Although you don’t need to know every aspect of anatomy to practice Reiki, having a basic understanding of the chakra system can help you. So no matter if you are working on your own healing, or working with clients, it's good to broaden your knowledge.

Human beings are a combination of body, mind, emotions, and spirit. When considering human health, it is impossible to separate one of these from the other three. All are interconnected and affect how health manifests in your body. Your body and mind are of the physical body. Your emotions and spirit are of the etheric (spiritual) body. Your energy anatomy—consisting of your meridians, chakras, and aura—is the point of energetic connection between your physical body and your etheric body. Energetic balance of your subtle anatomy is essential for health of the body, mind, emotions, and spirit.

Though each part of your subtle anatomy affects your overall health picture, chakras are the easiest to visualize and understand. Your chakras are energetic centers that exist to connect your physical body to your spiritual body. They are visualized as spinning wheels of colored light that run roughly along your spinal column. Each chakra vibrates at the frequency of a different color, and each affects and is affected by various aspects of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.