Imagine: You are going to visit your friend who has built a new house, "Chakra House." The hallway leads into the bedroom, a sensual space decorated in erotic red silks. Your friend shows you the bed and says, "We call this place the Root of Creation, because every time we make love we feel renewed and creative." This is the temple of the first chakra, the sexual center, where sex connects you to the earth, the roots of life, and your origins.

Voices call you into the garden. There the rest of the family plays around a big swimming pool. In the warm, buoyant water you easily connect with the others on a feeling level. The kids fight and play and laugh. Your friend is in continual motion... His wife takes it all in, quietly making sure everyone is at ease. This is the terrain of the second chakra, the belly center, where life is experienced as energy in motion, emotions, digestion, assimilation, and balance.

Now your friend leads you to his office. Clearly, it is his place of power, with a large, solid desk and bold geometric patterns on the walls. Here he works, thinks, creates, plans, makes money, and directs his ideas into the world. You are in the temple of the third chakra, the solar center, the place of self-empowerment, will, leadership and achievement where we incarnate the world through action.

"Come," your friend says. "I'll show you the heart of our home." He leads you to the mezzanine and opens the door to a spacious family room. Here large sofas are strewn with soft pillows and the walls are warmed by soft light. This is where he sheds the cares of worldly obligation and meets his wife and children to share loving moments. This is the room of the fourth chakra, the pulse of life, where love nourishes and transforms the energies of the first three chakras.

And now your friend takes you to a room filled with musical instruments. He picks up a guitar, and you choose a drum. Together, you play, sing, and laugh, improvising beautiful harmonies, thrilled by the music that pours out of you like liquid honey. This is the temple of the fifth chakra, the song of the soul, where you create, improvise, dance, and express your truth.

Now you climb a spiral staircase and enter a simple room where you kneel before a low table covered with flowers and candles. You breathe deeply, serenely seated, bathed in the clear light of this space. In this moment of stillness, deep insights come to you. In the face of its simplicity your whole perspective shifts. This is the realm of the sixth chakra, the third eye center, where you perceive all things through the intuitive powers of inspiration and imagination.

Finally, your friend takes you up to the penthouse, an open patio; the only roof is the sky. You look around at a spectacular 360-degree view of the entire countryside. You see how the roads, houses, streams, mountains, blend into the horizon and the sky. They all seem connected, part of a whole. You feel your place as a link in a great chain. With gratitude, you relax into the bliss of being simply who you are, at peace with the world. This is the vision from the seventh chakra, the crown center, where you surrender and melt into your Source and feel one with the universe.

from THE ART OF EVERYDAY ECSTASY: The Seven Tantric Keys for Bringing Passion, Spirit, and Joy into Every Part of Your Life. ©1998 Margot Anand