What is the Difference Between Auras and Chakras: A Beginners Guide 

There’s a good chance you’ve already seen the words aura and chakra floating around your ecosystem. You may even already have a general idea of what they each mean. Understanding the difference between auras and chakras can give you a far deeper understanding of yourself and the wealth of information they both contain. 

The difference between auras and chakras: What you need to know

Boiled down to the simplest possible terms, your aura represents the energy you project outwards while chakras are how your energy circulates internally. 

Your aura is often referred to as your “vibe”. It can change colors and frequencies along with your mental, physical, and emotional state. There are ways of learning about your aura like aura photography and aura imaging reports. 

Chakras on the other hand are energy centers within your body. There are seven of them in each of us and they have specific homes, colors, and purposes. 

There are entire books written on this topic, so we’ll stick to the basics for the sake of this blogpost. We encourage you to dive deeper in private sessions with any of our healers and readers. 

Auras 101: What is an aura?

Your aura is the truest essence of who you are. It’s what other people will feel when they meet you, and it’s the filter through which you perceive the world. You know how there are some people who calm you down and others who stress you out or excite you? That’s what an aura does. 

The word “vibe” is shortened from “vibrational frequency.” Each living thing has an electromagnetic field that vibrates around it. So when we talk about somebody having good or bad vibes, we’re usually talking about their auric body. It’s quite literally the radio station you’re broadcasting your personality through. 

Traditionally speaking, the aura has often been represented in art and literature as a bubble or orb of light surrounding the body. It is often believed that there are seven layers of a person’s aura that correspond to the seven chakras. Each layer is represented by a different color. There are other interpretations as well, but this one is the most common. 

The best way to understand your aura is through aura imaging or aura photography which will illustrate the current state of your aura through its colors, placements, and reach. You can purchase aura readings with corresponding aura charts to go with your aura photography to help you go even more in depth. 

The seven layers of your aura 

Your aura has layers, just like you. Seven of them, to be specific. Each of which corresponds to one of your seven chakras, or energetic centers. 

The seven layers of your aura

 

Starting from the bottom, the physical layer of your aura connects to your root chakra, 

the lower-mental layer to your sacral chakra, 

the higher-mental layer to your solar plexus, 

the astral layer is linked to your heart, spiritual to your throat, 

intuitional to your third eye (that space between your eyebrows) 

and the absolute layer of your aura is linked to the crown chakra which is found right at the top of your head. 

Chakras 101: What are chakras?

The word chakra comes from Sanskrit meaning wheel or spinning vortex. Think of your chakras as portals or channels. They literally move life force energy through you like the mechanisms inside pinball machines that speed the ball's trajectory or slow it down. 

 

What are the 7 chakras? 

Unlike auras, chakras are fixed. There are seven chakras, each of which has a specific color, a connection to a major organ along the spine, and a set of energetic responsibilities. 

You may already know some of your chakras without realizing it. From bottom to top they are: 

 

Your Root Chakra (red)

Location: Base of your spine 

Balanced: Stability, safety, security, groundedness

Imbalanced: Scattered, anxious and afraid. Issues with bowels or bladder. Insecurity around money 

Root Chakra Meaning 

 

Your Sacral Chakra (orange)

Location: Below the belly button, above the pubic bone 

Balanced: Sexual energy, creativity, pleasure, self-worth

Imbalanced: Fear of intimacy, creative blocks, imposter syndrome, and sexual dysfunction. Lower back pain, urinary tract infections

 

Sacral Chakra Meaning

 

Solar Plexus (yellow)

Location: Upper abdomen

Balanced: Self-esteem, confidence

Imbalanced: Digestive issues, imposter syndrome, lowered confidence, fear of self-expression 

 

Solar Plexus Chakra Meaning

 

Heart Chakra (green) 

Location: Center of the chest

Balanced: Ability to love and connect with others

Imbalanced: Loneliness, insecurity, isolation, asthma and heart problems

Heart Chakra Meaning

 

Throat Chakra (blue)

Location: The throat 

Balanced: Verbal communication, authenticity, compassion, confidence, expression 

Imbalanced: Dominating conversations, fear of speaking up, gossiping, speaking to fill the silence, voice and throat problems

Throat Chakra Meaning 

 

Third Eye Chakra (indigo) 

Location: Between the eyebrows 

Balanced: Intuition, imagination, clairvoyance

Imbalanced: Trouble concentrating, know-it-all, unable to locate intuition, headaches, issues with sight or hearing, trouble listening

Third Eye Chakra Meaning

 

Crown Chakra (purple or white)

Location: Top of the head 

Balanced: Awareness, wisdom, intelligence, harmony between mind and body, bliss, enlightenment, connection to life’s purpose and spirituality

Imbalanced: narrow minded, skeptical, stubborn, problems with the nervous system.

Crown Chakra Meaning

 

Your chakras correlate with the colors you’ll see showing up in your aura imaging reports and aura photographs. You can learn a lot about yourself, your alignment, and your imbalances that way. You can dive a little deeper into what each color means here.

The Seven Chakras

 

Cleaning your Auras and Chakras

Auras and chakras are in the business of moving energy around. That means that when they become blocked or darkened, the energy has trouble moving or radiating and becomes stagnant or dim. These kinds of blockages can manifest as emotional, mental, or even physical symptoms. 

A darkened aura won’t shine as bright and will have a harder time protecting against outside energy. Blocked chakras on the other hand can lead to stagnant energy in the body. 

 

Clearing or cleaning your aura and chakras is like taking a shower for your soul. The reality is that what goes on in your energetic self has consequences in the tangible world. Relationships, finances, health, and creativity are all common areas that suffer when auras are darkened and chakras are blocked. 

A blocked or darkened aura can leave you feeling purposeless, dim, and off balance, whereas a bright aura has the power to elevate you to a far more radiant state of existence where your light gets to literally shine. Think of it like dusting off a lightbulb to brighten the space all around the room. 

The danger with blocked chakras is feeling depressed, overwhelmed, creatively blocked, and ill. 

There are lots of tools for cleansing and clearing both your aura and chakras. Smudging with sage, positive affirmations, meditation, mindfulness, visualization, sound baths, energy healing, and crystals are just a few. 

In order for clearings to be effective, it’s helpful to know where blockages live. Aura readings can help you understand what parts of you are already vibrant and which parts need a little TLC. 

Are auras and chakras real?

This can feel like a difficult question, but the simple answer is, yes chakras are real. Chakras and auras are the way Eastern philosophies describe what we North Americans call electromagnetic fields. We often pit science and spirituality against one another, but quite often the two co-exist quite nicely and can even complement one another. 

Every single living cell has a vibrational frequency. And there is more and more research going into the connection between people’s emotional and psychological well-being, and their physical health. Chakras and auras have been making these links for centuries. In the end, if you find value in the things you learn through your aura or chakra readings, then it’s already going to be helpful for you in unblocking things that have felt stagnant. As in all things spiritual well-being, the process and avenues each of us take to understanding ourselves are extremely personal and varied. Take what works for you and leave the rest. 

If you’re curious about chakras and aura readings or aura photography, consult our products page or reach out to book a session with one of our experienced practitioners.