Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self

730 Pages·2011·4.73 MB·English

by  Anodea Judith

Praise For
EASTERN BODY, WESTERN MIND

“It’s a rare book indeed that is immediately accessible and relevant to daily life
and, at the same time, well-researched and scholarly. Eastern Body, Western
Mind is that kind of special work. It is sure to become the classic text on the
chakras and their relation to Western psychologies. It provides a clear
framework to wholeness and transformation that makes a major contribution to
the evolution of humankind.”

—Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind and

Inner Peace for Busy People

“Eastern Body, Western Mind is the most well organized, readable description
of the deep order of manifestation of Supreme Consciousness within the human
body-mind ever written. This absolutely brilliant synthesis of the chakra system
and the heart of Western psychology should be studied regularly by every yoga
teacher, bodyworker, psychotherapist, healer, and spiritual seeker.”

—John Friend, founder of Anusara yoga

“Fresh, accessible, and seamlessly cross-cultural, Eastern Body, Western Mind
creates the perfect melding of the Eastern chakra system and Western Jungian
psychology. One of the next tasks for humankind is to integrate these two
different but complementary worldviews, and Anodea Judith has taken a giant
step in that direction.”
—Leonard Shlain, author of Sex, Time, and Power and The Alphabet Versus the

Goddess

“A book of profound and practical compassion. Judith’s ideas are as essential
and important as Freud’s insights were a hundred years ago. She offers specific
and varied strategies to understand your ways of coping, so that you can let go of
those that no longer serve you and make better use of those that do.”

—James Fadiman, Ph.D., author of Unlimit Your Life and The Other Side of

Haight

“This very readable yet scholarly book provides a comprehensive picture of
healthy human development and the development of human consciousness. We
are taken, step by step, on a journey toward the integration of body, mind, and
spirit. A groundbreaking contribution.”

—Susan Campbell, author of Getting Real and Truth in Dating

“Rather than presenting an esoteric borrowing from Indian culture, Judith
employs the metaphoric language of the chakra system within the context of
modern psychology. Her clear organization and numerous charts make browsing
for subjects of personal relevance a breeze.… The book provides a useful tool
for contemplating our strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate approaches to
growth.”

—Yoga Journal

“… sparkles with insight. Spiritual seeker, client, and therapist alike will find
treasures here.”

—PanGaia magazine

For information on the author’s workshops, please contact:

SACRED CENTERS

708 Gravenstein Hwy N. #109, Sebastopol, CA 95472

www.sacredcenters.com

Copyright © 1996, 2004 by Anodea Judith

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Celstial Arts, an imprint of the Crown Publishing
Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
www.tenspeed.com

Celestial Arts and the Celestial Arts colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Judith, Anodea, 1952–

Eastern body, Western mind : psychology and the chakra system as a path to the self / Anodea

Judith Celestial Arts.—Rev. ed.

p. cm.
1. Chakras—Miscellanea. I. Title.

BF1442.C53J8 2004
150.19’8—dc22 2004010256

eISBN: 978-0-307-77793-5

v3.1

CONTENTS

Cover
Title Page
Copyright
ACKNOWLEGMENTS
PREFACE

INTRODUCTION: SACRED CENTERS OF THE SELF
Discovering the Rainbow Bridge
Wheels That Heal
The Human Biocomputer
Character Armor
The Seven Rights
The Seven Identities
Demons of the Chakras
Developmental Stages
Adult Development

CHAKRA ONE: RECLAIMING THE TEMPLE OF THE BODY
Shades of Red
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA TWO: SWIMMING IN THE WATERS OF DIFFERENCE
Shades of Orange
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA THREE: BURNING OUR WAY INTO POWER
Shades of Yellow
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA FOUR: FINDING THE BALANCE IN LOVE
Shades of Green
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency

Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion

CHAKRA FIVE: VIBRATING INTO EXPRESSION
Shades of Blue
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Character Structure
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion
CHAKRA SIX: SEEING OUR WAY THROUGH
Shades of Indigo
Unfolding the Petals
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
Conclusion
CHAKRA SEVEN: OPENING TO THE MYSTERY OF HEAVEN
Shades of Violet
Unfolding the Thousand-Petaled Lotus
Growing the Lotus
Traumas and Abuses
Excess and Deficiency
Restoring the Lotus
CONCLUSION: RESTORATION OF THE SACRED
The Many Shades of the Rainbow
Putting It All Together
Kundalini Awakening

ENDNOTES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Other Books by This Author

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Iris, the Greek Goddess of the Rainbow, was the first deity I ever encountered. It
is to Her that I owe my discovery of the chakras and the Rainbow Bridge.
However, in my journey across this bridge I have been supported by a great
number of people—my clients, students, teachers, friends, and family.

Of particular importance, I thank my immediate family who lived with me

while I wrote this book. My son, Alex Wayne, allowed me to tell stories about
him in the text and helped draw up the computer graphics. My husband, Richard
Ely, gave me love, support, and patient editing. Selene Vega, coauthor of The
Sevenfold Journey and coteacher of the Nine Month Chakra Intensive, helped
develop this work over the years, as well as giving me wonderful support,
editing, and feedback. I would like to thank Lisa Green for her feedback on child
development, Jack Ingersoll for his lengthy discussions on Jungian psychology,
and Nancy Gnecco for her contributions to the charts. I would also like to thank
my agent, Peter Beren, for making this publication possible, and David Hinds of
Celestial Arts.

Most of all, I’d like to thank those who have dared to engage in the healing

process with me as your guide. From you I have learned the most. It has been a
privilege to serve you.

PREFACE TO THIS EDITION

Since this book was originally published in 1996, the chakra system has come of
age in the West. Yoga centers are growing exponentially, teaching asanas and
meditations that open the chakras. Theories of “energy healing” are influencing
the practice of both medicine and psychotherapy, creating a hunger for new
models. Chakras now appear on T-shirts, candles, and jewelry, in sitcom
conversations and articles in Time magazine. The idea that mind and body exist
on a spiritual continuum has finally entered the mainstream. The good news is
that it makes the chakra system accessible to more people as a template for
transformation. The shadow side of this exposure is that, at least in the West, any
cultural meme that gets seized by the collective consciousness runs the risk of
trivialization, thus diluting its power.

At every workshop, lecture, or book signing, people come up to me asking

whether I have a simple way to “clear their chakras.” Few of them understand
what a chakra actually is, fewer still have familiarity with the ancient Tantric
yoga tradition from which this system originates, and even fewer still are willing
to delve into the depths of their own psyches and actually do the work required
to make lasting changes in their inner and outer life. While some of the modern
techniques of chakra energy work can bring tangible shifts in the way we feel, it
is my opinion that these changes are often short-lived if we don’t roll up our
sleeves and do deeper work on the soul’s journey of healing and awakening.

It is to this challenge that I address this book. It will teach you an elegant

system for understanding your health and imbalances, yet one that is richly
complex. You will not find “one-size-fits-all” formulas that apply equally to all
people or all situations. Instead, you will learn universal principles that can be
effectively applied with careful consideration and understanding. You will learn,
for example, that some of your chakras may be too open, with poor
discrimination and filters, while other chakras can get mired in avoidance
patterns and remain closed. You will learn how these unconscious defense
patterns create excessive and deficient coping strategies that over time throw
your system out of balance and alignment, affecting the body’s health and your
quality of life. You will learn that these vital energy centers open sequentially
during crucial stages of childhood, and can be unwittingly shut down by well-
meaning parents whose own centers were compromised. You will learn about
your upward and downward currents of energy, and how each has a different
purpose in the liberation and manifestation of your life force. And you will learn

about the work required to reclaim the true aliveness that is your birthright.

The most frequent comment I’ve received from my readers about this book is

that they wonder how I could possibly have written so pointedly about their
private life and personal issues. This highlights how universal these ancient
principles are. Yet, in a rapidly changing world, we need to continually upgrade
our operating systems and learn new applications of these universal principles.
Few people live in ashrams with leisure for the contemplative life. Instead, most
of us live fast-paced lives, full of complex challenges. We meet these challenges
through the veil of enormous emotional wounds that compromise our aliveness.
We live in a culture in which that compromise is taken for granted. To heal this
rift, many of us have been working on ourselves for decades, undergoing the
journey to heal ourselves and find our life’s purpose, the journey of
individuation and awakening.

The chakra system is a map for that journey. With this map in hand, your

journey can be more direct, more profound, and more deliberate. This system
maps onto the body through the human nervous system, maps onto the psyche
through developmental stages of childhood, maps onto the spiritual quest
through states of consciousness, and transforms the culture through planes of
external reality. The chakras are truly a set of portals between the inner and outer
worlds.

If the outer world is to be transformed, the process must begin within. If the

inner world is to be transformed, it must be understood in light of the outer
forces that shaped it. These realms are not separate, yet we lack a systematic
means of tying them together. The value of the chakra system is that as the inner
and outer worlds connect, we become aligned—spiritually, mentally,
emotionally, and physically.

In the Western world, there are somatic therapies that connect mind and body,

yet ignore the spiritual aspects of our being. There are spiritually oriented
psychologies that connect psyche and spirit, yet ignore the body. And there are
disciplines, such as yoga, that connect spirit and body, yet fail to address the
wounds of the psyche.

Through the lens of the chakra system, this book presents an integration of

psychology, spirituality, and physicality within one comprehensive system. It
says mind, body, and spirit are equally important facets of every one of us, yet
comprise one unified entity. In honoring the full spectrum of human aliveness,
this book is a contribution toward the restoration of your wondrously divine
potential. With map in hand, may you enjoy the journey.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

Eastern Body, Western Mind focuses on vital issues in therapy today: addiction,
codependence, physical and sexual abuse, family dynamics, character structures,
personal empowerment, feminism, male emancipation, sexuality, politics, and
spirituality. It integrates techniques from bioenergetics to visualization, depth
psychology to spiritual practice.

After working in the healing field for over two decades, I have seen far too

much suffering of the human soul. I have sat with my tissue, drying the tears of
people deeply wounded by the horrendous ignorance of emotionally crippled
caretakers—people trying to limp their way through a troubled world, filled with
others as wounded as themselves. I have seen how the healing process can
overwhelm and frighten those engaged in this heroic journey. Yet I have also
witnessed the incredible transformations and hopes that this journey brings to its
travelers, as well as the transformation of the world around them.

It is to this hope of transformation that I dedicate this work. As a guidebook

for the journey of awakening, it presents a systematic model for addressing the
issues that plague us. It is written for individuals engaged in their own healing
process, as well as for therapists, counselors, and bodyworkers who become
guides along the way. It is also addressed to parents who want to raise conscious
and healthy children, and to those who simply want to wake up and further their
own evolution.

Eastern Body, Western Mind shows how to use the chakra system as a tool for

diagnosis and healing. My primary purpose is to present the system itself, as a
lens through which we can view the complex problems of the soul’s evolution,
both individually and collectively. The system is presented through its major
components, the individual chakras, examining how they shape and are shaped
by human behavior and culture.

In presenting this material, I have woven together three basic threads of

philosophical thought:

1. The Enlightenment philosophies, whose movement is upward and beyond,

toward the mental and spiritual realms. They are derived primarily from
Eastern cultures and their focus on transcendence. They seek to escape the
trials and tribulations of the mundane world by ascending to higher planes
of consciousness that transcend suffering.

2. The embodiment philosophies, whose movement is down and in, toward the

realms of manifestation, soul, body, and engagement with the world around
us. They are reflected in the practice of somatic therapy, bioenergetics, and
earth-centered spirituality. Their focus is on immanence, or the presence of
the divine within. They seek to end suffering by engaging with the forces
that cause it.

3. The integrative philosophies, whose movement is toward integration of

opposites: mind and body, Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter, light and
shadow, male and female. For this thread, I have chosen to focus on the
depth psychology of Carl Gustav Jung, specifically, his understanding of
the soul’s journey toward individuation. The goal of integrative
philosophies is transformation and wholeness.

The chakra system is a profound representation of the universe. Each of the

seven levels represents such major areas of human life that they could fill
volumes all by themselves. Issues of love and relationship, power and
spirituality, emotion and instinct all beg to be examined and understood.
Sexuality, for example, is just one aspect of the second chakra, and sexual abuse
is just one aspect of sexuality. It cannot be the purpose of this book to detail the
complexities of any particular abuse, but to place each one in the context of a
larger system in which they can be understood energetically and spiritually.
From this context, you can orient your healing process. For further information,
please see the references listed at the end of the book.

I have wanted the book to be as user-friendly as possible. In today’s fast-

paced world, I know that many people do not have time to read a book of this
size from cover to cover. Therefore, the text is divided by numerous subtitles
and reference charts to make the information easily accessible—you can read the
parts that are pertinent to you and skim the rest. Some sections are more
clinically oriented, using language specific to psychotherapy, while others are
directed toward a general audience.

This work is definitely a Western approach to the chakras. It places modern

psychosocial issues within a spiritual context, based on the esoteric
interpretations of the chakras that can be found in Eastern texts. Rather than
presenting an otherworldly discipline borrowed from the cultures of the East, I
have created a down-to-earth, practical application for contemporary members of
Western civilization. Yet the inevitable result is a blending of East and West.

The chakra system describes the energetic structure through which we

organize our life force. By understanding this internal arrangement, we can
understand our defenses and needs, and learn how to restore balance. The chakra

system is every bit as valid as any psychological theory, and I feel, far more
versatile—one that is capable of spanning mind, body, and spirit. I invite you to
explore it with me and thereby deepen your own healing process.

NOTE. The personal stories related here are combinations of real people—

sometimes several people’s stories overlap to make the best illustrations. All
names and specific details have been changed to protect anonymity. I give deep
thanks to my clients, students, and friends who have risked themselves in the
service of transformation and taught me so much about this material.

INTRODUCTION

Sacred Centers of the Self

DISCOVERING THE RAINBOW BRIDGE
You are about to go on a journey through the many dimensions of your own
Self. This journey will take you through a transformation of consciousness—
across a vital bridge—connecting spirit and matter, Heaven and Earth, mind and
body. As you transform yourself, you transform the world.

You may grind their souls in the self-same mill
You may bind them heart and brow;
But the poet will follow the rainbow still,
And his brother will follow the plow.

JOHN BOYLE O’REILLY

This journey is a colorful one, as life itself is colorful. It offers an alternative

to the drab, gray mentality of the modern era, where color is limited to the realm
of children. By contrast, too many “grown-ups” live in dark, tailored suits, riding
gray subways and highways through black-and-white realities of grim choices
and limited options. Reclaiming the multidimensional diversity of the human
experience is the task of this journey—no less than a quest for our wholeness
and the renewal of our collective spirit.

The seven colors of the rainbow represent an alternative to our binary black-

and-white consciousness, offering us a world of multiple opportunities. The
rainbow expresses the diversity of light as it moves from source to
manifestation. Its seven colors represent seven vibratory modalities of human
existence, related to the seven chakras of Indian yogic tradition—energy centers
that exist within each one of us.

Yoga philosophy teaches us that the serpent goddess, Kundalini, represents

the evolutionary life force within each person. She awakens from her slumber in
the earth to dance her way through each chakra, reestablishing the rainbow as a
metaphysical bridge between matter and consciousness. Through this dance of
transformation, the rainbow becomes the axis mundi—the central axis of the
world that runs through the vertical core of each one of us. On our journey
through life, the chakras are the wheels along this axis that take the vehicle of
the Self along our evolutionary quest, across the Rainbow Bridge, to reclaim our
divine nature once again.

This Rainbow Bridge can also span the cultures of East and West, as each has

something to learn from the other. The treasures of the East bring Westerners a
vast spiritual wealth. The elaborate practices of yoga, the abundance of Buddhist
and Hindu scriptures, and the rich imagery of Eastern deities bring Westerners
new dimensions of spiritual experience. Yet despite this spiritual wealth, there is
a predominance of material poverty in many of the Eastern countries, especially
in India, where yoga and the chakra system originated. By comparison, most
Westerners live among material wealth, but spiritual poverty. Greed and
violence dominate our news, fear and emptiness plague our youth, and mindless
materialism consumes the world’s resources. I believe it is possible to have both
material abundance and spiritual wealth. We can embrace all the chakras at once,
at last achieving some kind of personal and cultural balance.

Crossing the Rainbow Bridge is a mythic metaphor for the evolution of

consciousness. To reclaim a myth is to put our personal work into a larger
context—a context which deepens the meaning of our individual struggle. To
restore the Rainbow Bridge is to reconnect to our own divinity, anchoring it in
the world around us and healing the rifts that so plague our world.

Mythologically, the rainbow has always been a sign of hope—a connection

between Heaven and Earth, a sign of harmony and peace. It was once believed
that deities, spirits, and mortals passed along its bands of color both during life
and after, protecting the indivisibility of sky and Earth. In Norse mythology, the
Rainbow Bridge connected humans to the gods, and provided the link to
Valhalla, the celestial palace where the gods had their dwelling.

The rainbow, as archetypal symbol, appears in many mythologies throughout

the world. In Hindu mythology, the goddess Maya created the world out of
seven rainbow-hued veils. In Egyptian myth, it was the seven stoles of Isis; in
Christianity, the seven veils of Salome; for the Babylonians, it was Ishtar’s
rainbow-jeweled necklace; and for the Greeks, the winged Iris, who carried the
gods’ messages to humans on Earth.

From Celtic myth, the pot of gold at the rainbow’s end represents a kind of