Muladhara, the Root Chakra: Red Color Theory

What Are Chakras?

It’s amazing how much of our current day-to-day lives are affected by beliefs and traditions from thousands of years ago. Chakras, a concept from the beginning of Hinduism (from around 1500 and 500 BC) are a very important aspect or Tantra of Hinduism.

Chakra, meaning “wheel” in Sanskrit, refers to the wheels within us that are made of energy. Everybody has even these wheels that align along our spines. Each wheel is associated with a different color, organs, elements, gemstones, and emotions. These chakra wheels have been referred to as having important effects on our spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental health.

The Function Of The Red Chakra

The first chakra is called Muladhara, the Root Chakra and is found at the base of your spine. This chakra is known to be an opening and an anchor for the rest of the chakras, keeping them stable along your body. Muladhara is meant to control energy, stability, courage, and physical desires like passion.

A red watercolor background with a red dot in the center of the image. At the center of the circle is a woman wearing white, sitting in a meditation pose. At the base of her spine is a red dot, representing her root chakra.

The root chakra is said to be connected to our ‘I Am’ energy and has an effect on:

Gonad glands
Bones
Kidneys
Reproductive systems
Lower Back
Legs & Feet
Hips

The Muladhara chakra is also associated with gemstones:

Smoky Quartz
Red Jasper
Carnelian
Red Goldstone

It’s important to stay attuned with your Muladhara! If your Root chakra ever becomes overactive, it can lead to physical and emotional distress, such as hunger, blood pressure issues, dissatisfaction, lower back pain, and paranoia! When our Root chakra is healthy, we will feel grounded, secure, and content!

Red Chakra Color and It’s Meaning

Our Muladhara chakra is symbolized with a gorgeous deep red. Across the world, the color red has multiple cultural, societal, and spiritual meanings. There’s also personal connections to colors as well which can influence your relationship with colors.

In the traditional Hindu sense, red symbolizes:

Grounding
Safety
Healing
Survival

Here are some other cool cultural connections with the color red:

China: Red is the symbol of prosperity, luck, and wealth
India/Bangladesh: Brides often wear red for good luck on their wedding day!
Russia: Red has deep connections with communism.
Spain: Bull fighting
South Africa: Red is often associated with mourning, bloodshed, and violence which can be connected to the country's long struggle for independence.

A Chinese palace is decorated with red hanging lanterns.

In most societies, red is used to signify danger or caution- like red lights or stop signs. Red is one of the most intense and eye-catching colors, but it is actually one of the lowest colors on the visible spectrum! Here in the west, we often associate red with love, life, energy, warmth, crime, and danger.

Red has been used in therapy for its effects! Red is commonly used to energize people and has been known to help raise respiration, metabolism, and blood pressure. Red light therapy is one of the most common types of light therapy, and has shown to increase energy on a cellular level!

Wearing Muladhara

A woman with brown hair is smiling on the beach in the sun, wearing a black bikini and a red mini sari wrap skirt.

Wearing red can help boost your confidence! Incorporating this daring shade into your daily outfit could also suggest that you’re a determined, ambitious leader that is confident in your badass abilities! Sounds like superhero vibes to me! If you think an all-red outfit is a little too bold, no judgments, why not pick just one of our gorgeous red pieces below!

Crafting With Muladhara

An artisan wearing a facemask is hard at work bagging and tagging some red cakes of yarn.

When crafting with red, that piece of work is going to be passionate and eye-catching! An important part of creating is deliberately choosing your colors to influence the theme, representation, or emotions that you want to reflect in your artwork. This goes for fiber art as well! If you want a soothing lap blanket, you would rather create that using cool and calming tones, instead of something bright and energetic like red!

If you’re looking for some bright and bold red yarn, we’ve got you covered!

Our Muladhara Jasper Kit

Jasper energy bundle with all items showing in front of a white background. 2 jasper crystals, 2 skeins sparkle worsted weight silk, 1 skeins chakra beaded cotton yarn, 3 color sari silk ribbon sample card, and coordinating furoshiki.

If you're looking to amp up your crafting energy, we have the perfect kit for you! Our 8 Chakras Energy Bundles are inspired by Muladhara and the other 7 chakras. Each kit comes with a variety of handmade eco-friendly yarn, crystals, and a gorgeous furoshiki wrap that will help charge your creative flow!

Meet the Author

Kate has been on the Darn Good Yarn team since 2018.

They have their degree in Creative Art Therapy & Psychology - and like crafting and animals a little too much.