Dear Patient,
People will sometimes ask if there’s a correlation between acupuncture and the chakras. As with many questions related to acupuncture, or any subtle energetic medicine, the answer is…sort of.
The concept of the chakras (Sanskrit for “wheel”) arose from the Hindu traditions of India. Chakras are centers of psychic and spiritual energy, said to be either “open,” meaning healthy and balanced, or “closed,” resulting in physical or emotional symptoms. Similarly, acupuncture points are nodes of energy along meridian pathways, and blockage in the meridians results in pain and illness. In both traditions, openness and flow = health, while blockage and constraint = disease.
Chakras are accessed through somatic and spiritual practices such as yoga and meditation. Similarly, we can move energy through our own meridian system with tai chi and qigong.
Although the number of chakras varies according to who you ask, the most widely recognized traditions name seven main chakras ascending from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Each of these seven main chakras overlaps with an important acupuncture point.
These ideas of chakras and meridians and points are human constructs. They hint at the sense of awe we feel when we observe the world around us and feel the mass of our physical being and the pull of our hearts. We can’t possibly fathom the fullness of the universe and our place in it, so we make metaphors to shape the unknowable into things we can describe—like qi, and chakras, and meridians. The true correlation is that they’re all attempts to make sense of what we humans have always longed to understand—the mystery of our own inner workings.
Love and gratitude,
Your Acupuncturist
thanks for reminding me of the mystery and how beautiful it is to stand within it