Purple Aura: Meaning and Chakras, Explained

I’m very excited to at last write this article, explaining all about a purple aura meaning. Why? I’m a Reiki energy healing practitioner whose specialty is seeing and working with clients’ chakras to help them flow in balance, and my #1 favorite of all the aura colors is purple! To learn why, let’s explore, in depth, what it means to have a purple or violet aura.

The Purple Chakra(s)

To understand the meaning of a purple aura, we first need to unpack which which chakra colors are associated with that hue. (As background, “chakras” are the energy centers of the human body, and each is connected with a color and a characteristic that holds a message.)

Now, the answer to the question “Which is the purple chakra?” is actually more complicated than it is for any of the other meditation colors, because there are TWO different purple chakras, depending on which shade of the hue we are talking about. Here’s an overview of each energy center, which will be important groundwork for us understanding purple auras.

The 6th, Third Eye Chakra

The Sixth Chakra, Third Eye Chakra, or Ajna in Sanskrit, is located between the eyes, or on the lower forehead. It is connected with intuition, and having clear insight. It’s where the human world connects with — and balances with — the spiritual realm to produce those wondrous moments of connection and clairvoyance.

What color is the Third Eye Chakra? Here’s where things start to get complicated. Usually the 6th Chakra is seen as “Indigo,” which is a combination of blue (like the blue aura of the throat chakra directly below) and purple. In the world of colors, “Indigo” looks to most people like… purple. Therefore, the Sixth Chakra is often just seen as purple. But wait — there’s more!

The 7th, Crown Chakra

At the top of the head (below the Soul Star Chakra) sits the celestial Seventh Chakra: the Crown Chakra, or Sahasrara in Sanskrit. The Crown Chakra is about connection to universal energy, the spiritual world, and enlightenment. This chakra is about transcending the human realm to connect with the divine.

What color is the Crown Chakra? Oh my — this time there are FOUR answers! Sometimes the Seventh Chakra is described as violet (more of a pink-purple than indigo), yet other times it is said to be purple, and still other times, it’s seen as having either a gold or white aura. A gold and white chakra? Yes that’s right. Ah!

Purple Aura Meaning

Now we can put this background understanding together to understand the meaning of a purple aura. Seeing this color can be interpreted as being energy radiating from either — or both — the 6th and 7th Chakras, meaning that when that purple color is present, the body is building personal intuition, and connecting with spiritual, universal life force energy in a healing and growing manner.

All energy colors are great in their own way, but when I see a purple aura with my Boston Reiki clients, I always smile. Why? Because every time I see a purple aura, it’s accompanied by healing, processing, clearing, and increased happiness and wellbeing — as if divine energy is gently connecting with the body to help the life force unblock and flow. It is chakra balancing in action. You don’t have to be a religious person to experience that seeing purple auras has a spiritual meaning that transcends affiliation and simply feels wonderful.

A Story About Purple Auras

Here’s an example of the healing properties of a purple aura. Last week I had a client come in for the first time. In the first part of the session, I couldn’t see any color aura at all, as I did my hand placements along her body, meaning her chakras were blocked. Then as I got to her belly, I saw her start to cry a little — crying during meditation or Reiki is very normal and beneficial — and she began to tell me why she had come in for energy work.

I won’t share the story here, to protect her privacy, but suffice it to say that she’d had a huge surprise in her life which her mind and body were having trouble processing. I continued my Reiki hand placements as she finished the story, and as I got up to her head, she suddenly exclaimed: “I see violet! Oh my gosh — it’s like a lava lamp of purple behind my closed eyes! This has never happened to me before. What does it mean?”

Indeed, on my end I was also seeing purple — in a manner which I’ve tried to recreate in my illustrations for this article. I begin to smile, since in my experience, seeing a purple aura nearly always correlates with the client doing amazing healing work, and leaving feeling much better. I explained this to her.

For the next 30 minutes of my Reiki hand placements, the client and I watched the purple light dance and move behind our closed eyes. Sometimes the color pulsed towards us in a circle, and sometimes it flowed downward, upward, or diagonally, iridescent.

As I explain in my wildly popular first article in this series, “Seeing Colors During Meditation: Purple and Yellow,” it is both my experience and the experience of many people who can see aura colors, that purple is mixed with yellow-green in what we see. Click that article for more of an analysis of why. In the case of this client, we also observed a gold and yellow aura and green aura dancing between the purple aura colors.

What was the effect of that purple aura? Was it as healing and restorative due to celestial energy as I’d seen before? Sure enough, as this client left our Reiki session, she shared the following: “When I came in here for energy healing, I was feeling constricted and pent up — almost like I couldn’t breathe. Now I feel like a totally different person! I can breathe fully, and feel clearer and happier than I have in a long time!” Ahh, the power of chakra unblocking and the 6th and 7th chakras.

A Purple Aura, in Sum

It sounds almost magical, but I’ve found it over and over again to be true in my Reiki energy work: the meaning of a purple aura is that there is amazing healing energy happening that combines the human power of intuition (the 6th chakra) with the universal life force energy (the 7th chakra).

A purple aura is a very good thing, and my only warning would be that if you have one, you may be vibrating and operating at a higher spiritual plane than man of those around you, so have patience with them, and don’t forget to keep connecting with those who are still working on their own path in a more grounded way. Also see my article about the magenta aura meaning, which is closely connected.

Now, what has been YOUR experience with seeing or having a purple aura? What’s your take on how it relates to the purple chakras, and what it means? Do share!

Curious to learn more about auras? Check out my explanations and stories about seeing an orange aura and the aura of the red chakra! Want the next level of chakras beyond the 7? Read about the “Earth Star Chakra!”