How to study a chakra
Each of the next seven lessons describes one chakra using the same thirteen properties. Thirteen facts, seven times over, is ninety-one things to remember — which is why most people give up on chakra tables and end up knowing the colours and nothing else.
So before we start, here is a way to hold them that does not rely on memorising anything.
By the end of this lesson you will know the thirteen properties, understand how they group into four families, and have built your first chakra card.
The four families
The thirteen properties answer four different questions. Once you see which question a property belongs to, you stop memorising and start reasoning.
| Family | Properties | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| Where | Location · Medical location · Body parts | Where is it, and what does it govern? |
| What | Sanskrit name · Symbolism · Element · Function | What is this centre actually about? |
| How | Note and frequency · Mantra · Mudra · Colour | How do I work with it? |
| When | Day · Metal · Ruling planet | When is it worked, and what is it connected to? |
Four questions is manageable. And the families are not arbitrary — in practice you use them at different moments. Where tells you where to put the bowl. What tells you whether this is the right chakra for the person in front of you. How tells you what to do. When is the tradition's wider frame.
Where — location, medical location, body parts
Location is the general position: base of the spine, the pelvis, the navel.
Medical location is the precise point, and it is the more useful of the two. It is where a bowl or a hand is actually placed. The root's location is the base of the spine, but its medical location is the perineum. The sacral sits in the pelvis, but its medical location is the sacrum. The throat's is the pit of the throat, not the whole neck.
You will use the medical locations constantly in Course Three, when bowls start being placed on and around the body. Learn those and the general locations follow.
Body parts are what the chakra is said to govern — legs, bones and large intestine for the root; heart, lungs, arms and hands for the heart. This is a traditional mapping, not a medical one, and it is worth remembering that distinction whenever someone asks you about an illness.
What — name, symbolism, element, function
The Sanskrit name usually contains the teaching. Muladhara means root support. Anahata means unstruck, unhurt, unbeaten. Vishuddha means purification. Sahasrara means thousand-petalled. If you learn nothing else about a chakra, learn what its name means — it tells you most of what the symbolism and function will say.
The elements are the pattern worth noticing. They ascend from the dense to the subtle:
| Chakra | Element |
|---|---|
| Root | Earth |
| Sacral | Water |
| Solar Plexus | Fire |
| Heart | Air |
| Throat | Ether, sky |
| Third Eye | Light |
| Crown | Thought |
Solid, then liquid, then flame, then air, then space, then light, then thought. The body becoming less material as you rise. Nobody needs to memorise that list — it makes sense on its own, and once you have seen it you have effectively learned seven of the ninety-one facts for free.
Function is the short version: survival, desire, confidence, love, expression, perception, silence.
How — note, mantra, mudra, colour
These four are the practical tools, and they are used together rather than separately.
The note tells you which bowl. C for the root through to B for the crown, as in Lesson 1.3. If you do not know your bowl's note, the frequency analyser will tell you.
The mantra is the seed syllable — Lam, Vam, Rum, Yum, Hum, Om, Aung. Notice that six of the seven rhyme. That is not a coincidence and it makes them far easier to learn than they look. Lesson 2.10 covers how they are actually chanted.
The mudra is a hand position held during the work. Gyana at the root, Dhyana at the sacral, Namaste at the solar plexus, Hridaya at the heart, and so on. Each lesson shows its own.
The colour is used for visualisation — held in mind while the bowl sounds. Rainbow order from red at the ground to violet at the crown.
When — day, metal, ruling planet
The day runs root on Sunday through to crown on Saturday, giving the seven-day cycle from Lesson 1.5.
The metal and ruling planet connect this tradition back to the seven-metal system you met in Lesson 1.1 — lead with Saturn at the root, tin with Jupiter at the sacral, gold at the crown. These are the oldest layer of the tradition and the least practical. Learn them last, or not at all, if your interest is only in practice.
The metals and planets do not affect what you do in a session. They are included here because they are part of what Sunita was taught, and because a practitioner who knows them can answer a student's question rather than changing the subject.
Practice: build one chakra card
Do not try to learn all seven. Take one — the chakra you feel most drawn to, or the one matching today's day of the week — and make a card for it.
- Take an index card or a page in a notebook.
- Write the chakra's name and Sanskrit name at the top.
- Divide the rest into the four families: Where, What, How, When.
- Leave them blank for now. You will fill each one in as you reach that chakra's lesson.
- On the back, write the affirmation when you get to it.
Seven cards by the end of this course, in your own handwriting. That is a far better reference than any table on a screen, and it is roughly how Sunita's own notebook came to exist.
If you would rather look things up than write them out, our chakra and note reference holds the same information in table form.
Common mistakes
- Trying to learn all seven at once. One a week. The tradition already gave you the schedule.
- Starting with the metals and planets. They are the least useful layer. Start with location, note and function.
- Confusing location with medical location. The second is the one you will use when placing bowls.
- Treating body parts as diagnosis. A traditional mapping is not a medical one. Course Three returns to this properly.
- Skipping the Sanskrit names. They are the shortest route into the meaning, not decoration.
How do you know you got it right?
You can name the four families and say which properties belong to each, and you have a card started for one chakra.
You should also be able to recite the seven elements in order without hesitating — earth, water, fire, air, ether, light, thought. If that sequence feels obvious rather than memorised, the approach is working.
Something to sit with
The tradition describes a body that becomes less solid as it rises — earth at the feet, thought at the crown. Whether or not that is anatomy, it is a description of something. What do you think it is describing?