You know the chakra colors, and probably what poses to do to activate them. But do you know each one’s yantra? Each chakra has a unique geometric symbol attached to it. Today I want to give you a detailed examination of the first three chakras yantras: the root chakra, sacral chakra, and solar plexus chakra and discuss their unique symbols, associated elements, and the energies they represent.
Have some colorful pens and paper ready as we explore:
🔹The geometric shapes of chakras 1, 2, & 3
🔹Using mandalas as tools for meditation and self-exploration.
🔹The specific elements and energies of the lower three chakras
🌈 Discover your dominant chakra with my FREE dominant chakra test => https://www.brettlarkin.com/chakra-test/
FREE Practice: Get Grounded Meditation for Anxiety: Lower 3 Chakras Meditation (15-min)
Relevant Blog: The 7 Chakra Symbols Explained: Their Meaning & Shapes
Relevant to Today’s Episode:
🐍 Yoga for Self Mastery
🎧 Also Listen to:
#143 – Chakras, Archetypes & Your Spiritual Identity – Conversation with Erica Jago
#297 – What is Samkhya Philosophy and How is it Different from Yoga?
#303 – The 7 Chakras as a Tool for Personal Growth
© 2025 Uplifted Yoga | BrettLarkin.com
Transcript:
Brett:
Friends, today we are together to talk all about the geometric shapes of the chakras. Likely if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re pretty familiar with the chakra system. If not, I highly suggest that you dive into all things chakra. Some of my favorite books are Eastern Body, Western Mind. And of course, if you’re an uplifted member, there is a free course on each of the chakras. Yes, each of them individually, seven courses.
with classes and PowerPoint presentations all about how you can integrate this ancient wisdom into your life. However, I’m sure many of you have noticed that the chakras have these symbols called yantras. Sometimes they look like flowers with geometric shapes in the middle.
And I think the fact that each of the seven major chakras has a unique symbol.
often gets overlooked. We tend to get caught up in the sound and the color and the poses that maybe help activate each chakra, but we often forget to double click into the geometry. So that’s what I wanted to spend some time doing today.
You can think of each of these pieces of art or yantras, a sacred object that you meditate on, as a mandala.
A mandala, if you’re not familiar with the term, is a geometric design that often represents the universe or serves as a spiritual or ritual symbol. And we see it in all sorts of different cultures. We see mandalas not just in Hinduism, but in Buddhism, in Islamic art, in Native American cultures, Tibetan cultures.
and later in Western cultures.
mandalas crop up again in the work of Carl Jung. He saw mandalas as representations of the self and the psyche and I actually got re-exposed to mandalas through a Jungian lens recently and the concept was so interesting because the idea was that you draw a circle and then kind of fill in your mandala and that the patterns that you happen to draw and what colors you choose to use
are actually revealing something that could facilitate your own self-exploration and healing.
Most mandalas have some sort of symmetry to them and they’re said to affect the viewer, right? When you look at it, you have an energetic experience.
And if you want to do what I did, which is, you know, draw some of your own mandalas, it’s an incredibly calming experience. I think a lot of people like those adult coloring books. And what I loved about drawing the mandalas is according to Young, the mandala itself is a way that you can kind of contain your energy. So by drawing this circle and then making your own personalized mandala,
kind of just stream of consciousness, not worrying about what it looks like, but just as a form of art therapy, it helps you feel more contained. And it felt very similar to me to the process of free writing, those of you that love doing morning pages.
Many of you may be familiar with that book, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, where she talks about free writing every morning. I also have a course and podcast on that in the Uplifted Members app, since many of us have liked to combine that free writing with yoga. But now, maybe you wanna combine Mandala drawing as well.
or if you’re not so much a writing person, do a drawing every morning instead and just notice if you feel more self-contained and held after a period of 14 days.
So since I’ve been drawing mandalas all over the place and noticing how they affect my energy, of course, I got curious about digging back into the chakra symbols and really honoring and giving each one a little bit of time.
Most cultures seem to agree that this circular design of a mandala is symbolizing the belief that life is never-ending or that everything is interconnected or derived from a single source of life force. That’s definitely the yogic.
perspective and this world and this word chakra means wheel or disk. So you can also think of this mandala or this art viewing it, having an experience of it or exploring it more like we’re going to do in this episode.
as a way to transport you or a way to double click into a specific energy frequency. And of course here we’re talking about each of the chakras.
So in yoga teacher training, often describe the chakras as this rainbow bridge that goes from the base of the spine up to the crown of the head, and it’s connecting you and the cosmos and connecting you to the elements because each of the chakras also have an elemental correspondence.
So when we look at these sacred symbols, these yantras, I almost see them as like an interconnection point, these mandalas, of where an energetic frequency or vibration that maybe we understand through music is actually in a pattern drawn, represented before our very eyes, and that it’s a connection point where we can kind of mingle with that universal force or that frequency.
through meditating on the shape. Just like if I listen to, you know, 520 Hertz music.
or the different sound current music that corresponds with each of the chakras, I would be getting in touch with that energy frequency.
Let’s start with the root chakra, muladhara. And I’m going to invite you to visualize each of these symbols. Obviously, I have a blog post on this that I’ll link in the show notes that has actual pictures of each yantra for each chakra so you can see it. But I actually really like the idea of you visualizing this in your own mind because
who knows what associations might come up for you when you’re approaching this in a more freeform, creative manner. So I’m going to describe the yantra to you. The root chakra is a four-pedaled lotus.
So I want you to visualize a circle that has four petals on the outside, but on the inside of the circle is a square, and inside that square is a downward facing triangle. So if it helps to go from the inside out rather than the outside in, visualize a downward pointing triangle that’s inside a square, that’s inside a circle, and that circle has four petals.
Remember these shapes, these yantras are a symbolic representation of an energy, a cosmic principle. So there’s no way to do this wrong. Maybe just think about the Mooladhar color, red, right? What comes to mind for you? What comes to mind for you when you think downward pointing triangle or a square or four petals?
I want to emphasize that each of us can have our own personal
connection with these shapes and with these colors. So I’m of course going to provide in this podcast what the research I gathered tells us, but I don’t want you to feel like that’s what you have to think of this shape as.
That being said, let’s start with the inverted triangle. This is said to represent the elemental symbol for Earth. Basically, Earth is here. It’s down here. So the downward pointing triangle is pointing down towards the Earth. Or I like to think of it pointing down towards the center of the Earth, the core molten lava, deepest part of the Earth that can hold all my energy and my anger. You know, I love rooting.
energy that I don’t want sending it down to the center of the earth. There’s this great practice. I think it’s in yoga for self mastery, this core of the earth circulation practice for anger and overwhelm. I often think of this downward pointing red triangle when I do that because the earth can hold so much energy. So we have this downward pointing triangle surrounded by a square. So the number four appears in the number of petals we have in this yantra, but also
In the square, a square has four sides and these four sides are said to represent
Stability, rigidity. The square is a stable structure for then the adjoining chakras to rest upon and it’s I believe the only chakra
Yep, just verified that where we see a square shape.
So with the root chakra, obviously the element is earth, it’s associated with our survival, our sense of safety.
our connection to the physical world, our physical body. Some say this root chakra actually extends three feet beneath us, which makes sense with the downward pointed triangle. But when I think of safety, there’s something very solid and safe and secure about a square.
There’s a layer of containment that has even more structure somehow than being simply contained in a circle.
Then it said that the four-petaled lotus flower, that the four petals of the root chakra symbolize the four aspects of human consciousness, which according to
Vedic texts would be the Manas, the mind, as the first petal, the Budi, the intellect, the Chitta, as the third, which is often translated as consciousness, and the Ahamkara, the ego, as the fourth petal. So we have the mind, the intellect, consciousness, and the ego.
Those are our four petals and if you want to dig into which what each of those are the Manas, the Bodhi, the Chitta and Ahamkara, I’m going to highly suggest link below. I’m going to suggest you listen to some past episodes that I did on the Yoga Sutras.
and the Samkhya philosophy, because I go into each of those terms in depth.
The color red, I always think about red being this really primal color. Like what is the color we see at the stop sign? It’s red, right? It’s vibrant, it’s alive. If we’re thinking about like this energy center as our survival, our place of survival, it’s like we see a flash of red when…
We need to stop suddenly. Stop signs are also red. Red is also blood, whether that’s menstrual blood or blood when you cut yourself. It’s,
captures our attention.
I always think of the earth being formed at the beginning and the tectonic plates and the oceans and the volcanoes. And again, thinking of that lava or a lot of times in meditation, I visualize this earth element as like a red clay, know, mud when it’s so deep, it’s almost red.
I know a lot of us see this red color as violent or we maybe don’t have the most nurturing associations with it. So it’s like, well, why is this the color for the root chakra?
I don’t have the answers, but I do think that once we put the red onto the yantra with the square and the downward pointing triangle and kind of the stability of this shape with the four petals and everything’s very symmetrical.
that it does make the red more grounding or it puts it more into the perspective of the earth and the depth as opposed to a color that’s frightening.
Moving on up, we have the second chakra, the sacral chakra. This is called Svadhisthana. It’s associated with the water element. So in all these creation myths, right, we see that there’s usually an earth god and a sky god or an earth god and an ocean god or god separates the water from the earth. And so it makes sense that we have that earth element and now we’re moving up and we have this fluidity of water. And if you look at the second chakra symbol,
as compared to the first chakra, you see it right away. You see that we’re no longer in this square, stable, symmetrical place, but that there’s lots of looping. So here’s what I want you to visualize. I want you to visualize a circle, and inside the circle is a crescent moon.
So it almost looks like a circle with a bigger circle and a bigger circle on top of it, but it’s all asymmetrical because the crescent moon is just in the bottom part of the circle.
Lots of spirals. And then we have the six-petaled lotus flower here on the outside of the circle. So six petals as opposed to before when we had four.
As you probably know, the sacral chakra on this water element represents fluidity, flow, movement, polarity, aliveness, sensuality, creativity.
So if the root chakra symbol was all about this stability and this structure, the second chakra symbol is very much about flow. mean, chaos might be too far a word, but it’s definitely not symmetrical. It definitely catches my eye.
because you’re like, what’s going on here?
So before I go into the research, mean, I just want you to think, what does a crescent moon represent to you?
First of all, just by the fact that it’s a phase of the moon, for me, this represents that we are maybe in changing times, maybe in a new beginning, right? The crescent moon often represents a new phases, new beginnings, signifying potential of growth or basically things changing. So it also symbolizes transformation and change, the natural ebb and flow of life.
It’s almost like the opposite of the root chakra, like how much of life is in permanent.
The crescent moon also reflects the duality of existence, right? It’s showing us that there’s light and there’s also dark. And we could take this to mean, okay, yeah, there’s a conscious and there’s a subconscious.
In some of my deeper teachings about the chakras, I talk a lot about polarity in terms of the second chakra. This is where we have, you know, this push-pull energy, the flowing of the tides, energy back and forth. Nothing is static here. There’s a lot of movement in this area of the body.
Whether you think about that as how we circle and swivel and move our hips even a little bit just as we walk or the process of menstruation.
The moon obviously also represents our connection to the cosmos, a bridge between the earthly and the celestial.
a between the earthly and celestial realms.
So overall, the crescent moon is symbolizing this growth, this transformation, this impermanence, this interplay of light and dark in our life.
And if you look at this yantra after the episode, you’ll see you get pulled into the crescent moon shape right away. It’s like exactly where your eye goes.
So from this yantra of permanence and stability in the root, we now go to impermanence, never ending change, constant movement, constant motion, ebbing and flowing, the creativity that waxes and wanes. The circles, of course, here are still symbolizing the cyclical nature of birth and death and rebirth, if you believe in reincarnation. And the six lotus petals.
according to my research, are the qualities. So each of the petals is representing a quality that we must overcome to purify Svadhisthana chakra or to balance Svadhisthana chakra or to enjoy Svadhisthana chakra, let’s say. And those six qualities are anger, jealousy, cruelty,
cruelty, hatred, pride, and desire.
Some say the six petals also symbolize the need for balance, even in midst in a world where everything is always changing as symbolized by the crescent moon and kind of the asymmetrical inside of the yantra. So even though we have this asymmetrical crescent moon on the inside, that we do want to strive to balance and find harmony.
with ourselves and others because six is an even number. mean, I don’t know, the entre could have five pedals, which would.
maybe make it a little bit more destabilizing to look at. So it’s interesting because when I look at it here, I do feel destabilized from the center point where we have the crescent moon and kind of these circles that are different sizes and it doesn’t really.
meet the eye as harmoniously as some of the other yantras, but then it’s surrounded, it’s like the bicycle wheel is then surrounded by this incredible stable six lotus petal flowers.
Interesting juxtaposition there. Moving on up. Let’s lastly for today look at the solar plexus chakra.
Manipura is associated with the sun and the element of fire and this energy center is said to represent our ego, our power, our determination, our ability to get up and go, our sense of self. The ego is a good thing, we need it in order to function. It’s often translated as the lustrous jewel.
I always think of the third chakra as the place where we have superpowers. We can alchemize our food into energy. We can alchemize our dreams coming up from, you know, maybe the higher chakras and take action on them in the real world and achieve things.
I invite you to visualize now a downward pointing yellow triangle surrounded by a circle with 10 lotus flower petals around it. So this is incredibly harmonious to look at. We just have a downward pointing triangle surrounded by a circle and then we have an even 10 lotus petaled flowers around it.
Yellow definitely makes sense as a color here for me because I’m thinking about fire and alchemy and that engine of digestion that’s constantly working. It’s interesting when we reflect on the orange with the sacral chakra. I think that’s often harder for people to connect to. I think it is for me. It’s like, why is the sacral chakra orange?
A lot of the research I did said that orange is associated with enthusiasm and creativity. So it makes sense with the sacral chakra’s role in kind of artistic expression.
I also read that orange represents warmth, that it’s a warm color and embodies the dynamic nature of water. Again, I’m like, I think what would embody water better is blue. But again, interesting here, think for Manipura yellow definitely makes sense.
It’s the lustrous gem. saying, Hey, look at me. And it’s about taking action. I mean, I invite you again, before I go into the research to just visualize a downward pointing triangle, yellow downward pointing triangle with a circle around it. And then 10 pedals. It’s very, very stabilizing to look at to me. It’s saying you are who you are. You are here. You are powerful. Take action in the world.
It feels almost like the root chakra, but not quite as heavy. Right. So it’s interesting. We have the root chakra that Yantra is heavy, a little bit complicated. We have that safety, that groundingness, heaviness, sacral chakra, total instability visually, right. But, but some containment surrounding it. now with the solar plexus, it’s just like this piercing grounding, right? This piercing yellow, this piercing downward triangle, but we don’t have
any of the squares or additional elements that we have from the Muladhara chakra.
The inverted triangle here is just symbolizing the energy of the lower three chakras. Some say it’s saying that the, you know, it’s about these chakras spinning up towards the higher chakras. Again, I address more the chakras, the whole chakra spinning conversation in my course than the uplifted membership. So you can definitely nerd on, I think that’s like more than we can tackle right now. None of these yantras in,
movement to me, except maybe the second chakra a little bit because I can kind of see how it’s ebbing and flowing.
I think of the inverted triangle as like, take action, get things done, you are who you are, almost kind of like a stake in the ground is how I visualize it or what it transmits to me. And then the 10 petals of the solar plexus chakra are said to represent the 10 different types of prana that exist within each of us. So,
Prana, you all know, is energy and according to yoga there’s different ways, different movement patterns, just like there’s different weather patterns, there’s different movement patterns of how that prana moves inside our body. The different currents and vibrations, energy patterns of movement in our body. And we have 10 total.
Kranavayu you’ve probably heard of that’s located in the chest and governs us breathing in, taking in energy.
Upana value is the inverse, so it’s found in the lower abdomen and it’s related to exhalation, elimination, all the downward current type of activities that happen in the bathroom.
Samana value is centered in the navel area. It’s said to be the balancing and assimilating energy that’s very associated with digestion and the distribution of nutrients. We have udana value in the throat that’s said to help govern our speech patterns, our expression, that upward movement of energy.
Vyana Vyut, number five is an interesting one because it permeates the whole body and is said to coordinate the movement of energy in various directions.
So I often think of it as kind of like your circulation.
And then the next five values are not talked about as much. Naga value is also related to the throat and said to govern kind of involuntary throat actions like burping or say you yawn or something. It’s this movement pattern that’s aiding in the release of excess energy or tension moving out of the body. So if you yawn spontaneously or burp, that kind of thing.
KermaVayu is connected to the eyelids and is said to protect the body and kind of regulate the eye area while you’re sleeping.
Kurkan value is, I almost think of it as like a more specific, apana value that’s associated just specifically with the process of elimination. And it’s said to live in the anus.
Devadatta value is linked to the sense of smell and is said to influence sleep and relaxation.
and Brahma Vyue is associated with higher states of consciousness and spiritual awakening.
So nice to end with a little bonus review of the values, but they are all here at the solar plexus, which makes sense because, you know, this, this area of the solar plexus, like is the hub. I always think about how, you know, airlines have hubs in major cities. Like this solar plexus area is such a hub where your, you know, upper body is starting to connect down into your lower body. And we have, you know, the SOAS has attachments up through here. Our core.
our digestive fire, our sense of self.
There’s definitely a fierceness to this Yantra.
looking at it feels very empowering. So I invite you now to, once you’re done driving or walking or wherever you are, click into the blog post that I’ve put in the show notes so you can actually see each of the chakras.
that we’ve talked about today. I’ll address the upper four chakras in
an upcoming episode.
And if you do want to access my courses on each of the seven chakras, as well as a 30 day class plan for each of the chakras, all of that is free and included inside the Uplifted membership.
Thank you so much for being here and listening all the way to the very end.
You’ve got to be a true chakra fanatic to make it all the way to the end of this episode. But I’ve really enjoyed this exploration. I’m excited for part two of this episode.
Please don’t forget to give this podcast a rating or review wherever you’re listening to it. That helps support the show so much and is truly invaluable.
I’m sending you so much love and from my heart to yours. Namaste.
