Humanity stands poised on the precipice of an unprecedented spiritual age, and a precise road map is needed to guide us through to the next level.
That road map is the chakra system, says visiting American author and spiritualist Anodea Judith.
Chakras are an ancient spiritual belief system arising out of India. The chakras themselves refer to seven basic energy centres arranged along the human spine.
Not specific to any one religion or interpretation, the seven-stage gradation of the chakras is applied to a host of varying disciplines — mirroring gradations of musical notes, spiritual enlightenment and even self-defence.
“(The chakras) are a cosmic map that maps right onto our nervous system and maps onto layers of reality in the world,” said Judith.
“Your physiological systems — the way your heart works and the way your lungs work and the way your stomach works … are universal.
“What is inside maps onto what is outside, so that everything lines up in a healthy way,” she added.
In all 389 pages of her new book Waking the Global Heart, Judith takes the chakras and applies them to the entire 2.5-million-year reign of the human race — at the same time contrasting humanity’s development with the life stages of a human being.
Judith is in Whitehorse conducting seven-day workshop on the chakra system.
Chakra one, the energy centre located at the base of the human spine, applies to the Paleolithic era, when Homo habilus first began to walk upright and use stone tools. Judith calls it humanity’s development in the womb.
Chakra six, the human brow, represents the 20th century — humanity’s adolescence.
And now, humanity stands on the cusp of a new age: the heart — the fourth chakra.
The fifth, sixth and seventh chakras have brought global communication, the ability to transmit images, and a huge and readily accessible information system.
Thus, with the recent attainment of the fifth, sixth and seventh chakras, melded with the long-standing existence of the first three, the way is paved for the peace and freedom of the fourth chakra.
“This is the first time that humanity’s been able to ask, ‘Where are we going?’” she said.
It will not come easily. In her book, Judith maintains that the realm of the fourth chakra will demand a complete re-examination of human existence — a “rite of passage” into a new age.
“Basically, all the problems we have in the world today were once solutions to former problems,” said Judith.
“The automobile, ‘Wow, we can travel, we can drive from here to there, we can truck food from South America to the grocery store in the Yukon’ … but now these are creating problems that we didn’t foresee,” she said.
Hierarchical systems of government once solved the problem of anarchy, but now these hierarchies are holding us back, said Judith.
“What we’re seeing is our government is failing to deal with the issues of the day — which is environmental sustainability, economic stability, peace, health care, education…” she said.
In the absence of government action, self-organized groups are stepping forward to take command, she said.
Judith cited Hurricane Katrina as an example — with feeble government intervention, the largest base of post-disaster support came from private individuals and charities, she said.
The internet has been a crucial force to this new era.
“We’re moving from a chain of command to a web of connection,” she said.
Technology is an essential conduit to the new age — but Judith sees inner spirituality as critical to the transition.
“The only way we can really adequately change our world on the outside is to wake up on the inside,” said Judith.
Which is where Judith tries to fill the role of “a prophet for our time,” as noted by her book-jacket biography.
“My role in to give people a map for both personal transformation and cultural transformation — and it’s the same map. And that’s the map of the chakra system,” she said.
“We’re all part of this transformation, and by understanding the map, we can be a more conscious part of it.”
Judith was originally a therapist by trade — until a day came when she grew tired of “bandaging wounds” rather than getting at their root causes.
“I was helping to heal wounds that, in my opinion, never should have happened — sexual abuse, physical abuse, the way parents treat their children.
“When you’re in the river picking up people with a certain wound over and over again, you’ve got to go upstream and say, ‘What kind of belief system are we in that allows this to happen?’”
Out went the therapist’s couch and in came a lifelong crusade to spread the system of the chakras — as well as a new name.
“Judith used to be my first name, but I took it as my last name because my original last name just traced the patrilineal line of my family,” said Judith.
Dea, the second half of Judith’s chosen first name, is Latin for “goddess.”
“I’d like to think that Anodea means ‘one who serves the goddess,’” she said.
Anodea Judith will be presenting her book, Waking the Global Heart: Humanity’s Rite of Passage from the Love of Power to the Power of Love on Wednesday, August 13th at 7:30 p.m. at the High Country Inn.
Waking the Global Heart is available at Aroma Borealis.