Glossary: Vortex
Data excerpted from Barbara Brennan's book "Hands of Light", pages 44-45.
Vortex (singular); vortices (plural).
Each swirling vortex of energy appears to suck or entrain energy from the UEF [Universal Energy Field]. They appear to function as do fluid vortexes we are familiar with in water or air such as whirlpools, cyclones, water spouts and hurricanes. The open end of a normal chakra in the first layer of the aura is about six inches in diameter at a distance of one inch from the body.
Each of these vortices exchanges energy with the UEF. Thus, when we speak of feeling "open," that is literally true. All the major chakras, minor chakras, lesser chakras and acupuncture points are openings for energy to flow into and out of the aura. We are like sponges in the energy sea around us. Since this energy is always associated with a form of consciousness, we experience the energy we exchange in terms of seeing, hearing, feeling, sensing, intuiting or direct knowing.
In eastern esoteric literature, each of the chakras is seen as having a certain number of petals. On closer investigation, these petals appear to be small rotating vortices spinning at very high rates. Each vortex metabolizes an energy vibration that resonates at its particular spin frequency. The [sacral] chakra, for example, has [six] small vortices and metabolizes [six] basic frequencies of energy, and so on for each of the other chakras. The colors observed in each chakra are related to the frequency of energy being metabolized at its particular rate.