The sahasrara (sahasra, thousand; ara, petaled) CHAKRA is not, properly speaking, a chakra (energy center along the spine). This “eighth chakra” in the KUNDALINI YOGA system represents the highest transcendent state that a practitioner can reach. It is depicted as a lotus with many petals floating 12 fingers above the head.
Sahasrara chakra is the meeting place of the divine feminine in the form of the kundalini with paramashiva, or highest SHIVA. Here the full inte-gration of the transcendent and the earthly takes place, and the yogi can experience all of reality as divinity. The deity of this chakra is paramashiva. The SHAKTI is mahashakti, or the highest form of the GODDESS. The 1,000 petals are said to be of every color.
Further reading: Harish Johari, Chakras: Energy Centers of Transformation (Rochester, Vt.: Destiny Books, 2000); John G. Woodroffe, The Serpent Power, 7th ed. (Madras: Ganesh, 1964).
Encyclopedia of Hinduism. A. Jones and James D. Ryan. 2007.