Chakras: Melissa Forbes

Yantra is a creative visual activation tool that serves as an awakener to discover ones’ soul’s intelligence. I’m sharing seven yantra paintings that contain the Vedic symbols revealed to the Ancient’s. A study of the seven subtle power centers. The details of this model are adapted from the Satcakranirupana, one of the source texts on the chakra model.

My passion for sacred geometry and yoga were unified when I discovered the subtle energetic centers of the body called Chakras – and the associated sacred symbol, yantra and sacred mantra or bija. These are tools for concentration which serve as a path to transformation.

With each Chakra, one finds the meaning of the chakra name, location in the body, Bija, Petal sounds or Vrittis. These are the tendencies of the mind, aspects, element, color, shape of the form, predominate sense, sense organ, work organ, element, Loka (plane), ruling planet, vehicle of the bija and Deity.

I hope you will enjoy my exploration.

Melissa Forbes has been a student of yoga since her mid twenties. Her interest in yoga became more singularly focused after finding inspiration in the tradition of the yogi scholar Shi T. Krishnamacharya and his students Pattabhi Jois, and T.K.V. Desikachar. Melissa began her career teaching Desikachar style yoga and was the co-founder of the internationally renowned Heart of Yoga. She has taught yoga in numerous schools throughout the United States, among them, the Olive Leaf Wholeness Center in New York City, where she worked closely with Dr. Rudolph Ballentine, a student of Swami Rama, who founded the Himalayan Institute.

Melissa began her study of art, as well as dance and movement in her youth. Painting and design, along side dance and movement, are her ongoing passions. Melissa’s art career began with her studies of textile design at the Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, followed by a five-year full scholarship in printmaking at New York’s National Academy Press. She was the recipient of an Ogden M. Pleissner Fellowship, a Nancy O’Malley Fellowship, a Ricky Fingerhut Fellowship and a Ralph Fabri Fellowship. Melissa was also granted the prestigious Pollock-Krasner Grant.

She is presently involved in an independent study of Vedic Yantras, having studied in India with students of Harish Johari. Her Yantric renderings reflect both her artistic expression and intimate experiences of Yogic disciplines. They are quite unique as they combine Eastern and Western Sacred Geometry. Most recently, sixteen of Melissa’s vibrational Yantra art paintings were featured in the book, “Karttikeyan Yogic Method”, published by Gatherinsight.com. Her art has been exhibited in galleries in New York City, Philadelphia, and the United Nations. She maintains a studio in New York while frequently traveling and painting in majestic locations around the world.

For the five years leading up to his passing in 2007, Melissa traveled with the late sage U.G. Krishnamurti, and made Switzerland her home. Upon his passing, Melissa moved back to the United States, and is currently living in the Taconic Hills of New York State. Melissa is presently an Adjunct Professor of Art at the University of New Haven, Connecticut, while continuing to teach yoga.

In addition to her interests and experiences in yoga and art, Melissa has formally studied Neuro-Linguistic Programming under Richard Bandler cofounder of NLP, Shiatsu (Certified Ohashiatsu Practitioner), Certified Divine Intervention TeacherMinister, and Certified Teacher of Mayan Sacred Geometry, graduate of Suluk Academy school of Sufi studies, the Four Wind Society Light Body School and the American Viniyoga Institute EYT 500 hour program.

She is the author of No Teaching Yoga, The Authentic Guide, a work reflecting her time with U.G. Krishnamurti, a brief history of yoga, a collection of Vedic Yantras and Melissa’s eight Miracle Combination practices.