Kundalini

Kundalini (or kundalini sacred fire) is an ancient Indian term for a form of energy corresponding to the formative forces of the higher ethers - the (chemical and) life ethers - see also Spectrum of elements and ethers, Formative forces and Force substance representation.

This higher and more subtle life energy is at rest when the human physical body is created, and lies dormant as a reservoir of etheric life energy in Man's root chakra, in balance with and 'kept into place' by the lower etheric formative forces (of the warmth and life ethers).

As part of Man's transformation and spiritualization and initiation exercises, this energy is slowly and gradually freed up and can rise into the different chakras, which affects the balance between the various ethers and cause a change in consciousness.

At the point Man has purified the astral and etheric bodies, this gives rise to illumination. This is referred to as enlightenment, self-realization, illumination (see Discussion Note 3), and this experience of bliss is also called God consciousness or God experience.

The purpose of the various systems of initiation is to attain this transformation and spiritualization through elemental balance. In most systems of initiation this will follow naturally from disciplined practice of initiation exercises, such as Franz Bardon's IIH (re comments by Rawn Clark below).

In Eastern kriya yoga (probably most well known today through teachings such as those by Yogananda and Sri M), it is said the energy can shoot up through Man's spine up to the crown chakra when the two main energetic or nadi channels named 'ida' and 'pingala' are balanced and the chakras have been opened, so this burst of energy can then happen through the central 'sushumna' channel.

The term Kundalini is used for both the life energy, the process or experience, and the resulting clairvoyant state (kundalini light).

Aspects

Term and terminology

The term kundalini comes from the Sanskrit word kundal, which means a spiral or coil. In yoga, kundalini shakti means the 'coiled power'. It is compared to a serpent that lies coiled while resting or sleeping. There are numerous references to kundalini in the sacred texts of India. However the term has become popular in the West in the 20th century and new age writings through the book 'The Serpent Power' by John Woodroffe (or Arthur Avalon) in the context of 'kundalini awakening', whereby the term 'spontaneous kundalini awakening' is sometimes be used for all kinds of non-understood spiritual and bodily experiences.
Kundalini (or kundalini sacred fire) is an ancient Indian term for a form of energy or cosmic spiritual energy or Shakti in Hindu philosophy: the divine, dynamic force that is considered to be the source of creation, preservation, and transformation in the universe; the vital energy that drives all forms of life and change. This energy may be regarded as polarised in two forms, a static or potential form called Kundalini, and a dynamic form called Prana working as etheric formative forces in the body. In Man as the microcosm, Kundalini represents the residual Shakti left over after the creation, in a state of relative rest, coiled in the Muladhara root chakra, where it is the static pole in relation to the whole of the bodily forces, which form the dynamic pole.
in the language of alchemy, the original undifferentiated energy divides into two opposing energies (see Spectrum of elements and ethers and Formative forces) that are omnipresent in the universe: an active energy 'niter', and a passive energy 'salt'. See Schemas FMC00.162 and FMC00.163 on Alchemy.
- Prana corresponds to salt energies or 'vital energy' abundant in plants and animals and keeping them alive, and has a variable presence and strength, differentiated based on lunar and solar cycles.
- Kundalini corresponds to the energies of niter or 'spiritual energy' and is also called 'secret fire' by the alchemists. It is a constant force independent of the cycles of nature. Spiritual energy is found only in the human species, but it is still a potential in most human beings because it is locked at the bottom of the spine, at the end of the spinal cord, held prisonor by the balancing strong currents of vital energy
In the teachings of Rudolf Steiner and Helena Blavatsky:
- the Kundalini fire is an element of finer material, a still higher vital element then the currents that come from the etheric body .. it lies in the organ at the heart, the organ at the heart is only the spot where the individual from without enkindles that fire. The organ at the heart is the one through which the higher self makes use of the lower self as his instrument and whence the latter is directed .. the kundalini fire flows outward from this organ and streams in luminous loveliness through the self-moving lotus-flowers and the other canals of the evolved etheric body. (1909-GA010 Ch. 3 (and Ch 1.))
  - Note regarding the organ 'at' the heart: see Schema FMC00.326 and the hrit' chakra (see under Various aspects below).
- Kundalini corresponds to the budhi or refined etheric body, a stage in the process of Man's transformation and spiritualization. It can mean both the etheric energy, as in kundalini fire and kundalini light (see 'Discussion area' below), as the corresponding life-spirit bodily principle. The latter, once achieved, requires a refined astral body transformed into spirit-self, and developed lotus flowers with corresponding clairvoyant faculties.
- According to Blavatsky (see below), kundalini corresponds to budhi, and the awakening of kundalini is the result of the activation of budhi which takes place in the human heart. This awakening of spiritual consciousness in the heart leads to the opening of the third eye (see Development of the chakras)

Illumination and the kundalini light

the process of initiation leads to clairvoyance, described in ancient times and cultures as 'inner illumination' (see Kundalini#Note 3 - The process of illumination) or seeing through the kundalini light (1905-10-07-GA093A)
in the three steps of Man's transformation and spiritualization whereby Man transforms the astral, etheric and physical bodies into the spiritual components of Man's higher triad .. Rudolf Steiner describes the "radiation of kundalini to the development and transformation of the physical body into spirit-man and elevation of the mineral kingdom ... Man learns to radiate back the light that the mineral kingdom reflects: he develops kundalini light and radiates it into the world, thereby giving light back to it—the light of the human kingdom." (1906-05-06-GA266)
the principles described on this page may even be 'encoded' in the Book of Revelation, see James Morgan Pryce below.
The contents of this page is to be combined with an understanding of the process of the Etherization of blood as part of the process of Man's transformation and spiritualization.

Various

'hrit' chakra between the solar plexus (third, Mars) and heart (fourth, Venus) chakras (see description by Shelly Trimmer on 'stopping time'), and drawing by Rudolf Steiner (Schema FMC00.326) where it is annotated as 'the source of kundalini fire' (see also Note 1 in the Discussion section and Development of the chakras#hrit chakra)
"A small part of the trapped spiritual energy (kundalini) escapes the base of the spine and crosses the barrier of the currents of the vital energy (prana) and gives Man his self-consciousness and sense of I" and "the spiritual energy is linked to the breathing rhythm: with each inhalation, it rises through sephirotic centers to a certain height that characterizes the level of consciousness reached by the individual, and it goes down as we exhale" (Jean Dubuis)
For a visualisation what is described on this page, combine the schemas below with other Schemas on Development of the chakras and the various descriptions below, not just by Rudolf Steiner but also by Pryce, Dubuis, and others.
many writings have approached the human transformation towards spiritualization and the divine, with different terminology often including (secret) fire, and often indirectly (not literally pointing to kundalini energy). Examples are 'The Living Flame of Love' by St. John of the Cross (poetic-theological exploration of divine love as a 'living flame' that purifies and transforms the soul, an essential text for understanding'fire' in Christian mysticism) or 'The Fire from Within' by Carlos Castaneda (introduces concept of an inner force or luminous energy that can be harnessed for personal transformation and enlightenment).

Effects caused by the kundalini and energetic balance

the kundalini spiritual energy may rise non-structurally and ascend as a result of a temporary weakening of the vital energy ... for example under great physical stress and/or psychic experiences, times of illness (physical weakness), or near-death-experiences (NDEs). This may give rise to various effects, physical and psychic 'disturbances' as the arousal of the kundalini spiritual energy disrupts and destabilizes the currents of normal vital energy or prana of the human etheric body and the formative forces holding the physical body in balance.
illumination or awakening effects may be partial and temporary (until after a period of time the energy descends again to return to the base of the spine) and be experienced under different forms (astral emotional physical). Hereby follows a non-exhaustive listing with some possible symptoms (source: Dubuis and Stavish):
- some perceive the bright light as an angel, their Higher Self, or “Holy Guardian Angel”, others as a spiritual teacher (some people report seeing inner light, encountering spiritual guides, or having visions that feel as though they’re tapping into a divine realm)
- astral projection may result, along with perception of the immediate surroundings.
- uncontrolled physical movements typical of so-called ‘kundalini phenomena’: shaking, rapid breathing, swinging of the torso, uncontrolled giddiness, and sitting straight upright in the Pharaonic position
- as well as: intense pains suggestive of an illness; hot and cold” flashes, or currents, up and down the spine; crawling sensations of ants or small bugs over the skin, as well as a ‘jumping’ sensation of the energy; the character attributes of both positive and negative are exaggerated and sexual power is increased; the energy can reach the top of the head in a flash of light
see also: Near Death Experiences (NDE)#Note 3 - NDEs and kundalini symptoms and books in 'Further reading' section below

Inspirational quotes

Rudolf Steiner in 1908-01-07-GA266/1

When a person meditates, this awakens forces in and develops the hypophysis (pituitary gland), it begins to to shine brighter and brighter, sends forth rays, and gradually with its rays it encompasses the pineal gland lying in front of it, and stimulates it. This process organizes the organic formation of the astral body, from the chaos of feelings and sensations, into spirit-self or manas. When the pituitary gland causes golden threads to flow around the pineal gland, then the time has come when [the transformation of the astral body into spirit-self, into manas], has progressed far enough ... for the etheric body to be transformed into budhi.

Illustrations

Schema FMC00.326 depicts a most relevant Rudolf Steiner notebook entry, pointing to 'kundalini fire' see references below.

FMC00.463 shows the regular process of cosmic or fine breathing through the nadis or energy channels ida and pingala (see Schema FMC00.096), and through the reservoir of life energy in Man's base or root chakra (see also kundalini, eg Schema FMC00.353 on that page). Compare with the flow of the higher ethers ('life energy') on FMC00.015A on the Human breath page, showing how the organs and subsystems take up these energies as part of the fine breathing process. Diagram contents based on Shelly Trimmer.

The chandra chakra (moon) is also called 'mouth of God' and is like an antenna through which we draw in the life energy from the universe.

See also Etherization of blood for the two sun and moon chakras, (referenced by Rudolf Steiner through the pineal and pituitary glands), and The two etheric streams for the polarity of Moon and Sun influences.

Schema FMC00.353 is a study schema on Man's new organ, that positions the physiological process underlying the study of spiritual science and initiation exercises, through the use of the newly developing organ in the brain called the pituitary gland and the process working on the etheric and astral bodies.

Regarding the drawing with arrows on the lower left, see the quotes by Blavatsky who writes that (freely rephrased) "once kundalini is active in the heart, that power rises to the sixth region in the brain and the place between the eyes, this is the opening of the third eye".

Compare with Schema FMC00.044 on Etherization of blood.

Schema FMC00.354 is a meta study schema, using other schemas as infographics to show a broader scope and the relationship between related aspects. Not all schema or lecture references are given, these can be found on the various pages such as Etherization of blood, Ganganda Greida, and related pages. Central theme is the symbolism of the Holy Grail, with on the one hand the grail cup and the bloody lance, and on the other hand the pituitary and pineal gland. The diagram relates the physiological and spiritual processes taking place in Man, with the central role of the blood as the carrier of the Human 'I', and the human heart.

Schema FMC00.461 is taken from James Morgan Pryce's 'The apocalypse unsealed' (1910), and shows - on the left - the gnostic chart concealed in the Book of Revelation, with - on the right - the numbers of the names. On the right is depicted the pathway to the arousal of the kundalini force or dormant serpent power - see also description in reference extract on this page.

Whereas mostly all interpreters and commentaries of the Book of Revelation describe the contents as visions for the future evolution of mankind, Pryce discovered or claims that the writer also embedded or hid a 'coded' manual for initiation and spiritual development, leading to enlightenment. The correspondences and deep esoteric knowledge appear to make an 'hinein-interpretierung' (fitting something to one's own interpretation) very unlikely to nearly impossible. Pryce's book thereby provides a unique complementary 'reading' of the contents, with well documented explanations and an extensive commentary. Note Rudolf Steiner pointed to the fact that the Book of Revelation is an inexhaustible source of ever deeper study which has not just one but several or many meanings (oa 1904-10-24-GA090A).

Lecture coverage and references

Helena Blavatsky

in 'The Voice of Silence'

Kundalini is called the 'serpentine' or the annular power on account on its spiral-like working or progress in the body of the ascetic developing the power in himself.
...
Let not thy 'Heaven-born', merged in the sea of maya, break from the Universal Parent (soul), but let the fiery power retire into the inmost chamber, the chamber of the heart and the abode of the World's Mother.
...
Then [once kundalini is active in the heart] from the heart that power shall rise into the sixth, the middle region, the place between thine eyes, when it becomes the breath of the One-Soul, the voice which filleth all, thy Master’s voice.

In a footnote on the second extract above, she adds:

The 'power' and 'world-mother' are names given to kundalini, one of the mystic yogi powers. It is Buddhi considered as an active instead of a passive principle (which it is generally, when regarded only as the vehicle, or casket of the supreme spirit atma). It is an electro-spiritual force, a creative power which when aroused into action can as easily kill as it can create.

Helena Blavatsky in 'Collected Writings Vol. XII' (1980 edition, p 694-697)

The heart is the centre of the spiritual consciousness, as the brain is the centre of intellectual consciousness. But this spiritual consciousness cannot be guided by a person, nor can its energy be directed by him, until he is completely united with buddhi-manas.
...
If the heart could, in its turn, become positive and impress the brain, the spiritual consciousness would reach the lower consciousness. . . This is the 'memory of the heart' and the capacity to impress it on the brain, so that it becomes part of its consciousness, is the 'opening of the third eye'.
...
There are seven cavities in the Brain. ...
The sixth cavity is the pineal gland, also hollow and empty during life; the granules are precipitated after death. The pineal gland corresponds with manas until it is touched by the vibrating light of kundalini, which proceeds from buddhi, and then it becomes buddhi-manas. ...

The fires are always playing round the pineal gland; but when kundalini illuminates them for a brief instant, the whole universe is seen.

More quotes: kundalini does not appear in Isis Unveiled and only once in the Secret Doctrine:

KUNDALINI SAKTI. The power or force which moves in a curved path. It is the universal life-principle manifesting everywhere in nature. This force includes the two great forces of attraction and repulsion. Electricity and magnetism are but manifestations of it. This is the power which brings about that "continuous adjustment of internal relations to external relations" which is the essence of life according to Herbert Spencer, and that "continuous adjustment of external relations to internal relations" which is the basis of transmigration of souls, punar janman (re-birth) in the doctrines of the ancient Hindu philosophers. A Yogi must thoroughly subjugate this power before he can attain Moksham.

1903-12-29-GA088

describes the fine thread that connects the astral body with the physical body, without using the language of the higher ethers.

what connects the astral body with the physical body and its organs, and what leads them back together again?
There exists a kind of band, a connection that is an in-between-matter between astral and physical matter. This is called kundalini fire. If you observe a sleeping person, then you can always follow the astral body in astral space. There is a luminous band leading to where the astral body is. The location can always be found. When the astral body separates, then to the same extent the kundalini fire becomes thinner and thinner. It becomes an increasingly thin track; it becomes more and more a thin mist. Now when you look carefully at this kundalini fire you will see that it does not always have the same form. In some places it is brighter and thicker; those are the places that lead the astral back again to the physical body. The optic nerve is therefore connected to an astral nerve through a thicker kundalini fire.
... The astral body with its kundalini fire cannot be completely lifted out of the physical body. Should it happen that someone actually decides not to return, the kundalini fire would continually draw him back to the body. It is as if he still belonged to the physical body. Such a person would follow the track of the kundalini fire. When the life forces are not yet exhausted, it is very difficult to lift the astral body out of the physical body. It is very difficult when someone is attached to a physical body that he can no longer make use of.
In this sense the destiny of a suicide and that of an accident victim are not that very different from one another.
...
The physical body is permeated by the nervous system. Every nerve center is connected to an astral center; for example, the optic nerve is surrounded by, is enveloped by an astral optic nerve, by an astral substance belonging to the optic nerve.

1904-10-28-GA092

1904-12-23-GA093

The fifth epoch of culture is a purely intellectual age, an age of egoism. The intellect is egoistical in the highest degree and it is the hallmark of our time. And so we must make our way upwards through intellect to spirituality before we can picture the spirituality that was once actively at work.
The essential secret, therefore, is this: The human being must know how to keep silence about the paths along which his “ I ” unfolds, and to regard his deeds, not his personal “ I ” as the criterion. The real heart of the secret lies in his deeds and in the overcoming of the “ I ” through deed. The “ I ” must remain concealed, within the deed!
Elimination of the interests of the personal “ I ” from the on-streaming flow of human karma—this belongs to the First Degree. Whatever individual karma the “ I ” incurs in the process, is thereby wiped out.
[here above initiation exercises are described]
Nation, race, sex, position, religion ... all these work upon human egoism. Only when Man has overcome them will he be free of egoism. The astral body of every nation, every race, every epoch, has a definite colour ... You will always find a colour which is fundamental in the astral body of a human being who is [a] member of one of these classifications. This specific colour must be eliminated.
[what is said here is that the various races and folk souls, part of the process of individuation, have caused differentiation .. eg races originate from Luciferic Spirits of Form, folk souls are at archangelic level, etc .. and this can be seen in the mental and astral auras, see Human aura#Illustrations]
Anthroposophical spiritual science works to level out the colours of the astral bodies of its adherents. They must be of like colour—alike, that is to say, in respect of the basic colour. This basic colour gives rise to a certain substance called Kundalini which holds together, within the human being, the forces which lead eventually to the spirit.
[the purification of the astral body is described .. and the link with the two parts of the astral body, and the etheric life energy contained in the lower astral body, see also the discussion of Schema FMC00.326 on this page]
This leveling-out process will bring war and bloodshed in its train—war in the shape of economic strife among nations, pressure for expansion, suppression in every form, strife in the sphere of investment and profit, industrial undertakings, and so forth.
[this is what is also described as the human 'I' as 'the sharp two edged sword' as mentioned in the Book of Revelation - see more on Human 'I'#various]
And by adopting certain measures it will increasingly be possible to handle vast masses of people by sheer force; the individual will acquire greater and greater power over certain masses of the people.
[see oa Various forms of spiritual perception and influences beyond waking consciousness and Contemporary worldview war#Contemporary and future realities - techniques of 'the powers that be' .. but we can already see this with internet and mass media and manufacturing consent', see eg Noam Choamsky's book]
For the course of evolution is leading, not towards greater democracy, but towards oligarchy of the brutal kind, in that the power of the single individual will immeasurably increase. If morals are not ennobled, this will lead to brutality in every possible form. This state of things will come, just as the great water-catastrophe came to the Atlanteans.
[here reference is made to the future War of all against all]

1905-01-01-GA090B

In the past, people paid less attention to this control over life. Now some wanted to systematize this, and in a sense they also obtained mastery over death. The patriarchal age known to us from the Bible is based on the art of prolonging human life to an extraordinary degree. This thus became an art; and in the case of the fourth, the Turanian sub-race, it led to a terrible black magic, inasmuch as life has an occult connection with everything that is an aqueous element. It was this source material that the Atlanteans used to gain such high mastery over; they had the same power over it as the Lemurians had over fire, and in this way their downfall was also brought about by water.
There is a deep macrocosmic connection between nature and man. Thus, the fauna and flora are also different depending on the root races and sub-races. For example, in the case of the fourth sub-race of the Aryans - in which the ideal, Romanesque Christianity arose - the fauna and flora that still remained corresponded to those countries. The materialistic Germanic race, in turn, has its own. Appearance depends on what a person develops within themselves.
Today, people are not yet aware of this; they control nothing but what their minds control. During the sixth cultural age, however, they will learn again to control the power of life; during the seventh, they will learn to control the inner fire, the kundalini fire, which only the adept now controls.
During the fifth sub-race of the Atlanteans, the pre-Semitic one, the mind had been established, as we know, through the former branching of certain animals, the ungulates, the horse. The capacity for logic, for combination, for personal right-mindedness arises; personal conflict arises from the opposition of convictions and opinions; the special being that finds its external expression in the fifth, the Aryan root race. This is a necessary point of passage; but it is natural that this will also lead to the downfall of the fifth root race. Through the war of all against all, the Aryans will perish, as once the Atlanteans perished through water and the Lemurians through fire.

1905-09-26-GA093A

The old descriptions were gained in such a way that the pupils, through meditation, through inner illumination, became visible to themselves. By means of the so-called Kundalini fire, Man is able to observe himself from within outwards. There are different stages of this observation. The exact, correct observation appears at first in symbols. If man concentrates for instance on his spinal cord, it is a fact that he always sees a snake. He may perhaps also dream of a snake, because this is the creature which was placed out in the world when the spinal cord was formed, and has remained at this stage. The snake is the spinal column outwardly projected into the world. This pictorial way of seeing things is astral vision (Imagination). But it is only through mental vision (Inspiration) that the full significance is revealed.

1905-10-07-GA093A

the below describes how the process of initiation leads to clairvoyance, previously described in ancient times as inner illumination or seeing through the kundalini light

Today, in order to realise that this is so, one must in the first place investigate what took place when our I was being developed. In order to do this we must, as it were, take up our position under a certain organ. This is most aptly expressed in the Buddha legend. It says in the legend that Buddha remained seated under the Bodhi tree until he attained illumination in order to rise to higher stages, to Nirvana. For this Buddha had to place himself under the brain, under the organ of consciousness. That means the paths he had previously traversed unconsciously he had to traverse again consciously. Under the large brain there lies, more towards the back of the head, the small, tree shaped brain (the cerebellum). Under this brain Buddha placed himself. The cerebellum is the Bodhi tree. This shows how what is said in such profound legends is actually taken from human evolution.
[initiation in ancient times such as the first Ancient Indian cultural age]
Everything that is now known only by means of anatomy was at that time known in quite another way. The occult investigator made his researches with the help of the kundalini light. The pupil was prepared for this in the following way. He came to a Master. If the latter found him trustworthy he received as instruction, not actually a teaching - today it has become different, today Man must find his way by means of intellect and concepts - but the Master spoke somewhat as follows: ‘Every day for about six weeks you must spend several hours in meditation and give yourself up to some sentence of eternal value, completely sinking yourself into it.’
At present Man cannot do this because life in modern civilisation makes too many demands on him. At that time the pupil meditated six to ten hours daily. He cannot do this nowadays without withdrawing from the whole life around him. At that time however the pupil required hardly any time for external needs. He found his nourishment in outer nature. He therefore made use of his time for meditation, perhaps uninterruptedly for ten hours. By this means he very soon progressed so far that he brought his body, which at that time was less dense, into such a condition that the kundalini light was awakened within him.
This is for the inner being what sunlight is for the outer world. Actually we do not see external objects, but reflected sunlight. The moment when, with the help of the Kundalini light, we can illuminate the soul, it becomes as visible as an object shone upon by the sun. So for the yoga pupil the whole inner body gradually became illuminated. All ancient anatomies were seen from within, through inner illumination. Thus the (Indian) monks, who clothed their experiences in legends, spoke of what they had perceived through the Kundalini light.
[work on astral body purification -> development of manas or spirit self]
Now we must ask ourselves how the different parts of the human body are worked upon. In regard to what belongs to the brain and spinal cord, Man first works consciously on the physical plane through the human I [Gap in the text ...] He has at present no influence on anything else.
He has for instance no influence on the circulation of the blood. Such things are developed by de grees. Here other beings co-operate, Deva beings, so that all creatures having a blood circulation are dependent on Deva forces for its regulation.
[see the spirits of The elementary kingdoms, Schema FMC00.285 on o.a. Mystery of silver]
The astral body is permeated and worked upon by different Deva forces. The lowest work on the astral body. Higher forces work on the etheric body and still higher Devas on the physical body, the most perfected body possessed by man. The astral body is strikingly less perfect than the physical body. The physical heart is indeed very clever; the stupid one is the astral body, that directs into the heart all kinds of heart poisons. The most perfect part of Man is the physical body, less perfect is the etheric body and still less perfect is the astral body. What is only in its beginnings, the ‘baby’ in man, is the I-organisation. This is the four-fold man, which contains the I as the temple contains the statue of a god.
The whole development of human culture is nothing other than the working of the I into the astral body, the education of the astral body. Man enters into life filled with desires, impulses and passions. In so far as he masters these impulses, desires and passions, he is working his I into the astral body. When the Sixth epoch has reached its conclusion, the I will have completely worked into the astral body. Until then the astral body will continue to be dependent on the support of the Deva forces. As long as the I has not permeated the entire astral body, so long must the Deva forces support the work.
[work on etheric body -> development of budhi or life spirit]
The second stage of development, which follows that of the cultural, is the development of the esoteric pupil. He works the I into the etheric body. Through this the Deva forces are gradually released by the work of his own I.
Then he also gradually begins to see into himself.

1906-05-06-GA266

Men-animals also split into two kingdoms, into the two sexes. This split gives rise to the human love that initially is still physical. Man can lift himself into the Gods' realm through this love. They lived from men's physical love just as men and animals live from the oxygen that plants emanate, and as plants live from light that's radiated back from the mineral kingdom. The nectar and ambrosia that the Gods feed on is the love of men and women.
Man's ascent takes place through the overcoming of physical love, the regulation of the breathing process, and the development of kundalini light.

First the overcoming of physical love. A separation of the previously unisexual man into two sexes was necessary so that the intellect could develop in Man. Man was split into a higher spiritual nature and a lower animal one. It's an ascent when a Man overcomes the forces of physical love and transforms them into higher, more spiritual forces through his own inner soul force.

Secondly, a Man who wants to develop higher must give up the forces that he takes from plants. Man uses up the vital oxygen that plants exhale through his breathing process. The breath becomes purer through rhythmization of the breathing process and inner soul work, so that what a Man exhales contains less carbon dioxide. Then the air around him isn't used up as fast, and he doesn't take away so much oxygen or vital substance from other living beings. To attain this as much as possible Indian yogis withdraw into caves, where they breathe as little oxygen as possible. They can do that because their breath is so pure from soul work that they can live a long time without intake of outer air. The more spiritualized a Man is the longer he can live in his own air and the less carbon dioxide he exhales. The breath of a materialist ruins much more air than that of an idealist. Modern materialists can't live without a continual supply of fresh air. A Man out in the country brings a certain rhythm into his life through his life with nature. Thereby the air that he exhales becomes better, whereas the city air gets full of poison through men's immorality. Plants stream out pure air, oxygen. They're pure, selfless, without desire, and that's why a man feels good among plants. But a continual supply of fresh air actually has an unfavorable effect on occult development, because one thereby takes too much life from plants. An esoteric learns to control his breathing process, and thereby he can have moments when he doesn't participate in the destructive process that's brought about by breathing.

Thirdly a Man learns to radiate back the light that the mineral kingdom reflects. He develops kundalini light and radiates it into the world, thereby giving light back to it—the light of the human kingdom.

A Man doesn't know what an important instrument he has in his organism. He knows the rest of the world better than he knows himself. He can in fact develop wonderful capacities.
[fine breathing]
A Man has an organ in himself that fills with air when he inhales and loses this air when he exhales. It fills up with outside air right into its finest branches on inhalation. But spirit lives in the air around us. When a Man inhales he breathes spirit in, and when he exhales he puts some of the spirit that lives in him into the exhaled air. The spirit develops in him ever more and also outside in the world through the rhythmicized, spirit-filled breath. The spiritual Man's growth is promoted through breathing in and out.
The most important thing is the spirit that a Man puts into his exhaled breath. The spirit is built up by thoughts. A Man builds up and streams out his spirit through every thought that he gives along with the exhalation.
Man didn't always have an organ to inhale air. Beings breathed fire instead of air on Old Moon. Just as we breathe oxygen in and out, so they breathed fire in and cold out.
Future men will no longer breathe air. Just as a Man prepares his warmth by feeding his warmth organ, the heart, with the blood circulation, through air streaming in from outside, so he will later have an inner air organ through which his organism will be supplied with what we now take in from the atmosphere. A Man prepares his own warmth, that on Old Moon had been directly sucked in from the environment by the beings there. A Man will be able to elaborate the used up air in his interior. Later on he'll no longer live in an outer air. On Future Jupiter he'll live in light and inhale light just as we inhale air now and inhaled warmth on Old Moon.
[summary recap]

Overcoming of physical love or development of astral body and transformation into spirit self, ennoblement of animal kingdom ... wisdom

Rhythmization of breathing or development of the etheric body and transformation into life spirit, elevation of the plant kingdom ... beauty

Radiation of kundalini or development of physical body, transformation into spirit man, elevation of mineral kingdom ... power

When all of this has happened the mineral kingdom will pass over into a kind of plant kingdom, then the latter into an animal kingdom, etc. until the next round.
[see Earth rounds perspective]

1908-01-07-GA266/1

is also on the Human 'I' topic page

.

record A

When a soul begins to meditate this way
- an organ in the physical body begins to develop: the mucous gland.
The mucous gland is
- in an average person, an organ behind the pineal gland hardly as large as a cherry pit
- However, it contains disproportionately powerful forces.
- It regulates the proper composition of the body with respect to size.
When a [person] begins to work on him- or herself,
- forces in the mucous gland are awakened.
The organic formation of the astral body out of the chaos of feelings and sensations .. takes place from out of the mucous gland.
When the mucous gland causes golden threads to flow around the pineal gland,
then the time has come
when [the transformation of the astral body into spirit-self, into manas], has progressed far enough for the etheric body to be transformed into buddhi.

record B

And as our astral body is ordered and organized
- it has a special effect on the mucous gland or brain hypophysis (a small organ hardly the size of a cherry pit, which is, to begin with, associated with the growth of the body)
Through such organization of the astral body
- the mucous gland begins to shine brighter and brighter.
- It sends forth rays
- .. and gradually with its rays it encompasses the pineal gland lying in front of it and stimulates it.
As a result the effects spread to the astral body and begin to impress and reorganize it.

Rephrased from both records A and B:

When a person meditates, this awakens forces in and develops the hypophysis, it “begins to to shine brighter and brighter, sends forth rays, and gradually with its rays it encompasses the pineal gland lying in front of it, and stimulates it.”
This process organizes the organic formation of the astral body, from the chaos of feelings and sensations, into spirit-self or manas.
When the hypophysis causes golden threads to flow around the pineal gland,
then the time has come
when [the transformation of the astral body into spirit-self, into manas], has progressed far enough ... for the etheric body to be transformed into buddhi.

1908-07-04-GA266/1

The etheric body is loosened, lifted out of the physical body through the Christ Impulse.
The etheric body is permeated by the Holy Spirit through the Christ Impulse.
And the Holy Spirit - our higher 'I' - causes forces to stream to us from outside.

1909-GA010 Ch. 3

If the student has raised himself to such a life in the higher I, then—or still more probably during the acquisition of the higher consciousness—it will be revealed to him how he may stir into life what is called the fire of Kundalini which lies in the organ at the heart, and, further, how he may direct the currents described in a previous chapter.
This fire of Kundalini is an element of finer material which flows outward from this organ and streams in luminous loveliness through the self-moving lotus-flowers and the other canals of the evolved etheric body. Thence it radiates outward an the surrounding spiritual world and makes it spiritually visible, just as the sunshine falling upon the surrounding objects makes visible the physical world.
How this fire of Kundalini in the organ at the heart is fanned into life may only form the subject of actual spiritual training. Nothing can be said of it openly.
The spiritual world becomes plainly perceptible as composed of objects and beings only for the individual who in such a way can send the fire of Kundalini through his etheric body and into the outer world, so that its objects are illumined by it. From this it will be seen that a complete consciousness of an object in the spiritual world is entirely dependent upon the condition that the person himself has cast upon it the spiritual light. In reality the I, who has drawn forth this fire, no longer dwells in the physical human body at all, but (as has been already shown) apart from it.

The organ at the heart is only the spot where the individual from without enkindles that fire. If he wished to do this, not here but elsewhere, then the spiritual perceptions produced by means of the fire would have no connection with the physical world. Yet one should relate all the higher spiritual things to the physical world itself, and through oneself should let them work in the latter. The organ at the heart is precisely the one through which the higher self makes use of the lower self as his instrument and whence the latter is directed.

and in Chapter 1

It has been shown how the student, by arriving at this stage, becomes veritably a new person.
Little by little he can now

mature himself by means of the currents that come from the etheric body,

until he can control the still higher vital element, that which is called 'the fire of Kundalini', and by so doing can attain a completer liberty from the bondage of his physical body.

NB105

see Schema FMC00.326 above, has a transcript contained in GA267 (published in 1997, EN in 2014)

In the astral body itself we have to distinguish a second half: [see Schema FMC00.326] .. like the other pole in a magnet.
In Man the second astral body is feminine, in woman it is masculine, in other words: the astral body is hermaphrodite.
The kundalini fire is the activity stimulated in the second astral body, which is initially warmth and light.
As long as the kundalini fire is not stimulated, we feel our way between objects and beings of the higher world, as in the night between physical objects. Once the kundaline fire is present, we ourselves illumine these objects.

1910 - James Morgan Pryce

in 'The apocalypse unsealed' (1910)

[pineal gland]
Of these [principal ganglia corresponding to the chakras] only the seventh, the conarium or pineal body, need be considered here with particularity. It is a small conical, dark-grey body situated in the brain immediately behind the extremity of the third ventricle, in a groove between the nates, and above a cavity filled with sabulous matter composed of phosphate and of carbonate of lime. It is supposed by modern anatomists to be the vestige of an atrophied eye, and hence is termed by them "the unpaired eye." Though atrophied physically, it is still the organ of spiritual vision when its higher function is restored by the vivifying force of the speirema, or paraklete, and it is therefore called esoterically 'the third eye', the eye of the seer.
[kundalini]
When through the action of man's spiritual will, whether by his conscious effort or unconsciously so far as his phrenic mind is concerned, the latent kundalini (speirema) , which in the Upanishads is poetically said to lie coiled up like a slumbering serpent, is aroused to activity, it displaces the slow-moving nervous force or neuricity and becomes the agent of the telestic or perfecting work. As it passes from one ganglion to another its voltage is raised, the ganglia being like so many electric cells coupled for intensity; and moreover in each ganglion, or chakra, it liberates and partakes of the quality peculiar to that centre, and it is then said to "conquer" the chakra. In Sanskrit mystical literature very great stress is laid upon this "conquering of the chakras."
[Nadis or kundalini channels, pipes or tubes]
The currents of the kundalini, as also the channels they pursue, are called Weals, "pipes" or "tubes," and the three principal ones are:

(1) sushumna, which passes from the terminus of the spinal cord to the top of the cranium, at a point termed the brahma-randra, or "door of Brahma" (in early Christian mysticism, thura Iesou, "door of lesous" ) ;

(2) pingala, which corresponds to the right sympathetic; and

(3) idd, which corresponds to the left sympathetic.

[Zodiac - twelve as seven (lunar) ‘breaths’ and five (solar) ‘winds’]
The force, as specialized in the ganglionic system, becomes the seven tattvas, which in the Apocalypse are called the seven pneumata, "breaths," since they are differentiations of the Great Breath, the "World-Mother," symbolized by the moon.
Concurrent with these seven lunar forces are five solar forces pertaining to the cerebrospinal system, called the five pranas, "vital airs," or "life-winds," which in the Apocalypse are termed "winds" (anemoi) .
The Apocalypse represents these twelve forces, the seven "breaths" and the five "winds," as corresponding to the twelve signs of the zodiac, of which, therefore, a brief description will here be appropriate.
[The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac]
The zodiac is a belt of the celestial sphere, about seventeen degrees in breadth, containing the twelve constellations which the sun traverses during the year in passing around the ecliptic. Within this zone are confined the apparent motions of the moon and major planets. The zodiacal circle was divided by the ancients into twelve equal portions called signs, which were designated by the names of the constellations then adjacent to them in.the following order: Aries, the Ram; Taurus, the Bull; Gemini,the Twins; Cancer, the Crab; Leo, the Lion; Virgo, the Virgin; Libra, the Balance; Scorpio, the Scorpion; Sagittarius, the Bowman; Capricornus, the Goat; Aquarius, the Water-bearer; and Pisces, the Fishes.
Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the signs of the ecliptic are now about one place ahead of the corresponding zodiacal constellations, which constitute the fixed zodiac. Aside from its astronomical utility, the scheme of the zodiac was employed to symbolize the relations between the macrocosm and the microcosm, each of the twelve signs being made to correspond to one of the twelve greater gods of the ancient pantheon and assigned as the "house" of one of the seven sacred planets; each sign, moreover, being said to govern a particular portion of the human body, as shown in the familiar exoteric chart here reproduced.
[preparation - initiation exercises]
The foregoing covers the topics which must necessarily be referred to in elucidating the recondite meaning of the Apocalypse; but to convey a clearer conception of its practical and psychological application, further explanation will now be given of the action of the "serpent force" (speirema) in the telestic or perfective work.
This work has to be preceded by the most rigid purificatory discipline, which includes strict celibacy and abstemiousness, and it is possible only for the man or woman who has attained a very high state of mental and physical purity. To the Man who is gross and sensual, or whose mind is sullied by evil thoughts or constricted by bigotry, the holy paraklete does not come; the unpurified person who rashly attempts to invade the adytum of his inner God can arouse only the lower psychic forces of his animal nature, forces which are cruelly destructive and never regenerative. The neophyte who has acquired the "purifying virtues" before entering upon the systematic course of introspective meditation by which the spiritual forces are awakened, must also as a necessary preliminary gain almost complete mastery of his thoughts, with the ability to focus his mind undeviatingly upon a single detached idea or abstract concept, excluding from the mental field all associated ideas and irrelevant notions. If successful in this mystic meditation, he eventually obtains the power of arousing the speirema, or paraklete, and can thereby at will enter into the state of manteia, the sacred trance of seership. The four mantic states are not psychic trances or somnambulic conditions; they pertain to the noetic, spiritual nature; and in every stage of the manteia complete consciousness and self-command are retained, whereas the psychic trances rarely transcend the animalistic phrenic nature, and are usually accompanied by unconsciousness or semi-consciousness.
Proficiency in the noetic contemplation, with the arousing of the speirema and the conquest of the life-centres, leads to knowledge of spiritual realities (the science of which constitutes the Gnosis) , and the acquirement of certain mystic powers, and it culminates in emancipation from physical existence through the "birth from above" when the deathless solar body has been fully formed. This telestic work requires the unremitting effort of many years, not in one life only but carried on through a series of incarnations until the final result is achieved. But almost in its initial stages the consciousness of the aspirant becomes disengaged from the mortal phrenic mind and centred in the immortal noetic mind, so that from incarnation to incarnation his memory carries over, more or less clearly according to the degree he has attained, the knowledge acquired; and with this unbroken memory and certainty of knowledge he is in truth immortal even before his final liberation from the cycle of reincarnation.
[arousing the kundalini serpent force]
In arousing the kundalini by conscious effort in meditation, the sushumna, though it is the all-important force, is ignored, and the mind is concentrated upon the two side-currents; for the sushumna can not be energized alone, and it does not start into activity until the Ida and the pingala have preceded it, forming a positive and a negative current along the spinal cord.
These two currents, on reaching the sixth chakra, situated back of the nasal passages, radiate to the right and left, along the line of the eyebrows ; then the sushumna, starting at the base of the spinal cord, proceeds along the spinal marrow, its passage through each section thereof corresponding to a sympathetic ganglion being accompanied by a violent shock, or rushing sensation, due to the accession of force—increased "voltage" —until it reaches the conarium, and thence passes outward through the brahmarandra, the three currents thus forming a cross in the brain.

In the initial stage the seven psychic colors are seen, and

when the sushumna impinges upon the brain there follows the lofty consciousness of the seer, whose mystic "third eye" now becomes, as it has been poetically expressed, "a window into space". [editor: see 'imagination']

In the next stage, as the brain-centres are successively "raised from the dead" by the serpent-force, the seven "spiritual sounds" are heard in the tense and vibrant aura of the seer. [editor: see 'inspiration']

In the succeeding stage, sight and hearing become blended into a single sense, by which colors are heard, and sounds are seen—or, to word it differently, color and sound become one, and are perceived by a sense that is neither sight nor hearing but both. Similarly, the psychic senses of taste and smell become unified; and next the two senses thus reduced from the four are merged in the interior, intimate sense of touch, which in turn vanishes into the epistemonic faculty. [editor: see 'intuition', the highest level of clairvoyance, see Stages of clairvoyance]
... This is the sacred trance called in Sanskrit samadhi, and in Greek manteia; and in the ancient literature of both these languages four such trances are spoken of. These stages of seership, however, are but the beginning of the telestic labor, the culmination of which is, as already explained, rebirth in the imperishable solar body. As the Apocalypse [editor: Book of Revelation] has for its sole theme this spiritual rebirth, it should now be apparent why that book has ever been unintelligible to the conventional theologian, and has never yielded its secrets to the mere man of letters.

.

1928 - Manly P. Hall

Manly P. Hall is an author who seems to put or hide hints in his huge volume of work, and not always where one would look for them. In full chapters on Kundalini and Pineal Gland in 'Man: grand symbol of the mysteries' (1932) not much of great interest is said on this, but then for example in The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928), in 'The Hiramic Legend'

Sufficient similarity exists between the Masonic CHiram and the Kundalini of Hindu mysticism to warrant the assumption that CHiram may be considered a symbol also of the Spirit Fire moving through the sixth ventricle of the spinal column. The exact science of human regeneration is the Lost Key of Masonry, for when the Spirit Fire is lifted up through the thirty-three degrees, or segments of the spinal column, and enters into the domed chamber of the human skull, it finally passes into the pituitary body (Isis), where it invokes Ra (the pineal gland) and demands the Sacred Name.
Operative Masonry, in the fullest meaning of that term, signifies the process by which the Eye of Horus is opened. E. A. Wallis Budge has noted that in some of the papyri illustrating the entrance of the souls of the dead into the judgment hall of Osiris the deceased person has a pine cone attached to the crown of his head. The Greek mystics also carried a symbolic staff, the upper end being in the form of a pine cone, which was called the thyrsus of Bacchus.
In the human brain there is a tiny gland called the pineal body, which is the sacred eye of the ancients, and corresponds to the third eye of the Cyclops. Little is known concerning the function of the pineal body, which Descartes suggested (more wisely than he knew) might be the abode of the spirit of man. As its name signifies, the pineal gland is the sacred pine cone in Man - the eye single, which cannot be opened until CHiram (the Spirit Fire) is raised through the sacred seals which are called the Seven Churches in Asia.

which we can rewrite into a condensed statement (SWCC) to see the parallels with Blavatsky's statements:

when the Spirit Fire (which moves through the sixth ventricle of the spinal column) is lifted up through the thirty-three segments of the spinal column, and enters into the domed chamber of the human skull, it finally passes into the pituitary body (Isis), where it invokes Ra (the pineal gland) and demands the Sacred Name. Operative Masonry, in the fullest meaning of that term, signifies the process by which the Eye of Horus is opened.

1932 - E.J. Langford Garstin

Edward John Langford Garstin (1893-1955) (poet and prominent member of the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha and Omega) in 'The Secret Fire - An Alchemical Study' (1932), Chapter 5

At the point in our investigation at which we have now arrived, we shall have to make some inquiry into that mysterious force said to be resident in man, which is so often called the Serpent Power. This is the Paraklete of the New Testament, the Speirema of the Greeks and the Sanskrit Kundalini. But before we can deal with this question we must remind ourselves that man is to be regarded as multiplex and not simple, as possessing—at least—three bodies, and not one.
[Man's bodily principles]
These three correspond to the three divisions of the Soul according to both the Platonists, the Qabalists and others. In accordance with the lines we have laid down for ourselves we will deal only with the two systems we have named. Here we find that the three parts are the Nous, the Phren and the Epithumia, which correspond with the Neshamah, Ruach and Nephesch. These are, roughly speaking, the Higher Mind, the Reasoning Mind and the Animal Mind, including the passional nature, and in chapters I and II we have already shown how the Higher Mind was regarded by the ancient philosophers. In the Qabalah they correspond to the three lower Qabalistic Worlds, which we have mentioned in chapter II, the Worlds of Briah, Yetzirah and Assiah, which are, respectively, the Creative, Formative and Material Worlds, and in extension of this we will merely add that Neshamah itself is subject to a triple division, so that its three parts correspond to the Three Supernals.
The three bodies mentioned in the New Testament, corresponding to these three principles, are the spiritual body, the psychic body and the physical body, soma pneumatikon, soma psychikon and soma or sarx, which, in the Upanishads, are called the Causal, Subtile and Gross Bodies. Of these the first is called a body for want of a better term to describe it, for it belongs properly to the Archetypal World, and is, therefore, virtually beyond form. It may, however, be said to engender the others and is alleged to be visible to the highly developed seer as an oviform luminosity, corresponding thus to the egg.
[kundalini]
Within this, in a more or less semi-latent state, is that portion of the Creative Lux, or Light of the Logos, which is the regenerative force in man, the Paraklete, the good serpent within the egg. This is the Speirema, or serpent-coil, otherwise Kundalini or the annular or ring-form force. According to certain schools of thought this, during the telestic work, prepares the ideal, archetypal form contained in the ovum, which is called the solar body, because it is self-luminous, with a golden radiance of its own like the sun.
Unfortunately, although we know that the Speirema played some part in the Theurgical Rites of the Mystery Schools of antiquity, we have virtually no data upon which to build, and as it is no part of our design to be unnecessarily speculative in our investigation, we shall get a better idea of the supposed workings of this force if we devote ourselves for the time being to the Eastern Schools, where Kundalini plays an important part down to our own days. It is, in fact, one of the few forms under which the Secret Fire is more or less openly spoken of, and if the suggestion put forward in the previous paragraph is approximately correct, it is at least an example of the volatilising of the fixed and the fixing of the volatile, which is the function of the Hidden Sulphur of the Alchemistical Adepts. And as this latter is to be the subject of our consideration at a later stage, the present inquiry would seem to be appropriate.
At the same time we would point out that the question is really so vast, that to do it justice in the short space at our disposal is impossible, and that we venture to deal with the matter at all simply because so much appalling rubbish has been written about it that we do not, ourselves, wish to be misunderstood. For a detailed and scholarly exposition of the subject, we would refer our readers to Shakti and Shakta and to The Serpent Power, both by Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon).
As a beginning we may ask ourselves
what is Kundalini Shakti and why is it said to be coiled like a serpent?
What is the nature of this power and what are the Chakras? Why is this force in the Muladhara, and why, when awakened, should it go upwards? What is the effect of its going to Sahasrara?
In the first place it seems to be generally imagined that there are many Shaktis, for this word means Power, and that Kundalini is, therefore, but one among several others which go to make up the Universe. This is an erroneous idea, for Shakti, who is Herself Chidrupini, or pure, blissful Consciousness, is also the Mother of Nature, and is, in fact, Nature itself, born of her own creative Thought. She is thus one with all the other forms of the Great Mother to be found in the different religions, the Divine Understanding, Binah or Aima Elohim of the Qabalah; Isis, Hathor or Tef of Egypt; Aphrodite of the Greeks; Ashtoreth and Astarte; Babylonian Mylitta, Roman Juno and so forth.
Philosophically, this energy may be regarded as polarised in two forms, namely as static or potential, which is Kundalini, and dynamic, which is Prana, the latter, in the body, being the working forces.
But man is the Microcosm, and whatever exists in the external universe exists also in him, so that we may consider the processes of universal and human evolution as being the same for all practical purposes. These processes begin with the creation of mind, after which follows the creation of matter, which may be regarded as including the four elements of the Ancients, Air, Fire, Water and Earth, representing an increasing density until the solid form is reached. In their total analysis these stages correspond to the six days of creation, after which there is nothing further for Shakti to do, and She is again at rest as She was prior to the commencement of all generation. That is to say. She is represented as a coiled and sleeping serpent, and in man Kundalini represents, as it were, the Shakti left over after the creation, yet still to be regarded as a whole and not a part.
First of all, then, we have this tremendous energy, the Great Kundali (Mahakundali) at rest as Chidrupini Shakti in the Sahasrara Chakra, or Point of Absolute Rest, where it represents the Nature of the Great Mother in Man, and is analogous to the Neshamah of the Qabalah,
whereas in the body proper there is Kundalini, the residual Shakti, in a state of relative rest, coiled in the Muladhara Chakra, where it is the static pole in relation to the whole of the bodily forces, which form the dynamic pole.
They are also Shakti, be it remembered, moving around this centre of relative rest, the difference between them and Kundalini Shakti being that they are differentiated and specific forms in movement, while she is undifferentiated, residual Shakti at rest. Thus in the body we find the phenomena of the dual polarity of the magnet.
[physiology - chakras]
Having mentioned the two Chakras at either end of the scale, it would be as well if we now dealt briefly with the series. In the first place the body may be considered as divided into two main portions, namely the head and trunk together, and the legs. The centre between them is at the base of the spine, and running throughout the whole trunk is this spinal cord, the axis of the body as Mount Meru is that of the earth.
In the trunk are the seven Lokas or regions to which the seven Chakras, Centres or Lotuses correspond. These, working from the base up, are Muladhara, Svadisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishuddha and Ajna, the highest being Sahasrara. This latter is the highest centre of the manifestation of consciousness in the body, and is thus the abode of the supreme Shiva-Shakti. Working downwards again, these correspond to the seven Tattvas, Brahma, Avyakta, Akasha, Vayu (Air), Tejas or Agni (Fire), Apas (Water), and Prithivi (Earth), the latter thus corresponding to Mulahdara, which is why Kundalini, or the residual Shakti, is said to lie coiled there.
These seven principal Chakras correspond also with the seven principal ganglia of the body, though they are not these ganglia. Working upwards from Muladhara these ganglia are respectively the Sacral, Prostatic, Epigastric, Cardiac, Pharyngeal and Cavernous, while Sahasrara corresponds to the Conarium. These, as we have indicated, are not all the Chakras, of which there are said to be fifty, reminding us of the Fifty Gates of Wisdom of the Qabalah.
In Svadisthana is the junction of the three principal Nadis (pipes or tubes), Sushumna, Ida and Pingala, of which the first corresponds to the spinal cord, while the other two are the left and right sympathetic chains respectively. These latter cross the spinal column from one side to the other, making with Sushumna and the two-lobed Ajna, the figure of the Caduceus of Hermes, which is itself another form of the Tree of Life of the Qabalah, with which latter all that we have said is in harmony, though it would involve too technical a discussion fully to explain the correspondence, though we must touch on it briefly towards the end of the chapter.
[process]
Now the object of Kundalini Yoga is to awaken this coiled and sleeping force by Pranayama and other Yogic practices, so that it shall become dynamic. She is thereupon immediately drawn upwards to that other static centre in Sahasrara, the Thousand-petalled Lotus, which is, in fact, Herself, but in union with the Shiva-consciousness, or the consciousness of ecstasy beyond the world of forms. When she sleeps man is awake in the material world, but when she awakens the Yogi loses all consciousness of the world and enters his causal body, passing thus to formless consciousness.
This process of arousing Kundalini has to be repeated constantly, so that the act becomes thoroughly natural, when at length she returns only at the will of the Yogi. And this constant repetition finds its parallel in the various stages of the Alchemical processes, not merely in the purificatory, but in the multiplication.
This is, in brief, the theory underlying this particular practice as far as it may be gathered from books. But although there are many treatises among the works on Tantrik Yoga which deal with the arousing of Kundalini, it would appear that, as one would naturally expect, they are written with considerable reservations, and the art cannot be mastered without an instructor.
Nevertheless, there are those among the Western peoples, who claim to have made use of this force successfully, and to have achieved to a state of Manteia, the sacred Mantic Trance of the Mysteries, where, however, complete self-consciousness and self-command are retained. There is, therefore, some difference in the result attained, and, as far as can be judged from a comparison of their writings with those of the East, there is also a difference in the method employed.
This, however, does not concern us in our present investigation, for we are not dealing with the actual modus operandi of such practices. We would merely warn the student not to dabble in them unaided, for they are extremely dangerous unless carried out under skilled supervision. It also follows from this that in the selection of a teacher the utmost care should be exercised, for not all who profess knowledge are really in possession of it.
One need hardly add that a careful preliminary training of a purificatory nature is also a pre-requisite, and that the unpurified man who attempts contacts, such as those indicated, runs a risk that we do not care to contemplate.
Now we were led to the consideration of this Serpent Power by the Orphic and Mithraic sculptures portraying the reborn man with the serpent coiled around him. And when we remember that in many instances it is coiled in seven coils, we must admit that the similarity to Kundalini is marked, which confirms our introductory statement at the beginning of this chapter, that She is the same as the Speirema of the Greeks.
In addition to this, in certain Sanskrit works the seven planets correspond to the Chakras, and there is, therefore, a correspondence with the Signs also, which, as we saw, were placed either around the image, or engraved upon it. And as the Planets are allotted to the Chakras in an order beginning with Saturn and Muladhara, the starting-point of Kundalini, it has been suggested that there is here at least a parallel with the Black Saturn of the Adepts so familiar in Alchemical literature.
Without wishing to enter upon any complicated or technical Qabalistic explanations, we cannot leave this particular branch of our inquiry without pointing out that this Good Serpent has its analogue in the Qabalah in the Serpent Nogah, the Serpent of Wisdom, which is that serpent which Moses was ordered to set upon a pole that the people might be healed.
Now the ten Sephiroth are arranged in three Columns, right, left and central, which is in a manner analogous to the Nadis, Ida, Pingala and Sushumna ; and while Kundalini, when awakened, passes along the latter, which is the central nadi, the serpent of Moses was twined about the Central Column of the Sephiroth. Again, while Kundalini Shakti is a form of the Great Mother, the Aphrodite of the Greeks, Nogah is the name of the Sphere of the Planet Venus, which is another name for the same Goddess.
[Pryse]
Mr. J. M. Pryse, in a most interesting book entitled The Apocalypse Unsealed, has drawn many interesting parallels between this Kundalini or Speirema and the symbolism of the Revelation of St. John, demonstrating that it is a theurgical treatise of considerable importance. This work we have found particularly interesting for the reason that, basing his deductions primarily upon the doctrines of the Upanishads and the form of Yoga we have been examining, in combination with the Platonic and kindred teachings, he arrives at conclusions almost identical with those that may be obtained from purely Qabalistic considerations, a fact which is at least strikingly significant.
Finally, we feel it necessary in the interests of truth and justice to say a word regarding phallic practices and Kundalini, for so much of a misleading nature has been said on this subject. There are some who go so far as to state that the whole of Kundalini Yoga is nothing but the conversion of the body into a glorified or deified lingam; that the currents dealt with are purely sexual; and that the result is therefore Onanism on an unheard of scale. Like all such mistaken and misleading statements, there is just sufficient truth at the back of it to convince the unwary. The forces involved are creative and therefore allied to the sexual. But they are not sexual in the ordinarily accepted sense of the word, any more than it is really possible to attribute our human sex concepts to the Deity. Unfortunately there are always to be found, in connection with any cult, debased forms which have no real relationship with the pure original.
Mr. Leadbeater speaks of Schools of Black Magic which use Kundalini for the purpose of stimulating the sexual centre, and that such teachings are promulgated—often masquerading as highly spiritual—is as undeniable as it is unfortunate. This is what Mr. Pryse means when he says in his apocalypse Unsealed; "The mere dabbler in the pseudo-occult will only degrade his intellect with the puerilities of psychism, become the prey of the evil and phantasmal world, or ruin his soul by the foul practices of phallic sorcery."
Such statements, however true, regrettably, they may be, cannot and are not intended to be taken as condemning in any wholesale manner the theory and practice of Kundalini Yoga, and it would be unfair to judge any system by the abused and debased forms in which it is to be found. While, therefore, we unhesitatingly assert that physical sex practices in any form, and especially attempted introversions of sexual forces, such as endeavouring to draw these up the spine and into the brain, were never part of the truly sacred mysteries, and can lead but to disease, madness, death and worse, we are bound to point out that such condemnation does not, in fact, apply to Kundalini Yoga. We would, nevertheless, reiterate our warning that no student should attempt to experiment with these practices without the guidance of an experienced teacher, who has himself mastered the intricacies of the subject, both theoretically and practically. Failing this, there is no doubt that such studies will probably prove exceedingly dangerous.

for another quote, see Twelve as seven and five#1910 - James Morgan Pryce

1960 - Titus Burckhardt

Titus Burckhardt (1908-1984) also touches on the process of Kundalini in 'Alchemy: science of the cosmos, science of the soul' (1960), describing the equivalences with alchemical terminology and processes:

When the immutable divine act,which governs the cosmos, is symbolically represented by a motionless vertical axis, the 'course' of nature, in relation to it, is like a spiral, which winds itself around this axis, so that with each encirclement it realizes a new plane or degree of existence. This is the primordial symbol of the serpent or dragon, which winds itself round the axis of the tree of the world.
Almost all the symbols of nature proceed from the spiral or the circle. The rhythm of the successive 'unrollings' and 'rollings' of nature, of the alchemical solve et coagula is represented by the double spiral: whose form also lies at the basis of the zoomorphic representations of the Shakti. Also related to this is the representation of two serpents or dragons winding themselves in contrary directions round a staff or tree. These correspond to the two complementary phases of nature or the two fundamental forces.
In lava yoga, a spiritual method belonging to the realm of tantrism, whose name signifies union (yoga) achieved through solution (laya), the awakening of the Shakti within the human microcosm is compared with the awakening of a serpent (kundalini), which until then had remained coiled up in the subtle centre known as muladhara.
According to a certain correspondence between the subtle and corporeal orders this centre is located at the lower end of the vertebral column. Kundalini is awakened by certain exercises in spiritual concentration, by means of which it gradually ascends, in spiral fashion, the spiritual axis of Man, bringing into play even wider and higher states of consciousness, until it finally restores the plenitude of consciousness in the supraformal spirit.
In this representation, which must not be conceived literally, but as a symbolical - though logical and consequential - description of inward processes, one will again recognize the image of nature or Shakti twining round the world-axis. That the developing power should come 'from below' is in keeping with the fact that potency (potentia) - like materia prima - in its passivity represents the 'base' of the cosmos, and not the summit.
In the Hermetic tradition, universal nature in her latent condition is likewise represented as a coiled up reptile. This is the dragon uroboros which, curling into a circle, bites its own tail. Nature in her dynamic phase, on the other hand, is portrayed by means of the two serpents or dragons, which, in the form of the well-known model of the staff of Hermes or caduceus, wind themselves round an axis - that of the world or of man - in opposing directions. This duplication of the primordial serpent has also its counterpart in laya-yoga, for Kundalini is likewise divided into two subtle forces, Ida and Pingala, which in opposite directions wind themselves round Merudanda, the microcosmic prolongation of the world-axis.
At the beginning of the spiritual work, the Shakti is present in this divided form, and only after the two forces are activated alternately by means of a form of concentration based on breathing, does Kundalini awake from its sleep and start to ascend. As soon as it has reached the highest threshold of I-consciousness, the two opposing forces become completely dissolved in it.
For alchemy the two forces represented as serpents or dragons are sulphur and quicksilver. Their macrocosmic prototype is the two phases - increasing and decreasing of the sun's annual course, separated from one another by the winter and summer solstices.
The connection between the tantric and alchemical symbolisms is obvious: of the two forces Pingala and Ida, which wind themselves round the Merudanda,

the first [Pingala] is described as being hot and dry, characterized by the colour red, and, like alchemical Sulphur, compared with the sun.

the second force, Ida, is regarded as being cold and humid, and in its silvery pallor is associated with the moon.
In his book On the Hieroglyphic Figures Nicolas Flamel writes of the mutual relationship of Sulphur and Quicksilver: . . . these are the two serpents which are fixed around the caduceus, or Staff of Mercury, and by means of which Mercury wields his great power and transforms himself as he wills.

See also: The two etheric streams and Alchemy

1978 - Shelly Trimmer

in 1977-78, as quoted by Ray Grasse in 'An Infinity of Gods' (SWCC)

There is a chakra that exists between the third chakra and fourth chakras, between Mars and Venus. That chakra is the one which could be called the "all of you."
For instance, Christ had twelve disciples, and he himself was the thirteenth one; Hercules had twelve labors, but there was also Hercules himself, who was the thirteenth factor. That point is where your self-conscious awareness resides, and it's the sum total of you, it's the all of your parts of your horoscope, and the center of your awareness.
You are moving from the third chakra to the fourth, and now you are somewhat aware of more things than are just upon the Earth. Right now your awareness is controlled by the lower three chakras - Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars - so you have very little awareness of the others above that, symbolized by Mercury, Sun, and the Moon.
But when you do get higher and closer in your meditation towards the heart chakra, at some point it's like shutting off the five sensory centers, like pulling the cords out of a telephone switchboard. And then you are no longer functioning with Earth's state of awareness at all.
But when you are going up through the Sushumnic channel of awareness (in the middle of the spine), and you go back down between the third and fourth chakra, you can pull out those cords and plug them back in by going up and down. ... and the last thing to go when you pull out the plugs is sound.
[stopping time, or removing yourself from the astral time experience]
And as you pull them out, things begin to stand dead still in the world. You begin to enter into zero time, where nothing is moving. A clock will stand still. Like I mentioned earlier, a child jumping rope will stand still. This whole world begins to freeze as you go up there.

1984 - Swami Satyananda Saraswati

in the book 'Kundalini Tantra' (1984) - downloadeable in PDF in the 'Further reading' section below

Kundalini is the name of a sleeping dormant potential force in the human organism and it is situated at the root of the spinal column.
In the masculine body it is in the perineum, between the urinary and excretory organs. In the female body its location is at the root of the uterus, in the cervix. This center is known as mooladhara chakra and it is actually a physical structure. It is a small gland which you can even take out and press.
However, kundalini is a dormant energy, and even if you press it, it will not explode like a bomb. To awaken kundalini you must prepare yourself through yogic techniques. You must practise asanas, pranayama, kriya yoga and meditation.
Then, when you are able to force your prana into the seat of kundalini, the energy wakes up and makes its way through sushumna nadi, the central nervous canal, to the brain. As kundalini ascends, it passes through each of the chakras which are interconnected with the different silent areas of the brain. With the awakening of kundalini there is an explosion in the brain as the dormant or sleeping areas start blossoming like flowers. Therefore, kundalini can be equated with the awakening of the silent areas of the brain.
Although kundalini is said to reside in mooladhara chakra, we are all at different stages of evolution, and in some of us kundalini may have already reached swadhisthana, manipura or anahata chakra. If this is so, whatever sadhana you do now might start an awakening in anahata or some other chakra.
However, awakening of kundalini in mooladhara chakra is one thing, and awakening in sahasrara, the highest center of the brain, is another. Once the multipetalled lotus of sahasrara blossoms, a new consciousness dawns. Our present consciousness is not independent, as the mind depends on the information supplied by the senses. If you have no eyes, you can never see; if you are deaf, you will never hear. However, when the superconsciousness emerges, experience becomes completely independent and knowledge also becomes completely independent.

1983-6 - Daskalos

Daskalos in HTS on Kundalini experience – sacred fire and serpent (SWCC)

.. when the initiate advances further he enters into a state of ecstasy at which point the third eye chakra [disc in front of the eyes] plays hardly any role. It is the crown chakra [disc on top of the head] which takes over completely. In ecstasy a person becomes one with the divine, with the higher spheres. One experiences a form of clairvoyance.
Some mystics who, in such a state, perceive the divine and eternal light assume that the third eye chakra must be playing some role. That is not the case. Another clairvoyant who can see a person in a state of ecstasy notices that the sacred disc over the head [crown chakra] moves fast and beautifully while the movement of [third eye chakra or] the disc in front of the eyes slows down.
This happens as the entire energy from the center moves upward and this occurs when the sacred fire is awakened and, through the spine, rushes upward. After reaching the center in the brain it proceeds towards the lotus over the head, absorbing at the same time the surplus energy from the disc in front of the eyes. The extra energy results from the intense concentration that precedes the ecstatic rapture.
The state of ecstasy lasts only briefly and only while the present self-conscious personality in coordination and oneness with the permanent personality is focused on the higher spheres. There are more functions of these centers within the head that we will examine later.
The sacred fire is what the Indians call Kundalini. We sometimes call it the sacred serpent because it looks like a serpent. Its tail touches the sacred center of the sacrum right at the base of the spine. Like a serpent the sacred fire revolves upward around the spine in a sevenfold spiral and its luminosity energizes the genitals and, to an extent, via the bone marrow, all the organs of the body.
...
the Sacred Serpent has the color of dark red which symbolizes fire and heat. At the center of the sacrum is a great charge of energy controlled by the Holy Spirit and other entities or laws. In the orthodox religion the Sacred Fire is symbolized by the rotating fiery sword of archangel Michael, the master of fire.
Once the individual becomes master of the Kundalini, once he 'moves' the Serpent, he will be able to accomplish feats that appear miraculous or extraordinary from the perspective of ordinary consciousness. The myth of Hercules strangling the serpents is a cryptic symbol of this great truth.

1987-97 - Jean Dubuis

Jean Dubuis (1919-2010), extract from The Alchemy Course, see PDF extract on www.portaelucis.fr/

Prana and Kundalini, two words used in yoga, have equivalents in alchemy in the oratory work. The fact that the names given to these energies neither express their meaning nor nature leads to confusion and misunderstanding.
[two energies]
As said in the beginning of the alchemy course*, the cycle of the original undifferentiated energy divides into two opposing energies: an active energy, Niter, and a passive energy, Salt. We can say that Kundalini corresponds to the energies of Niter, and Prana corresponds to Salt energies.
To adopt a language consistent with our traditions and culture, we will now call Prana: "Vital Energy" and Kundalini: "Spiritual Energy". Spiritual Energy is also called "Secret Fire” by the alchemists.
These two energies are omnipresent in the universe. They have a variety of supports whose nature varies their quantity and quality. By analogy, copper and silver are good conductors of electricity, and iron is a good conductor of magnetism.

The Vital Energy is manifested in the body by a kind of radiation. Not that the body radiates in the dark, but rather the body expresses a beauty, a kind of physical harmony. Vital Energy is abundant in plants and animals, and its primary role is to keep them alive. Surrounded with special care, plants and animals are capable of strongly radiating.

Conversely, Spiritual Energy is found only in the world in the human species, and it is what makes the difference between animals and men. But we must also add that it is still a potential in most beings because it is locked at the bottom of the spine, at the end of the spinal cord. The strong currents of the Vital Energy hold it prisoner there.

A further important difference between the two energies is the nature of their presence.

The Spiritual Energy has a constant presence and a constant force independent of the cycles of nature.

Conversely, the Vital Energy has variable presence and strength based on lunar and solar cycles.

The Spiritual Energy is likened to the Sun as a constant light source, and by analogy with consciousness, which has a permanent spark. It is both attractive and contractive while Vital Energy is externalized as beautiful blooming flowers.
[energy balance in Man]
The Spiritual Energy is the realm of Eternity and nothing in this world can affect it. We must say that it being locked at the base of the spine is not total. A small portion escapes and it is this weakened energy that gives man his self-consciousness, the sense of I. The thought of "I am" is a sign of the activity of the infinitesimal part of the Spiritual Energy that crosses the barrier of the currents of the Vital Energy.
But the trapped Spiritual Energy is in endless supply. In the body of man, it is linked to the breathing rhythm. With each inhalation, it rises through Sephirotic centers to a certain height that characterizes the level of consciousness reached by the individual, and it goes down as we exhale.
The levels attained by the Spiritual Energy can be divided into three areas corresponding to the alchemical Salt, Sulphur and Mercury.
Sulfur - Mercury - Salt
Soul - Spirit - Body

When consciousness resides in the lower parts of the body, the Salt dominates: consciousness is attached to material pleasures. The people concerned are generally of a very limited mind and the primitive instincts are strong within them. They do not easily comprehend abstract concepts of truth, virtue and crime does not frighten them.

When Sulphur dominates, consciousness lies in the heart area. These people are very active, and they easily amass riches. Their spirit is awakened by all things, both by those of the world and by those of religion. They painfully feel the frustrations of their conscience.

In the Mercury stage, consciousness resides in the head, neck and throat. The persons concerned are attracted by the mystical and occult sides of life and nature, and it is in them that the awakening of the Spiritual Energy most surely happens.

.
[experience]
All levels of consciousness are accessible to people in whom this energy is not yet awake, because a person can, with a small portion of Spiritual Energy, escape their lower nature, dominate it, and raise and concentrate that energy in the highest levels.
If one manages to first weaken, and then momentarily remove the currents of Vital Energy, the spiritual currents are released and, with tremendous force, they wrap the body for a moment, and this body is perceived in an instant as a bright unlimited light.
This experience occurs when the vital currents cease with death, but it can also be produced by various methods. It is obviously easier during the Winter solstice, around Christmas, when the Vital Energy is at a minimum in nature.
It can present various ways:

The bright light may, for the person concerned, take on the appearance of an angel or a "self" or a spiritual teacher.

It can cause astral projection with the corresponding perception of the surrounding environment.

It can cause operation at the second state of the intellect without relation to the normal nature of logic.

It can also cause uncontrolled physical movements: tremor, rapid breathing, spinning, swinging or hieratic position.

.
This awakening experience of Spiritual Energy is one of the keys to entering the occult path and corresponds to a rebirth. Shortly after, the disruption of Vital Energy ceases and the Spiritual Energy is again locked at the base of the spine.
After the experience, body and mind are readjusted to fit the new light of this initiation. The body changes subtly, becoming sensitive to various modes of perception different from current perceptions. Unconsciously, the physical changes but the mental change mainly depends on the conscious effort made at this stage.
[second experience]
The second experience on this mystical path will be of great importance. Indeed, the rise of Spiritual Energy will be from its rest position to the top of the head. This will be the beginning of spiritual regeneration. In this second experience, the Spiritual Energy will trace a path that can no longer be completely blocked by the Vital Energy.
There is much confusion about the different methods for the rise of Spiritual Energy. It is best to remember that this energy is full of Intelligence, that this increase should not be artificially induced without completing the correct preparation.
We said at the beginning of this text that we translate the word Kundalini into “Spiritual Energy”. This is not entirely possible, because the word Kundalini is used in two different ways:

the one we have given it of Spiritual Energy and

one to indicate where the energy enters and remains blocked.

.
Before describing the effects of the Spiritual Energy, we must say that its arousal disrupts and destabilizes the currents of Vital Energy. These give more dramatic effects than those of the Spiritual Energy but should not be confused with them. Thus, it can produce feelings of "light" that accompany strong warm currents along the spine. The Vital Energy can concentrate heavily in some areas, especially in the top of the head, near the center of Kether, and this acts like a diamond on this center; so that the researcher may believe that he had an awakening of the Spiritual Energy on the center of Kether but the phenomena are due only to the Vital Energy. This confusion, due to poor information, presents no real danger but may discourage the researcher in the pursuit of his awakening.
The Spiritual Energy is much less spectacular in its ascent and the various following phenomena may occur:

A series of severe pains that can create the idea of disease.

A feeling of ants slowly climbing and jumping here and there instead of heading to the center of the head.

The energy may, with a sense of calm like the waters of a lake and without awe or fear, go from one center to another to the center of the head.

The rise can be achieved in zigzag as if following the undulating body of a snake, hence the fire-serpent name.

The energy may skip one or more centers and stop only after a jump.

The energy can reach the center of the head in a flash of light.

When the Spiritual Energy reaches the skull and goes beyond by forming a kind of flower, there is a well-defined feeling and consciousness is awakened to a high level of bliss, while the vital forces are again reinforced and revitalize the body. This state is represented in the Qabala by the head of the snake turned towards Kether, its tongue touching the eleventh Path. This causes, a symbol of this Path, the scintillating intelligence. The Spiritual Energy then withdraws again to the base of the spinal column. The result is a surprise for the aspirant because the body and mind are strongly revitalized and the strengths and weaknesses of character are greatly exaggerated. It is therefore quite possible that the aspirant is strongly disrupted by sexual urges the next day.
A long period of gradual progress begins. At this stage of awakening, conscious work on the vital force becomes possible. It follows a spiritual regeneration, and the various aspects of intelligence begin to shine. Sometimes the energy awakens only one center and the consequences are:

Center - Consequences

Base of the spine - Mastery of the 4 elements

Genitalia region - Power of pleasure

Heart - Understanding

Throat - Clairaudience

Base of the nose - Clairvoyance

Theoretically, no center can be opened before the center of the top of the head. The original purpose of the rise of Spiritual Energy is to allow the beginning of conscious work with this energy. The successive opening of the centers is the second goal but there is danger in overemphasizing especially on the lower centers, the conscience of the believer can be damaged in this case. Each experience encourages aspiring students to persevere on the path.
It has been said that the awakening gradually gave a power to control and use the Vital Energy.
But it is useful now to understand that the revitalization or the awakening of the centers by either energy does not give the same result.
If the center has not been awakened by the Spiritual Energy, the concentration of the Vital Energy on the center immediately gives a number of conscious results such as color perceptions, sounds or, in other areas not easy to explain such as global sensations giving at once an identical perception to the simultaneous integration of the five senses. But these experiences will only be temporary and related to the activity cycle of the Vital Energy.
By contrast, the concentration of the Spiritual Energy and resulting awakening will not give immediately conscious results: there will be no cycle or decline but an irreversible progress proportionate to the efforts of the aspirant.
With the beginning of regeneration through Spiritual Energy commence other experiences, the main one being a specific feeling of entering another dimension where an inner education gradually becomes accessible. It can also happen that an altered state of consciousness occurs wherein a person perceives that state of consciousness, different from the ordinary physical condition. This often ends in a slowing of breathing and a kind of spiritual trance that brings vitality and renewal to the body. This condition sometimes brings a cataleptic state where speech itself is no longer possible. Prior long preparation is necessary, because the benefit provided is beyond the physical world and can result in a kind of distress and disorientation of the mind.
The Spiritual Energy does not obey physical man. This pervasive energy is comparable to a pressure just waiting to act.
Modification of the Vital Energy, as well as the composition of the adept’s blood (which can be changed by plants and metal elixirs), causes a gradual release of the Spiritual Energy.
The successive development of the centers, after the Spiritual Energy reaches Kether, gradually leads to a definitive state which can be understood through several words. This may be the State of Grace described by some religions, but we can also say that the aspirant has become a Child of God and has attained eternal life

1997-03-11 - Mark Stavish

extract from essay 'Secret Fire: The Relationship Between Kundalini, Kabbalah, and Alchemy'

[process of creation and golden chain]
Creation is seen to have taken place, in Western kabbalistic and alchemical terms, in the following process.
The Divine mind of God, the Absolute, or in Hebrew the Ain Soph Aur (Limitless Light), through a series of expansions and contractions establishes the boundaries of Creation. The first world is the most subtle, and closest to the original state of non-existence, and is Atzilooth. This is called the world of Fire, because of the lively, undefined, and almost uncontrollable nature of fire. Next is Briah, or the World of Archetypes and forms as our human mind can grasp them. It is symbolized as the World of Air, and is the result of a barrier world that is formed by the creation of the next World, Yetzirah, or Water. This is the highly psychic and emotionally charged world immediately behind the veil of material existence, or Assiah. Also known as the World of Earth, because of the solid, concrete nature of material life.
The purpose of this scheme, is to show that creation occurs in increasingly dense levels of energy-matter, from the most subtle, or Fire, to the most dense, or Earth. Within this context of increasing density, there also arises a series of ten planes or levels of consciousness which combines with energy-matter, known as Sepheroth, or spheres of being. They occur in a pattern of: unity, reflection, polarity, reflection, polarity, unity, reflection, polarity, unity, and finally materialization. This basic idea of unity-polarity-and re-harmonizing, is the basis of kabbalistic and alchemical practices, and is derived from the observation of Nature.
Each World is a reflection to a denser or more subtle degree than the one before or after it. Each Sepheroth is a reflection, in part, of what proceeds or follows it. However, since each reflection is only partial, or slightly distorted, each Sphere takes on its own unique characteristics. Only the so-called “Middle Four Sphereoth” have the ability to harmonize or reflect in total all of the energies of creation, on some level.
This ‘zigzag’ of Creation is called the “Lightning Flash”. The return of energy from dense matter, back through the various stages, Sepheroth, and Worlds of Creation is known as the “Path of the Serpent” because of its reverse, or complimentary ‘zigzag’ nature back up this diagram called the Tree of Life.
For the alchemist, somewhere between the third and fourth level, or sphere of creation, energy takes on the characteristic that will allow for the formation of matter at some future state, or level ten. This energy is called Prima Materia, Chaos in the Bible, Spiritus Mundi (Spirit of the Earth), and others. Here, duality is made complete, and genuine polarity exists, as opposed to simply the potential, or idea, of polarity that had existed previously. Energy is divided into active and passive modes, with the active energy constituting the energies of life, and the passive one the energy of matter. In “The Golden Chain of Homer”, the active energy is called Niter and the passive energy is called Salt.
The energy of Life manifests in two forms, Fire and Air. While both are predominately active in nature, fire is the more active of the two, with Air being slightly passive because of the partial Water Element in its makeup. Potential Matter manifests its energy as Water and Earth. These Elements have nothing to do with the material bodies of the same name, and as such are capitalized and called “Elemental” to distinguish them from the earth we walk on, water we drink, air we breath, and fire we cook with. They are in fact, energetic states, each with their own unique characteristics, as well as each of the previously mentioned ten levels of consciousness within them. The Elements also have preferred ways of interacting with each other, to form the Three Principles of alchemy. There are in fact, forty different ways energy-matter-consciousness can manifest in our world.
The Three Essentials are the alchemical principles of Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt. Like the “Elements” these principle concepts are to be thought of a “Philosophical” and not literally as chemical elements or compounds. The Alchemical Sulphur, or Soul, of a thing predominates in the animating principles of energy (Fire) and intelligence (Air); Alchemical Salt, or the physical body of a thing, predominates in unconscious forces, psychic, and instinctual intelligence (Water) and solid matter (Earth); Alchemical Mercury, or general life force, predominates in intelligence (Air) and instinctual forces, and psychic energy (Water), as such it is the link, or bridge, between the higher forces of Sulphur and the lower body of matter.
In the mineral realm the dominant energy is that of Earth, a little Water, and very little Air or Fire. In the vegetable realm, the dominant energy is Water and Air, but little Fire and Earth. In the animal realm, the dominant force element is Fire, then Air, but little Earth. These qualities need to be understood as they have been defined for the following information to be of any use to the practicing, or aspiring, Hermeticist. For example, using the above definitions, we can say that the plant realm has an abundance of instinctual energy (Water) and intelligence, i.e. a specific function (Air), but little direct energy (Fire), as this is received passively from the sun; and little hard, physical, matter (Earth).
In the East as in the West, the idea of principle Elements and Philosophic Principles are expressed in more or less the same manner. This original undifferentiated energy from creation is often called in Indian philosophy, and modern occult, and New Age circles, as akasha, or Spirit. However, akasha, consists of two (2) aspects, one active as we have noted, Niter, and the other passive, Salt. The energies of Niter are also referred to as the force of Kundalini, or spiritual forces. In alchemy, this is the Secret Fire. To the Salt, belongs the force of Prana, or Vital Energy.
The function of the Vital energy is to maintain physical life forms and existence. It is completely instinctual and unconscious and is heavily influenced by cosmic cycles, astrological pulses, and other natural phenomena.
The function of the Secret Fire is to increase in humanity, the only place where it is present, its sense of self, or “I”. At the lowest level or functioning, this is the ego, at its highest, it is Divinity incarnate, as both are two sides of the same coin. One is ‘self’ in relation to the physical world and others; the other is ‘self’ in relationship to all of Creation and as a co-creator.
In the vast majority of humanity, this Secret Fire, or liberating energy of self-consciousness, lies dormant, asleep at the base of the spine, coiled like a serpent. Only a small amount manages to escape, reaching a sepherothic level, or so-called chakra, thus creating a loci of consciousness for each person. If it reaches the top of the skull, and beyond, a spiritual awakening can occur, allowing for a descent and re-ascent of the energy, during which the psychic centers can be awakened allowing for the manifestation of psychic powers and related phenomena.
The Secret Fire ascends as a result of a temporary weakening of the Vital Energy in the physical body. This is why so many spiritual awakenings take place under great physical stress, times of illness, or near-death-experiences. When the Secret Fire will ascend through the various psychic-physical currents causing it to be enveloped in a sphere of luminous light.
The experiencing of the Secret Fire, as a result of the suppression of the physical body’s Vital Energy, can create a condition which manifests in various forms:

Some perceive the bright light as an angel, their Higher Self, or “Holy Guardian Angel”, others as a spiritual teacher.

Astral projection may result, along with perception of the immediate surroundings.

Uncontrolled physical movements may also result, typical of so-called ‘kundalini phenomena’: shaking, rapid breathing, swinging of the torso, uncontrolled giddiness, and sitting straight upright in the Pharaonic position.

After a period of time, the energy will descend, and return to the base of the spine.
The effects of this awakening will take some time for the consciousness of the individual to adjust to, and is not limited to the ‘non-physical’ realms. The physical body, although to a lesser degree, is also changed and improved in functioning, constituting a genuine “re-birth’ on several levels. However, it is up to the mind, or sense of “I”, of the individual, to cooperate with this influx of power if more permanent changes in consciousness are to be made.
As we can see, the concept of kundalini, or the Secret Fire, is linked to two polar concepts: that of the undifferentiated creative energy, and the second, as the seed of this energy locked on each cell of material creation, and focused in humanity at the base of the spine.
When this energy rises as a result of psychic experiences, and not because of physical weakness, it can cause the Vital Energy of the body to be concentrated on various areas of the body, creating physical and psychic disturbances. If the energy becomes concentrated in the head, it can create the illusion of a spiritual awakening, as well as the well known “hot and cold” flashes, or currents, up and down the spine. The effects of the Secret Fire however, and not its re-distributive effects on the Vital Energy, can create the following phenomena:

   Intense pains suggestive of an illness

   Crawling sensations of ants or small bugs over the skin, as well as a ‘jumping’ sensation of the energy

   A feeling of crystal clear calmness and tranquillity, rise from center to center to the top of the head

   Ascending in the famous ‘zigzag’ or Rising Serpent pattern

   The energy can skip a center or two

   The energy can reach the top of the head in a flash of light

The character attributes of both positive and negative are exaggerated and sexual power is increased.

If the energy rises to the top of the head, then it becomes possible to work directly on the Vital Energy within the body, and use it, as a means of enhancing the psychic experience and spiritual awakening.
In short, the psychic centers must first be awakened by the Secret Fire and purified, before the energy of the physical body, can be concentrated upon them.
Thus, our psychic exercises, and esoteric meditations are designed to prepare our minds, bodies, and consciousness for the liberation of the Secret Fire buried deep inside us. Through a progressive cleansing of the blood, nervous system, and endocrine glands, the ‘chains’ of the Vital Energy upon the Secret Fire are reduced and eliminated, allowing the ever present power and energy, a veritable pressure waiting to be released, to spring into action. Thus, the Serpent doesn’t really sleep, it is we who are asleep to its presence and potential blessing.

2004-01-29 - Rawn Clark Q&A

answers a question on IIH

Does Bardon's system (IIH) raise the Kundalini in the initiate, and if so at what stage?

It's not a matter of raising the kundalini. It's a matter of the kundalini rising 'of its own accord' as a natural consequence of the initiate's mago-mystical advancement. When initiation is 'balanced', the chakras unfold and the kundalini rises without any ill effects. This is because in a balanced Hermetic initiation, the kundalini and the chakra system are not forced. In fact, they are not focused upon at all.
The chakras are reflective of the initiate's inner state of maturity. They flower 'of their own accord' when the initiate reaches the stage of maturity to which they correspond. The kundalini force 'of its own accord' naturally rises to fill the flowering chakra. When this natural process is left to its own wisdom, instead of being interfered with and forced before its time, there are no ill effects. Instead, it is empowering and immediately carries the initiate forward.
Ill effects on the other hand, are experienced 'because' the individual has not reached the stage of maturity which naturally unfolds the chakras and the kundalini. In such a case, the kundalini meets resistance in the form of "impurities" (i.e., a lack of maturity) and, as is its nature when faced with this sort of resistance, the kundalini burns away at the impurities and at the surrounding area in the individual's emotional energy structure. From an Hermetic perspective this is ultimately destructive because, even if the 'energetic manifestation' of those blocking impurities are effectively burned away, the level of maturity remains relatively unchanged and those *energetic* impurities inevitably re-manifest.
There are very complex eastern methods by which one can safely work 'with' the kundalini, but, contrary to what most westerners surmise, they involve intensive focus upon one's level of maturity and its growth. In other words, these methods involve a great deal more than just trying to move the kundalini. Really, they are about using the kundalini (very carefully and precisely) to encourage one's maturation -- the goal being 'maturation' and not the mere movement of the kundalini.
Bardon's IIH system sidesteps all of these issues by focusing upon developing the initiate's mago-mystical maturity directly. In Bardon's system, the kundalini is left in nature's hands and its rate of rising is left to nature's wisdom based upon the initiate's own rate of maturation.
When someone is suffering the discomforting consequences of having forced their chakras open and their kundalini to rise unnaturally, the remedy is to focus upon the work of character transformation. Only in this way is the individual's level of maturity raised to par with their unnaturally elevated or active kundalini.

Discussion

Note 1 - Commentary on Schema FMC00.326

First please take a closer look (enlarge by clicking a few times) at Schema FMC00.326 above.

1/ The transcript of this drawing in the English volume of GA267 is not complete. The original text in German, though some words are hardly readable, also says that the Kundalini fire contains two streams:

one stream from 4, 6 and 10 petalled lotus flowers up to the heart
another stream from the heart

.. and between the two lies something that is also not part of the transcript. At the height of the heart chakra, behind it, lies what is annotated as 'here lies the source to the kundalini fire'. As if an extra chakra (maybe related with what is sometimes mentioned as the fifth chamber of the heart).

Read about this the quote by Shelly Trimmer on this page:

There is a chakra that exists between the third chakra and fourth chakras, between Mars and Venus. That chakra is the one which could be called the "all of you." For instance, Christ had twelve disciples, and he himself was the thirteenth one. ... That point is where your self-conscious awareness resides, and it's the sum total of you, it's the all of your parts of your horoscope, and the center of your awareness.

Note

Not much information can be found, but some sources describe the 'secret' hrit chakra or sacred heart.

An extensive scholarly coverage of ancient eastern sources can be found in 'Laya Yoga: the definitive guide to the chakras and kundalini' by Shyam Sundar Goswamni, from on p 212 onwards. From the conclusion (p 216-217):

The hrit chakra, though not included in the six-chakra group, is the fourth chakra, it is situated in the heart region above the manipura (navel) and just below the anahata (which is also in the heart region). The hrit chakra is in fact part of the anahata, forming its inferior aspect, but should be considered as an individual chakra.

The hrit chakra lies in the chitrini which is within the sushumna, within the vertebral column. It is that part of the vertebral column which corresponds to the heart region.

The hrit chakra is mostly described as having eight petals, and lying with its face downwards (and is then closely connected with the anahata)

...
and from one source 'it has been stated that Atman is within the golden lotus' .. which is eight-petalled.

2/ The drawing sketches that the auric egg or the Human aura of the Human astral body consists of two parts, like poles of a magnet.

The kundalini fire is the activity stimulated in the second astral body, which is initially warmth and light.

The drawing does not directly correspond to FMC00.134 on Human astral body, which was however made from a description that could also be drawn in the same way.

Regarding 'warmth and light' also see also Schema FMC00.051 on The two etheric streams

3/ Regarding Schema .. and the illumination of the pineal gland, the Blavatsky quote below

The pineal gland corresponds with manas until it is touched by the vibrating light of kundalini, which proceeds from buddhi, and then it becomes buddhi-manas. ... The fires are always playing round the pineal gland; but when kundalini illuminates them for a brief instant, the whole universe is seen.

Note 2 - Links regarding the third eye and pituitary gland

See 1905-05-05-GA266 on Christ Module 15 - Study of Spiritual Science and the Mystery of Golgotha, it points to the development of a new organ for spiritual science to affect the etheric body in the Michael age. An organ newly developed in Man's brain by archangel Gabriel. The organ will deteriorate and degenerate when not used.
See also 1908-08-09-GA266 on Ahrimanic influence on Man also states that when Man does not stimulate the newly acquired organ, that degenerates and Man falls prey to Mammon (or Ahriman).
this can be coupled to what is described under Commentary [1] in the Discussion area on Contemporary worldview war

Note 3 - The process of illumination

This narrative aims to convey through storytelling, an insight that comes from connecting a number of elements or threads. This may overlap with ao Note 1 above or other topic pages.

The goal is to shed light and gain an understanding of what is meant by Christ Impulse, by developing insight about a reality described in different languages from different perspectives.

The first three sections (3.1 to 3.3) are an introduction based on what is above on this page already, the main section 3.4 is where more links are offered.

3.1 - Esoteric Christianity terminology

See the lecture extract of 1908-05-31-GA103 on: Q00.007 - How to understand 'the ether body draws out of the cosmic I'. Please read it there first.

This describes how the purified astral body (also called 'virgin Sophia'), purified as a result of initiation exercices (such as meditation and concentration) can, at a certain moment, 'encounter' or 'be approached' by "a power which in esoteric Christianity is called the Holy Spirit". Specifically the process is described as 'surrounded by light, by spiritual light'

When the Virgin Sophia encounters the Cosmic Universal I which causes illumination, the pupil is surrounded by light, spiritual light. This second power that approaches the Virgin Sophia, is called in esoteric Christianity, the 'Holy Spirit.

A second extract from an esoteric lesson on 1908-07-04-GA266/1

The etheric body is loosened, lifted out of the physical body through the Christ Impulse. The etheric body is permeated by the Holy Spirit through the Christ Impulse. And the Holy Spirit - our higher 'I' - causes forces to stream to us from outside.

Also, it is described (in the first lecture) that - once the Holy Spirit descends - that one speaks in another way .. one speaks the truth at a level above voices of opinions or languages. See also the topic page Pentecost.

Other lectures describe this in another way, as clairvoyant capabilities and seeing Christ in the etheric. As presented in Schema FMC00.617, this is a natural evolution of Earth and mankind as part of the starting ascent and spiritualization (see also Three dimensions of evolution and Schema FMC00.057B on Earth rounds perspective).

3.2 - Theosophical terminology

The references by Helena Blavatsky higher on this page describe the same process 'from manas to budhi', that is: the moment when the spark crosses over and the life-spirit principle in Man starts to be activated and developed consciously (currently Man is working the spirit-self manas bodily principle). This is illustrated on Schema FMC00.472 with stage [6].

According to Blavatsky, kundalini corresponds to budhi, and the awakening of kundalini is the result of the activation of budhi which takes place in the human heart, and this awakening of spiritual consciousness in the heart leads to the opening of the third eye. The link with clairvoyant capabilities is explained. Again to quote Blavatsky:

The pineal gland corresponds with manas ... until it is touched by the vibrating light of kundalini, which proceeds from buddhi .. and then it becomes buddhi-manas. ... The fires are always playing round the pineal gland; but when kundalini illuminates them for a brief instant, the whole universe is seen.

and what precedes this, is a phrase that refers to what Steiner describes as the Etherization of blood, the process between the heart and brain.

Then [once kundalini is active in the heart, then] from the heart that power shall rise into the sixth [chakra, in] the middle region,[in] the place between thine eyes, when it becomes the breath of the One-Soul, the voice which filleth all, thy Master’s voice.

3.3 - Rudolf Steiner's physiological descriptions

Two important (eye-opening) quotes:

from the esoteric lesson 1908-01-07-GA266/1 - the second sentence in the quote

When a person meditates, this awakens forces in and develops the pituitary gland, it begins to to shine brighter and brighter, sends forth rays, and gradually with its rays it encompasses the pineal gland lying in front of it, and stimulates it. This process organizes the organic formation of the astral body, from the chaos of feelings and sensations, into spirit-self or manas. When the pituitary gland causes golden threads to flow around the pineal gland, then the time has come when [the transformation of the astral body into spirit-self, into manas], has progressed far enough ... for the etheric body to be transformed into buddhi.

the information in Schema FMC00.326 explained above, points to the process by which all this happens. It describes two etheric-astral streams that meet up in the heart.

Kundalini fire contains two streams:
one stream from the 4, 6 and 10 petalled lotus flowers up to the heart

another stream from the heart

Then the drawing sketching the human aura shows two parts, and reads

The kundalini fire is the activity stimulated in the second astral body, which is initially warmth and light.

3.4 - Putting things together

Consider some pieces of a puzzle. At first one doesn't see the image of the full puzzle that these pieces contain. For this, enough pieces of the puzzle have to be put together ... and only in a certain way. Also, one or multiple puzzle pieces may be missing for the image to appeard.

The above is a metaphor for the process that is followed here. The aim is to convey an 'insight', by letting an image appear or emerge .. as a result of the soul work done as part of this study ... and meditation and contemplation, and feeling yourself into the contents or information offered.

(1) Now, to start: the last quote (in 3.3 above, about Schema FMC00.326) mentions 'two astral bodies' (see Schema FMC00.134 on Human astral body), and 'warmth and light'.

(2) Now see Schema FMC00.084 on Spectrum of elements and ethers: warmth and light ethers work on Earth. The two higher ethers - life and chemical ethers - 'left' with the Separation of Sun in the Hyperborean epoch. For more info on this, see 1909-09-21-GA114 on Christ Module 11 - A new physics#The fall and the blinders on.

The Christ 'brought back' these higher ethers to Earth and with the MoG connected them to mankind by becoming the spirit of the Earth.

Furthermore, see Christ Module 11 - A new physics#The forces of the higher ethers and for background to that: Schema FMC00.080A on Christ Module 2 - Nature of the Christ being (you can compare with Schema FMC00.003A)

(3) Now see the right part of Schema FMC00.051 on The two etheric streams. The warmth and light is one centripetal stream, the other centrifugal stream from the Earth upwards are the chemical and life ethers. This topic page elaborates on the process of mineral condensation or materialization (from etheric astral streams), in other words: what is underlying the world of maya we perceive, our physical body, our heart, etc. The opposite of this is the etherization, the working of the lower bodies into the higher spiritual bodies. In the future, Man will leave his lower bodies behind and become an individualized spiritual being.

(4) Now go to the Etherization of blood page, and what is mentioned as 'key paragraph' in the 1910-10-01-GA130 lecture extract: Etherization of blood#1911-10-01-GA130

A 'pointer' has been added to facilitate the ease of reference of this important key: FMCR00.001 for CI-EB (Christ Impulse and Etherization of Blood).

This section explains that the Christ Impulse works through the higher ethers and combines with the regular processes that are taking place, but also that this stream of budhi, which corresponds - as a cosmic principle - to selfless spiritual love (see Schema FMC00.481) ... is flowing all the time, for all people on Earth.

(5) Human beings have a seed in them, the life-spirit budhi principle, see Man's higher triad and for example Schema FMC00.482.

What is meant with 'not me, but the Christ in me'?

The first 'me' is the lower self, the reflection we believe or take for our 'I'.

See also the coverage in the Discussion notes below, where this is expanded:

.

The second 'me' is the true spiritual 'I'. And this seed we have inside is waiting to be fructified by the higher etheric streams that carry this divine impulse, so the seed can blossom and open up to a flower.

This fructification, like the sunlight that gently strokes the bud of the flower, is the 'subterranean' current of the Christ Impulse .. subterranean literally as it works from Earth, but also because Man is unconscious of it all, as it requires spiritual vision and understanding of the higher ethers to realize what is it all about.

For an illustration of this image of the flower fructification, see: Schema FMC00.468

3.5 - Building on the above

When taking a step back, the above explanation can be used as a jumpboard to connect to other aspects of the Christ Impulse:

(1) A first jump is to a more conceptual evolutionary perspective.

What happened with the Mystery of Golgotha (MoG)? See upper right (blue) picture on Schema FMC00.190. It shows a needle fructifying a cell (illustration from In vitro fertilisation (IVF) by Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI)) - as a symbolic image metaphor of the Christ fructifying Earth and humanity.

The Schema FMC00.190 (eg on Earth's seven epochs picture also shows Schema FMC00.185 (on that same page) as an included picture below. Contemplating both images with the above explanation connects see the macrocosmic connection between manas and budhi principles as divine impulses, to what they imply for the development of humanity (and its bodily principles) as a spiritual hierarchy in evolution. However this would carry too far in thix context.

(2) A second jump is more physiologically binding things together.

Go back to the topic page on The two etheric streams. These two streams meet in the heart. However there is not just the physical heart, also the etheric and astral heart.

Consider the heart's two blood circuits, as shown on Schema FMC00.034 on The heart's two blood circuits. What do these two circuits carry?

The lower one carries the metabolic system en what takes place, see below on Schema FMC00.513 and also on Transmutation.
The higher one contains all our thoughts and sense impressions, our soul work. Now read and study the Ganganda Greida page. Schema FMC00.354 makes the link with the holy grail (with its symbolic depiction in Schema FMC00.116).

.

Think of this not just physically, but more multi-dimensionally of what actually takes places in all Man's bodily principles and across the Spectrum of ethers and elements. This is of course a very broad statement and general way of stating things, therefore below an illustration to help this:

Man breathes in his 'I' (see Aspects and 1906-10-02-GA266/1 and 1922-04-01-GA211 on Human 'I' topic page) in terms of finer breathing of the higher ethers - see eg Schema FMC00.015 and it's expanded version Schema FMC00.015A on Human breath.

With that added to the above, it becomes clear that "the Christ mystery is the revelation of the miracle that takes place between the heart and the lungs, and the secret of the MoG lives in Man between the heart and the lungs", for the original quote by Rudolf Steiner see Between heart and brain#Inspirational quotes

(3) Third and related, is a perspective starting with the blood as the carrier of warmth, and the essential nature of the warmth ether carrying the other higher ethers (something symbolically depicted with Schema FMC00.194).

Why is there always this talk about the importance of the blood of Christ?

first one needs to understand the true nature of the blood, see Blood is a special fluid#Mineral blood fluid is Luciferic.2C the pure blood is spiritual
how it contains the different kingdoms, and how Man's work with initation exercises and the spiritualization of the lower bodily principles starts with the I, see Schema FMC00.285 on Blood is a special fluid

.

This perspective binds or connects to statements on

the blood of Francis of Assisi and Christ at the cross (see Blood is a special fluid#Blood constitution)
Wagner's statements about the link between blood and suffering (see Christ Module 4 - Mystery of the Blood#Wagner on MoG and the excess blood vs the purified blood)
and much more see eg Christ Module 4 - Mystery of the Blood

.

(4) Conclusion

The above illustrations may appear as 'jumping around', but they are but a selection of the multitude of perspectives through which one can approach the study of the Christ Impulse and the Mystery of Golgotha. This is the whole goal of the Study Modules and supporting topic pages on this wiki site.

However there are always more perspectives, and all the above still does not explain many things, like for example

why Christ Jesus had to become Man, or ..
how to understand that the Earth began to shine and the astral atmosphere changed at the moment of the MoG (see Christ Module 7 - Cosmic dimension)

.

The goal of the iterative development of this site is to shed light on those questions too through topic pages and Discussion notes such as the above. This makes it clear that the site is a study tool, and only through combined assimilation and integration of the pages and Schemas can one develop one's own understanding by doing the active mental and emotional soul work.

Related pages

References and further reading

Kundalini page on theosophy.wiki
James Morgan Pryce: 'The apocalypse unsealed' (1910)
John Woodroffe or Arthur Avalon: 'The Serpent Power' (the secrets of tantric and shaktic yoga) (1918)
Edward John Langford Garstin: 'The Secret Fire - An Alchemical Study' (1932)
Dietrich Boie: 'Das erste Auge: ein Bild des Zirbelorgans aus Naturwissenschaft, Anthroposophie, Geschichte und Medizin' (1968)
Swami Satyananda Saraswati (1923-2009)
- Kundalini Tantra (1984) - here downloadeable in PDF
- student of Sivananda Saraswati, the founder of the Divine Life Society and a prolific writer who authored over 200 books
- founded the Bihar School of Yoga in 1964 and wrote over 80 books
Rudolf Steiner: 'Kundalini' (2017, selection from GAs)
- The yoga path of thinking – meditations for the modern consciousness Kundalini, often referred to as the serpent power, is one of the central concepts of traditional yoga training. Rudolf Steiner also used the term in the early days of his esoteric teaching work, but later spoke of spiritual power of perception. In earlier times, the aim was to awaken the snake power that rests in the lower human being. Rudolf Steiner developed a path of schooling from top to bottom because this corresponds to the human being today. Instead of imitating what the masters prescribe, the development of consciousness today always requires that it be embedded in cognitive processes. This includes becoming aware of the forces that are unleashed in meditation and that require consistent inner moral work. In a detailed introduction, the editor distills the perspectives and instructions from Steiner's complete works, thus revealing the fundamentally new aspects of the modern meditation path that transforms the ancient kundalini path. Numerous passages from Steiner's written and lecture works serve to develop the stages and areas of this contemporary form of consciousness development. A valuable overview for concrete meditation practice.

Effects caused by the kundalini and energetic balance

Gopi Krishna
- 'Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy in Man' (1970)
- 'Living with Kundalini: The Autobiography of Gopi Krishna' (1971)
Lee Sannella : 'The Kundalini Experience: Psychosis or Transcendence?' (1987)
Stanislav and Christina Grof: 'Spiritual Emergency: When Personal Transformation Becomes a Crisis (1989)