Tradition and modern synthesis

The chakra systems of the Indian tantric texts are various, different texts give different numbers, names and attributes, and the tidy seven-centre, rainbow-coloured scheme so familiar in the West owes a great deal to twentieth-century synthesis, especially the work of writers who mapped the chakras onto a spectrum of colours and onto Western psychology. The atlas distinguishes the tantric sources from this modern harmonisation.

The entries give each chakra its location, element, colour, seed syllable and associations. The nadis that connect the chakras, and the koshas and gunas of the same tradition, are treated in their own categories.