The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
beads of our elements of feeling. The sustaining ground or Ādhāra, as the seat of static force, therefore is found, in one form or other, in every phase and stage of creative evolution. The absolute or ultimate form is, of course, Chit-Shakti (Consciousness as power) itself, the unfailing light of awareness about which our Gāyatrī (Mantra) says: ‘Which sustains and impels all the activities of Buddhi.’ This fact is symbolised by the Kāli-mūrti: not a mere symbol, however.
“2. My remarks about the rising or awakening of the Serpent Power at the Mūlādhāra have been, perhaps, almost of the nature of a paradox. The coiled power, though awakened, uncoiled, and rising, never really stirs from its place; only a sort of ‘ethereal double’ or ‘eject’ is unloosed and sent up through the system of centres. Now, in plain language, this ethereal double or eject means the dynamic equivalent of the static power concentrated at the Mūla, or root. Whenever by Prānāyāma of Bījamantra, or any other suitable means, the Mūlādhāra becomes, like an electro-magnetic machine, oversaturated (though the Kundalī Shakti at the Mūla is infinite and exhaustless, yet the capacity of a given finite organism to contain it in a static form is limited, and therefore there may be oversaturation), a dynamic or operative equivalent of the static power is set up, possibly by a law similar to Nature’s law of induction, by which the static power itself is not depleted or rendered other than static. It is not that static energy at the Mūla wholly passes over into a dynamic form —the coiled Kundalī leaving the Mūla, thus making it a void; that cannot be, and, were it so, all dynamic operation in the body would cease directly for want of a background. The coiled power remains coiled or static, and yet something apparently passes out of the Mūla—viz., the dynamic equivalent. This paradox can perhaps be explained in two ways:
“(a) One explanation was suggested in my main letter. The potential Kundalī Shakti becomes partly converted into kinetic Shakti, and yet, since Shakti, even as given in the Mūla-centre, is an infinitude, it is not depleted: the potential store always remains unexhausted. I referred to a passage in the Upanishad about Pūrna. In this case, the dynamic equivalent is a partial conversion of one mode of energy into another. In Laya-yoga (here described) it is ordinarily so. When, however, the infinite potential becomes an infinite kinetic—when, that is to say, the coiled power at the Mūla becomes absolutely uncoiled —we have necessarily the dissolution of the three bodies (Sthūla, Linga, and Kārana—gross, subtle, causal), and consequently Videhamukti (bodiless liberation), because the static background in relation to a particular form of existence has now wholly given way, according to our hypothesis. But Mahākundalī remains; hence individual Mukti (liberation) need not mean dissolution of Samsāra (transmigrating worlds) itself. Commonly, however, as the Tantra says, ‘Pītvā pītvā punah pītvā,’ etc.¹
“(b) The other explanation is suggested by the law of induction. Take an electro-magnetic machine;² if a suitable substance be placed near it, it will induce in it an equivalent and opposite kind of electro-magnetism² without losing its own stock of energy. In conduction, energy flows over into another thing, so that the source loses and the other thing gains what it has lost, and its gain is similar in kind to the loss. Not so induction. There the source does not lose, and the induced energy is equivalent and opposite in kind to the inducing energy. Thus a
beads of our elements of feeling. The sustaining ground or Ādhāra, as the seat of static force, therefore is found, in one form or other, in every phase and stage of creative evolution. The absolute or ultimate form is, of course, Chit-Shakti (Consciousness as power) itself, the unfailing light of awareness about which our Gāyatrī (Mantra) says: ‘Which sustains and impels all the activities of Buddhi.’ This fact is symbolised by the Kāli-mūrti: not a mere symbol, however.
“2. My remarks about the rising or awakening of the Serpent Power at the Mūlādhāra have been, perhaps, almost of the nature of a paradox. The coiled power, though awakened, uncoiled, and rising, never really stirs from its place; only a sort of ‘ethereal double’ or ‘eject’ is unloosed and sent up through the system of centres. Now, in plain language, this ethereal double or eject means the dynamic equivalent of the static power concentrated at the Mūla, or root. Whenever by Prānāyāma of Bījamantra, or any other suitable means, the Mūlādhāra becomes, like an electro-magnetic machine, oversaturated (though the Kundalī Shakti at the Mūla is infinite and exhaustless, yet the capacity of a given finite organism to contain it in a static form is limited, and therefore there may be oversaturation), a dynamic or operative equivalent of the static power is set up, possibly by a law similar to Nature’s law of induction, by which the static power itself is not depleted or rendered other than static. It is not that static energy at the Mūla wholly passes over into a dynamic form —the coiled Kundalī leaving the Mūla, thus making it a void; that cannot be, and, were it so, all dynamic operation in the body would cease directly for want of a background. The coiled power remains coiled or static, and yet something apparently passes out of the Mūla—viz., the dynamic equivalent. This paradox can perhaps be explained in two ways:
“(a) One explanation was suggested in my main letter. The potential Kundalī Shakti becomes partly converted into kinetic Shakti, and yet, since Shakti, even as given in the Mūla-centre, is an infinitude, it is not depleted: the potential store always remains unexhausted. I referred to a passage in the Upanishad about Pūrna. In this case, the dynamic equivalent is a partial conversion of one mode of energy into another. In Laya-yoga (here described) it is ordinarily so. When, however, the infinite potential becomes an infinite kinetic—when, that is to say, the coiled power at the Mūla becomes absolutely uncoiled —we have necessarily the dissolution of the three bodies (Sthūla, Linga, and Kārana—gross, subtle, causal), and consequently Videhamukti (bodiless liberation), because the static background in relation to a particular form of existence has now wholly given way, according to our hypothesis. But Mahākundalī remains; hence individual Mukti (liberation) need not mean dissolution of Samsāra (transmigrating worlds) itself. Commonly, however, as the Tantra says, ‘Pītvā pītvā punah pītvā,’ etc.¹
“(b) The other explanation is suggested by the law of induction. Take an electro-magnetic machine;² if a suitable substance be placed near it, it will induce in it an equivalent and opposite kind of electro-magnetism² without losing its own stock of energy. In conduction, energy flows over into another thing, so that the source loses and the other thing gains what it has lost, and its gain is similar in kind to the loss. Not so induction. There the source does not lose, and the induced energy is equivalent and opposite in kind to the inducing energy. Thus a
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