The Body as the Traditions Map It

This section gathers the maps traditions draw of the human body as a spiritual and energetic system: the chakras and nadis of tantric physiology, the koshas (sheaths) and gunas of Vedantic and Samkhya analysis, the aura layers of Theosophical writing, the mounts and lines of the palm, and the organs and body parts of medical astrology and traditional medicine.

These are not competing anatomies so much as different purposes laid over the body: centres for meditation, sheaths for a philosophy of the self, channels for the movement of subtle energy, correspondences for diagnosis and timing.