Com a ajuda deste manual ricamente ilustrado, você aprenderá a desenvolver progressivamente cada um dos seus sete principais centros magnéticos vitais, por meio da meditação, da atenção dirigida e do método comprovado do autor, baseado na sabedoria hindu.
Charles Webster Leadbeater was an influential member of the Theosophical Society, author on occult subjects and co-initiator with J.I. Wedgwood of the Liberal Catholic Church.
Originally a priest of the Church of England, his interest in spiritualism caused him to end his affiliation with Anglicanism in favour of the Theosophical Society, where he became an associate of Annie Besant. He became a high-ranking officer of the society, but resigned in 1906 amid a scandal. Accusations of his detractors were never proven and, with Besant's assistance, he was readmitted a few years later. Leadbeater went on to write over 69 books and pamphlets that examined in detail the hidden side of life as well as maintain regular speaking engagements. His efforts on behalf of the society assured his status as one of its leading members until his death in 1934.
I've seen this book in many bookstores and libraries, but never got around to reading it. You'll only find this book to be interesting if you're already immersed in the works of the Theosophy writers like Madame Blatavsky, Annie Besant, and Leadbeater himself. There's a lot of jargon and arcane terminology in this book, such as "the Three Outpourings," "the Third Aspect of the Logos," etc., and very little usable advice as to how the chakra system could have a practical impact on one's life.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I found this read as interesting as his other books I have read. The writing style is typical of the era. He has a unique view on the chakra system, not only energetically but also how "sees" them interrelate with the physical. Depending the readers level of awareness, his style of writing may invoke all manners of feelings and emotions. Some may find his style dry or condescending. At the end of the day, take out what resonates and leave the rest on the page.
For me this is a great reference book and a worthy addition to my ever expanding library.
Waaaaay too technical for a Western Teosopher's approach on an Eastern belief. Must take this with a grain of salt, for, Leadbeater was still a Victorian/Edwardian English man, who supported Eugenics, Colonialism (and other stuff like that), and thinks he knows more about a theme than the culture that has practiced and studied it for millennia. And, when he encountered differences, he attributed them to education and even race, instead of admitting he got it wrong.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
dnf even though interesting at first because i simply could not get through it. more importantly: themed around hindu + buddhist concepts but removes them completely from any cultural context, discussing them instead solely from a western ‘scientific’ standpoint (expected but still annoying).
sick picture representations of the chakras though. i really vibe with their overall description
A small book which has the main attraction of showing pictures of what the chakras look like. They are drawn life-size except for the crown which is magnified (9).
Locations (P.7, 11-15, 41) Chakra - position - spine - sympathetic plexus - spokes - color Root/basic - base of spine - 4th sacral - coccygeal - 4 spokes - red & orange Spleen - over the spleen - 1st lumbar - splenic - powered by sun - 6 petals, glowing red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet Navel or umbilical - at navel, over solar plexus - 8th Thoracic - coeliac/solar - 10 radiations/petals - feelings/emotions like anger/hate; alternating green & shades of red Heart - over the heart - 8th cervical - cardiac - 12 undulations; glowing golden; self-love Throat or laryngeal - at front of throat - 3rd cervical - pharyngeal - 16 spokes - silvery blue and green like moonlight on rippling water; envy, greed Brow/frontal - in space between eyebrows - 1st cervical - carotid - divided into halves; one colored rose & yellow, the other purplish blue; indian books say it only has 2 petals but there are 96 undulations/radiations; pride Crown/coronal - on top of head - pineal gland & pituitary body - predominantly violet with a center of white flushed with gold; the outer circle has 960 spokes, and the inner circle has 12 undulations of its own; when awakened, the chakra increases in size and becomes a dome on top of the head rather than a depression; pride
Color difs (60-61): Chakra - prana - Secret Doctrine by Blavatsky - vitality ray Root - orange/red - … - orange/red Spleen - rose - red - rose Navel - green - green - green Heart - yellow - yellow - yellow Throat - light blue - blue - violet/blue Brow - dark blue - indigo - n/a Crown - violet - violet - n/a
Lotus petal color difs (97): Chakra - this book - shatchakra nirupana - shiva samhita - garuda purana Orange/red - red - red - n/a Glowing sunlike - vermilion - vermilion - sunlike Red & green - blue - golden - red Golden - vermilion - deep red - golden Silver blue - smoky purple - brilliant gold - moonlike Yellow & purple - white - white - red
The author says the differences are because chakras don’t look the same for all people and races, and people have different names for different colors (97).
Mandala chart and other associations (106, 108-109, 111): Chakra - element - form - color - senses - animal - sound - - body Earth - square - yellow or orange/red - smell - elephant - La - feet to knees Water - crescent moon - white - taste - crocodile - Va - knees to anus Fire - triangle - bright red - sight - ram - Ra - anus to heart Air - two interlaced triangles (hexagon) - smoky or blue - touch - antelope - Ya(m) - heart to middle of eyebrows Ether - circle - white or black (indigo/dark blue) - hearing - elephant - Ha - center of eyebrows to top of head Mind - n/a - white - ?
“Earth, water, fire, air, ether, manas, buddhi and ahamkara—these are the eightfold divisions of my manifestation (parkriti)” - Krishna from the seventh chapter of Bhagavad Gita (106)
“Yam” has a dot over the m, “and in that dot is the divinity to be worshipped in this centre—the three-eyed Isha” (108-109). “The yogi may imagine himself as seated on these animals and exercising the power which their qualities represent” (109).
Deities assigned to the chakras vary (110). Shatchakra nirupana - shiva samhita - yogatattva upanishad Brahma - ganesha - Brahma Vishnu - brahma - Narayana Shiva - vishnu - Rudra Different forms of shiva - ? - Ishvara Different forms of shiva - ? - Sadashiva Different forms of shiva - ? - ? Different forms of shiva - ? - ?
“The spleen chakra is not indicated in the indian books; its place is taken by a centre called the svadhishthana, situated in the neighborhood of the generative organs, to which the same six petals are assigned. From our point of view the arousing of such a centre would be regarded as a misfortune, as there are serious dangers connected with it. In the egyptian scheme of development elaborate precautions were taken to prevent any such awakening. (See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry.)” (7)
“The centres vary in size and in brightness in different people, and that even in the same person some of them may be much more developed than the rest” (9).
The chakras can be divided into the physiological (1-2), the personal (3-5), and the spiritual (6-7) (p. 9).
The Dhyanabindu Upanisahd says that “the petals of the heart chakra are associated with devotion, laziness, anger, charity, and similar qualities” but the author of this book hasn’t seen this to be true (10). But “the deepening or weakening of the tint might be taken to betoken the possession of more or less of that attribute” (11).
“If a person is suffering from a weak digestion, it manifests itself at once to any person possessing etheric sight, because either the flow and action of the green stream is sluggish or its amount is smaller in proportion than it should be. Where the yellow current is full and strong, it indicates, or more properly produces, strength and regularity in the action of the heart. Flowing round that centre, it also interpenetrates the blood which is driven through it, and is sent along with it all over the body. Yet there is enough of it left to extend into the brain also, and the power of high philosophical and metaphyiscal thought appears to depend to a great extent upon the volume and activity of this yellow stream, and the corresponding awakening of the 12-petalled flower in the middle of the force-centre at the top of the head. Thought and emotion of a high spiritual type seem to depend largely upon the violet ray, whereas the power of ordinary thought is stimulated by the action of the blue mingled with part of the yellow. In some forms of idiocy the flow of vitality to the brain, both yellow and blue-violet, is almost entirely inhibited. Unusual activity or volume in the light blue which is apportioned to the throat-centre is accompanied by the health and strength of the physical organs in that part of the body. It gives strength and elasticity to the vocal cords, so that special brilliance and activity are noticeable in the case of a public speaker or a great singer. Weakness or disease in any part of the body is accompanied by a deficiency in the flow of vitality to that part” (62-63).
“The atoms, when thus emptied of their charge of vitality, either enter into some of the combinations which are constantly being made by the body, or pass out of it through the pores, or through the ordinary channels. The emptied atoms of the green ray, which is connected chiefly with digestive processes, seem to form part of the ordinary waste material of the body, and to pass out along with it, and that is also the fate of the atoms of the red-orange ray in the case of the ordinary man. The atoms belonging to the blue rays, which are used in connection with the throat-centre, generally leave the body in the exhalations of the breath; and those which compose the dark blue and violet rays usually pass out from the centre at the top of the head. When the student has learnt to deflect the orange-red rays so that they also move up through the spine, the empty atoms of both these and the violet-blue rays pour out from the top of the head in a fiery cascade which, as we have already seen in Fig. 2, is frequently imaged as a flame in ancient statues of the Lord Buddha and other great saints” (63-64).
German mystic johann georg Gichtel assigned planets to the chakras (20-21): Basic - moon Spleen - mercury Umbilical - venus Heart - sun Throat - mars Frontal - jupiter Crown - Saturn
The chakras were known in ancient egypt, and chakra rituals are in freemasonry (21).
“In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I referred to a certain Masonic use of these forces as follows: ‘It is part o fthe plan of Freemasonry to stimulate the activity of these forces in the human body, in order that evolution may be quickened. The stimulation is applied at the moment when R.W.M. Creates, receives and constitutes; in the First Degree it affects the Ida or feminine aspect of the force, thus making it easier for the candidate to control passion and emotion; in the Second Degree it is the Pingala or masculine aspect which is strengthened, in order to facilitate the control of mind; but in the Third Degree, it is the central energy itself, the Sushumna, which is aroused, thereby opening the way for the influence of the pure spirit from on high. It is by passing up through this channel of the Sushumna that a yogi leaves his physical body at will in such a manner that he can retain full consciousness on higher planes, and bring back into his physical brain a clear memory of his experiences. The little figures below give a rough indication of the way in which these forces flow through the human body; in a man the Ida starts from the base of the spine just on the left of the Sushumna and the Pingala on the right (be it understood that I mean the right and left of the man, not the spectator); but in a woman these positions are reversed. The lines end in the medulla oblongata. The spine is called in India the Brahmadanda, the stick of Brahma; and the drawing given in Fig. 4d shows that it is also the original fo the caduceus of Mercury, the two snakes of which symbolize the kumdalini or serpent-fire which is presently to be set in motion along those channels, while the wings typify the power of conscious flight through higher planes which the development of that fire confers. Fig. 4a shows the stimulated Ida after the initiation into the First Degree; this line is crimson in colour. To it is added at the Passing the yellow line of the Pingala, depicted in Fig. 4b; while at the Raising the series is completed by the deep blue stream of the Sushumna, illustrated by Fig. 4c.’ The kundalini which normally flows up these is specialized during this upward passage, and that in two ways. There is in it a curious mingling of positive and negative qualities which might almost be described as male and female” (32-33).
“The Deity sends forth from Himself various forms of energy”: electricity, serpent-fire, vitality, life-force (23).
“The atom is itself nothing but the manifestation of a force; the Solar Deity wills a certain shape which we call an ultimate physical atom (Fig. 7), and by that effort of His will some 1,014,000 ‘bubbles in Koilon’ are held in that particular form” (43-44).
“In most cases the forms which we found when the elements were examined with etheric sight indicate—as does the Periodic Table also—that the elements have been dveloped in cyclic order, that they do not lie on a straight line, but on an ascending spiral. We have been told that the elemnts hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (which constitute approximately half the crust of our globe and nearly all its atmosphere) belong at the same time to another and greater solar system, but we understand that the rest of the elements have been developed by the Logos of our system” (27).
Learned this from outside research: Logos as Leadbeater refers to it basically means God. Logos is the creator of all. But logos are emanations from the absolute. Parabrahman is the absolute, architect of the universe. The first logos - pure divine will Second logos - divine wisdom Third logos - divine activity He borrowed the word ‘logos’ from the greeks, for which it meant the universal principle of order, the lawfulness behind constant change, and the reason embedded in nature. The stoics expanded the idea: logos is the divine rational principle, it permeates everything, it is the creative fire that shapes the cosmos, human reason is a spark of the logos. Early christianity borrowed the greek term. When the gospel of john says “in beginning was the logos/word,’ it is using the greek philosophical meaning. Animals have chakras too, but only the root, sacral, and solar plexus ones are active. Animals have a group soul. When one of them breaks off from the group, they become individualized and reincarnate into human. The individuation happens through high intelligence (elephants, dolphins), deep affection w/ humans (dogs, cats, horses), strong emotional experiences, loyalty, devotion, or self-sacrifice.
“Like all other forces, kundalini is itself invisible; but in the human body it clothes itself in a curious nest of hollow concentric spheres of astral and etheric matter, one within another, like the balls in a Chinese puzzle. There appear to be seven such concentric spheres resting within the root chakra, in and around the last real cell or hollow of the spine close to the coccyx; but only in the outermost of these spheres is the force active in the ordinary man. In the others it is’ sleeping’, as is said in some of the Oriental books; and it is only when the man attempts to arouse the energy latent in those inner layers that the dangerous phenomena of the first begin to show themselves. The harmless fire of the outer skin of the ball flows up the spinal column” (31).
Emotions of the heart (love) and the navel (hate), as described by Dr. Besant in “A Study in Consciousness”: Love looking downwards (to inferiors) is benevolence. Love looking upwards (to superiors) is reverence. Love between equals is desire for mutual help. Hate looking downwards (to inferiors) is scorn. Hate looking upwards (to superiors) is fear. “Hate between equals will show itself in anger, combativeness, disrespect, violence, aggressiveness, jealousy, insolence, etc.” (51) “Love is characterised in all its manifestations by sympathy, self-sacrifice, the desire to give” (52).
“The vitality globule, though inconceivably minute, is so brilliant that it is often seen even by those who are not in the ordinary sense clairvoyant. Many a man, looking out towards the distant horizon, especially over the sea, will notice against the sky a number of the tiniest possible points of light dashing about in all directions with amazing rapidity. These are the vitality globules, each consisting of seven physical atoms, as shown in Fig. 5c—the Fiery Lives, specks charged with that force which the Hindus call prana” (53).
Vitality flows through the body in five main streams (54). “The violet-blue ray flashes upwards to the throat,” where it divides (55). Light blue courses through the throat, while dark blue and violet pass on into the brain. Dark blue floods the lower and central parts of the brain while violet floods the upper part. “The yellow ray is directed to the heart, but after doing its work there part of it also passes on to the brain” (55). “The green ray floods the abdomen” (55). “The rose-coloured ray runs all over the body along the nerves, and is clearly the life of the nervous system. This is the specialized vitality which one man may readily pour into another in whom it is deficient” (56). “The orange-red ray flows to the base of the spine and thence to the generative organs, with which one part of its functions is closely connected. This ray appears to include not only the orange and the darker reds, but also a certain amount of dark purple, as though the spectrum bent round in a circle and the colours began over again at a lower octave. In the normal man this ray energizes the desires of the flesh, and also seems to enter the blood and help to keep up the heat of the body; but if a man persistently refuses to yield to his lower nature, this ray can by long and determined effort be deflected upwards to the brain, where all three of its constituents undergo a remarkable modification. The orange is raised into pure yellow, and produces a decided intensification of the powers of the intellect; the dark red becomes crimson, and greatly increases the quality of unselfish affection; while the dark purple is transmuted into a lovely pale violet, and quickens the spiritual part of man’s nature. The man who achieves this transmutation will find that sensual desires no longer trouble him, and when it becomes necessary for him to arouse the higher layers of the serpent-fire he will be free from the most serious of the dangers of that process. When a man has finally completed this change, this orange-red ray passes straight into the centre at the base of the spine, and from that runs upwards along the hollow of the vertebral column, and so to the brain” (59).
Pine and eucalyptus give health and strength to people who are suffering from lack of vitality (nervous people) (58).
“One who coarsens his body by the use of meat, alcohol or tobacco can never employ his vitality to the full in the same way as can a man of purer living” (65).
“It is reported that the Lord Buddha once said that the first step on the road to Nirvana is perfect physical health; and assuredly the way to attain that is to follow the Noble Eightfold Path” (65).
Astral centres (72-73, 78-80): Serpent-fire Spleen - enables a person to travel consciously, with a vague conception of what he has encountered (in past lives) Navel - feeling that some influences or places are friendly/pleasant, others hostile/unpleasant Heart - Comprehension, sympathy for others Throat - hearing voices, music, sounds Perceiving the shape and nature of astral objects; clairvoyance Crown - perfection; leaving body while conscious and to return
According to a person’s temperament, they will have more activity in certain centres (75).
A web “prevents clear recollection of what has happened during sleep, and it is this also which causes the momentary unconsciousness which always occurs at death” (89). The web can be injured by fright, fear, anger, or other very strong evil emotions (90).
“The malpractices which may more gradually injure this protective web are of two classes—use of alcohol or narcotic drugs, and the deliberate endeavour to throw open the doors which nature has kept closed, by means of such a process as is described in spiritualistic parlance as sitting for development. Certain drugs and drinks—notably alcohol and all the narcotics, including tobacco—contain matter which on breaking up volatilizes, and some of it passes from the physical plane to the astral. (Even tea and coffee contain this matter, but in quantities so infinitesimal that it is usually only after long-continued abuse of them that the effect manifests itself.) When this takes place in the body of man these constituents rush out through the chakras in the opposite direction to that for which they are intended, and in doing this repeatedly they seriously injure and finally destroy the delicate web. This deterioration or destruction may be brought about in two different ways, according to the type of the person concerned and to the proportion of the constituents in his etheric and astral bodies. First, the rush of volatilizing matter actually burns away the web, and therefore leaves the door open to all sorts of irregular forces and evil influences. The second result is that these volatile constituents, in flowing through, somehow harden the atom, so that its pulsation is to a large extent checked and crippled, and it is no longer capable of being vitalized by the particular type of force which welds it into a web. The result of this is a kind of ossification of the web, sot hat instead of having too much coming through from one plane to the other, we have very little of any kind coming through” (91). For spiritual progress we don’t want poisonous particles in the body (92).
An alphabet is provided on p. 103. Aum represents all creative speech (104). It is symbolized by Kala Hamsa, the great bird or swan. A is the bird’s right wing, U its left, M its tail, and the silence which follows is its head (109). Sounds assigned to each chakra: Root - va sa sha sa Spleen - ba bha ma ya ra la Navel - da dha na ta tha da dha na pa pha Heart - ka kha ga gha na cha chha ja jha nya ta tha Throat - 16 vowels: a ay i eye uh oo ri rye li lie eh ai o au m h Brow - ha, ksha Crown - the alphabet 20 times
I didn't realize this was written in the 20s,not that that's a bad thing,but this author is very proper,poncey and tries to sound very educated and elegant and it makes for a sort of laborous,stuck up sort of read.
The content wasn't what I was expecting,I thought it'd be about each Chakra, it's links in the body,how to work with each one and so on. This book describes what they look like and then goes off roading into some bizarre 20s ideas of chakras and how they contain "Serpent Fire" and premature awakening of certain etheric chakras can cause men to become "Satyrs,Monsters of malicious and satanic pride." Whoa... I actually had no idea what he was talking about most of the time. It never tells you how to balance or work with them or anything reiki-esque. I skimmed through after the first chapter and aside from satyr transformations didn't see anything worthwhile.
Para quem tem a meditação como um hábito diário, o conhecimento sobre os Chakras, mesmo que superficial, é indispensável. Livros sobre o assunto não faltam. Resolvi seguir a linha da Teosofia, a partir do livro A voz do Silêncio (Helena Blavatsky) e cheguei nesse livro curtinho e muito denso. Não pode ser apenas lido, tem que ser estudado com calma, rabiscado, relido. Muita informação e muito esclarecimento. Muito do que é exposto no livro explica inicialmente alguns ocorridos no mundo real. Para meu esclarecimento inicial (e devo parar por aí) sobre os Chakras, é mais que suficiente.
Leadbeater, who also wrote Thought-forms, is a man who can see the nonphysical world. He wrote about thought-forms and illustrated them and in this book he describes the chakras: the seven energy centres of the kundalini energy system in your body. They are not a rainbow, like other books suggest. Their colours are far more complex than that. If you want to know what they really look like, read this book.
Interesting even though a bit outdated...it shows how far we've come in our knowledge of Chakras since almost 100 years ago. Also shows how spiritual knowledge constantly evolves.
... a rather esoteric treatise on human spiritual energy centers. It somewhat contradicts (or shows up?) all the other writings I've read on the subject. Does it matter?
I'm not sure this is a worthwhile read. The author's own ideas and observations--of chakra colors, functions, and relationships--are interesting at least. He writes with apparent authority, in his 1927 prose. The contradictions to other more recent teachings make me wonder... Perhaps these contradictions are irrelevant in a New-Agey kind of way. I can buy that, I guess, although not without the some expense of my convictions that this spiritual science is definitely valid.
Leadbeater concludes with an extensive discussion of the Hindu knowledge of the chakras, and some about how they are used in meditation, and to awaken kundalini. It's somewhat hard to follow, and it struggles to hold relevance I think, for the average reader anyway. (The book made me feel very much like the average reader, say what that may about it.)
I continue to be interested and intrigued, regardless, and in the long run I won't stop researching, comparing, and experimenting in my own practice. One thing can definitely be said for this book; it does foster intrigue with the topic.
Siendo un género que no acostumbro a leer, tenía muchas ganas de comprender el universo energético que nos envuelve a cada uno de nosotros. Siempre quise conocer sobre éste tipo de cosas, saber cómo funcionan, sus beneficios y sus peligros. Este libro ofrece aquello, pero de una forma que es un tanto compleja. Como principiante creo que no fue la mejor elección para meterme de lleno en un tema desconocido, pero me mantuvo lo suficientemente interesada a pesar de todo el lenguaje académico (porque sí, es un texto monográfico) y formal. También contiene ilustraciones y gráficos para hacer más comprensible los temas que se tratan, y aquello sirvió bastante. De todas formas, tengo que admitir que la lectura aun así se tornaba densa y difícil de llevar en algunas ocasiones. Es un libro para tomarse con calma, leer un capítulo por día o algo parecido. Para alguien que se está introduciendo en la temática puede ser pesado, e incluso invasivo. En fin, de todas formas creo que cerrar el año con esta lectura estuvo más que bien porque era como un descanso de todo el género de ficción al que dediqué exclusivamente el 2020.
Non l'ho finito, e probabilmente non lo finirò. Forse il libro di un vescovo cattolico non è la migliore fonte a cui attingere per un'infarinatura su un argomento che ha origine in una cultura completamente diversa. Per quello che ho letto mi sembra una visione un po' occidentalizzata dei chakra, che collega a massoneria e altre correnti esoteriche, dando molte informazioni e termini tecnici per scontato rendendo così il testo più complesso del necessario.
A tratti ci sono informazioni e figure interessanti, ma niente che non si possa trovare in altri libri migliori sull'argomento.
Interesting read some of the terminology seems outdated and archaic. In general it was informative although somewhat boring and dry. Didn’t find anything on any practical applications in everyday life.
Boring and extremely difficult to read. Some parts made me think but not what I was expecting. I read to the end hoping I would find out more about actual chakras and them in day to day life. I was disappointed to say the least.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Es un libro denso, habla de los chakras desde un punto de vista teosofíco pasando por el cuerpo astral, el etéreo el físico, la energía vital y el fuego Kundalini el cual me pareció lo más interesante del libro !
I felt like I was reading a 200 level book, but had missed the first year. It did prime my brain, I think, but I need to seek further understanding to aid my comprehension.
I have read better explanations about this subject matter. He puts you off somewhat by making you feel unworthy of trying or possibly making it further along the Kundalini process. I had difficulty understanding the energy portion and the physics explained to substantiate his assertions.
I didn’t get very far into this book and it became clear it wasn’t the right chakra book for me. I had no idea what he was talking about, and had no desire to figure it out, either. So I moved on. Too many books for me to continue with this one.
Good clairvoyant analysis, somewhat bad interpretation (always seems to be the case). When will the Buddhist Tibetans and Hindu Indians get agreement on chakras?