The 7 Chakras Explained: A Complete Beginner's Guide (with Chart)

My son once asked me if the chakras are like a computer game, where you have to win each level before you can move up to the next one. I told him he could think of it that way if he liked. But what matters most is what happens when they're cleared.

This guide covers the seven chakras, where they are and what each one gives you, along with the part most chakra charts leave out.

What Are Chakras?

A chakra is an energy center in the subtle body, located along the spine, through which Kundalini flows. The word comes from Sanskrit and is usually translated as "wheel". In India, these centers have long been described in spiritual traditions.

The way VillyMa explained it to me, you have an energetic system running alongside your physical body. It includes three channels running vertically along your spine (the left, the right and the center) and seven primary energy centers along them. Those centers are the chakras.

You can't see them on an X-ray, and I'm not going to pretend they are physical organs. They are something you come to know by feeling them, often first as tingling, warmth or coolness in a particular place, whether during meditation, yoga or breathwork, or in a quiet moment of ordinary life.

Go deeperWhat Is Kundalini? A Simple Explanation

7 Chakras Chart: Names, Locations and Meanings

This chart shows the seven primary chakras in order, from the base of your spine to the top of your head, with each one's color and the gift it gives. The colors are the seven VillyMa uses in her guided chakra meditation, rising from red at the root to violet at the crown.

What Does Each Chakra Mean?

Each chakra's meaning is the gift it gives you. Here they are one by one, starting at the root.

1. Root Chakra (Muladhara)

The Root chakra is the foundation everything else is built on. When it's cleared, you feel grounded, safe, confident and strong, as if life is in a good place.

When it isn't, it tends to feel like the opposite: insecurity, doubt and the sense that everything is up in the air. The journey home has to begin here, with a feeling of safety.

2. Sacral Chakra (Swadhisthana)

The Sacral chakra gives you the gift of creativity. Not only artistic creativity, but the ability to meet life fluidly and solve problems intelligently.

As this center clears, you become more dynamic. You find better ways of getting things done, at work, at home and in how you express yourself.

3. Navel Chakra (Manipura)

The Manipura is the center of harmony in your outer life. It's where the practical circumstances of your life come into balance, so there is space for your spiritual journey to flourish.

When I started this journey, VillyMa used to tell me, "You need to focus on your Manipura a lot." My life back then was swinging like a pendulum, and I tell that story in my guide to blocked chakras.

4. Heart Chakra (Anahata)

The Heart chakra is where the journey turns inward. Everything below your heart relates to how you experience the physical world. From the heart upward, the ascent is spiritual.

Your heart's gifts are kindness, compassion, patience, gratitude and love. As it opens, you may find you get less agitated, forgive faster and start appreciating small things: sunshine, birdsong, the hug of someone you love.

I call it a nuclear reactor of love. When yours activates, it's a very powerful feeling.

5. Throat Chakra (Vishuddha)

The Throat chakra is about your words carrying love. You begin to speak in a more supportive, inspiring and meaningful way.

On a deeper level, you start to become an instrument for the Divine to speak through. VillyMa told me I would reach a stage where I would simply be the enjoyer of the Divine working through me. I can't count how many times I've come off a call inspired by the words that came out of my own mouth.

6. Third Eye Chakra (Ajna)

The Third Eye is a big leap: the gift of seeing the Divine in everything. On one level, the world looks like endless separate things: a tree, a cup, a person, a car.

At the Ajna you begin to see through that. Everything is made of the same living energy, and you are it. Some people laugh out loud when this lands. It isn't a mystery to be figured out. It's a mystery to be experienced, in reverence and awe.

7. Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)

The Crown is where Kundalini reconnects with the Divine. I describe it as God-realization: the conscious awareness that you are the One, experiencing yourself as yourself.

It's very hard to put into words. But it's the reason the other six exist. Every chakra below it prepares the way.

Go deeperAll my chakra guidesBlocked Chakras: Signs and How to Clear Them

What Happens When Your Chakras Are Cleared?

The chakras do have an order, so my son wasn't wrong. The root comes first, and Kundalini rises through each one in turn.

But your chakras aren't tests to pass. When cleared, your chakras unlock a variety of emotional and spiritual benefits that can be life-transforming for many people.

Stability makes creativity possible. Creativity and harmony make space for your heart. Your heart softens you enough to let the Divine speak through you. And from there, you begin to see.

The chakras are a foundation for ascent. Day by day, chakra by chakra, your life is being harmonized and moved into position for the next step.

Do You Have to Work on One Chakra at a Time?

No. Some traditions and systems have focused on one chakra at a time, but the Satya Awakening System™ works differently. With the Satya Awakening Technique™, all seven chakras are understood to be activated and cleared at once, every time. There's a whole symphony of things happening, often more subtly than you notice.

That can be a relief when you're just starting out. You don't need to diagnose which chakra is "the problem" before you start. You sit, follow the technique and let Kundalini do the work. When Kundalini awakens and rises through the spine, blockages along the way can make the experience intense, uncomfortable or overwhelming. That's why we focus on gently clearing the chakras rather than forcing Kundalini upward.

Go deeperWhat Is the Satya Awakening Technique™?

What Blocks the Chakras?

Chakras become blocked, in the way I was taught, through negative emotions and difficult life experiences: betrayal, loss, rejection, fear, anger, guilt, shame, resentment. The energy of those experiences can settle in your chakras and channels.

Those blockages are what stop your Kundalini rising freely to the Crown. That's why, after Awakening, the next stage of your path is Clearing. After Kundalini awakening comes a path of four stages, Awakening, Clearing, Integration and Surrender, leading to lasting Union with the Divine.

Union with the Divine is our most natural state of being. Clearing your chakras is how you return to it.

Go deeperBlocked Chakras: Signs, Symptoms and How to Clear Them

What Does It Feel Like When Your Chakras Start to Clear?

Chakra clearing can feel like a roller coaster at first, and then, slowly, like harmony. That was my experience.

When I met VillyMa, my wife and I were about to divorce. I could have listed a dozen things going wrong: health, business, marriage, you name it.

At the start it was up and down. Good, then bad.

And then, slowly, harmony.

I'm still a dad of a young child, and nobody escapes the realities of parenting. But my experience of life became very different. One of VillyMa's most common sayings is, "It will all be worked out, dear." At first I thought she was being dismissive. Now I know she has seen Kundalini at work in many lives, and she simply knows.

Day by day, as your chakras clear, your life comes into harmony.

How Do You Start Working With Your Chakras?

You start working with your chakras by sitting with a simple guided technique every day. You don't need to memorize the chart to begin. Here's the simplest start:

1. Sit quietly for a guided session each day.
2. Follow a guided technique rather than trying to push energy around on your own.
3. Let your attention rest where you're guided. Where attention goes, Kundalini flows.
4. Notice without chasing. Warmth, coolness or tingling in a chakra is lovely, but it isn't the goal.
5. Be consistent. Consistency matters far more than intensity.

Go gently. You are always in control, and you can pause whenever you need to.

The Satya Awakening Technique™ isn't about forcing Kundalini to awaken. It's about gently preparing your system so that awakening can happen naturally, and safely, in its own time.

If you'd like me to guide you step by step, that's what the Kundalini Awakening Experience is for: it teaches the Satya Awakening Technique™ step by step.

Frequently Asked Questions

With love,
Caleb