The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
3 The two seeds are Shiva and Shakti, and the sheath is Māyā. When they come apart there is creation. Again the imagery is faulty, in that there are two seeds, but Shiva and Shakti are the One with dual aspect.
turned upon itself, ascending as a straight line into the plane of the third dimension, thus forming the triangular or pyramidal figure called Shringātaka.¹ In other words, this Kundalī Shakti is that which, when it moves to manifest itself, appears as the universe. To say that it is “coiled” is to say that it is at rest—that is, in the form of static potential energy. This Shakti coiled round the Supreme Shiva is called Mahākundalī (“The great coiled power”), to distinguish it from the same power which exists in individual bodies, and which is called Kundalī or Kundalinī.² It is with and through the last power that this Yoga is effected. When it is accomplished the individual Shakti (Kundalī) is united with the great cosmic Shakti (Mahā-kundalī), and She with Shiva, with whom in truth She is one. Kundalinī is an aspect of the eternal Brahman (Brahmarūpā Sanātanī), and is both attributeless and with attribute (Nirgunā and Sagunā). In Her Nirguna aspect She is pure consciousness (Chaitanyarūpinī) and bliss itself (Ānandarūpinī, and in creation Brahmānandaprakāshinī). As Sagunā She it is by whose power all creatures are displayed (Sarvabhūtaprakāshinī).³ Kundalī Shakti in individual bodies is power at rest, or the static centre round which every form of existence as moving power revolves. In the universe there is always in and behind every form of activity a static background. This is one of the profound truths of the Shākta Tantras, which, as later explained, is borne out by recent discoveries of modern science. The one Consciousness is polarised into static (Shiva) and kinetic (Shakti) aspects for the purpose of creation. This Yoga is the resolution of this duality into unity again.
1 The shape of the Singārā water-nut, which grows freely in the lakes of Kashmir. Here I may observe that Yantras, though drawn on the flat, must be conceived of in the solid mass. The flat drawing is a mere suggestion of the three dimensional figure which the Yantra is.
2 Because She is thus bent the Devī is called Kubjikā (hunchback).
3 Kubjikā Tantra, Ch. I, Prānatoshinī, p.8.
The Indian Scriptures say, in the words of Herbert Spencer in his “First Principles,” that the universe is an unfoldment (Srishti) from the homogeneous (Mūlaprakriti) to the heterogeneous (Vikriti), and back to the homogeneous again (Pralaya or dissolution). There are thus alternate states of evolution and dissolution, manifestation taking place after a period of rest. So also Professor Huxley, in his “Evolution and Ethics,” speaks of the manifestation of cosmic energy (Māyā Shakti) alternating between phases of potentiality (Pralaya) and phases of explication (Srishti). “It may be,” he says, “as Kant suggests, every cosmic magma predestined to evolve into a new world has been the no less predestined end of a vanished predecessor.” This the Indian Shāstra affirms in its doctrine that there is no such thing as an absolutely first creation, the present universe being but one of a series of worlds which are past and are yet to be.
3 The two seeds are Shiva and Shakti, and the sheath is Māyā. When they come apart there is creation. Again the imagery is faulty, in that there are two seeds, but Shiva and Shakti are the One with dual aspect.
turned upon itself, ascending as a straight line into the plane of the third dimension, thus forming the triangular or pyramidal figure called Shringātaka.¹ In other words, this Kundalī Shakti is that which, when it moves to manifest itself, appears as the universe. To say that it is “coiled” is to say that it is at rest—that is, in the form of static potential energy. This Shakti coiled round the Supreme Shiva is called Mahākundalī (“The great coiled power”), to distinguish it from the same power which exists in individual bodies, and which is called Kundalī or Kundalinī.² It is with and through the last power that this Yoga is effected. When it is accomplished the individual Shakti (Kundalī) is united with the great cosmic Shakti (Mahā-kundalī), and She with Shiva, with whom in truth She is one. Kundalinī is an aspect of the eternal Brahman (Brahmarūpā Sanātanī), and is both attributeless and with attribute (Nirgunā and Sagunā). In Her Nirguna aspect She is pure consciousness (Chaitanyarūpinī) and bliss itself (Ānandarūpinī, and in creation Brahmānandaprakāshinī). As Sagunā She it is by whose power all creatures are displayed (Sarvabhūtaprakāshinī).³ Kundalī Shakti in individual bodies is power at rest, or the static centre round which every form of existence as moving power revolves. In the universe there is always in and behind every form of activity a static background. This is one of the profound truths of the Shākta Tantras, which, as later explained, is borne out by recent discoveries of modern science. The one Consciousness is polarised into static (Shiva) and kinetic (Shakti) aspects for the purpose of creation. This Yoga is the resolution of this duality into unity again.
1 The shape of the Singārā water-nut, which grows freely in the lakes of Kashmir. Here I may observe that Yantras, though drawn on the flat, must be conceived of in the solid mass. The flat drawing is a mere suggestion of the three dimensional figure which the Yantra is.
2 Because She is thus bent the Devī is called Kubjikā (hunchback).
3 Kubjikā Tantra, Ch. I, Prānatoshinī, p.8.
The Indian Scriptures say, in the words of Herbert Spencer in his “First Principles,” that the universe is an unfoldment (Srishti) from the homogeneous (Mūlaprakriti) to the heterogeneous (Vikriti), and back to the homogeneous again (Pralaya or dissolution). There are thus alternate states of evolution and dissolution, manifestation taking place after a period of rest. So also Professor Huxley, in his “Evolution and Ethics,” speaks of the manifestation of cosmic energy (Māyā Shakti) alternating between phases of potentiality (Pralaya) and phases of explication (Srishti). “It may be,” he says, “as Kant suggests, every cosmic magma predestined to evolve into a new world has been the no less predestined end of a vanished predecessor.” This the Indian Shāstra affirms in its doctrine that there is no such thing as an absolutely first creation, the present universe being but one of a series of worlds which are past and are yet to be.
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