Subtle Bodies: Cartographies of the Soul, from India to "the West" (original) (raw)
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The religio-cultural phenomena of theosophy and the New Age directed the transformation of chakras from an aspect of traditional tantric and hatha yoga practice to a New Age system of healing or “spiritual growth”. As a concept that implies an unseen body, chakras do not sit comfortably with the anatomically conceived yoga body that has come to dominate most contemporary yoga classes. Rather, as a bridge between the corporeal body and something other, be it the astral bodies of theosophy or the “energy” healing of the New Age, the chakras have thrived within spheres that are predicated on the non-physical. Nonetheless, each of these spheres overlap and intertwine with modern yoga, almost re-inserting what was once an exclusively yogic concept back into a system from which it has become estranged.
Yoga and Meditation in Modern Esoteric Traditions
Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies, 2020
South Asian yogic, meditational and related practices did not enter a vacuum when they became popular in Europe and North America in the second half of the nineteenth century. Since the end of the seventeenth century, recent mesmeric theories had been combined with contemplative and meditational practices to develop new medical and therapeutic healing techniques. These were further transformed and associated with magic within the context of esotericism. Especially since the middle of the nineteenth century, currents such as Spiritualism, occultism, Theosophy and New Thought developed a rich variety of meditational and bodily practices that prepared the ground for the reception of South Asian elements. In the beginning of the twentieth century, this led to the emergence of diverse yogic and meditational practices that formed the foundation of New Age culture and exert a decisive influence up to the present day. These globally entangled exchanges challenge widespread notions of authenticity and tradition, and they reveal often ambiguous power relations between westerners and their South Asian interlocutors. This chapter consequently aims at highlighting the agency of South Asian actors and argues for the importance of esotericism as a platform of global exchanges.