The basic associations of each of the chakras are as follows: First Chakra,
located at the base of the spine—survival and security. Second Chakra, located just
above the pubic bone—pleasure and sexuality. Third Chakra, located at the solar
plexus—personal power. Fourth Chakra, the heart region—love. Fifth Chakra, at the
throat—creative expression. Sixth Chakra, the third-eye at the brow—intuition and
inspiration. Seventh Chakra, crown of the head—divine realization.
Astrology and the chakras are two of the most profound and longstanding mod-
els for understanding the human experience. It is natural that researchers would seek the
correlations between these two systems and much thought has been put forth in this
direction. The difficulty of direct correlation stems from the fact that the number of
chakras (7) does not readily transpose to the number of planets (ten) or signs (twelve).
C. W. Leadbeater, in his classic book The Chakras,cites the seventeenth-cen-
tury German mystic Gichtel for planetary correspondences. Just using the seven visi-
ble planets seems natural for correspondences to the seven chakras. Gichtel’s system of
correspondences, which are used by Leadbeater, are as follows: First Chakra—The
Moon; Second—Mercury; Third—Venus; Fourth—The Sun; Fifth—Mars; Sixth—
Jupiter; and Seventh—Saturn. Although a tidy arrangement in terms of number, this
system falls short. For example, Venus, the planet of pleasure, is given to Third
Chakra of power; and even more unsettling, Saturn, the planet associated with limita-
tion, is given to the seventh chakra of divine rapport beyond limitation.
Ray Grasse, author of The Waking Dream,presents a thorough and compre-
hensive model of planets and signs for each of the chakras. His correspondences are
as follows: First—Saturn and its signs Capricorn and Aquarius; Second—Jupiter,
with Sagittarius and Pisces; Third—Mars, with Aries and Scorpio; Fourth—Venus,
with Taurus and Libra; Fifth—Mercury, with Gemini and Virgo; Sixth—Moon and
Sun together with Cancer and Leo; and Seventh—beyond personal, so he does not
correlate planets or signs with the crown chakra. Although Grasse’s model is impres-
sive in its scope, again there are unsettling correspondences. In the planetary model,
the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, and Mars are considered personal planets; Jupiter
and Saturn are known as social planets. Grasse associates the social planets with the
personal chakras and the personal planets with the transpersonal chakras. Also awk-
ward is that both Grasse and Leadbeater simply ignore the outer planets of Uranus,
Neptune, and Pluto.
David Pond, author of Chakras for Beginners,presents an alternative under-
standing. The planets represent concentric rings of consciousness expanding outward
on a horizontal plane. The chakras represent layers of consciousness arranged on a
vertical plane. Instead of the awkwardness and incompleteness of one-to-one corre-
spondences, a vertical plane allows for an understanding of each planet at each chakra
level of consciousness.
Using Mercury as an example, this planet relates to the mind—how we think,
gather information, make the information useful, and communicate with others. At
the first chakra level, Mercury will be consumed by thoughts concerning security. At
the second chakra level, Mercury will dwell on desire for pleasure and memories of
previous pleasures. At the third chakra level, Mercury will focus on its current ambi-Chakras and Astrology
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