An open library in progress. Explanations are editorial drafts, with sources for further study. Translations await specialist review. How to read our labels.
Begin with the question
A useful map needs a title, source and explanation of its limits. The number of centres, their names and their significance can change from text to text.
Reading source: The Serpent Power ↗
A historical translation and commentary on selected tantric texts. One account of centres and channels, not a universal tantric system.
Hold on to the differences
The atlas shows selected ideas separately. Its lines are educational drawings, not measured pathways or instructions for moving breath, force or attention through the body.
Reading source: The Way of the Golden Elixir ↗
A scholarly introduction with translated primary material. Internal alchemy and modern qigong must be distinguished.
A useful way to compare
- Name the particular tradition and text.
- Keep the native term next to its English explanation.
- Ask what the term does in that text.
- Describe a resemblance as a rough functional parallel when appropriate.
- Record the differences and the limits of the comparison.
A good comparison can leave questions open. It becomes more useful when the reader can see which steps come from a source and which come from an editor.
Open the comparison explorer