Viśuddha
Throat chakra (16-petal lotus)
Viśuddha ("purified") is the fifth cakra, at the throat. Avalon's v. 28 describes a sixteen-petalled lotus, smoky-purple, each petal inscribed with one of the sixteen Sanskrit vowels (the *svaras*: अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ ॠ ऌ ॡ ए ऐ ओ औ अं अः, here written with anusvāra-ṃ in the petal-letter table for SCN consistency). The seed-mantra is हं (HAM); the yantra is the full moon-disc — a featureless circle, the seal of ākāśa (space). Presiding deity: Sadāśiva, white-bodied and five-faced; śakti: Śākinī. The vehicle is a white elephant (gaja) — strength as still presence rather than charging force. Vertebral anchor: C7 spinous process — the *vertebra prominens*, the largest palpable cervical landmark on the back view. Lineage tie-breaker: SCN-per-Avalon is canonical; the popular post-Theosophical "blue throat" colour is treated as a variant.
Point 5 of 7 in Chakras (7-system, Sat-Chakra-Nirupana)
Cross-tradition overlaps
- Viśuddha ↔ Kuṇḍalinī crossing — viśuddha (coincident)
Sources
Sat-Cakra-Nirūpaṇa v.28 (primary_canonical)
“Above this, in the throat, is the lotus called Viśuddha, smoky purple, with sixteen petals on which are the sixteen vowels.”
Woodroffe, The Serpent Power p.128 (secondary_translation)
“Viśuddha, the throat-lotus, has sixteen petals each marked with a vowel; its bīja is HAM and its element is ether.”