The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
we have the cycle. Seizing upon foreign matter is an outwardly directed activity, assimilation is an inwardly directed activity or return current; cell division and multiplication is an outwardly directed operation, coordination is inwardly directed;¹ and so on. The force in the germ-cell is overflowing, but also continuously it is flowing back into itself, the two operations presupposing and sustaining each other, as in every circuit. The given stock of force in the germ-cell, which is static so long as the fusion of the male and female elements does not take place in the womb, is the necessary starting-point of all creative activity; it is the primordial cause, therefore, in relation to the body—primordial as well as constantly given, unceasing. On the other hand, the reaction of every creative action, the return current or flowing back of every unfolding overflow, constantly renews this starting force, changes it without changing its general condition of relative equilibrium (and this is quite possible, as in the case of any material system); the force in the germ-cell may therefore be also regarded as a perpetual effect, something left over and set against the working forces of the body. Many apparently inconsistent ideas enter into this conception, and they have to be reconciled.
“1. We start with a force in the germ-cell which is statical at first (though, like a dicotyledon seed, or even a modern atom, it involves within itself both a statical and a dynamical pole; otherwise, from pure rest, involving no possibility of motion, no motion could ever arise). Let this be the Kundalī coiled.
“2. Then there is creative impulse arising out of it; this is motion out of rest. By this, the Kundalī becomes partly static and partly dynamic, or ejects, so to say, a dynamic pole out of it in order to evolve the body, but
1 This outflow and inflow is a common Tantrik notion.
remaining a static pole or background itself all along. In no part of the process has the Kundalī really uncoiled itself altogether, or even curtailed its three coils and a half. Without this Mūlādhāra Shakti remaning intact no evolution could be possible at all. It is the hinge upon which everything else turns.
“3. Each creative act again reacts on the Mūlādhāra Shakti, so that such reaction, without disturbing the relative rest of the coiled Shakti, changes its volume or intensity, but does not curtail or add to the number of coils. For instance, every natural act of respiration reacts on the coiled Shakti at the Mūlādhāra, but it does not commonly make much difference. But Prānāyāma powerfully racts on it, so much so that it awakes the dormant power and sends it piercing through the centres. Now, the common description that the Kundalī uncoils Herself then and goes up the Sushumnā, leaving the Mūlādhāra, should, I think, be admitted with caution. That static background can never be absolutely dispensed with. As you have yourself rightly observed, ‘Shakti can never be depleted, but this is how to look at it.’ Precisely; the Kundalī, when powerfully worked upon by Yoga, sends forth an emanation or ejection in the likeness of Her own self (like the ‘ethereal double’ of the Theosophists and Spiritualists) which pierces through the various centres until it becomes blended, as you point out, with the Mahākundalī of Shiva at the highest or seventh centre. Thus, while this ‘ethereal double’ or self-ejection of the coiled power at the Mūlādhāra ascends the Sushumnā, the coiled power itself does not and need not stir from its place. It is like a spark given from an oversaturated¹ electro-magnetic machine; or, rather, it is like the emanations of radium which do not sensibly detract from the energy contained in it. This last, perhaps,
1 Overcharged.
we have the cycle. Seizing upon foreign matter is an outwardly directed activity, assimilation is an inwardly directed activity or return current; cell division and multiplication is an outwardly directed operation, coordination is inwardly directed;¹ and so on. The force in the germ-cell is overflowing, but also continuously it is flowing back into itself, the two operations presupposing and sustaining each other, as in every circuit. The given stock of force in the germ-cell, which is static so long as the fusion of the male and female elements does not take place in the womb, is the necessary starting-point of all creative activity; it is the primordial cause, therefore, in relation to the body—primordial as well as constantly given, unceasing. On the other hand, the reaction of every creative action, the return current or flowing back of every unfolding overflow, constantly renews this starting force, changes it without changing its general condition of relative equilibrium (and this is quite possible, as in the case of any material system); the force in the germ-cell may therefore be also regarded as a perpetual effect, something left over and set against the working forces of the body. Many apparently inconsistent ideas enter into this conception, and they have to be reconciled.
“1. We start with a force in the germ-cell which is statical at first (though, like a dicotyledon seed, or even a modern atom, it involves within itself both a statical and a dynamical pole; otherwise, from pure rest, involving no possibility of motion, no motion could ever arise). Let this be the Kundalī coiled.
“2. Then there is creative impulse arising out of it; this is motion out of rest. By this, the Kundalī becomes partly static and partly dynamic, or ejects, so to say, a dynamic pole out of it in order to evolve the body, but
1 This outflow and inflow is a common Tantrik notion.
remaining a static pole or background itself all along. In no part of the process has the Kundalī really uncoiled itself altogether, or even curtailed its three coils and a half. Without this Mūlādhāra Shakti remaning intact no evolution could be possible at all. It is the hinge upon which everything else turns.
“3. Each creative act again reacts on the Mūlādhāra Shakti, so that such reaction, without disturbing the relative rest of the coiled Shakti, changes its volume or intensity, but does not curtail or add to the number of coils. For instance, every natural act of respiration reacts on the coiled Shakti at the Mūlādhāra, but it does not commonly make much difference. But Prānāyāma powerfully racts on it, so much so that it awakes the dormant power and sends it piercing through the centres. Now, the common description that the Kundalī uncoils Herself then and goes up the Sushumnā, leaving the Mūlādhāra, should, I think, be admitted with caution. That static background can never be absolutely dispensed with. As you have yourself rightly observed, ‘Shakti can never be depleted, but this is how to look at it.’ Precisely; the Kundalī, when powerfully worked upon by Yoga, sends forth an emanation or ejection in the likeness of Her own self (like the ‘ethereal double’ of the Theosophists and Spiritualists) which pierces through the various centres until it becomes blended, as you point out, with the Mahākundalī of Shiva at the highest or seventh centre. Thus, while this ‘ethereal double’ or self-ejection of the coiled power at the Mūlādhāra ascends the Sushumnā, the coiled power itself does not and need not stir from its place. It is like a spark given from an oversaturated¹ electro-magnetic machine; or, rather, it is like the emanations of radium which do not sensibly detract from the energy contained in it. This last, perhaps,
1 Overcharged.
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