The Chakric Science of Personality

Every personality is comprised of these basic archetypal elements, although in widely varying combinations. Depending on an individual's karmic patterns, subtle energies concentrate themselves in different areas of the chakric system where they are employed toward either constructive or destructive ends. In this manner, complex patterns are constellated throughout an individual's chakric centers. Although every person experiences all of these centers to one degree or another, certain chakras will be more dominant for some than for others. Hence, an artistic person may have the fourth chakra emphasized, while an intellectual type may have the fifth chakra emphasized, and so forth.

A useful way to illustrate this point is through the notion of sub-personalities, since each chakra has its own unique traits or "personifications." Utilizing this system of correspondences, we might describe the different chakras in the following way: the first, or Saturn, chakra can be metaphorically described as the "Inner Politician" or the "Inner Architect"; the second, or Jupiter, chakra is the "Inner Optimist" or the "Inner Preacher"; the third chakra is, plain and simple, the "Inner Warrior"; the fourth, Venus, chakra is the "Inner Lover" or "Inner Artist"; the fifth, or Mercury, chakra is the "Inner Communicator" or "Inner Thinker"; the sixth, or lunar, chakra is the "Inner Mother" or the "Inner Queen"; the seventh, or solar, chakra is the "Inner Father" or the "Inner King." Certain chakric levels will be emphasized in any given horoscope, and this will determine an individual's dominant sub-personalities.

With this as a foundation, we can begin to explore some of the specific ways a horoscope can reveal a person's chakric energies. Based on my own experience with this system through the years, I believe there are at least three primary levels on which this can be approached, all of which have to be considered in any study of the chakric horoscope. The first of these involves looking at the planets in one's chart and their condition (by aspect or angular strength); the second involves examining the signs and their relative emphases according to planetary placement; the third concerns the houses and their planetary emphasis. Due to space limitations, I will focus here only on the second of these — chakric interpretation using the signs.

We have seen how the twelve signs closely correspond to the different chakras by spinning the zodiac around until Cancer and Leo are positioned at the top of the wheel. The placement of a person's planets within the various signs can provide important clues as to which chakric levels are emphasized. For example, any large constellation of planets in Libra or Taurus would indicate a heavy focus of attention on lessons of the heart, or fourth, chakra, while planets in Scorpio or Aries would indicate a focus of energies on the naval, or third, chakra, and so forth. In theory, these chakric emphases would manifest as energy patterns in those corresponding areas of the person's aura, in turn perceptible to sufficiently clairvoyant individuals.

This kind of interpretation can be refined considerably since each planet is subtly different in how it amplifies a given chakric level. For example, Saturn in one chakra will have a dramatically different effect than if Jupiter is found in that same chakric center. Specifically, where Saturn is placed shows where that person may feel especially challenged to grow, or, in its more frustrating form, where they may feel denied in some way. In a subtler sense, of course, the placement of Saturn indicates the chakric level at which one may also find the greatest depth of wisdom carried over from past lives. In any event, one would probably have to work very hard for desired results in the chakric level inhabited by Saturn, although for that very reason one might also have a much greater appreciation for the rewards of that chakra, just as a man stranded in the desert would have greater appreciation for a glass of water than a man swimming in the ocean. By contrast, in whatever chakra Jupiter is placed indicates where one experiences more obvious blessings and good fortune, where there is a more fluid opening and expression of life energies — possibly to excess.

Arguably, the most important significators to look for, chakrically, are the Sun, Moon, and Ascendant. Simply by studying these basic points, one can, I believe, learn a great deal about an individual's chakric focus in this life. For instance, Sun in Gemini would strongly suggest a heightened focus upon the throat chakra of mentality and communication, whereas Sun in Capricorn would point to an intense direction of energies toward the earth plane and the establishment of success, recognition, or simply balance on this level. As most astrologers know, these primary indicators (Sun, Moon, and Ascendant) have their own unique and subtly different shades of meaning — a source of lively debate among astrologers over the years. My own feeling on this matter is that the Moon indicates the chakric level one is coming from both emotionally and karmically; the Ascendant shows where the everyday personality in this life is presently at, in terms of visible, habitual ways of thinking and relating; and the Sun indicates the chakric direction one is aspiring toward in this life, and which one is attempting to bring into creative manifestation.

Five Case Studies

Let’s look at a few examples and explore some possible ways this system can be used to understand a person's chakras. All of these horoscopes have been chosen on the basis of unusually dramatic planetary emphases and characteristics, from which the reader may then extrapolate subtler patterns of meaning and methods of interpretation. (Note: Strictly for simplicity’s sake, I have not included secondary factors like the nodes, asteroids, or Arabic parts. In all of these chakric horoscopes, where the zodiacal location of the Ascendant is known with any degree of certainty, I have indicated it using the letters "AS.")

(In all case studies, the conventional Western horoscope — tropical zodiac/Placidus house cusps — appears on the left. The chakric horoscope appears on the right.)