Wheels of Light:

Clearing, Balancing & Connecting Chakras

by Barry Kapke, ACST, CI

If you’ve never felt energy before, this is a good place to start. Rub your hands vigorously and
firmly together until some heat is generated. Then, as if you were washing your hands, spread the
warmth of this hot qi (energy) over the backs of the hands and the fingers. Close your eyes and
allow the hands to soften, the fingers gently together and curved, and allow the palms to face each
other some three or four inches apart. Notice any sensation that may exist in your hands. Very
slowly, move the palms together and apart, paying attention to the sensations you may be aware
of. Continue this oscillation for a few minutes. Change the orientation of your hands and notice
the different feelings when your hands mirror each other and when they are slightly rotated as if
to clasp together. Notice what happens if you straighten the fingers, making the palm flat and
rigid, still continuing the to and fro movement. If the mind becomes too analytical or clouds with
skeptical doubt, bring the attention back to what you feel.

Our bodies are constantly sensing and responding to energy fields. In the same way that we
develop tactile sensitivity for palpation or that we can develop greater acuity with any of our
senses, through practice and awareness we can cultivate a refined sensitivity to energy fields and
energy fluctuations. Sensing energy is nothing magical, or even extraordinary. Everything is
energy – some dense, some subtle. If we use this ability to be aware of subtler forms of energy,
our skill grows. If we don’t use it, it remains an undeveloped potential.

The energy of chakras is relatively easy to feel. Chakras are powerful concentrated movements of
energy that have an almost tangible quality. In “Body Maps: Chakras, A Structural View”
(Massage & Bodywork, Oct/Nov 2000), I discussed the locations of the seven major chakras and
their relationship to spinal curvature and energy flow along the vertical axis of the body. There
are also 122 secondary chakras, according to clairvoyant Rosalyn Bruyere1 ; the exact number
varies depending upon the authority cited but these minor chakras exist wherever bone touches
bone (joints) or at a nerve plexus. The hands contain many of these minor chakras and as such are
a fitting tool for sensing energy and for healing.

These “wheels of energy” draw energy to the body from the surrounding environment, inclusive
of the energies of other beings, as well as spinning energy outwards. Bruyere refers to these two
energetic movements as intake chakras and output chakras. Intake chakras are associated with
the female, yin, negative polarity, with the tendency to attract and to draw inward. Conversely,
output chakras are considered male, yang, positive, and push energy out or through the system.
The first, third, fifth, and seventh chakras are output chakras, and the second, fourth, and sixth are
intake chakras. Chakras of common polarity automatically interconnect. This relationship can be
utilized to support and to facilitate change and the processing of information and experience by
focusing on the output chakras, or to soothe and calm by connecting the input chakras.

According to Bruyere, the processing of life experience can be viewed as a dialectic of energetic
transformation. The strongly yang, male vitality of the root chakra is catalyzed by the yin,
emotional character of the second chakra. Sensation and experience, infused with feeling, lead to
the mental realm (thoughts, opinions, judgments) of the third chakra, which is androgynous
(yang), both male and female. The yin, transformative potential of the heart finds expression with
the masculine throat center, culminating in the wisdom and insight of the third eye, the sixth
chakra, which is androgynous (yin). This evolution in experience potentially leads to realization,
 Barry Kapke: “Wheels of Light”
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enlightenment, nonduality. Bruyere suggests “in the seventh chakra we are exogenous; we are out
of the system. We are neither male nor female, nor are we androgynous; we are transformed, we
are realized, we are complete.”2 This provides another set of relationships that can be focused
upon in devising a strategy for chakra balancing.

CHAKRA CHART
Root Navel/Spleen Solar Plexus Heart Throat Brow Crown
Sanskrit Name Muladhara Svadhisthana Manipura Anahata Visuddha Ajna Sahasrara
(root/support) (special abode) (jeweled lotus) (not struck) (purified) (command, (thousand
perceive) petal lotus)
Location Base of Spine & Abdomen, Genitals, Solar Plexus Heart “area” Throat Third Eye Top of head,
Perineum Lower Back and Cerebral
Hips Cortex
Neurologic/ Coccygeal Plexus; Sacral Plexus; Solar Plexus; Pulmonary & Pharyngeal Plexus; Carotid Cerebral
Spinal Coccyx Sacrum Lumbar Cardiac Plexi; Cervical Plexus; Cortex
Associations Thoracic Cranial

Gland Adrenals/ Ovaries/Testes Adrenals/ Thymus Thyroid, Parathyroid Pineal Pituitary

[Kundalini] Pancreas
Associated Feet, legs, hips, Womb, genitals, Muscles, Heart, lungs, Throat, ears, mouth, Eyes Central
Body Parts bones, large kidneys, bladder digestive system arms, hands arms, hands nervous
intestines system,
cerebral cortex
Embodiment Physical Body Emotional Body Mental Body Astral Body Etheric Body Celestial Body Ketheric Body
Orientation Self-Preservation Self-Gratification Self-Definition Self- Self-Expression Self-Reflection Self-
Acceptance Knowledge
Polarity Output – Positive Intake – Negative Output – Positive Intake – Output – Positive Intake – Output –
Male - Yang Female - Yin Androgynous - Negative Male - Yang Negative Positive
Yang Female - Yin Androgynous - Exogenous –
Yin Yang
Element Earth/Fire Water Fire Air Ether/Sound/Vibration Light Thought
Color Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo White
Core Issues Survival, Sexual Relationship, Power & Control, Love, Communication, Intuition, Non-duality,
Grounding, Self- Emotions, Vitality Will, Manifesting, Compassion, Teaching, Wisdom & Imagination, Unitary
esteem, Sexuality DigestiveFire Relationship, Life Experience Insight Conscious-
Touch, Action ness
vs Reaction
Rights To be here, To To want To act To love and be To speak and be heard To see To know
have, To feel loved

Demon/ Fear Guilt Shame Grief Lies Illusion Attachment

Trickster
Excessive Obesity, Overly emotional, Dominating, Co- Excessive talking, Headaches, Overly
sluggishness, poor boundaries, sex blaming, dependency, inability to listen, nightmares, intellectual,
constipation, addiction, obsessive aggressive, poor hearing problems, hallucinations, spiritual
monotony, attachments scattered, boundaries, stuttering, thyroid delusions, addiction,
hoarding, constantly active, possessive, problems, neckache, difficulty confusion,
materialism, ulcers jealous, high sore throat, colds concentrating dissociation,
greed, frequent blood alienation
illness pressure,
heart disease
Deficient Frequent fear, Stiff low back, Weak will, poor Shy, lonely, Fear of speaking, poor Poor memory, Learning
lack of discipline, frigidity, impotence, self esteem, isolated, lack rhythm poor vision, difficulties,
restlessness, rigidity, emotional passivity, of empathy, can’t see spiritual
anorexia, knee numbness, fear of sluggishness, bitter, critical, patterns, skepticism,
problems, pleasure fearful, diabetes, asthma, lung blindness, limited beliefs,
ungroundedness hypoglycemia disease denial materialism,
apathy,
depression
Herbs/ Incense Cedar Orris root, gardenia, Carnation, Lavender, Frankincense, benzoin Mugwort, star Lotus, gotu
/ Essential oil damiana cinnamon, jasmine, orris anise, acacia, kola
marigold root, yarrow, saffron
marjoram,
meadowsweet
Gemstones Lodestone, ruby, Coral Amber, topaz Emerald, Turquoise Lapis lazuli, Amethyst,
garnet, bloodstone tourmaline, quartz diamond
rose quartz
Metal Lead Tin Iron Copper Mercury Silver Gold
 Barry Kapke: “Wheels of Light”
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There are numerous ways of connecting chakral energies, supporting them to interact and so to
benefit from each other’s qualities. One way is to hold two energy centers, allowing the hands to
act as a bridge. In making such a connection, there is no “doing” involved. One is not sending or
channeling energy. The bodywork therapist makes this basic contact, providing the avenue for
these two energies to meet and to interact. The therapist simply waits, staying present, open, and
available. One of the most valuable things a bodyworker has to offer a client is that quality of
non-directed open attentiveness. Usually it takes about three minutes for this meeting of energies
to begin to deeply connect.

A common, and intuitive, way of ending a bodywork session is to connect the intake chakras. The
therapist places one hand on the lower abdomen or second chakra and the other on the sternum,
the heart chakra. After several minutes, or when it feels appropriate to move on, the heart hand
moves to the forehead, the sixth chakra. Another variation would be to then move the hara
(abdomen) hand to the heart and the heart hand to the brow. Such an ending to a session, or this
sequence as a mini-treatment on its own, connects emotion, transformation, and insight.

Clearing and balancing chakras is another way of working with chakral energies. It is important
to understand the spinal chakras as an interconnected system, with a flow from one center to the
next. Imbalance anywhere in the chain will effect the entire chain. As a chakra spins, its energies
are drawn upward to the next chakra. The root chakra is often likened to the pilot light. If the root
chakra’s energies are dissipated or closed down, there is little energy to fuel the other chakras.
Balancing even one chakra, particularly the weak link, will strengthen and energize the entire
system.

The clarity and overall functioning of a chakra can be assessed in several ways. With experience
and practice, one develops the “clear seeing” to intuit what is happening with a chakra. Some
develop the ability to see, and interpret, the color of a chakra. Others may use muscle testing
techniques. My own preference is the use of a pendulum. By suspending a crystal, an effective
transmitter of energy, over a reclining client’s chakra, the spinning energies of the chakra will be
amplified in the visible movements of the pendulum. According to Bruyere, “the direction of
rotation, shape, and diameter of a chakra indicates the state of its energy and the health of the
corresponding or adjacent physical organs.”3 The movement of the pendulum will
correspondingly be clockwise, counterclockwise, circular, elliptical, flat (back and forth), strong,
or weak.

Energy Medicine educator Donna Eden4 claims that chakras are multi-layered, with each of its
seven layers capable of spinning in its own direction. The method she suggests for balancing
chakras is both simple and direct. Hold the left hand (or both hands) some inches above the
chakra you are focusing on. There will be a sensation of engagement or contact. Begin making
counterclockwise circles over the chakra. This movement goes against the typically-clockwise
rotation of a chakra, sweeping up all seven layers in its unidirectional wake. “The hand can act
like a magnet, pulling stale or toxic energies up and out with its motion.”5 Continue this
counterclockwise “clearing” of the chakra for three minutes. Then reverse directions, using the
right hand (or both hands) to integrate and reharmonize the chakra by moving all seven layers
together in a unified clockwise spin. This method can be practiced with a client as described, or
performed as a self-care routine, and it can address all seven chakras or focus on just the one or
two that are in need.

Chakra balancing helps to remove toxic energies, bring hormones and emotions into balance, and
support the smooth and integrated functioning of the chakra system and the unfoldment of one’s
 Barry Kapke: “Wheels of Light”
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life potentials. Clearing and balancing chakras has a cumulative effect when practiced regularly,
more profoundly clarifying and harmonizing the core layers. Health, Bruyere claims, is more than
the mere absence of disease. “Vitality, appropriate feelings, appropriate thought process, a
willingness to embrace change in our lives, creative self-expression and responsibility, intuitive
understanding, and a healthy spiritual relationship with the Ultimate Creative Force are all
essential if we are to be ‘full of light’ and full of life and well-being.”6

Barry Kapke is the program director of Asian Bodyworks at San Francisco School of Massage
and the founder of Insight Bodywork™. He can be reached via e-mail at insight@bodhiwork.org

Footnotes
1
Bruyere, Rosalyn L. Wheels of Light: Chakras, Auras, and the Healing Energy of the Body. (New
York: Fireside, 1989, 1994). 41.
2
Bruyere, 83-84.
3
Bruyere, 73.
4
Eden, Donna, with Feinstein, David. Energy Medicine. (New York: Jeremy P Tarcher/Putnam, 1998).
5
Eden, 169.
6
Bruyere, 100

Copyright © 2001, Associated Massage & Bodywork Professionals, Inc. All rights reserved.

This article is distributed, with permission of the author, for personal use only. It was published in
Massage & Bodywork Magazine (December/January 2001). For permission to reprint, please contact:
Associated Massage & Bodywork Professionals, Attn: Karrie Mowen, 1271 Sugarbush Drive, Evergreen
CO 80439-9766.