The Serpent Power — Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe) (1924)
We may here notice the account of a well-known “Theosophical” author¹ regarding what he calls the “Force centres” and the “Serpent Fire,” of which he writes that he has had personal experience. Though Mr. Leadbeater also refers to the Yoga Shāstra, it may perhaps exclude error if we here point out that his account does not profess to be a representation of the teaching of the Indian Yogīs (whose competence for their own Yoga the author somewhat disparages), but that it is put forward as the Author’s own original explanation (fortified, as he conceives, by certain portions of Indian teaching) of the personal experience which (he writes) he himself has had. This experience appears to consist in the conscious arousing of the “Serpent Fire,”² with the enhanced “astral” and mental vision which he believes has shown him what he
1 “The Inner Life,” by C. W. Leadbeater, pp. 443-478, First Series.
2 This and the following notes compare his and the Indian theory. The Devī or Goddess is called Bhujangī or serpent because at the lowest centre (Mūlādhāra) she lies “coiled” round the Linga. “Coiled”=at rest. The Cosmic Power in bodies is here at rest; when roused it is felt as intense heat.
p. 7
tells us.¹ The centres, or Chakras, of the human body are by Mr. Leadbeater described to be vortices of “etheric” matter² into which rush from the “astral”³ world, and at right angles to the plane of the whirling disc, the sevenfold force of the Logos bringing “divine life” into the physical body. Though all these seven forces operate on all the centres, in each of them one form of the force is greatly predominant. These inrushing forces are alleged to set up on the surface of the “etheric double”⁴ secondary forces at right angles to themselves. The primary force on entrance into the vortex radiates again in straight lines, but at right angles. The number of these radiations of the primal force is said to determine the number of “petals”⁵ (as the Hindus call them) which the “Lotus” or vortex exhibits. The secondary force rushing round the vortex produces, it is said, the appearance of the petals of a flower, or, “perhaps more accurately, saucers or shallow vases of wavy iridescent glass”. In this way— that is, by the supposition of an etheric vortex subject to an incoming force of the Logos—both the “Lotuses” described in the Hindu books and the number of their petals is accounted for by the author, who substitutes for the Svādhishthāna centre a six-petalled lotus at the spleen,⁴ and corrects the number of petals of the lotus in the head, which he says is not a thousand, as the books of this Yoga say, “but exactly 960”.⁶ The “etheric” centre which keeps alive the physical vehicle is said to correspond with an “astral” centre of four dimensions, but between them is a closely woven sheath or web composed of a single compressed layer of physical atoms, which prevents a premature opening up of communication between the planes. There is a way, it is said, in which these may be properly opened or developed so as to bring more through this channel from the higher planes than ordinarily passes thereby. Each of these “astral” centres has certain functions: at the navel, a simple power of feeling; at the spleen, “conscious travel” in the astral body; at the heart, “a power to comprehend and sympathise with the vibrations of other astral entities”; at the throat, power of hearing on the astral plane; between the eyebrows, “astral sight”; at the “top of the head,” perfection of all faculties of the astral life.¹ These centres are therefore said to take the place to some extent of sense organs for the astral body. In the first centre, “at the base of the spine,” is the “serpent fire,” or Kundalinī, which exists in seven layers or seven degrees of force.² This is the manifestation in etheric matter, on the physical plane, of one of the great world forces, one of the powers of the Logos of which vitality and electricity are examples. It is not, it is said, the same as Prāna, or vitality.³ The “etheric centres” when fully aroused by the “Serpent Fire” bring down, it is alleged, into physical consciousness whatever
1 Certain Siddhis or occult powers are acquired at each centre as the practitioner works his way upwards.
2 The petals of the lotus are Prānashaktī manifested by Prānavāyu or vital force. Each lotus is a centre of a different form of “matter” (Bhūta) there predominant.—A.A.
3 This is a Western term.—A.A.
4 Not mentioned in the account here given.—A.A.
5 See last note but three.
6 So little attention seems to be given to exactitude in this matter that one of the letters is dropped in order to make 1,000 petals—that is, 50 × 20. “Thousand” is, here only symbolic of magnitude.—A.A.
1 Certain Siddhis are said to be gained at each centre. But the top of the head is far beyond the “astral” life. There Samādhi, or union with the Supreme Consciousness, is had.—A.A.
2 Parashabda which is Kundalinī in Her aspect as cause of all sound has seven aspects from Kundalī to Bindu.—A.A.
3 Kundalī is Shabdabrahman or the “Word (Vāk)” in bodies, and is in Her own form (Svarūpa) Pure Consciousness, and is all Powers (Sarva-shaktimaya). Kundalī is in fact the cosmic energy in bodies and as such the cause of all and though manifesting as, is not confined to, any of Her products.—A.A.
We may here notice the account of a well-known “Theosophical” author¹ regarding what he calls the “Force centres” and the “Serpent Fire,” of which he writes that he has had personal experience. Though Mr. Leadbeater also refers to the Yoga Shāstra, it may perhaps exclude error if we here point out that his account does not profess to be a representation of the teaching of the Indian Yogīs (whose competence for their own Yoga the author somewhat disparages), but that it is put forward as the Author’s own original explanation (fortified, as he conceives, by certain portions of Indian teaching) of the personal experience which (he writes) he himself has had. This experience appears to consist in the conscious arousing of the “Serpent Fire,”² with the enhanced “astral” and mental vision which he believes has shown him what he
1 “The Inner Life,” by C. W. Leadbeater, pp. 443-478, First Series.
2 This and the following notes compare his and the Indian theory. The Devī or Goddess is called Bhujangī or serpent because at the lowest centre (Mūlādhāra) she lies “coiled” round the Linga. “Coiled”=at rest. The Cosmic Power in bodies is here at rest; when roused it is felt as intense heat.
p. 7
tells us.¹ The centres, or Chakras, of the human body are by Mr. Leadbeater described to be vortices of “etheric” matter² into which rush from the “astral”³ world, and at right angles to the plane of the whirling disc, the sevenfold force of the Logos bringing “divine life” into the physical body. Though all these seven forces operate on all the centres, in each of them one form of the force is greatly predominant. These inrushing forces are alleged to set up on the surface of the “etheric double”⁴ secondary forces at right angles to themselves. The primary force on entrance into the vortex radiates again in straight lines, but at right angles. The number of these radiations of the primal force is said to determine the number of “petals”⁵ (as the Hindus call them) which the “Lotus” or vortex exhibits. The secondary force rushing round the vortex produces, it is said, the appearance of the petals of a flower, or, “perhaps more accurately, saucers or shallow vases of wavy iridescent glass”. In this way— that is, by the supposition of an etheric vortex subject to an incoming force of the Logos—both the “Lotuses” described in the Hindu books and the number of their petals is accounted for by the author, who substitutes for the Svādhishthāna centre a six-petalled lotus at the spleen,⁴ and corrects the number of petals of the lotus in the head, which he says is not a thousand, as the books of this Yoga say, “but exactly 960”.⁶ The “etheric” centre which keeps alive the physical vehicle is said to correspond with an “astral” centre of four dimensions, but between them is a closely woven sheath or web composed of a single compressed layer of physical atoms, which prevents a premature opening up of communication between the planes. There is a way, it is said, in which these may be properly opened or developed so as to bring more through this channel from the higher planes than ordinarily passes thereby. Each of these “astral” centres has certain functions: at the navel, a simple power of feeling; at the spleen, “conscious travel” in the astral body; at the heart, “a power to comprehend and sympathise with the vibrations of other astral entities”; at the throat, power of hearing on the astral plane; between the eyebrows, “astral sight”; at the “top of the head,” perfection of all faculties of the astral life.¹ These centres are therefore said to take the place to some extent of sense organs for the astral body. In the first centre, “at the base of the spine,” is the “serpent fire,” or Kundalinī, which exists in seven layers or seven degrees of force.² This is the manifestation in etheric matter, on the physical plane, of one of the great world forces, one of the powers of the Logos of which vitality and electricity are examples. It is not, it is said, the same as Prāna, or vitality.³ The “etheric centres” when fully aroused by the “Serpent Fire” bring down, it is alleged, into physical consciousness whatever
1 Certain Siddhis or occult powers are acquired at each centre as the practitioner works his way upwards.
2 The petals of the lotus are Prānashaktī manifested by Prānavāyu or vital force. Each lotus is a centre of a different form of “matter” (Bhūta) there predominant.—A.A.
3 This is a Western term.—A.A.
4 Not mentioned in the account here given.—A.A.
5 See last note but three.
6 So little attention seems to be given to exactitude in this matter that one of the letters is dropped in order to make 1,000 petals—that is, 50 × 20. “Thousand” is, here only symbolic of magnitude.—A.A.
1 Certain Siddhis are said to be gained at each centre. But the top of the head is far beyond the “astral” life. There Samādhi, or union with the Supreme Consciousness, is had.—A.A.
2 Parashabda which is Kundalinī in Her aspect as cause of all sound has seven aspects from Kundalī to Bindu.—A.A.
3 Kundalī is Shabdabrahman or the “Word (Vāk)” in bodies, and is in Her own form (Svarūpa) Pure Consciousness, and is all Powers (Sarva-shaktimaya). Kundalī is in fact the cosmic energy in bodies and as such the cause of all and though manifesting as, is not confined to, any of Her products.—A.A.
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