Body map — zodiac & chakras
Two independent schemes laid on one figure. Zodiac is classical astrological rulership (Melothesia), where each sign governs a region of the body. Chakras are the centres of the Sanskrit tantric texts. Hover any marker to highlight its entry. Tradition
They are not a single system. Hellenistic melothesia and Indic chakra doctrine developed independently and never mapped onto one another — where this page notes a shared body region it is reporting that two schemes land on the same anatomy, not that either tradition endorses the other.
● zodiac sign ● chakra — the number is its petal count
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Aries
Mar 21 – Apr 19 -
Taurus
Apr 20 – May 20 -
Gemini
May 21 – Jun 20 -
Cancer
Jun 21 – Jul 22 -
Leo
Jul 23 – Aug 22 -
Virgo
Aug 23 – Sep 22 -
Libra
Sep 23 – Oct 22 -
Scorpio
Oct 23 – Nov 21 -
Sagittarius
Nov 22 – Dec 21 -
Capricorn
Dec 22 – Jan 19 -
Aquarius
Jan 20 – Feb 18 -
Pisces
Feb 19 – Mar 20
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Mūlādhāra
RootFour crimson petals at the base of the spine, enclosing a yellow square for earth. Where Kuṇḍalinī is said to lie coiled before it rises.
Same body region as Scorpio — position only, not a traditional correspondence
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Svādhiṣṭhāna
SacralSix vermilion petals at the root of the genitals, holding a white crescent for water.
Same body region as Scorpio, Libra — position only, not a traditional correspondence
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Maṇipūra
NavelTen petals at the navel around a red triangle of fire. Its name means “city of jewels”.
Same body region as Virgo — position only, not a traditional correspondence
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Anāhata
HeartTwelve petals at the heart around two interlocking triangles. The name means “unstruck” — a sound made without two things striking together.
Same body region as Leo, Cancer — position only, not a traditional correspondence
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Viśuddha
ThroatSixteen petals at the throat, holding a white circle for ākāśa — the subtlest of the five elements.
Same body region as Taurus — position only, not a traditional correspondence
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Ājñā
BrowOnly two petals, and no element — the elemental series ends below it. Its name means “command”.
Same body region as Aries — position only, not a traditional correspondence
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Sahasrāra
CrownStrictly the destination rather than one of the series — several texts count six chakras and treat Sahasrāra as what lies beyond them, which is why chakra counts differ between sources.
Same body region as Aries — position only, not a traditional correspondence
Chakras — the written teaching
The seven-chakra scheme here follows the Śaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa (1577): petal counts, bīja syllables, elements and yantras all come from that text and its 1919 translation. Earlier sources give different numbers of chakras, so a fixed seven is a late standardisation rather than an ancient constant.
The rainbow colours are not in the source texts. Red-root-to-violet-crown comes from C. W. Leadbeater’s The Chakras (1927). The Sanskrit texts colour each centre by its element — a yellow earth square at the root, a white water crescent above it, a red fire triangle at the navel — which does not match the rainbow. Both are listed on every entry above, labelled separately.
- Śaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa 1577, Pūrṇānanda
The source of the seven-chakra scheme used here — petal counts, bīja syllables, elements and yantras. A chapter of a larger work, the Śrītattvacintāmaṇi. - The Serpent Power 1919, Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe)
The translation through which the above reached the West. Nearly every later English account descends from this book rather than from the Sanskrit directly. - Kubjikāmata-tantra c. 11th century
An earlier and different system — evidence that the number of chakras was never fixed at seven. - Śiva Saṁhitā and the Yoga-Upaniṣads c. 15th–18th century
Further variant schemes, differing in count, naming and placement. - The Chakras 1927, C. W. Leadbeater
The origin of the rainbow colour scheme. Theosophical, not Indic — and the reason popular charts disagree with the texts they claim to summarise.
Provenance
This mapping of zodiac signs to body parts is classical astrological tradition, not scripture. Its earliest full articulation is in Manilius\' Astronomica (1st century AD); it was developed through medieval and Renaissance medical astrology (iatromathematics) and inherited by Hermetic and occult traditions. See how provenance is used in this workspace.