Many people encounter the chakra system through spiritual or contemplative traditions, while others meet it with a degree of scepticism, seeing it as symbolic, metaphorical or plain fantasy rather than literal. What struck me recently, after attending a thoughtful talk on the developmental role of the chakras, is that these perspectives don’t have to be in conflict. 

There are ways of understanding the chakras that honour their depth and experiential richness without requiring belief in metaphysical mechanisms. In fact, when viewed through the lens of modern relational biology and systems thinking - particularly the work of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela - the chakra system can be seen as describing real, recognisable patterns in human emotional and developmental life.

This article offers a bridge: not to replace the spiritual language, but to show how it can sit comfortably alongside contemporary understandings of human development. My aim is to respect the symbolic tradition while offering an additional lens that may enrich, rather than diminish, its meaning. 

Two Languages for the Same Territory

Contemplative traditions describe the chakras as centres of experience that shape human development. Enactivism, developed by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, describes human experience as something we bring forth through our emotions, relationships, and actions.

Although the vocabularies differ, both perspectives point to the same underlying reality: human development unfolds through patterned ways of feeling, relating, and making meaning.

Chakras as Emotional‑Relational Processes

Rather than treating chakras as physical “energy centres” or "mystical energy wheels" we can understand them as stable patterns of emotioning - Maturana’s term for the ongoing flow of emotional dispositions that shape how we act and how the world appears to us.

Each chakra corresponds to a distinct domain of emotional and relational life:

• Root – safety, grounding, stability
• Sacral – intimacy, pleasure, bonding
• Solar Plexus – agency, boundaries, autonomy
• Heart – compassion, connection, legitimacy of the other
• Throat – expression, truth‑telling, communication
• Third Eye – interpretation, insight, coherence
• Crown – openness, identity, meaning

These are not metaphysical structures; they are patterns of human becoming.

 “Pre‑Existing” Chakras as Developmental Attractors

The idea that chakras “pre‑exist” can be understood through systems theory.

Human beings are born into a pre‑existing attractor landscape - a set of emotional and relational patterns that the nervous system is capable of entering. These attractors are inherent potentials, not physical organs.

From this perspective:

Chakras describe the developmental attractors that human beings grow into, stabilise, and integrate across the lifespan.

This honours the symbolic language while grounding it in a coherent biological and relational framework.

The Biology of Love as the Integrating Principle

Maturana’s Biology of Love provides a powerful bridge.

He defines love as the emotional domain in which the other appears as a legitimate other. This domain expands our possibilities for action, connection, and meaning.

This aligns directly with the heart chakra and with the broader developmental arc described in contemplative traditions:

• fear contracts
• love expands
• integration becomes possible

In both frameworks, love is the biological and experiential foundation for human flourishing.

Individuation as Integration of Emotional Domains

Individuation - whether described in Jungian, contemplative, or enactivist terms - is the process of integrating these emotional‑relational domains into a coherent, flexible sense of self.

In this synthesis:

• Chakras = symbolic maps of emotional‑relational attractors
• Enactivism = biological and relational grounding of those attractors
• Individuation = developmental integration of these attractors over time

This creates a respectful, non‑reductive bridge between traditions.

A Shared Insight

Both frameworks ultimately suggest that human development is not about acquiring something new, but about realising and integrating what is already latent within us.