The Ultimate Guide to Chakras by Athena Perrakis is a beautiful, in-depth guide to learning to work with your chakra system. In addition to the seven well-known physical chakras (root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye, crown), Perrakis includes two others that I found fascinating- the Earth Star and Soul Star chakras. These two, serving as anchors to Earth and Spirit, are located in the etheric body below the feet and above the head. This is the first time I had come across a book working with these chakras.

Each chakra section begins with a brief introduction, followed by a list of reflective writing questions to prepare you for working with that particular chakra. After the questions comes a list of correspondences, such as deity associations, crystal and herb associations, and oracular associations. These are then discussed in greater detail. There follows a creative task and a chakra awakening meditation for the chakra in question.

This is one of the best books for working with chakras that I’ve come across. The information was clear and concise. I liked that the author said that each individual should tailor tasks to their need rather than insisting it be done this way or that. Great value was placed on trusting one’s intuition. The addition of the Earth and Soul Star chakras really helped illustrate how energy moves between us and the universe. Going through the correspondences lists, I noticed that I have different runic associations with each chakra. I work with 32, rather than 24, runes for one. The rest of the correspondences I grok completely. I have plans to purchase a hard copy and go through the exercises thoroughly, when I can work at a slower pace. Highly recommended!

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Quarto Publishing for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.