The Serpent Power As Consciousness

The Serpent Power by Sir John Woodroffe (pen name Arthur Avalon) published in Madras in 1918 is one of the earliest authoritative texts on Kundalini in English. It consists of translations of the Sat-Chakra-Nirupana Tantra and the "Fivefold Footstool," the Paduka-Pancala Tantra, plus a long and complex attempt to explain Kundalini in terms of the scientific knowledge of the early twentieth century (pre-quantum mechanics) in terms of latent energy and its setting in motion. 

There are many interesting references which are helpful, and sometimes baffling, in regard to more modern accounts of Kundalini. For instance, there are descriptions (and black and white photos) of yogins demonstrating the various asanas. One thing that puzzles me is that in these, more traditional, Indian Kundalini awakenings the body is said to become extremely cold, that investigators touching the practitioner will feel a physical chill similar to that of a corpse, with only a small area of heat (life force) remaining at the very crown of the head. This is, of course, a literal embodiment of Kundalini as being a death, or near-death state. The practitioner is in the "turiya" state of coma that is beyond deep sleep. This contrasts with modern accounts, and my own experience, of extreme heat throughout the body. There’s another interesting footnote, about sex in a Kundalini awakening, which is worth quoting in full (p. 189 Dover edition): “…the yogin must resist women… there is a connection between semen, mind and life. In the early stages of Hatha yoga the heat goes upwards, the penis shrinks, and sexual power is largely lost. Coition with emission of semen at this stage is likely to prove fatal. But a Siddha regains his sexual prowess and can exercise it if there is control of ejaculation…” This is more in line with modern practitioners’ experience, though perhaps the threat of death is poetic overstatement.

What impresses me about this quotation, and The Serpent Power in general, is its insistence on Kundalini as mind, and not just as a physical phenomenon. I think it’s important, in these extreme "turiya" states, when the world drops away, that consciousness is maintained, and that one has some sort of inner resilience that keeps consciousness going, even when consciousness has no object. Otherwise, the experience could be dangerous. This, I know, precludes an ultimate scientific and empirical examination of Kundalini, simply because consciousness comes before analysis and therefore can never be fully analyzed and explained.

Nevertheless, it's important to insist (as Sir John Woodroffe does in The Serpent Power) that Kundalini is essential consciousness. This insistence protects the precious value of Kundalini from criticisms like the following: I was recently reading a Christian Pentecostal writer attacking the practices of an extreme Pentecostal minister, Rodney Howard-Browne, at whose meetings worshipers "filled with the Holy Spirit" laugh hysterically, roll around on the floor, become physically overheated, speak in "tongues" and generally behave as if intoxicated. This so-called "Toronto Blessing" is a clear case of mass hysteria stirred up by a manipulative orator. The rational, and clear-headed critic of these excesses whom I was reading, (arguing the proper Christian doctrine that faith does not demand "signs" and "wonders"), witheringly compared them to Kundalini arousal, the New Age antics of overexcited heathens. This is, of course, absurd, but one needs to keep in mind that Kundalini is the awakening of a higher consciousness, not a lower, purely physical one, in order to rebut such charges.