult powers.[3]
Notes
- ↑ Charles Webster Leadbeater, The Chakras, (Wheaton, Ill: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1987), 10.
- ↑ Charles Webster Leadbeater, The Chakras, (Wheaton, Ill: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1987), 13-14.
- ↑ Charles Webster Leadbeater, The Chakras, (Wheaton, Ill: The Theosophical Publishing House, 1987), 79
Online resources
Articles
- Chakra at Theosopedia
Video
- The Structure and Function of the Chakras by Dora Kunz and Shafica Karagulla