Traditions
Aura and chakra traditions
The ideas behind auras and chakras have a long and varied history. Knowing where they come from helps you read them for what they are.
Traditional belief
Prana, nadis and chakras in Indian texts
Indian yogic and tantric traditions describe prana, a vital energy, moving through a network of channels called nadis. Chakras (“wheels”) are centres along the central channel. Different texts and lineages describe different numbers of chakras, with their own symbols, deities and sounds; there was never a single fixed system.
The modern seven-chakra picture
The seven-chakra model most people know today, with one rainbow colour for each centre, took shape in the 20th century, as yogic ideas were translated and taught widely in India and the West. It is a modern synthesis of older material, and it is the model we use in our readings.
The aura in Theosophy and later teaching
The word “aura” comes from the Greek for breeze or breath. Theosophical writers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries described the human aura as a coloured, layered field, and linked its colours to thoughts and feelings. Much of today’s aura language — layers, colours, “reading” the aura — grew from this period and from later healing traditions.
Other traditions
Ideas of a life force appear in many cultures, such as qi in Chinese tradition and ki in Japanese practice, from which Reiki takes part of its name. They are different traditions with their own histories, not one shared system.