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male and the other female. They represent a shorthand way of understanding the spiritual teachings, the devotional practices and the rites and ceremonies that awaken each chakra. In addition, they are associated with the levels of man’s psychological maturity such as the predominant emotional reaction, psychological issues and concerns, style and content of thought, level of abstract thinking, appreciation of moral principles, and the potential for spiritual insight. Each chakra holds within it strengths and potentials for evolution as well as characteristic conflicts and obstacles; each requires specific techniques and approaches for transcendence.
Seven chakras have been defined and described. They can be divided into three groups—lower, middle and higher—and might be referred to, respectively, as the physiological, personal and spiritual.
The first and second chakras—supposedly related to the adrenal glands and gonads, respectively, of the endocrine gland system—are located at the base of the spine near the coccyx and in the lower pelvis at the level of the genitals. They seem to correspond to Freud’s observation that the anal and genital areas of the body are very much related to the development of early personality. In addition, Lead- beater states that these first two chakras are principally concerned with receiving two forces which enter the body at their levels—kun- dalini from the earth, through the first chakra, and vitality from the sun, through the second or splenic chakra. (It should be noted that Leadbeater’s splenic chakra, located near the spleen in the lower left quadrant of the abdomen, does not correspond to the second chakra of the yogis, which is located in the area of the genitals and whose function appears more related to the development of sexual energy.)
The first two chakras, then, regulate biological and physical development and the early aspects of personality. At this stage, man’s mental capacity is quite primitive, perhaps best described by Piaget’s first sensorimotor stage of cognitive development. The first chakra is called muladhara—the root, support or basic chakra. The second chakra, called by the yogis, swadhisthana, meaning “your own dwelling or origin,” and located in the area of the generative organs, is described by the Hindus as being the source of our creative potential.
The psychological mechanisms, dynamics and aspects related to the development of these two chakras can be related to Freud’s oral, anal and phallic stages and Erikson’s stages of basic trust versus mis-