The serpent yawns and stretches. It is mud red, this once-coiled snake, the color of the dust from which our bodies are made. As it undulates—as its sinewy body climbs from the earth toward the stars—its color shifts in hue and intensity until, finally, it looks just like a star, glowing white and shimmering.
This is kundalini, a body-based subtle energy that activates the chakras and enables spiritual maturation. A life force mythologized in the Hindu religion (and other spiritualities by other names), kundalini is commonly called the red serpent or the rainbow serpent. Along with its kin the nadis, granthi, and koshas, kundalini fuels our chakras, ensures good health, and ultimately holds the key to spiritual enlightenment. Because of the important role that kundalini and its associative “cousins” play, we’re going into some depth in this chapter. This information is also necessary in order to understand some of the information in part 2 that outlines the complexities of the seven in-body Hindu chakras.
As preparation for understanding kundalini, it is helpful to understand its Sanskrit foundation. In Sanskrit, kundalini means “life energy.” This natural divine energy is the key to becoming a living and enlightened sage.
Etymologically, the word is a composition of several separate parts. Here are definitions of various subroots of the word:
kundal—coiled, spiraled
kun—earth
di—“little pot of earth” or “single cell”; can also be related to its alternative root da
da—to give, “the bestower”
lini—perpetual consciousness, the merging of the beginning and the end
Sanskrit words are either feminine or masculine. The term kundalini is feminine in nature. Hence, when we put it all together, she is the “feminine coiled energy that begins in a little pot of earth, and when blessed by the Bestower awakens us to perpetual consciousness.”1
As you are introduced to kundalini energy, know that it is a worldwide phenomenon. As we’ll explore at a deeper level in part 4, it has been known in disparate cultures and by many names through time. For example, Quetzalcoatl, the “plumed serpent,” was worshipped across Central and South America for two thousand years. This name holds a threefold meaning: the cosmic energy that gives life to everything in the universe, a form of inner energy comparable to kundalini, and the title of one who has developed their kundalini energy.2 It was often depicted as shown in Illustration 3 and is also represented by a snake swallowing its own tale—an ouroboros, also shown in Illustration 3. This ancient symbol, first seen in Egypt in the fourteenth century bce, represents our ability to continually re-create ourselves. It also relates to the idea of primordial unity with an originating force and has frequently been compared to the serpent that activates our life energy, inviting a rebirth.
The most fundamental knowledge of kundalini, however, is thoroughly and beautifully portrayed in Hindu literature as a red or rainbow-colored serpent or snake.
Illustration 3—The Plumed Serpent and an Ouroboros: The plumed serpent (left) is a Central American depiction of the Hindu kundalini. In ancient Egypt, as well as other civilizations, the kundalini is seen as an ouroborus, or a snake swallowing its own tail (right). illustration by elisabeth alba
The Rainbow Serpent: Climbing the Chakra Ladder
What is this rainbow serpent the Hindus know as kundalini? When represented symbolically, kundalini is often portrayed as a serpent lying coiled at the base of our first chakra, called muladhara in Sanskrit. It is red in color and seen as feminine. Wrapped around our coccyx, this life energy is dormant until summoned, at which point it awakens and begins undulating upward.
The path of this life energy is sinewy as it flows through the nadis, the energy channels that deliver subtle energy to the chakras. As kundalini travels these pathways, it activates each of the seven in-body chakras. The goal of this potent feminine force is to reach the seventh chakra, which is located at the crown of the head and carries a male energy.
The merging of the feminine kundalini and her male consort atop the head enables full access to Spirit and invites enlightenment, called samadhi in Sanskrit. This unification of feminine and masculine enables a marriage between our own feminine and masculine selves, as well as our human and divine qualities. We are now empowered to be our true selves, servants to higher principles in everyday life.
In Hindu scripture, celestial beings are associated with kundalini flow. Kundalini itself is an aspect of the goddess Shakti, who is composed of fire. Her consort, the male god Shiva, awaits her in the seventh chakra. As the creative energy that forms mind and matter, kundalini is unfulfilled without her divine mate, Shiva.
Illustration 4—Kundalini and the Three Main Nadis (left) and the Energy Flow of Ida and Pingala (right): There are dozens if not thousands of nadis, or energy channels, that link the chakras and support the rising of kundalini. The three main nadis are presented here. As you can see, the chakras spin because of the polar or crisscrossing energies of the ida and pingala. illustration by mary ann zapalac (left) and llewellyn art department (right)
In Hindu chakra lore, there are several energetic bodies associated with this awakening process. Chief are the nadis, which are somewhat comparable to the meridians of Asian medical systems. There are striking differences, however. Fourteen main meridians or channels deliver chi—Traditional Chinese Medicine’s term for life energy—throughout the body. Depending on the source text, Hindu scripture counts anywhere from 1,000 to 3,500 nadis. If you ask members of the Tibetan and ayurvedic traditions, the latter being an East Indian healing modality and philosophy, you’d be told such numbers are far too low: there are 72,000 nadis.3 Some researchers believe that meridians interact with the duct system, the bodily tubes that carry glandular secretions, and nadis are associated with the physical nervous system. Under this scenario, the meridians and nadis fulfill different jobs.4 Whatever the similarities and differences, ancient wisdom sees the nadis as the riverways that transport kundalini throughout the body.
Three main nadis are especially vital to the rising kundalini and are shown in Illustration 4. The first is the sushumna, the central energy channel that flows up the center of the spine through the chakras and serves as the main road for the rising kundalini. The kundalini also splits itself in two and flows through two additional conduits, the ida and pingala. The ida, which originates below the first chakra and ends at the left nostril, is considered a feminine channel, and its energy is receptive, loving, and intuitive. The pingala starts below the first chakra and ends at the right nostril. It is masculine in nature: demonstrative, dominating, and active. These crisscrossing energies ensure a blend of our own feminine and masculine qualities and activate the same within our chakras, which have similar attributes. For instance, the first chakra, which manages our safety and security issues, helps us assert ourselves professionally and also receive financial rewards for our efforts.
As it rises, kundalini must pass through special energetic locks, called granthis in Sanskrit. The vigilant granthis remind us of the story of the Sphinx, the Egyptian stone figure with a lion’s body and a human head: if we want to pass by the Sphinx, we must answer the riddle it poses to us. The granthis, then, are gatekeepers that challenge the kundalini’s rising.
In Greek mythology, to fail this test is to be eaten. Fortunately, this isn’t the fate of kundalini pilgrims. Still, to allow kundalini to continue on its way, we must struggle through and tame the issues of the chakras that these granthis guard.
These energetic locks guard the first, fourth, and sixth chakras, located in the hip, heart, and forehead areas (see Illustration 5). Respectively, they ask us to examine our security, love, and self-image issues. But the truth is that kundalini’s upward climb forces the contemplation and healing of all our issues, one chakra at a time, because one of the higher reasons for a kundalini activation is to clear our chakras—and therefore our physical, psychological, and spiritual issues—so we can live as the self we truly are. As you might imagine, while there are benefits to this transformative process, there are challenges as well.
The three locks, shown in Illustration 5 and labeled with their Hindu names and chakra “home base,” are as follows:
|
Lock/Granthi |
Chakra |
Typical Chakra Blocks |
Lesson |
|
Brahma |
First |
Childhood abuse issues; financial challenges; addictions; repressed sexuality and identity confusion; questions about primary partner, lifestyle, and career; potentially fatal illnesses; greed, envy, and materialism |
Release ourselves from the trappings of the material world and establish the self in totality |
|
Vishnu |
Fourth |
Questions about lovability, deservedness, relationship needs, codependency, separateness from the Divine; heart, lung, and breast conditions |
Perceive the existence of the universal life principle |
|
Rudra |
Sixth |
Issues with appearance, self-worth, and body image; questions about future, goals, and dreams; challenges with vision, perception, learning, and hormones5 |
Release duality and realize oneness with joy |
The Sheaths of Enlightenment
It’s not enough to experience a kundalini rising or even the divine inspiration that often accompanies the marriage of our feminine and masculine selves; we must also direct our energy toward higher ends. After all, all energy can be used toward good, bad, or indifferent ends. By passing through the koshas as our kundalini awakens our subtle energy system, we receive the training necessary to develop into mature human beings.
Koshas are like veils, but they could also be described as maps that encourage us to hone and direct our energies toward loving ends, helping us navigate the inner journey of maturation. They are described in the three-thousand-year-old Vedic spiritual tract called the Upanishads (further discussed in chapter 17) as five veils that separate us from our true and divine selves. We must pass through these sheaths to merge again with the light that is our source.
The koshas are actually interwoven layers that work like lesson plans; see Illustration 6. Here are the five layers and their teachings:
Annamaya Kosha: Contains the teachings of and wisdom gained from having a physical body. By respectfully caring for and tending our physical body, belongings, and needs, as well as honoring the same in others, we achieve the state of physical balance necessary to move toward spiritual growth.
Pranamaya Kosha: This is the energy, breath, or life-force body. This body and the next three are part of the subtle body and are therefore unseen. We embrace this body by deepening our breath and attuning it with our physical body.
Manomaya Kosha: The mental body, this kosha relates to our nervous system and expresses as thoughts or awareness. To calm and soothe this body is to adjoin our body and mind, with our breath serving as the bridge between the two. Achieving peace between these first three bodies is a vital way to achieve peace in our everyday lives.
Vijanamaya Kosha: Known as the wisdom body, this subtle body reflects our consciousness and our ability to illuminate truths about others, the world, and ourselves. This body comes alive once our first three koshas are unified and our own spiritual power begins to emerge.
Anandamaya Kosha: Called the bliss body, we know this body is awakened when we stop observing ourselves and simply experience the beauty and light of every moment. We feel whole. We are integrated. We “are.”6
So far, the most important point made about kundalini, in addition to what it is, relates to the fact that it rises through the nadis to stir the chakras, forming the basis for enlightenment. This process, further described in chapters 20–22 in relation to the process and the science involved, has its ups and downs. Ultimately, however, the story of kundalini is a love story: the legend of Shiva and Shakti, a tale of all aspects of life that are male and female. This includes our own inner male and inner female, which unite to form our greater self.
The Love Story of the Chakras: Shiva and Shakti
She rises to meet him, for he has been awaiting her. In their hearts, both know that they have never been separated; they are an undifferentiated unity. They are one. They are Shiva and Shakti, the divine masculine and the divine feminine, the main actors in tantric philosophy.
The two lovers understand the true reason that the spirit bodies of the chakras are embodied within human beings like stepping-stones to the heavens. It is to enable them to reunite again and again.
The core teachings of most types of tantra are imbedded in the story of the Hindu gods Shiva and Shakti. When tantra emerged from early Hindu-Vedic thought, it embraced these two orthodox gods in particular. Their reunion as lovers is the perfect allegory for the rise of kundalini, rich with symbolism.
In tantric philosophy, these two gods are giants. Shiva is nothing less than consciousness itself. His consort, Shakti, is all of manifested reality. Shakti is power, the spark that animates the world. She is also the representation of Shiva in the concrete world. Theirs is a love affair of legend and an illumination of our own path of self-development.
According to tantric legend, Shakti and Shiva are conjoined in tat, the Sanskrit term for “that,” eternal and unchangeable consciousness. Everything we perceive in physical reality comes from the bindu, or “point.” When this point is unmanifested, it is called maha bindu or para bindu. It is the natural home of the unified Shakti and Shiva; because of this, all of creation flows from bindu.
When we look around the world, everything we see is Shakti as she pours through bindu. What she manifests, however, is always an expression of Shiva, or consciousness. When Shakti is at rest, there is no movement: nothing we can see, hear, or touch. This place of peace is called sat-chit-ananda, or being-consciousness-bliss.
In this space—when Shiva and Shakti are completely merged and still—there is no sound. This state is always present, and experiencing it is one of the goals of both tantra and yoga. But physical reality is not possible in this place of silence and tranquility. In order to create physical reality, Shiva and Shakti separated, and our human state reflects this separation. One way this is explained is that our Shiva selves remained behind in the divine realm, and our Shakti selves became form. Just as Shiva and Shakti desire to merge again into their unified state, so do we with our spiritual essence.
Kundalini activation is our means of reconnecting with our divine selves, represented by Shakti’s rise to answer Shiva’s call. Both lovers are active in this process. There is a downward movement (of our Shiva selves), called maya, a process in which our divine selves awaken our dormant power. The upward movement—kundalini rising through the chakras—is called enlightenment, or prakasha. One of the ways we encourage this union is through chanting aum (or om), the word of creation or primal vibration. This is the sound (nada) of Shakti manifesting Shiva’s consciousness.
Many yogic and tantric practices are meant to help us remember the oneness of Shakti and Shiva and to understand that, ultimately, separation is an illusion.
It will be easier to comprehend the effects and importance of kundalini if you have a basic understanding of this awakening and rising process, specifically why it’s important and sometimes difficult.
The Benefits—and Challenges—of a Kundalini Awakening
The term kundalini awakening describes the activation of powerful kundalini energy and its advancement through the chakras. But this succinct definition does little to illustrate the experience of undergoing a kundalini awakening, which is often more like a caterpillar wrestling to leave the cocoon than the free flight of an emerged butterfly.
Inside the cocoon, every one of the caterpillar’s cells reconfigures until imaginal cells emerge, those that are programmed to create a butterfly instead of a ground-crawling insect. The caterpillar’s old cells, however, attack these imaginal cells, not recognizing their vibrations. Then, despite this, the imaginal cells multiply to such an extent that they engulf the old cells—and a butterfly is born.
The butterfly is one of the symbols of the state of samadhi, but few people will tell you what might occur as you journey toward the free flight of enlightenment. As the kundalini energy climbs, it will stimulate all of the unhealed issues lying within each of your chakras.
As I discussed earlier, the chakras hold the records of our physical, psychological, and spiritual issues. They can also hold others’ energies because our auric fields are two-way streets: while serving as protective barriers, they also attract, react to, and absorb external subtle energies. Some of these internalized energies—which might be physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual in nature—complement our own energy, in which case they help sustain or support us. Others are discordant and cause challenges within our system. The kundalini energy wants to replace our old issues and programs, and the harmful energies of others, with new “imaginal cells,” or programs that mirror our essential or enlightened self.
The problem isn’t the goal of a kundalini awakening. The discomfort lies in how we react to what kundalini energy reveals as it lights up our chakras.
As kundalini energy enters a chakra, every unresolved issue or emotion within it vibrates. The part of us that incurred this issue, or the part of us that reacted to an incoming energy, is also stimulated. We might now reexperience the original trauma, emotion, desire, or misperception.
The goals of this retriggering are to release what is blocking our path toward peace and to open to more fulfilling truths. We must change the information in the locked-in energy, its vibration, or both. We are to perform chakra medicine for the attainment of a more whole state within each chakra. This can be difficult. Perhaps an unconscious aspect of us doesn’t want to let go of a situation or belief or another’s energy. Maybe the people or beings outside us don’t want us to effect such a shift. Further repression of old issues can cause anything from retraumatization to physical illness. If the kundalini energy can’t push its way through a chakra or a granthi, it can remain stuck at that level until the path is clear.
The most challenging of kundalini reactions is called kundalini syndrome. This set of symptoms often creates a state of physical, psychological, or spiritual emergency, forcing us to seek assistance in order to clarify, release, and heal our old issues and accept what is true: that we are worthy, lovable, and deserving of the love represented by the kundalini merging with the divine light. Common symptoms of kundalini syndrome can include shaking and other physical movements, physical trauma and illness, panic attacks, psychological upheaval, uncomfortable or disturbing psychic phenomena, and our own fear-based reactions to these symptoms.7 Some of these same symptoms can accompany a “normal” kundalini rising.
But is there really such a thing as a normal kundalini rising? Well, no and yes. No because every individual is different. Some people are born with their kundalini already activated; for others, kundalini expands naturally as they age or develop. Still other people experience a kundalini rising after a trauma such as a car accident, the loss of a loved one, or a spiritual crisis. Some cultivate kundalini energy through years of spiritual devotion, perhaps by participating in yoga, meditation, or purification processes. Another method for activating kundalini is through a process called transmission, in which a spiritual master energetically activates the kundalini in a student.
The other differential in kundalini risings is that the process can be uneven. Some individuals might experience a first chakra awakening, which can be accompanied by flashes of heat, bodily shakes, security crises, sexual charges, or emotional drama, and remain stuck at that first chakra granthi for years. Others might experience a quick and easy partial kundalini rising, quickly working through any accompanying issues, only to linger a while at a higher chakra. Yet other people experience absolutely no negative side effects. It’s as if one day a light is switched on and they feel like their kundalini has completely risen.
What does the completed journey feel like? Everyone experiences it differently, but there are certain common reactions. The traveler who has arrived is physically energized and able to direct their life energy toward important ends—and yet rest at night. The term peacefully energized would ironically describe the kundalini graduate.
If you reach this destination, the same would be true of your emotional state. Your feelings would be fluid, flowing like water, never stagnating or rushing too quickly. You would greet them all with a soft smile, for you would appreciate them for what they are: messages that provide insight. Your mind would be clear and clean and thus able to quickly respond to feelings, and because your feelings can now flow easily, your reactions to them would range from firm to easy, never too fierce or weak.
The kundalini alumnus enjoying a heartfelt connection to the Divine will feel a bond with all beings yet be psychologically intelligent enough to know when to establish boundaries and to what degree. Ultimately it is this link with the Divine that illuminates everything about the adept’s life. From Spirit we come, to Spirit we will return, and in Spirit we live our lives. For most, their lives will continue as before, as indicated by the famous Zen saying “chop wood, carry water.” Before enlightenment, we chop wood and carry water. And after kundalini has lit up our entire field of stars, we chop wood and carry water.
For some, however, a kundalini awakening becomes a purely spiritual experience. In certain people, the chakra gifts evolve from their psychic state to reveal siddhi, the Hindu word for magical gifts. (We will discuss the various psychic, spiritual, and siddhi chakra gifts in chapter 3.) Other people experience enlightenment as a call to service or the desire for a new career. Yet others shine and glow with the aura of the guru or master. Because each of us is a unique spiritual essence, it is natural to expect the enlightened state to vary from person to person.
From an energetic point of view, however, all kundalini awakenings have more rather than fewer similarities because no matter how it rises, kundalini must rise. This is what every activation and uprising has in common. As I mentioned, the focus of kundalini is to clear the chakras so we can become the self we are meant to be. And one way or another, a true samadhi outcome involves breaking through the koshas, or sheaths of illusion that keep us stuck in pain and fear.
As you have learned, the serpent kundalini can be an object of fear. After all, we see a snake and we think “venom.” But the snake is also the great healer, working in and through the chakras to spiral us toward the heavens. Illustration 7 shows the link between kundalini and a symbol of healing: the caduceus.
Kundalini’s path may be slow and arduous or, for some, quick and easy. But always it passes from the lowest and most mundane of chakras, winding through several nadis or energy channels to activate the highest and most spiritual of chakras. To accomplish this goal, kundalini passes through three granthis, the energetic knots or locks that present spiritual “quizzes” we must pass before it will continue its climb and its cleansing of our imbalances and unhelpful patterns.
Other subtle structures bind kundalini and the chakras. These include the koshas, sheaths of energy that represent a set of enlightening ideas. By far, the benefits of a kundalini awakening outweigh its sometimes-fierce consequences, if only for the physical health, mental clarity, emotional maturity, and spiritual purity that results. We are made for kundalini—and kundalini is made for us.
Now that you understand the basics of the chakra world, including the role of kundalini, it’s time to jump into the most well-known chakra system: the universe of Hindu chakras. To understand the core Hindu concepts is to step back in time, yet it will illuminate the nature of your very real and current self.