by Marco Antonio: Some spiritual communities recognize seven chakras…

My first mentor, don Antonio, taught me that we have nine chakras. Seven within the physical body, and two outside the body.

The eighth chakra, located a few inches above our heads, is where we experience a deep union with all of Creation, and the Creator. Don Antonio called it the Wiracocha, or “source of the sacred.” It corresponds to the Christian concept of the soul, which is personal and finite.

The eighth chakra resides within the Luminous Energy Field and hovers above the head like a golden spinning sun. We often see this chakra illustrated in paintings as the light (halo) surrounding Christ, the Buddha or other religious figures.

The properties of the eighth chakra are:

Element: Soul
Color: Gold
Body Aspects: Architect of the body
Instinct: Transcendence
Psychological Aspects: None
Gland: None
Seeds: Timelessness
Negative Expression: Templates of disease, cosmic horror

The eighth chakra is unaffected by the death of the body. It is like a carpenter who builds a chair and later burns it in his fireplace—the carpenter feels no loss, as he knows that he can simply build another out of new wood. The information fields in the eighth chakra act as the template to create the physical body. Etched in its walls are the imprints of trauma that we bring with us from one lifetime to another and that help select the parents we are born through. These imprints predispose us to living, learning, aging, and dying in particular ways, and are mirrored by the imprints in our luminous energy field.

At the time of death, the eighth chakra expands into a luminous globe and envelops the other seven chakras in a vessel of light, which remains intact until it is time to manufacture and occupy another body. This energy center is linked to the archetypal domain, the original images and memories that belong to the human collective.

Those whose eighth chakra is clogged can find themselves feeling only partially in their bodies—dissociated and disconnected from all. It is a cosmic horror such as that experienced by those caught between the worlds of spirit and matter. On the spiritual dimension, this is purgatory, what the Buddhists call the bardo planes. Disincarnate entities who cling to people or places on the Earth are trapped in this domain. Persons who suffer a spontaneous yet unbalanced awakening of this center can also become stuck in this realm. Many are in mental institutions; others suffer alone in their homes. Still others join bizarre pseudo-mystical cults.

The attribute of the eighth chakra is invisibility. In this center we become aware of the Beholder (known in Buddhism as the Witness)—a self that has been present from the beginning of our spiritual journey. Now disengaged from the mind, it is able to behold the mind with all of its dramas without subscribing to them. The Beholder witnesses our life unfolding and understands that all of the stories we use to describe ourselves are only stories. Everything we think we know about ourselves is not the real self.

The Beholder knows that anything that can be seen or held is not real. The Beholder cleaves to the mystery and not the manifestation. The Beholder perceives everything but cannot itself be perceived, because it cannot be turned into an object of perception. The Beholder is invisible because it cannot be beheld. We achieve invisibility by eliminating the “me” projects, and through the practice of stillness.

The source of the eight chakra is the ninth chakra, which exists outside the luminous energy field and extends throughout the cosmos, beyond time and space which is always crystalline and pure. This is where we can experience the magnificent expanse of creation.

This chakra is associated with the perceptual state of eagle. The properties of the ninth chakra are:

Element: Spirit
Color: Translucent white light
Body Aspects: None
Instinct: Liberation
Psychological Aspects: None
Gland: None
Seeds: Infinity
Negative Expression: None

My mentor believed that the eighth chakra is where God dwells within us, and the ninth chakra is where we reside within the Creator. To reach this area, we ascend the silver cord of light that rises up from the eighth chakra. There is only one ninth chakra, for there is only one of us in Spirit.