Anāhata
Heart chakra (12-petal lotus)
Anāhata ("unstruck sound") is the fourth cakra, at the heart. Avalon's v. 22 describes a twelve-petalled lotus the colour of the bandhūka-flower (a deep red), each petal inscribed with one of कं खं गं घं ङं चं छं जं झं ञं टं ठं in clockwise order. The seed-mantra is यं (YAM); the yantra is a hexagram of interlocking triangles — the seal of air (vāyu) and a topological signature of the unstruck self-resonant sound the chakra is named for. Presiding deity: Īśa (Śiva as the serene witness-Lord); śakti: Kākinī. The vehicle is the black antelope (kṛṣṇa-mṛga), whose darting movement tracks the air-element. Anāhata is the seat of the *viṣṇu-granthi*, the second of the three knots — and within its lower precinct sits the small "red lotus" of *anandakanda* with its kāmadhenu (wish-fulfilling cow) and *kalpa-vṛkṣa* (wish-fulfilling tree), the heart-cave shared structurally with the kośa system's *ānandamaya-kośa* (cf. cross-references on the SSG page). Vertebral anchor: T7 spinous process (approximately the level of the inferior angle of the scapula). Cross-system note: anāhata's chest cluster is also where the latent points of `sufi_lataif_naqshbandi` (qalb / rūḥ / sirr / khafī) collect; the SSG page links to the sufi system. Lineage tie-breaker: SCN-per-Avalon is canonical.
Point 4 of 7 in Chakras (7-system, Sat-Chakra-Nirupana)
Cross-tradition overlaps
- Anāhata ↔ Kuṇḍalinī crossing — anāhata (coincident)
Sources
Sat-Cakra-Nirūpaṇa v.22 (primary_canonical)
“Above this, in the heart, is the lotus called Anāhata, of the colour of the bandhūka-flower, with twelve petals.”
Woodroffe, The Serpent Power p.121 (secondary_translation)
“Anāhata, the heart-lotus, contains the viṣṇu-granthi; its bīja is YAM and its element is air.”