Chapter 6
SUN-KUNDALINI AND EARTH-KUNDALINI
OW wonderful a difference the stirring of Kundalini makes as regards sensitiveness to influence either emanating from a centre or aroused by activity, as for example in a Church service ! To go into a city is to feel as if every vital part drooped, as flowers droop for want of air. Under stimulating influences, such as proximity to a centre of spiritual vitality, to some temples and churches, or the taking part in ceremonial activities, or in meetings highly charged with uplifting influences, the centres seem to unfold as a flower opens to the Sun, and Kundalini glows throughout the body. And this unfoldment and glow make contact between the lower and higher bodies, bringing into the lower the influences of the higher. In the beginning of Kundalini development it is at once a pain and a glory to contact such spiritual influences—a pain because Kundalini has not yet overcome the obstacles to its unfoldment, a glory because the Fire of Life Eternal is flowing through every vehicle, and for the time being one lives in the larger consciousness. On occasions there will be an immediate intensification of Kundalini from the base of the spine, and a beautiful glow which serves to intensify identification both with the aspiration, which the occasion may have released, and with the descent of blessing for which the aspiration has become the channel.
There seem as if there are two sources of Kundalini, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that Kundalini plays between two poles, one positive — the Sun, one negative—the Earth, at all events so far as regards our particular evolution. The Rod of Power, well known to the deeper students of occultism, seems both to symbolize this fact and to express it. The negative Earth globe at one end, the positive Sun globe at the other, and the Fire in each and in-between. To hold the Rod of Power is to grasp the Power of God. Few there be who may touch it. It is a focus on occasions of stupendous outpourings of Force.
The heart of the Earth is one pole of Kundalini, the heart of the Sun is the other. Now the awakening of Kundalini is tantamount to a fashioning of a shadow of the Rod between the globes. In one sense one ever is a Rod, but the Rod is not yet awake. It is asleep or dreaming, and the Fire itself slumbers. To awaken Kundalini is to fan the Fire into a consuming Flame, burning, purifying, energizing, making conscious contact with the Universal Fire.
To awaken Kundalini is to draw the Fire " from Earth beneath," " from Heaven above," so that the bodies, including the physical, become as a Rod between the two great centres. The individual, as it were, steps consciously into the space between the centres and becomes charged with the interplay of force, with Kundalini.
Let me try to visualize the process. I have written above of concentration on the base of the spine. But the base of the spine is in fact but a receiving station, a centre of distribution. From the centre of the Earth and from the Sun we draw the Kundalini power. We concentrate it at the spine-base centre and send it on its vitalizing way through the great centres of being. Up flows Kundalini from the Earth, through feet and limbs, through the negative creative energy, the centre of physical creation, into the globe at the base of the spine which represents and unifies both Sun and Earth. Down flows Kundalini from the Sun, its overwhelming intensity tempered as it adapts itself to the undeveloped mortal man. Upward flows a stream of Fire. Downward flows a stream of Fire. And the streams meet at the spine base to weld as it were into a spear of concentrated Force to travel upward on its appointed way. 1 think of the beautiful concentration of the mighty Jumna and the majestic Ganga at Allahabad, whence they flow united down to the sea from which in very truth they came. So do Earth-Kundalini and Sun-Kundalini meet in the globe at the root of the spine, thence flowing as one great Force into the Real, upon their surface the individual himself being carried onward into the Light. The negative Earth and the positive Sun combine, and spiritual Power is the fruition of the two.
In some ways, of course, this description is very inaccurate. Perhaps the truth would lie in the suggestion that both negative and positive slumber, as it is well they should, until both are stirred into life. The negative is no less valuable than the positive. Each has its part to play, its work to do.
Thus the individual, not merely his physical body but all his bodies—more the non-physical bodies than the physical body—becomes a Rod between the globes, between Earth and Sun.
At this point the student finds entering into the perspective of his vision the great triple Fire symbolized in the Caduceus. The Caduceus Fire and that of Kundalini lie close and together, forming a splendid rainbow of colour. They subserve the same ends—differently. There is intimate connection between the Caduceus formed of the central line of force and its male and female intertwining aspects and the Fire of Kundalini. Though from one point of view the two forces are distinct, from another they are complementary and one might even almost say identical, being reflections of the Activity facet of the Diamond of Fire.
The Caduceus seems independently awakenable, that is to say, stirred into conscious usage on the part of the individual. But its relationship with Kundalini is intimate.
The student whose experiences are here recorded was unable to pursue further the intricacies of the relationship and respective functionings of the Caduceus Fire and the Kundalini Fire. But in Theosophical literature these are examined. All he could see was a stream of Fire, differently-hued, flowing from the root of the spine up into the head, with subtle connections maintaining ever open channels between those macrocosmic forces of which it is a current. It was very easy to confuse the Caduceus force with the force of Kundalini, for there is an eternal alliance between them ; and the beginner always tends to perceive sameness before he notices differences. The student concerned had the distinct impression that while the Fire of the Caduceus offered a Way of Release, the Fire of Kundalini offered a Way of Fulfilment. Phrases in these regions must never be taken very literally, for here there are no impenetrable compartments, each aloof from all the rest. But it seemed as if Sushumna with its Ida and Pingala aspects, the Caduceus, were a route of release from confinement within the lower bodies, while the Fire of Kundalini is rather in the nature of a witness-guide to the identity of the larger with the smaller consciousness. The difference may be subtle, and from a functional point of view somewhat unreal. Yet it seems definite and probably has foundation in a fact not as yet clearly perceptible. Of some very close relationship between the two Fires there seems no doubt.
Meditation on these two Fires was provocative of imaginings, speculations, which tended to get out of hand—naturally so, since contact had been established with Cosmic Power, and there was a temporary illumination of the individuality with Cosmic Light. Immediately there was a sense of a swinging between the positive and negative forces of Fire Light-Life—Earth and Sun. Are there negative and positive centres in all individualities, human, nonhuman, super-human, sub-human? May we divide the centres we know according to their Earth-nature or their Sun-nature? Is the throat an Earth-centre, and the heart a Sun-centre? But such speculations lead the student into channels of investigation which for the time being are distinctly unprofitable.
Chapter 7
THE HIGH PURPOSE OF KUNDALINI
HE process of working up and down the spine having been begun, the next business is to set up movement between the various centres. The first valid centre is the solar plexus, and communication is to be established between the base of the spine and the solar plexus, round about the navel. The touching of the solar plexus gives rise to the same sensation of expansion of consciousness as in the case of the spinal movement. The stomach may, and probably will, feel some disturbance, a sickish feeling. But that does not matter. The student did not trace how the Force reaches the solar plexus, but it seems to be by a roundabout way.
Whenever a centre is vitalized with the Fire there is a sense of expansion of consciousness and of highly stimulated faculty, and particularly is the intuition developed since there is greatly increased contact between the higher and the lower bodies, the higher fortunately being able to dominate, or the process of arousing Kundalini would not have been permitted.
As it is, not only is there absence of the slightest sexual disturbance, but such remnants of sex-nature as there may have been seem to be transmuted and transformed into their true purpose—virility and creativeness, and thus Godliness. Instead of being confined within localized creative power which partly assumes the form of sex-impulse, life begins to dwell in the universal creative principle, in the Fire of Creation : the lower ascends into the higher, the particular into the universal. And when the particular becomes lost in the universal, thereby discovering its true Eternity, then the universal descends to take up its abode in the individual. This is part of the objective of Kundalini.
It is sometimes thought that the development of Kundalini leads to clairvoyance and continuous interplane consciousness, or to the linking of the various levels of consciousness, so that other statesof consciousness may be connected with the waking consciousness. This does take place in due course, but of far greater importance is a very real transsubstantiation, the higher consciousness becoming jewels in the setting of the lower, the higher taking up its abode in the lower, that is to say in the waking consciousness itself. The lower knows itself to be a setting, and offers its substance for the jewels of the higher. This is in fact a setting up of continuous consciousness. Whether in fact clairvoyance, etc., arises or not, though in course of time it will, is of far less importance than the definite establishment of the higher consciousness—Buddhic and later Nirvanic—in the waking consciousness, this being the high purpose of the arousing of Kundalini. This means, as has been said, an extraordinary vivification of intuition—pure knowledge untainted, undistorted, by the personal equation ; for into awakened Buddhic and Nirvanic consciousness no un-universalized personal equation can ever enter. The personal equation is transcended, the desires of the lower self begin to be transmuted into the Will of the One Great Self. We may trust to an intuition vivified, purified, by Kundalini, but we must take care that we allow no outside considerations to distort. If we dwell in the realm of pure intuition our conclusions are likely to be true. Let us trust first impressions provided we sense them as coming from the depths of our being and not from the shallows. The arousing of Kundalini should establish us permanently in the Real—this is its supreme objective, all other results can only be incidental to this great end.
There seem to be two general systems of Kundalini development ; one which proceeds slowly, very slowly, and carefully, little by little, perhaps extending over lives, the various psychic faculties being developed pan passu with general growth ; the other being to leave the positive arousing of Kundalini? until the last moment, so to speak, and then, when all is safe and the word of the Master has gone forth, to arouse Kundalini with a rush. This method has in one sense more of risk in it, but there should not be any if the individual is alert. I am reminded of the launching of a ship. She goes down, gradually increasing in speed, into the sea, but only after all details of the slipway are attended to with most meticulous care. But once she is set going she quickly takes the plunge. In some cases, this latter method is employed, in others, the former.
As a setting for the right development of Kundalini, there is always an extraordinary desire to use the intensified power to help others. There is often the deliberate turning of oneself into a negative photographic plate, " exposing " it to those nearby, that their needs may be directly known. This longing to be of service to others is greatly stimulated, and indeed much more help can be given, because of the vivified intuition. One even feels inclined to advise some of one's friends, if they ask, quite frankly as to what they need, the advice being available because the individual has discerned so very clearly, with the aid of Kundalini, what he himself needs. He can help others because he has discovered how to help himself. But discretion and tact are the better part of valour, and one must not hinder in the effort to be helpful.
Chapter 8
CENTRES AND FUNCTIONS OF KUNDALINI
ORE advanced students often show the student a number of ways of using Kundalini, which, by the way, seems crimson in colour. One method is of drawing a pupil into the teacher's own Kundalini-infused aura, so that he takes, as it were, a Kundalini bath. This is a potent vitalization, and does no harm at all, provided the teacher takes care, as he does, to see that in the individual there are no prominent characteristics which might be undesirably intensified by Kundalini stimulation. It should be remembered that to bathe in Kundalini does not involve the arousing of Kundalini, for in one way we are all bathing in Kundalini, the vital principle, Bergson's elan vital. But to admit a person to a bath of what may be called concentrated Kundalini demands care. It might be suitable for an undeveloped person of an unobjectionable disposition, and also for a developed person who has already learned to dominate his lower nature.
One of the reasons at any rate why the Elder Brethren are unable to live in the outer world is the effect upon the average individual of Their supremely dynamic Kundalini. We know how a wireless station, for example, seems charged with electricity — the air being full of it. Some people are adversely affected by this electrical atmosphere. Similarly, in far more intense degree, many people would be even dangerously affected by the physical propinquity of an Elder Brother dynamic with Kundalini Fire. The world is not yet ready for such stimulation. Consider the effect the Christ had upon the people 2,000 years ago even though He used the body of a disciple. The Kundalini Fire in the disciple, inevitably intensified by the immediate presence of the Christ, fired the people one way or the other, and finally the other. There was inadequate self-control to stand the strain of the searching penetration of Kundalini. We have been told that this was anticipated, and that the work planned was fulfilled when a few disciples became available to transmit the Christ's Message to future generations. No more was expected from the people of the time, or perhaps not much more, for it was realized that the force introduced into their midst would probably be too much for them. Yet, for the sake of the few who could be inspired to pass on the Message to unborn generations, the risk of non-acceptance and of the murder of the physical vehicle of the Lord had to be run. May it not be that the karma of the Jews is not so heavy as might otherwise be imagined, for they were face to face with a Force the effects of which even the Love of the Christ Himself could not neutralize, or should I rather say, turn aside, transmute or veil?
Kundalini Fire is the essence of the Love of God, so that there can be no question of neutralization, but only of, as it were, protecting the eyes from a blinding Light. This could not be perfectly done 2,000 years ago.
In this connection, there are a number of complicated considerations into which I need not enter. One, for example, is the extent to which constant and immediate contact with crowds has to be avoided, much of the work being done from centres, rather than in the midst of the people.
The Word of a Saviour thus descends into the future partly through His life in His disciples, partly through transmission by disciples and through books, but largely, mainly, through highly charged Kundalini centres, Kundalini thus concentrating in special areas on the surface of the earth : bathing pools of Fire, spiritual bathing pools, as they indeed become, as well as centres for the emanation of the Fire throughout the world.
To return to the methods of using Kundalini another way seemed to be that of directing a stream through the head of an individual, through what seemed to be a funnel-shaped opening, so that the stream floods the body, or rather the bodies. This is a safe method of using the Force since it reflects the principle of fructification, which is ever from above—sunshine, rain, etc. Care must, however, be taken that the Force thus employed is adapted in intensity to the receptivity of the individual. Some people may be able to stand a tropical storm, but the majority need but gentle rain.
A third method of the use of this Fire is in the case of protection against machinations of Brethren of the Shadow. A student came across a case of an undesirable person who was inciting people to commit suicide, and had even urged them to the point of hanging cords around their necks. The law allowed him in this case to spray upon the undesirable individual, or possibly " thought-form " emanating from an undesirable individual, a piercing stream of crimson Fire. In the case of the form, it was at once destroyed, thus instantly freeing the victims from their obsession. What was the nature of the repercussion upon the individual himself? Probably illness, possibly disintegration. A curious feature of the process seemed to be that the Fire was directed from a centre. It seems as if Kundalini can be sent forth from any centre, though preferably from the solar plexus centre or from the centre between the eyebrows. We thus begin to realize that the great centres of the body are the main distributors of force. It is not a matter of eyes or hands or feet, but of centres.
Chapter 9
THE INDIVIDUALITY OF KUNDALINI
URIOUSLY enough, even though there seems to be obstruction at the top of the head, not in the centre of the head but actually at the top, nevertheless to a certain extent Kundalini pierces its way through and ascends through the top of the head beyond the physical body like a fountain of coloured water. The result is a stream which opens out so that there is the appearance of a tunnel, Kundalini flowing outwards, as it were, over the edge of the funnel. In the beginning this funnel emerges only a short distance, but as the piercing process proceeds the force of the stream becomes greater and Kundalini rises to a great height. All head obstructions vanish, with the result that contact is made, a channel pierced, between the various types of consciousness, leading to continuous consciousness and to constant contact between the various planes and the physical-brain waking consciousness.
What is the nature of the obstruction at the top of the head ? It has the appearance of a mass of grains of " sand," yellowish in colour, through which Kundalini is endeavouring to effect a permanent passage, tearing apart the mass, making a hole through it, a process of some difficulty, some pain, and a certain amount of danger. At first, Kundalini only glows. As time passes, the glow must become a burning nucleus and later a consuming, purifying and releasing fire. These grains of " sand " presumably are cells, and they are not so close to one another that Kundalini cannot effect some sort of a passage, just as water can escape through a sieve.
It is interesting to watch the nature of the process of awakening Kundalini as it takes place during the sleep of the physical body. The most interesting observation is as to the density or solidity of Kundalini itself. From one standpoint, Kundalini is a Fire, liquid Fire, but from another there is an exact simile in the planting of a long pole in a hole in the ground. The earth has to be hollowed out and the pole inserted into the hole thus made.
Similarly, in the lower bodies obstruction has to be removed from the course Kundalini must take — obstruction both physical, etheric, and possibly higher as well; and the picture the student had in his mind's eye as he awoke is of digging away varying densities of solids so that another kind of solid may enter the passage thus cleared. One might well employ the simile of boring into the earth. In the course of the process earth is encountered, earth and water are encountered, then perhaps water alone, and if one went far enough down one would meet molten masses and gases of various kinds. Now boring upwards has to take place for Kundalini, and the same kinds of obstructions are encountered, different kinds of solids even though we call them solids, liquids, gases, and so on. All are solids. Kundalini is a solid, and if it is to do its work, certain other kinds of solids must be removed out of the way. Not that it cannot more or less interpenetrate them. It can and does permeate them to a certain extent. But its main objective cannot be accomplished unless it has a clear passage, and this involves the removal, perhaps only to a very small extent, of physical obstruction, possibly a heaping to either side, just as a crowd has to give way before an oncoming procession. There is probably partly a burning away and partly this crowding on either side.
As the channel is formed the pole of Kundalini is pushed up—a matter of time. The idea of Kundalini as a pole being gradually inserted into a hole seems to be more accurate than at first sight may appear. The distinctions we make between solids, liquids and gases, and so on, are relative terms. There are solids to which the most solid things we know are supremely light and airy. Some of these solids one notices in the inner regions of the earth. This is one way of regarding solids. Another way is to look upon the increasingly Real as, in the truest sense of the word, "solid," increasingly solid, substantial. From this point of view, Kundalini is more solid than the most solid substance we know, using the word "solid" as synonymous for "real".
Dealing with Kundalini in these terms one is conscious of its solidity as compared with that of physical matter or of substances next in degree of solidity, from the physical plane standpoint, to physical matter. Kundalini seems much more solid than these, and the process of awakening Kundalini may thus be not at all inaptly compared with the removal of earth, and of earth mixed with water, for the entry of a pole of solid wood, as has already been suggested. The pole of solid wood is relatively far more solid than earth or water. So is Kundalini from a certain point of view far more solid than the obstructions which have to be removed. I am not surprised, therefore, that the translation into terms of waking consciousness of the digging process, taking place during the sleep of the physical body, is that of the removal of earth and water so that a hole may be made for the entry of a very solid object indeed. In one sense, mental matter is much more "solid" than emotional matter, Buddhic more "solid" than mental, Nirvanic than Buddhic ; just as space may be considered more solid than that which fills it. What we call matter can only be where the more solid so-called " space " is not there to prevent its presence. We have to drive away space in order to make room for matter. But sometimes we must drive away matter in order to make room for space, and this is what we are doing when arousing Kundalini, for Kundalini belongs, relatively, more to space than to matter.
There are speculations about Kundalini in which one is almost afraid to indulge. Universal, Cosmic Fire as it is, nevertheless it seems to be constituted of innumerable diverse elements, and one or another of these shines forth according to the setting of the Fire in individualities belonging to one or another of the great evolutionary streams. Each centre represents a line of energy, and in each individuality, therefore, one centre is dominant, while another comes next in importance. So is it that Kundalini adapts itself—I ought, of course, to say herself—to the pre-eminent note, and seems as if it energized the various centres according to their respective importances in the particular human body. It courses lightly, as it were, through the sub-dominant centres, touching them to minor vivification only, but giving radiance indeed to the centres which have special preeminence. And this principle obtains throughout the evolutionary process, in the vast macrocosms no less than in the minutest microcosms.
But Kundalini definitely stimulates each centre, whirling as each already is, throbbing and piercing its way upwards to the great head junction. There seems to be little doubt that there is a spiral, corkscrew movement of Kundalini as it surges upwards, concentrating on the centres which are outstanding because of the individual's Ray(1) and temperament, and sometimes vivifying certain centres which need special stimulation in view of certain work the individual has to undertake. Here one centre is stimulated more than the rest. There another centre is singled out. And perceiving this one wonders if nations and races, faiths and sects, have their super-ordinate centre as well as their subordinate centres, so that the Fire of Kundalini has to be all things to all centres.
One wonders if the same be true of land, of sea, of valley, of mountain, of forest, of plain. And then comes the speculation as to the supreme Centre of the Earth. The Earth, as we are told, has its colour, its note. Has it not its special centre also? This seems to be without doubt, as must also be the case with the Sun, with a Solar System, in fact with every organism. And when one tries to follow this speculation with the inner vision one becomes lost in regions of consciousness which forbid exploration, and one turns back wisely, though regretfully, into those realms which are, as these others are not yet, for our conquering.
The burning sensation, so usually associated with Kundalini, and by no means confined within the channels of its passage through the body, is not necessarily inevitable. There may be a sensation of cold, of pressure, of a bursting, the latter generally within the head. Some students have experienced an uncomfortable warmth throughout the trunk of the body, with extension into the head, so that the whole of the upper part of the body seems intensely hot, streaming forth heat in all directions.
But always, and this is an acid test of the rightness of the experience, the whole body becomes comparatively universalized as to its sensitiveness. The whole body becomes, as it were, a Gauge of the Real, so that discrimination, as has been said before, is alive from the feet to the very top of the head itself. This is a reflection on the physical plane of the absence in the inner bodies of the localization of faculties which is so apparent in the physical body itself. There arises, with the vivification of Kundalini, a blending of the lower with the higher bodies, so that there begins to be one vehicle—receptive and active in every part of its being.
In the higher regions of consciousness we cease to speak of vehicles, for the place of these is taken by radiances ; and when Kundalini is still further developed, the consciousness which in the physical body has localizations, and in the higher bodies is co-extensive with their frontiers, will, in the highest regions, become concentrated in a centre, whence rays will issue forth in all directions.
Evolution consists in a going forth into the whole of manifested life, in contacting the farthest circumferences ; but the way of return is to bring back, stage by stage, to the Centre the fruits of the going forth, the sum total of all the experiences. Thus do we seem to come to the point of concluding that in some mysterious way Kundalini remains for ever individual to its recipient, however much it may always be inseparable from the Universal Fire whence it issues forth. In some mysterious way it would seem as if Kundalini partakes of the nature of the Permanent Atom(2), cannot disintegrate, and forms the eternal Fire of the evolving individuality.
I have said that it cannot disintegrate. From one point of view nothing disintegrates. All that anything can do is to return home awhile, and this is what Kundalini probably does. The coursing of Kundalini through the centres of the body, its picking out a special centre or centres for major vivification, its issuing forth from the head, its unificatory powers —all are the gathering of experience for the Fire which is the individual himself.
We must, it seems clear, free ourselves from the habit of looking upon our bodies as just flesh and blood, as just matter, as matter is known in these days of feeble vision. All things are modes of manifestation of each other. All are modes of the manifestation of Fire, or of any other supreme expression of the Creative Spirit which we may be able to conceive. In Christian scriptures we have the conception of Fire as the third aspect of the Trinity, God the Holy Ghost. But behind all divisions there is the One without a Second, and true indeed is it that all that we can predicate of the expressions of the One we can predicate still more of the One Itself. So, from one aspect we may express the Creative Spirit as Fire, and all that comes from it as Fire no less. Hence we think of Kundalini as the heart, the permanent Fire, of the vehicles of an individual, and we think we see in the Permanent Atom the Fire of Kundalini awaiting its next forthgoing.
There seem to be inbreathings and outbreathings, pulsations of Kundalini. Observation seems to show that all things breathe, and that there are the most marvellous interpretations to be assigned to these breathings. The intensity of Kundalini waxes and wanes. It rises and falls, even in its surgings. It is exceedingly difficult to follow all this, for the student who has been observing is inexperienced, and in addition is confronted with the intensifications produced in his own Kundalini by the very observations themselves. Attention feeds, as inattention starves; and these constant experiences and experiments increase his own Kundalini activity. In these waxings and wanings Kundalini is evidently profoundly affected by the surroundings of the body in which it dwells. In the great open spaces, in the harmonious, rhythmic and well-ordered home, at sea, in close proximity to hills and mountains, in special gatherings of an uplifting nature, in well-directed ceremonial gatherings, in churches, temples and mosques round which fine devotion has gathered, in schools and colleges from which all fear is entirely absent and there subsists a beautiful relationship between teachers and taught : in all these, and other conditions of the same type, as in places of study, Kundalini waxes. But in towns and cities, in crowded places, in theatres, restaurants, picture-houses, in the ordinary public meeting devoid of any particular aspirational element, Kundalini wanes, that is to say it receives no stimulus. But always is there a tide in the affairs of Kundalini, an ebbing and a flowing, a rising and a falling, however imperceptible. It would seem doubtful if ever Kundalini is actually asleep, however inactive it may appear to be, for it must needs share the functioning of Kundalim everywhere, and as a whole Kundalini is astir throughout the spaces. Nevertheless, we feed Kundalini, and we starve Kundalini, in the veriest trifles of our living — physical, emotional, mental and beyond.
One observation which was of tremendous interest to the student making all these contacts was the use of what is called the Thyrsus in the special awakenings of Kundalini which from time to time take place. The Thyrsus has the magnetic property of reaching out into intimate touch with Kundalini and of causing Kundalini to follow it as iron is attracted by a magnet. In the ancient days the Thyrsus was very well known, and was evidently used in cases where a kind of artificial stimulation of Kundalini was indicated. It was certainly known to the Yogis of old in India, and to the Egyptians and the Greeks. The Thyrsus observed was manufactured of some brilliantly white metal, cylindrical in shape, about twenty-four inches long, an inch or so in diameter, and resembled nothing so much as the ordinary ruler. It was placed at the root of the spine and then drawn upwards, Kundalini following after it. Of course, the Thyrsus could only be used by those who already had an intimate knowledge of the workings of Kundalini.
1) Theosophy teaches that all life, whether in mineral, plant, animal or man, is the One Life. This One Life, long before it begins its work in mineral matter, differentiates itself into seven great streams, each of which has its own special and unchanging characteristics. These fundamental types are known as the Rays. These seven types are to be found among men, and we all belong to one or other of them. Fundamental differences of this sort in the human race have always been recognized ; a century ago men were described as of the lymphatic or the sanguine type, the vital or the phlegmatic ; and astrologers classify us under the names of the planets as Jupiter men, Mars men, Venus or Saturn men, and so on.
2) The central nucleus of each of man's bodies is a Permanent Atom, so-called because it remains ever within the periphery of the higher aura, even when the body itself has disintegrated. At rebirth, from this atom emanates a web-like substance into which the actual atomic particles of the new body are builded. The use of the permanent atoms is to preserve within themselves, as vibratory powers, the results of all the experiences through which they have passed. We must not think of the minute space of an atom as crowded with innumerable vibrating bodies, but of a limited number of bodies, each capable of setting up innumerable vibrations.
Chapter 10
THE MUSIC OF KUNDALINI
AN we describe the great Serpent-Fire of Kundalini in its fundamental glories, in its colours, in its shapes, in its music-notes? Can we describe its song ? Can we describe its rainbow?
Kundalini is music as it is colour. It is a rainbow as it is a perfect song. The student senses this as he enters into its nature. Kundalini comes from afar, trailing clouds of colour and of sound. Kundalini is a perfect fruition of Life. It is a consummation of Life. It vibrates with consummated experience. Whose experience? The experience of One who has been one, but who has resolved into glory upon glory the unfoldments of His evolutionary way—unfoldments in darkness and in light, in peace and in storm, in joy and in sorrow. He has sown experiences, and He has reaped Flowers, a Garden of Flowers, Flowers that sing, Flowers that breathe forth colour.
Could the student but hear the Song of Kundalini, could he but " see " the colours of the Fire, he would know what Life is, for he would be penetrating into the very heart of Being. But his senses are dull, even those with the aid of which he experiments and experiences. He can know that which to him is knowable, and he can see as through a mist the as yet unknowable, and through the mist comes the glory of a throbbing majesty of sound — a single world-encircling, world-drenching throb of sound, yet containing within itself a veritable world of music. Through the mist, too, comes the glory of a mighty rainbow of colour, no less world-encircling and world-drenching. All is alive with colour-sound, colour singing, song colourful.
The student feels he may not suggest either a colour or a note as expressive of Kundalini, for each of us hears himself differently, sees himself differently, in this magic crystal of blended colour-sound. Let each listen. Let each see. It were almost a blasphemy to dim the crystal from its all-embracing purity. Yet our Kundalini?, the Cosmic Kundalini from our Lord the Sun and the individual Kundalini from our Mother the Earth, has its note dominant, different from the notes dominant of other modes of evolution, and is a blend of the Song of the Sun and the Song of the Earth. Our Lord the Sun sings His Song for all His universe. Our Mother the Earth sings her answering note, the note of life unfolding on her bosom. So does our Lord the Sun send forth His colour, and our Mother the Earth shines, in all her colour, radiance in answering homage.
How near sometimes the student seems to come to the song of Kundalini from the Sun, to the colour of it, and to the song of Kundalini from the Earth, to the colour of it. He sees at once that the Earth is but an image of the Sun her Father. The song of the Earth, the colour of the Earth, are but immature shadows of that coming substance perfectly resplendent in the Sun. He sees that all the singing from the Earth, and all the colour-messages, are but praise to the Lord of all, and from the heights of man in all his trappings of bodies right down to the humblest atom in the lowest of nature's kingdoms the student hears a song of praise and colour-throbbings of aspiration. Our Lord the Sun has set them all afire. He has set them all a-singing. He has set them all a-shining in a myriad hues. In their joy, in their deep consciousness that as He is so shall they be through the mystery of His Being in colour and in sound, they give to Him that which they have received from Him. Our Songs, our Colours, our Life, our Light, our Glory, are from Him, and we lift up our gifts that He may see we cherish them.
Kundalini sings to the student with the voice of all that lives. The student thus begins to know all life, not by a forthgoing, but by an indrawing. In the hidden recesses of his own Kundalini, if the possessive be pardoned, he finds the secret of the Unity of Life, as he has known Life's solidarities without.
There is a Unity, and it sings one song, composed though the song be of an infinitude of notes. There is a Unity, and it sends forth one colour, composed though it be of an infinitude of colours. There is but one song, but one colour, for all life on this Kundalini-Globe we call the Earth. In the Kundalini we hear the song, we see the colour. And when we are able to make external that which for so long must remain internal, and remote and inaccessible, only now and then revealing itself, when at last we are the Unity, then do we pass beyond the human kingdom, as we have passed beyond the kingdoms below, and the Kingship of the Matter-World is ours.
Kundalini is indeed vocal. She can be heard by those who have the ears to hear. She is substantial, even though yet more spatial, and can be seen by those who have the eyes to see. Kundalini is no mere fanciful abstraction. She is no mere theory, no mere externalization of an imaginative outpouring. She lives. She sings. She arrays herself in scintillating colours.
When we seek her within ourselves, and perchance catch a glimpse, be it in her sleep or in her stirrings, of her compassionate elusiveness, then if our eyes and ears be but faintly open, we shall see her raiment and hear her voice. And these shall be our raiment and our voice, not as these are now, but as these shall be some day. Is it not worth while to seek her, not by striving to awaken her before her rightful sleep is over, not by disturbing her if on occasion she sallies forth within the domain which is hers to illumine, but just by watching, as this student has watched, respectfully, without a ripple of desire for response?
The way to seek her is to detach oneself from one's anchorages, to break the bars of all imprisonments of physical body, feelings and emotions, and mind, and to lose oneself in the formless spaces of Life's infinitudes. It is needful to " feel" the infinitudes in their limitless natures, not going forth infinitely far, but being infinitely still. There is no far nor near when perfect stillness is achieved. Yet the stillness is vocal. It is supremely still because it is throbbing—I wish there were a word to express throbbing to the supreme degree of imperceptibility — with the Song, the Voice, of the Stillness. When that still, small Voice, infinitely potent by very reason of its small stillness, is heard, then are we hearing Kundalini — afar off, yes; inevitably so. But in the distant future to be our Voice, our very selves singing for joy.
So, too, in the perfect clarity of the silence, we shall see a warmth because of its warmth ol colour. Then shall we be seeing Kundalini — afar off, yes ; inevitably so. But in the distant future to be our Colour, our very selves shining for joy.
Chapter 11
ACCOUNT OF AN EXPERIENCE
ET this little book conclude with an account of an experience which from one point of view may appear utterly remote from Kundalini, yet in fact was the direct result of the stimulation of this mighty Fire and of an apparent flowing on its surface " back" into the at present undiscoverable past. Indeed does Kundalini break down barriers, not merely of consciousness in terms of matter but no less in terms of time. The ridges between present and past, and present and future, become transcended, at all events within limits, and the Eternal becomes the Real rather than the modes of time. The student who was experimenting and experiencing was more interested in the past than in either present or future, so where travelling was possible he tended to travel " backwards" rather than outwards or forwards. Hence the experience which follows.
The student finds himself on a stream of Kundalini, and moves on the stream towards time's beginnings so far as this particular evolution is concerned.
He moves back and back and back, until he finds himself strangely immersed in the majestic profundities of the opening of a new era of life.
He looks about him, though who exactly this " he " is he does not know, largely because he does not care—it is that at which he is looking that absorbs him.
He sees before him—how entirely inadequate are descriptions which must needs be couched in small physical terminologies—a vast expanse of substance. Matter is not the right word at all, nor even is substance. The word Sea would be better if it did not so forcibly connote liquid. The sentence might well have read " a vast expanse of Fire," but there is inadequacy in this also.
At any rate there is a vast expanse, the nature of which is that it is known and therefore has within it the potentiality of knowing. Whether this sentence is intelligible or not is, perhaps, doubtful. But the dominant characteristic of the expanse is the fact that it is being known all the time, and that in such knowledge lies the fact of its own potency to know.
Being known, there is involved a Knower. And the student immediately conceives the principle that at the dawn of an evolutionary unfoldment there are two elements—a Known and a Knower. There is an infinitude of Known, and a Knower who in Himself sums up the apotheosis of the evolutionary process to which He belonged. He is a God and more than a God. He is a Sun.
The student perceives that by very reason of the Knower it might be postulated of the Known that it consists of an infinitude of Knowers in their becoming.
The Known comprises, therefore, innumerable Knowers who do not know. Or, there are innumerable Fires which do not glow. On this expanse the Knower breathes the Fire of His knowing. And so evolution begins. Innumerable Fires begin to glow in the spirit of their fireness, for the unconscious has met its mate in the conscious. The Known has met its mate in the Knower.
Sparks issue forth.
Sparks become microscopic flames.
And there is added the fuel of kingdom after kingdom of nature, fed by the Knower, who has known kingdoms and has brought them forth through the Fire of Kundalini.
The flames grow larger. More and more fuel-experience.
The flames burst into microscopic fires.
The fires expand into conflagrations—towering greatnesses of Fire. Kingdom after kingdom feeds sparks and flames and fires, until all human fuel is resolved into Fire, as already has been the fuel of the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms before it.
And then Fires triumphant enter into the Essence of Fire. The very Form of Fire is consumed, and the Life of Fire shines forth in perfect purity.
From Fire-Form to Fire-Life.
Thus onwards into immeasurably transcendent regions, in which, perchance, even the Essence of Fire merges into that which lies beyond.
Thus from being Known, the Known becomes the Knower. And the Knower withdraws into the transcendence of Being. On the bosom of Being He rests for re-creation.
THERE IS A HUSH OF THE SILENCE OF ETERNITY
In the Silence the clarion call of a pure Note of Forthgoing causing the Silence to vibrate in the rhythm of its own Perfection.
The Knower comes forth.
And on the expanse of a Known He breathes the Fire of his knowing.
Again begins an evolution.
And all are Knowers in the Becoming.