Chakra Colors and Meanings: The Seven Chakras in Art (and on a Festival Cloak)

Seven wheels of color climb the back of a cloak in the crowd ahead of you.

Red glows at the hem like the coals of a campfire. Above it turns an orange wheel holding a six-pointed star, then a gold one with an Om at its heart, then green, then a deep ocean blue, and finally violet blossoming across the shoulders and up into the hood. When the dancer sways, the whole column sways with them, a totem made of mandalas. Somebody beside you leans in and says it before you can: those are the chakra colors.

They are, and the story behind them is older and stranger than the rainbow suggests. The chakras began in Indian tantric texts as lotuses, syllables and elements stacked along the body. The tidy red-to-violet spectrum arrived much later, in the West.

We're Magus and Lylyth Fawn, Los Angeles visionary artists, and our Chakra Mandala design lives on that column of seven. Here's where the chakras come from, what each is called, why the colors line up like a prism, and how the art travels onto clothing.

Where do the chakras come from?

The chakras come from Hindu tantra, the medieval ritual and meditation traditions of India, with parallels in Tantric Buddhism. The Sanskrit word cakra means "wheel" or "circle." Eighth-century Buddhist texts counted four; the familiar system of six centers plus a crown first appears in the Kubjikāmata-tantra, dated to the 11th century.

Encyclopaedia Britannica describes chakras as "psychic-energy centres of the body," prominent in "certain forms of Hinduism and Tantric Buddhism."

The text most Western readers meet without knowing it is the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa, written by the tantric teacher Pūrṇānanda in 1577. Sir John Woodroffe's 1919 translation inside The Serpent Power carried its seven-center system to Europe and America (Wikipedia's chakra entry traces the whole lineage).

What are the 7 chakras and their colors?

The seven chakras, from the base of the spine to the crown, are Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha, Ajna and Sahasrara. In the modern Western color system they run red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, the order of a rainbow. Each one also carries a lotus with a set number of petals and a seed syllable.

The names are poetry. Manipura, the "jewel city," glitters at the navel. Anahata, "unstruck," names a sound made without anything striking anything. Themes such as "grounding" at the root are modern additions, and they vary from teacher to teacher.

Why are the chakra colors a rainbow?

The rainbow is a 20th-century Western addition. Wikipedia notes that "the seven rainbow colours were added by Leadbeater in 1927," in the Theosophist Charles W. Leadbeater's book The Chakras, and the researcher Kurt Leland found that rainbow colors and a fixed list of qualities first appeared together in 1977. Older tantric texts gave each lotus its own palette.

Those older palettes are gorgeous in their own right. Tradition pictures Muladhara as a red, four-petaled lotus holding a yellow square, the shape of earth, with the kundalini coiled inside. The heart lotus, Anahata, surrounds "a smoky region at the intersection of two triangles, creating a shatkona," and some representations paint its twelve petals vermilion. Green was a later gift.

The rainbow won because it's easy to remember, and on a dark dance floor a red-to-violet ladder reads from fifty feet away. Behind it sit red lotuses, yellow squares and smoky hexagrams that never needed a prism.

What do the chakra symbols mean?

Each traditional chakra symbol layers three ideas. A lotus with a set number of petals frames it; a geometric shape inside stands for its element, such as the square for earth or the interlocking triangles for air; and a Sanskrit seed syllable, the bija, sits at the center as its sound. The Om belongs to the brow.

Read each symbol from the outside in: petals that often carry Sanskrit letters, then the element's shape, then the seed syllable (lam, vam, ram, yam, ham), chanted in practice. The Om is the one most people recognize, and visionary artists love to let it float on its own.

The Golden OM snapback ($40) wraps gold zigzag mandalas around a black crown and sets a gold Om inside a ringed medallion on the side panel, so the syllable catches stage light every time you turn your head.

For the crown's violet, the Purple Mandala festival backpack ($55 in M, $60 in L, $65 in XL) fills its front panel with a violet mandala in fine zigzag line work, an Om symbol set into its rings. It's durable 100% poly with a dedicated laptop sleeve and organized compartments.

Chakra Mandala: seven wheels on one cloak

Chakra Mandala is Magus Fawn's love letter to the color ladder: seven rows of mandalas, each one built in a different chakra color, stacked from the hem to the hood. Up close, every mandala holds its own geometry; from across the field, the cloak reads as one rising spectrum.

Read the back from the hem up. Red mandalas ringed with Flower of Life circles sit at the bottom, where tradition places the root. An orange mandala holds a six-pointed star. The gold mandala carries an Om at its center. The green mandala is built on interlocking triangles, a quiet echo of the star tradition draws inside the heart lotus. Then a deep-blue wheel, and violet lotus-like mandalas bloom across the shoulders and the hood: the crown, worn exactly where it belongs.

The Chakra Mandala women's festival cloak ($250) carries the full ladder on the front as well as the back, so the colors rise on both sides of the double zipper. Every Magus Fawn zipper cloak shares one spec: a micro-mink poly outer at a listed 200 g/m², one lining of ultra-soft microfiber fleece in black or white faux fur, heavy drawstrings and four pockets (two interior stash pockets, one zippered, plus two deep side pockets). It's a unisex fit from XS to 5XL. (Read the story behind the design: What the Painter Saw.)

The Chakra Mandala men's festival cloak ($250) carries the same art under its own listing and shares the spec above: hood up, facing the stage, it's a column of color rising out of the crowd.

The ladder suits a cloak because the art runs the length of the body, the way the chakras do. Our guide Are Festival Cloaks Worth It? covers sizing, pockets and layering.

What is chakra clothing?

Chakra clothing is wearable art that uses the seven chakra colors, the chakra symbols or both, usually in the modern red-to-violet order. At Magus Fawn it's a visual tradition: art you wear for its beauty and its history. The clothes make no promises about energy or health; they carry the symbolism, and you bring the meaning.

The Chakra Mandala crushed velvet t-shirt ($60) flips the cloak's order: warm red and copper mandalas across the shoulders, gold and green through the chest, blue and violet at the hem. It's 95% poly / 5% spandex at a listed 240 g/m², regular fit, XS–5XL. Our psychedelic t-shirts guide compares velvet and cotton.

When the room heats up, the Chakra Mandala crushed velvet tank top ($60) keeps the same ladder with the sleeves gone. It's a unisex ringer tank in the same 240 g/m² crushed velvet, regular fit, S–5XL.

The Chakra Mandala joggers ($100; $105 in 2XL, $108 in 3XL) pour the ladder down the legs, violet and blue at the waist, green and gold at the knees, orange and red at the cuffs, so the root color lands nearest the ground. They're 96% recycled poly / 4% elastane at a listed 308 g/m², with a cotton-feel face, brushed vegan fleece inside, side pockets and cuffed legs. The fit is slim, XS–3XL; order one or two sizes up for a looser fit. One customer, Barbara, summed up the print in December 2023: "Exactly as pictured."

For lake days and sunny stages, the Rainbow Swirl of Life women's one-piece swimsuit ($65; $68 in 2XL, $69 in 3XL) melts the whole spectrum into pastel swirls of lavender, sky blue, mint and lemon over a fine Flower of Life lattice: the chakra rainbow, softened by sunlight. It's 75% recycled poly / 25% elastane at a listed 225 g/m², four-way stretch, with a scoop neck and low scoop back, described by our store as quick-dry and chlorine-resistant. Sizes run XS–3XL.

How to build a chakra outfit. Let one piece carry the full ladder and keep the rest solid, or repeat a single color: violet for the crown, green for the heart. At ecstatic dance, the tank or the tee moves the easiest.

Sizing, ordering and care

Size up for layers. Our FAQ suggests sizing up for outerwear like cloaks and hoodies, "sometimes even 2 sizes up to fit extra layers under." Between sizes? Email your measurements to art@magusfawn.com.

Made for you. Every piece is made to order: production takes 7–11 business days, then delivery takes 6–14 business days. All sales are final, and US shipping is free at $70+. Wash cold with like colors and hang to dry; the dye-sublimated art becomes part of the fiber, so the colors stay bright wash after wash.

Seven wheels, centuries of lotus texts and one rainbow borrowed from the 20th century. Wear it gladly, and when someone in the crowd leans over to name the colors, you'll know the rest of the story.

Explore more: women's cloaks · men's cloaks · crushed velvet · joggers · swimwear · backpacks · snapback hats · our guides to visionary art and sacred geometry across traditions

Frequently asked questions

What does the word chakra mean?

Chakra comes from the Sanskrit cakra, meaning "wheel" or "circle." It shares an ancient Indo-European root with the English words "wheel" and "cycle." In the Vedas the word described a ruler whose power radiated from a center, and later tantric texts used it for the spinning, lotus-shaped centers stacked along the body.

Is it respectful to wear chakra art if you aren't Hindu?

Yes, when you wear it with curiosity and care. Chakras come from living Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions, so learn the names, know that the rainbow colors are a modern Western addition, and treat the symbols as art worth honoring. Wear sacred syllables like Om with respect, and let the history travel with the design.

Are chakras part of yoga?

They're part of some yoga traditions. Chakras grew out of tantra and are central to kundalini yoga, which uses breath, mantra and visualization with the chakras in mind. Scholars such as Edwin Bryant note that classical yoga reaches its goals differently, so chakra teaching varies widely between studios, lineages and teachers.

Written by Magus & Lylyth Fawn, the Los Angeles artists behind Magus Fawn. Magus makes VR and digital visionary art and produces Psy EDM. Lylyth makes fractal digital art and runs design and customer care. We've been selling wearable art since 2020 on Etsy (4.7★ from 144 reviews as of October 2026) and here at magusfawn.com. Come say hi on Instagram @magusfawn.