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Kundalini
an Occult Experience
by

G.S.Arundale

1938

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING HOUSE

ADYAR, MADRAS, INDIA

Basilisc

Occult Documents/ Occult Specials No. 1

© pdf Benjamin Adamah 2009
www.luxnoxhex.org

CONTENTS

EXPLANATION

This book is emphatically not a guide to the awakening of Kundalini. On the
other hand, there is an aura encircling all rightful experiments and
experiences, which can be conveyed even through the medium of print. This
aura not only clears the outlook of the earnest student of life, but also helps to
raise his consciousness to the more rarefied levels where the Eternal dwells
less veiled by the shadows of time.

Chapter 1

THE NATURE OF KUNDALINI

Glimpses of Kundalini in action are vouchsafed the student who is content to
watch and not to grasp. Let the descriptions be read lightly, not with the mind
but with the intuition. Thus, however fantastic they may seem, yet the reader
will perceive that they are fantastic not because they are untrue but because
they are too true.

Chapter 2

THE UNIVERSE-KUNDALINI AND CENTRES

Is there a Kundalini chain linking the constituent elements of our own solar
system, and another chain linking together the various solar systems? Surely
so, and speculation is no less interesting as to the nature of the centres of a
solar system and as to their vivification by Cosmic Kundalini. To understand
this tremendous vista it is necessary to learn how to arouse and direct

Kundalini to the various centres of the vehicles of a human being.

Chapter 3

THE DANGERS OF KUNDALINI

Can the brain stand the pressure? This and the sex danger are, perhaps, the
principal questions with regard to the arousing of Kundalini. Extreme
circumspection is vital, for the Serpent-Fire does not discriminate. It
consumes. It tends to flow along the lines of least resistance, and sometimes
such lines may lead downwards and not upwards, with indescribably
disastrous effect.

Chapter 4

KUNDALINI ACTIVE EVERYWHERE

Wherever there is life, there is Kundalini more or less awake and awakening.

But the conscious direction and handling of its power is another matter
altogether. One of the effects of Kundalini is the intensification of the sense of

Unity. A breaker-down of barriers between the various layers and states of
consciousness, Kundalini is also the breaker of barriers between the individual
himself and the larger Self without.

Chapter 5

THE DEVELOPMENT OF KUNDALINI

In the beginnings of this process dizziness is noticeable, which is perhaps the
physical expression of a new relativity, of a new adjustment, other worlds than
the physical beginning to be open to a gaze which the individual has not yet
learned to control. Sensitiveness is enormously increased, making the
individual a kind of sensitive plate upon which, for example, people in the
outer world imprint themselves, so that in a flash he knows their natures,
especially the high lights of quality and the low lights of defect.

Chapter 6

SUN-KUNDALINI AND EARTH-KUNDALINI

The heart of the earth is one pole of Kundalini, the Sun is the other. Now the
awakening of Kundalini is tantamount to making oneself the Rod between the
two. In one sense one ever is a Rod, but the Rod is not yet alive, 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.

Chapter 7

THE HIGH PURPOSE OF KUNDALINI

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,
which is the high purpose of the arousing of Kundalini. This means an
extraordinary vivification of Intuition—pure knowledge undistorted by the
personal equation. One even feels inclined to tell some of one's friends, if they
ask, quite frankly what they need.

Chapter 8

CENTRES AND FUNCTIONS OF KUNDALINI

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

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 partakes of the nature of the

Permanent Atom, cannot disintegrate, and forms the eternal Fire of the
evolving individuality.

Chapter 10

THE MUSIC OF KUNDALINI

Kundalini is music as well as colour. It is a throbbing majesty of sound and a
rainbow of colour, Kundalini sings with the voice of all that lives. In the
singing is heard the voice of the Unity of Life, and in the colours is felt the

Warmth of Life.

Chapter 11

ACCOUNT OF AN EXPERIENCE

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.

EXPLANATION

IN this brief account of a number of experiments and experiences with Kundalini,
called the Serpent-Fire for its seemingly tortuous movements and its triple power
of creating, preserving and destroying-regenerating —a veritable trinity of
activity within a mighty stream of life —I have deliberately refrained from any
comparison between statements contained in responsible Kundalini literature,
scattered, few and veiled as these must necessarily be, and the conclusion to
which the experiments and experiences seemed at the time to lead. I want these
experiments and experiences to give their own atmosphere, uncorroborated and
standing by themselves.

All statements regarding Kundalini should always be treated with the greatest
reserve, partly because the personal equation of the experimenting individual
looms very large — Kundalini acting very differently in different cases — and
partly because nothing ought to appear in print which might give even the
slightest assistance in the development of a power which destroys ruthlessly
when it is sought to be awakened before its due time.

On the other hand, there is an aura encircling all rightful experiments and
experiences which can be conveyed even through the medium of print; and I
venture
to
think
that
this
aura
not
only
clears
the outlook of the earnest student of life, but also helps to raise his consciousness
to the more rarefied levels where the Eternal dwells less veiled by the fleeting,
but
nonetheless
relatively
impenetrable,
shadows of time.

KUNDALINI AN OCCULT EXPERIENCE is emphatically not a guide to
awakening the forces of Kundalini. That is for the individual and for those Elder

Brethren whom he will sooner or later meet when he has outgrown the nursing of
the ordinary everyday circumstances of the outer world. The outer world can help an individual up to a certain point. It may see him through his school career. But
at last he begins to have learned the lessons the outer world can teach him, and
thus becomes ready for life's more advanced courses in the inner worlds.

Kundalini is a lesson in such inner worlds, part of the curriculum which prepares
him for his Master's degree.

KUNDALINI AN OCCULT EXPERIENCE, an experience in the as yet little
known field of the Serpent-Fire, is published far more for the sake of the mystery
of the adventure than for the sake of any precise knowledge which may have been
gained. Indeed, the book is not published for the sake of a knowledge of

Kundalini, but for the sake of introducing its readers to the fact that Kundalini is
a mystery, but an intriguing and fascinating mystery. All knowledge, for true
understanding, must at first be a mystery as well as an experience. It should be
approached softly and with bated breath, reverently, with joyous eagerness, and
with the sense of being in the midst of a great beyond. All true knowledge is a
mystery for ever and ever, for however much we may know, or think we know,
there is always the wondrous more drawing us onwards and upwards, giving
more beautiful worth to that which is already ours, and making our pathway to

Divinity an ever-increasing delight.

I am hoping that the discerning reader will rest content with envelopment in
provocative mystery, will be satisfied with what I hope will prove a comfortable
stretching of his consciousness so that he hardly knows where he is, so that in his
very waking consciousness he receives intimations of certain larger states, of
peaks in those Himalayan heights, which await his conquering. It is sometimes
good when one is in darkness to be reminded of the light which some day shall
pierce it. Let the reader lose his time-imprisoned self in the mystery of Kundalini
as he should be constantly losing this time-self in many another mystery. Thus
losing himself he shall gradually learn himself to adventure forth into all
mysteries, and at last to hear the Silver Voices chanting to him of his Ascension.

To dwell in knowledge is beautiful and helpful, but no less beautiful and helpful
is it to dwell in mystery, for in mystery Gods learn to know themselves as God.

Let us first be flotsam of the depths, floating peacefully and safely on their calm
and sheltering surfaces, ere we seek to penetrate their profundities against their
righteously rebellious shatterings, designed not to protest but to test worthiness
to seek. Let us know them face to face in peace, before we plunge into the storms
and cataclysms which make us one with them.

I hope that a perusal of this little book will at least cause, in each understanding
reader, an adjustment of his individual consciousness to a larger consciousness of
which it is a part. Such adjustment should be in the nature of an expansion, a
sense of happy stretching, of exhilaration, of a joyous ascent into the mountains
of his being, of an exploration of himself such as he has probably not so far
undertaken.

Finally, I apologize for all redundancies and obscure wordings. The redundancies were inevitable, since the experience sometimes repeated itself, and I have
thought it better to leave the experience in its original form of translation into
outer world language. The obscure wordings result from the endeavour to express
that which to the student was inexpressible. These obscure wordings I have also
left untouched.

G. S. A.

Chapter 1

THE NATURE OF KUNDALINI

WHAT is Kundalini? The Samskrit word has been variously translated, generally
by those who have no real conception whatever as to the function of that of which
it is the label.

It seems that the root of the word is the verb kund, which signifies "to burn". This is the vital meaning, for Kundalini is Fire in its aspect of burning. But we have a
further explanation of the word in the noun kunda, which means a hole or a bowl.

Here we are given an idea of the vessel in which the Fire burns. But there is even
more than this. There is also the noun kundala, which means a coil, a spiral, a ring. Here we are given an idea as to the way in which the Fire works, unfolds.

Out of all these essential derivatives the word Kundalini is born, giving creative
femininity to the Fire, Serpent-Fire as it is sometimes called, the feminine
creative power asleep within a bowl, within a womb, awakening to rhythmic
movement in up-rushing and downpouring streams of Fire. It is a word signifying
the feminine aspect of the creative force of evolution, which force in its
specialized and more individual potency lies asleep, curled up as in a womb, at
the base of the human spine. Its awakening is fraught with the utmost danger,
indeed disaster, save as the individual concerned is in a position to keep it under
full control. And such power to control comes only when the higher reaches of
the evolutionary way are being approached, reaches still out of sight as regards
the vast majority of mankind.

Now and then, however, glimpses of Kundalini in action are vouchsafed to the
student who is content to watch and not to grasp, and the following descriptions
are of Kundalini at work before the eyes of such a student, he interpreting what
he saw as best he could, often no doubt faultily. The experiences were
interspersed with some authorized experiments, and while it is as impossible as
it is unlawful for one student to share with any other his experiences and
experiments in any degree of fullness, it being still more impossible and unlawful for any indication to be given as to the mode of awakening Kundalini—the mode
varies substantially according to the soul-note of the individual—yet now and
then is permitted a sharing of the atmosphere of these experiences and
experiments, at least in some measure.

It is hoped that the result will be a subtle awakening of the larger consciousness,
of the shadow of a shade of the spirit of Cosmic consciousness ; so that there may
arise a fragrance of what may be called spiritual ozone, in the exhilaration of
which the reader contacts a self of his Self larger than any he has so far known
within the limitations of his present incarnation. He achieves a release, a
freedom. He becomes like a bird which has at last begun to find the use of his
wings. He flutters, even if he cannot yet fly. And in that very fluttering he begins
to distinguish between the real and the unreal, between the true and the false,
between the useful and the useless, between the beautiful and the ugly. And
though he remains unable constantly to use the discrimination thus aroused, at least he knows, he experiences, and sooner or later the knowledge-experience
becomes steady activity. When it begins so to do, then is the time for those first
feeble stirrings of Kundalini which shall eventually release in him for ever the

Fire of Life and place upon him the Crown-Flower of eternal Kingship.

We all are far away from Kingship, but perhaps the experiences and experiments
herein set forth may be intimations, however faint, of a fragment of the nature of
royal living, and thus give courage to endure and courage to conquer.

I have not edited these experiences and experiments so as to make them
intelligible, still less conventionally rational. I have left them just as they came,
with only slight modifications. Their value does not lie in their appeal to the
reason, but in their recognition as a reflection of something which the earnest
student will know to be his as well. He will see in the very incomprehensibility of
much that is described a something towards which he feels he too is irresistibly
moving. However fantastic they may seem, yet somehow he perceives that they
are fantastic not because they are untrue, but because they are still too true for
him. I hope that when they may seem absurd he will feel that their absurdity lies
only in their being so utterly foreign to all normal experience and experiment, not
in their being nonsense. Even if they may appear non-sense to his limited sense,
perhaps to some they may seem more sense, and his sense more non-sense.

Let the descriptions be read lightly, not with the mind but with the intuition, not
with an already set conviction as to what can and what cannot be, but with the
mind, the heart and the will open to all things. Let the reader be fully aware that
the unbelievable is by no means necessarily untrue, and that the consciousness
we call "I," with its various functionings — physical, emotional, mental and
beyond — is infinitely more extraordinary than even our wildest dreams could
envisage.

Chapter 2

THE UNIVERSE-KUNDALINI

AND CENTRES

THE last sentence in the foregoing chapter brings us at once to the startling
opening which heralded these various experiences and experiments.

In the first flash of intuitional and possibly higher expansion, the subject of the
experiences became engulfed in a sense of the relationship between the
microcosm and the macrocosm. He is, for the time, carried off his feet. His
consciousness flashes outwards to what seems to be the furthest confines of space, and he becomes absorbed in the glorious and perfect certainty-giving fact
of the intimate unity of his own consciousness, not only with the universal
consciousness, in so far as the word " universal " may at all be rightly used when there seems to be a universal beyond the infinite, but also with specific parts of
the universal consciousness. His own individual consciousness is a piece of
mosaic in the pattern of evolving life, and there are other pieces seemingly closely
linked to his as being of the same general rate of vibration, of the same colour.

Where are there mosaics similar in general principle to his ? And at once, as in
response, vibrations seem to come from afar and from a very precise afar not here
to be more defined. There is clearly an immense Cosmic significance of the twin-
soul theory, might I not say the multiple-soul theory, by no means within the
compass of this tiny little world of ours. And let it be said at once that the
commonplace twin-soul idea current in certain phases of modern thought is a
very poor caricature of a marvellous reality. This very earth has its twin-star,
and it becomes clear at once that the duality of life is no less fundamental than
its unity, or than its trinity. But further speculation is denied. It will not be
profitable at this stage.

In the light of this special intuition the speculation also arises, as the student is
carried still further off his feet, though not so wildly that there is no substance in
his shadows, as to the relation between the great occult Rites of the Fire on this
earth, and the Universe-Kundalini of which our Lord the Sun is the heart as well
as the body. For us, the Sun is Kundalini in excelsis, in which we live and move and have our being. Each individual Kundalini in whatever kingdom of nature, in
whatever substance — great or small — in whatever world, is part of the Sun-

Kundalini. And, strange as it may seem, these tiny Kundalini streams partake of
the omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, of their sublime Progenitor. Thus
may we say that all life, each one of us, is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent,
in the becoming. There is a most intimate connection between the Fire of our

Lord the Sun and the universe-life which He has set afire.

It becomes clear at once that Kundalini, howsoever it may appear, is mighty and
torrential, here mighty and torrential in potentiality only, there stirring and
awakening, elsewhere in resistless movement, burning all before it.

Is there a Kundalini chain linking the constituent elements of our own solar
system, and another chain linking the various solar systems ? Surely so, and
speculation is no less interesting as to the nature of the centres of a solar system
and on their vivification by Cosmic Kundalini. The Earth has its centres —
whirling wheels of fiery energy—and it would appear that one of the functions of
some of the Lords of Evolution is the regulation of distribution and intensity of

Kundalini. This is a reason why even Their work has been described as
hazardous, like the work of those who bring ammunition to the front line
trenches in time of war. They might in some way, perhaps, be consumed with the
very Force They wield, though it may be supposed that in Their case this could
not happen.

As a preliminary to the deeper understanding of this tremendous vista, it would be necessary to learn how Kundalini is aroused and directed to the various
centres of the vehicles of a human being, not merely for a general vivification of
their life, but also, as may be required, for their individual vivification to certain
definite ends. For example, a lecture has to be delivered, an audience or
congregation has to be influenced. Watching the process at work, it seemed as if
it automatically begins by the general stimulation of Kundalini along, and up and
down, the spine, so that there comes about a distinct glow. This happens to a
microscopic extent with all who lecture, or who, in one or another of a number of
ways, seek to influence for good their fellow-men. But where there is training the
glow expands into a fire.

And further results can be obtained if special
vivification takes place in the heart, throat and along the line between the middle
of the head and the centre of the eyebrows. This vivification proceeds through the
solar plexus, a fact which partly accounts for the feeling of sickness some people
experience before lecturing or before some other unusual strain, together with
other physical symptoms. In special cases, such feelings always occur, marking
the purification of the vehicles in order to facilitate the down-pouring of higher,
and also of superhuman, Kundalini.

This does not mean that in most of these people Kundalini is actually aroused,
but that there is in them a concentration, an intensification, of the universal

Kundalini Fire, with the result that their nerves and other channels have more to
carry than the Fire-load to which they are normally accustomed. However
localized Kundalini may be from one point of view, from another it is universal —
omnipresent. In some cases, however, the concentration of the Fire is
predominantly local. It is a case of spontaneous combustion, but the same effects
are noticeable.

It is clear that nicotine and alcohol definitely act in some way upon Kundalini,
the former interposing a barrier between the general force of Kundalini and its
operation in the various vehicles of the individual concerned, while the other
seems to act as a direct stimulant, stirring the Force in wrong directions, or in
some way wrongly intensifying it, and in any case doing these things in
connection with an individual far from ready for Fire-development. All narcotics,
drugs, stimulants, clog the system and interpose a deadening miasma between
the individual and all larger consciousness.

But to return to the stimulation of Kundalini for special purposes, the spinal glow
seems to be the first phenomenon, and this is intensified by external conditions—
as, for example, presence in an already magnetized area, a church, a temple — or
by the influence of music, chanting, participation in ceremony or service, and so
forth. In addition to the stimulation of the spinal glow there is also an
awakening, a glowing, as it were, of the heart, throat and middle-head centres,
sometimes all together, sometimes one and not the rest, according to
temperament. This stimulation often has a definite physical counterpart in the
disturbance of organic functioning. The vivification of the heart centre seems to
be — how otherwise to express it? — that of a cold glow. The juxtaposition of the
two words sounds absurd. And yet I do not think the facts have been
misinterpreted.

As regards the throat, the vivification, noticed on a particular occasion, seemed to
express itself physically as a kind of momentary constriction, which was
attributed to repercussions from the breaking down of barriers between the non-
physical and the physical, so as to enable Kundalini to vivify the actual
vibrations issuing from the throat as, for example, when a lecture is delivered.

The result is an address potent apart altogether from any eloquence, and
affecting in different ways people in the audience who are at different levels of
evolution. They become bathed in Kundalini, the result in individual cases
depending upon individual receptivity.

It becomes apparent that Kundalini may well be compared with electricity as to
the uses to which it can be put. Continuous consciousness, remembrance of
events during the night, and so on, are only certain fruits of the arousing of

Kundalini. Even more important is the directly added power it gives for work in
the outer world. It is both another sense and a very powerful stimulation of
existing senses, as well as of all other forces the individual already wields. We
are only at the beginning of discoveries regarding Kundalini, for the interesting
effects observed are but the results of the earliest stages of its awakening, of the
breaking down of preliminary barriers. Mercifully, the world is preserved from
the discovery by science of the Kundalini Ray, or annihilation would ensue. When
we read of the so-called " Death Rays " and other highly destructive emanations from great centres of Force, we may think of Kundalini as more powerful than all
of them put together, and we shall be glad to leave it alone until it is necessary
that we should learn to use it. It turns in boomerang fashion with terrible effect
upon those who misuse it, upon those who do not reverence it, upon those who
use it to selfish ends.

Chapter 3

THE DANGERS OF KUNDALINI

MUCH stress is, therefore, laid on the dangers of arousing Kundalini. Let us
examine their nature.

First and foremost there is the danger of sexual
stimulation so that the individual becomes drained of his vitality through sex-
obsession. Mental unhingement lies along this line. Sexual vitality and activity
are very closely allied to Kundalini, for both are supremely creative in their
nature, and the development of the one is bound to stir the development of the
other. All sexual urge must be under complete control, at the will of the
individual, and must be in a condition of what may be called sublimation, that is to say it must be recognized as a sacrament and therefore to be used in reverence
and in a spirit of dedication. Sex-differentiation in all its various implications is
one of God's earliest gifts to His children—often abused and grossly used, but at
last learned to be approached as the true priest approaches the altar. Only those
who thus approach the divinity of sex may be safely entrusted with that later gift
of Kundalini, which can be handled with safety and profit by the tried and trusty
alone.

Second, there is the danger of upsetting the physical rhythmic equilibrium
through the uncontrolled stimulation of the various centres of the body—the
possibility of injury to the heart, to the nervous system through the solar plexus,
the individual becoming a chronic invalid with general physical deterioration of
the brain, producing a strain also ending in mental unhingement. These dangers
are avoidable provided the individual is in very sound health, has already gained
an ample measure of self-control, thinks quietly and clearly, never narrowly, and
is free from any servility to sexual impulses, has in fact little if any sexual
tendency at all. It must be remembered that, however much he may be helped to
awaken Kundalini, its development depends largely upon himself. He must
watch the various symptoms and regulate them. How? He will know how, if he is
ready for the awakening. No further guidance need be given here, for the sign of
an individual being ready for the awakening of Kundalini lies in the intuitive
knowledge of what to do, and in the help of the Wise.

We must never forget that the physical body is denser, and therefore less
adaptable, than all others, and that there tends to arise a concentration of force
in a particular area, not a general distribution over the whole. If we look at, say,
the astral and mental bodies, we notice that each body is in one sense one great
organ. Functions which to a certain extent are in the physical body associated
with particular parts of the body are, in the case of the inner bodies, more
universal. To a certain extent, perhaps, we may speak of localization in regard to
the inner bodies, but it is more or less the whole of the astral body that feels, that
receives impressions, that communicates. It is the same with the mental body.

The whole of it thinks.

Now with the physical body, while feeling is distributed throughout, and while
special centres are affected by feelings and sensations of an unusual kind, the
brain acts as the principal channel of communication between the physical and
astral bodies. Numb the brain, numb the nerves which communicate with the
brain, and feeling disappears, so far as the waking consciousness is concerned,
though its effects may remain, as witness the shock after an operation which, by
reason of an anaesthetic, has been temporarily painless.

Similarly, it is the brain which is the main channel between the physical body
and the mental body. I feel sure that the mental body impresses itself in some
measure upon all parts of the physical body, so that all parts " think " to a certain extent, just as all parts feel. But the brain is the main centre, the great junction
for the outer world. We may, therefore, visualize the inner bodies as exercising
pressure throughout the physical body, but with the pressure greatest at the brain junction. The brain bears the brunt comparatively easily in normal cases
and with the ordinary individual, since only very small channels are in fact
allowed to be open between the various bodies.

But Kundalini will inevitably flow, apart from its normal channels, so as to vivify
those centres which are most sensitive, have greatest receptivity. Hence the
already existing concentration will be considerably intensified, generally when
the organ involved is already bearing a full load. An individual in whom, for
whatever cause, Kundalini tends to stir, is certainly living at what is to all
intents and purposes high pressure. He is likely to be intensely alive. He is likely
to have deep concentrations of force in his various organs, the concentrations
varying in strength according to the use he makes of one rather than of another.

Kundalini may very well be "the last straw," and hurl the unfortunate individual down into cruel darkness, if he be not a spiritual athlete trained to bear the
strain.

Doubtless there will have come into existence, at this stage of the evolutionary
process, channels between the inner worlds and the individual mainly Jiving in
the outer world. But such channels are not likely to be deep, and if suddenly a
rush of force whirls through one or another of them, or directly into a physical
organ, they may well " burst," and bring about catastrophe.

When the physical, emotional and mental bodies are beginning to become
resolved into their higher counterparts, as in the case of those who are concluding
human existence so far as imprisonment in it is concerned, then Kundalini flows
naturally and without encountering more than a minimum of obstruction. There
is beginning to be but one Fire, one Life. It is at stages earlier than this that
extreme circumspection is vital, for the Serpent-Fire does not discriminate. It
consumes. It tends to flow along the lines of least resistance, and sometimes such
lines may lead downwards and not upwards, with indescribably disastrous effect.

As development takes place, and as the higher consciousness gradually gains
permanent ascendancy, the interpenetration becomes more rhythmic, and the
whole of the lower agency responds far more immediately and richly to higher
stimulation.

What then does the awakening of Kundalini effect? To all intents and purposes it
breaks down barriers ; or, to put this in another way, it flings wide open the
sluice gates, which hitherto have been opening slowly and gradually, and which,
in the case of the ordinary individual, are open only to a very limited extent.

There begins to be complete communication between all the bodies, though the
use and interpretation of such communication are necessarily a matter of some
considerable time after the preliminary communication has been established. The
lower bodies begin to reflect in increasing clarity the characteristics of the higher
bodies—higher mental and lower Buddhic. States of consciousness begin to
interpenetrate, so that there arises a hitherto unexperienced continuity of
consciousness. This means enormously increased sensitiveness throughout all the
bodies, demanding that large measure of self-control, which is so constantly emphasized.

Nowadays, in the case of many, Kundalini must be developed in the market-
places, where the danger is great, and not in the forests, where the danger is
minimized. Time is too precious for isolation from the world, especially in these
days ; and risks must be run. The whole of the physical body, becoming a
wonderfully sensitive instrument, becoming refined out of all relation to its
surroundings, can easily, therefore, be shaken to pieces as a result of the impact
of coarse and violent vibrations from without. Sturdy physical health is thus a
sine qua non for the arousing of Kundalini, and the health of an adult rather
than that of a youth.

But there is still more. Though the whole of the physical body becomes
enormously more sensitive, the brain has to bear the brunt. Pressure upon the
physical brain is very greatly increased, since the brain is the main junction
between the physical and the inner bodies. Can the brain stand the pressure?

This is, perhaps, the principal question with regard to the arousing of Kundalini.

The answer largely depends upon the extent to which the physical grey matter is
sufficiently developed, steeled and reinforced, through self-control, to stand the
strain. The condition and number of the spirillae are, perhaps, a determining
factor, for these indicate the condition of the channels of contact and of what
seems to be — I can think of no other words—the stretching power of the physical
matter itself. It must be able to bend so that it may not break. I do not use the
word " bend " literally, perhaps the word " adapt " would be more accurate. I think of the pressure from the inner bodies as in the nature of the flow of a fluid,
of an almost irresistible flow. Can the brain shape itself to the flow, yield to it,
adapt itself to it? If so, all may be well. But rigidity is fatal, and by rigidity I
mean not merely, as it were, physical rigidity, but mental and emotional rigidity;
that is to say, a crystallization or hardening of certain parts of the mental and
emotional bodies, which hardening translates itself into the setting up within the
brain, and indeed also within the heart, of grooves which will break but will not
expand.

It is all a very complicated matter, for fundamentally the wisdom of arousing

Kundalini depends largely, though by no means entirely, upon the condition of
the lower mental and emotional bodies, and upon the extent to which the Causal
and Buddhic vehicles are beginning to make contact and assert themselves. But
physical conditions have also to be taken into account, though these are but
reflections of inner conditions. The question then is: Are the inner bodies
adequately developed and controlled, and is the physical vehicle recovered from
such educative misuse as must inevitably have taken place during the long ages
of development? For even though the physical body changes from life to lire. as
generally do the emotional and lower mental bodies, each new body is moulded to
reflect, and to express, the stage of development reached. It may in fact be a case
of the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak, a case of the Ego being ready
but the lower bodies being weak, for the reason that the physical body in its
existing condition is unable to stand the strain of Kundalini. In such cases, it
may be necessary to wait for another life, so that existing forms may be broken up and more malleable forms substituted. It is clear from all this how
complicated the process of the awakening of Kundalini really is, and how
foolhardy an individual would be who sought to arouse it without wise sanction,
and without a certain amount of guidance. It is almost certain he would come to
terrible grief. Hence, the brain is a great danger-point, for disaster will be the
result of an overstrained brain. The path of occultism, it is said, is strewn with
wrecks. I venture to think that the path of the arousing of Kundalini, even if only
in the very first stages, is strewn with even more wrecks.

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring,
said Pope. Before anyone seeks to arouse Kundalini let him know much about it,
especially of its dangers, let him be intimately acquainted with these. He will
then leave it alone until advised to begin. A little knowledge may incline him to
foolishness. When he drinks deep he will realize that duty forbids experiment,
the results of which, when made in ignorance, lead to disaster, first to the
experimenter, which might not much matter one way or the other except to
himself, but also to those immediately around him, and involving danger to the
community as a whole—and to this he has no right to subject them.

Chapter 4

KUNDALINI ACTIVE EVERYWHERE

I TAKE it that Kundalini is more or less active in all life. It is the Fire of Life,
and therefore flows through all. But it may flow either as a gentle stream, simply
vitalizing, or it may be directed into special channels and become a raging
torrent, let us hope subordinated to great purpose, so that the raging is a
purposeful, disciplined raging, though a raging none the less. Kundalini flows in
mineral, vegetable, animal and human kingdoms, in ascending degrees of
vitality, but, except in rare cases, as a gentle, fructifying stream of Fire, bathing
as it were the whole of the vehicle

Each time, however, a distinct and definite advance takes place in spiritual
growth, an intensification of Kundalini occurs, becoming particularly marked,
though still generalized, in connection with the various stages leading to the Path
and on the Path itself (1). Relationship to a Master makes a marked difference in
the virility of the flow, while entry into His consciousness, which takes place at the Accepted stage of discipleship, means the beginning of the definite, but still
informal, harnessing of Kundalini to specific purposes, through the general
influence of the Kundalini of the Master working on that of the apprentice. One
of the reasons why the Master needs to be careful about admitting an apprentice
to this close relationship of Accepted discipleship is this increased stimulation of

Kundalini, even though it still remains general. The relation of Sonship is yet a
further stimulation, while entry into the Great Brotherhood (2) is the beginning of
the link between the Kundalini of the individual and that of the Brotherhood as a
whole.

It must be remembered that the Great White Lodge is itself an individual, a
specialized individual consciousness, with functions differentiated according to
the various lines of its constituent parts. These differentiated functions may be
regarded as the spiritual counterparts on an exalted scale of the various centres
of the physical body. The mighty force of the Kundalini of the Brotherhood flows
through these centres and through each member, so that admission to the

Brotherhood involves participation in this great flow ; the gradual uniting of the
consciousness of the individual with the consciousness of the Brotherhood as a
whole, involving a progressive uniting of the two Kundalinis. The Kundalini of
the individual begins to enter the stream of the Brotherhood Kundalini. The
converse process has, however, also to take place — the gradual entry of the

Brotherhood Kundalini? into the system of the individual, not merely in a general
way, but highly specialized. I wonder whether, for the sake of accuracy, I ought
not to speak of these more definite stages in the growth of Kundalini as the
conscious directing of the Force, rather than as an " awakening ". Wherever there is life, there is Kundalini more or less awake, and awakening. But the conscious
direction and handling of its power is another matter altogether.

One of the specially interesting effects of Kundalini is the intensification of the
sense of unity to which its active stimulation gives rise. A breaker down of
barriers between the various layers and states of consciousness, it is also the
breaker of barriers between the individual himself and the larger Self without.

The definite stimulation of Kundalini intensifies, for example, the individual
consciousness of unity with the great consciousness of the Brotherhood as a
whole. Through the operation of the Kundalini power the separated self begins to
lose its illusion of separateness. The consciousness of the individual member of
the Brotherhood is, of course, blended with that of the Brotherhood by very
reason of his membership, but in many ways the blending is implicit rather than
explicit, though explicitness grows with use of the Brotherhood power. But
explicitness is very greatly hastened by the development of Kundalini, which
works like The Theosophical Society in its First Object, for it bridges all
distinctions of plane and consciousness.

Entry into The Theosophical Society very definitely effects a general, though
probably in the vast majority of members no specific, stimulation of Kundalini.

The Kundalini in the individual is definitely stirred, and its intensity augmented,
for The Society, strange as it may seem, is a definite organism, and has its own
mode of Kundalini. In some cases the stimulation proves too much to bear. The Theosophical Society inevitably attracts a few people who are somewhat
unbalanced, just as it attracts the pioneer and those who have freed themselves
from the ordinary conventional fetters. The Theosophical Society must ever be, to
a certain extent, for people who are different, whether in one way or in another.

Those who are different, because lacking in ordinary self-control, will probably
find the stimulation more than they can bear. They are on the whole unlikely to
grow better, and may quite likely grow worse. Those who are different because
they have transcended ordinary limitations will benefit enormously. There are,
however, more in whom there is a latent weakness, which the stirred Kundalini
will intensify just as much as it will intensify a quality. Kundalini is power—
power which can be used for good or ill. The weakness grows, the individual, of
course, all the time regarding himself as the sole repository of truth and common
sense. The strain grows to breaking-point, and the blessing conferred by
membership of The Society, turned by uncontrolled weakness into a curse, is
mercifully withdrawn through the removal of the individual from membership,
doubtless in a cloud of self-righteousness from his standpoint, though in sadness
from the standpoint of the Elder Brethren. The Society is naturally condemned in
the particular way most conducive to the individual's self-satisfaction. In nine
cases out of ten, it is pride which precedes the fall, and pride never knows itself
as pride, or it would very properly commit suicide, as indeed it does in the case of
common-sense people. Yet the Society goes on, grows in favour with the

Hierarchy, increases in strength and usefulness.

That which I have written regarding The Theosophical Society is no less true in
the case of other movements directly focusing upon the world the forces of Light
in opposition to those of darkness. The facts are observed in connection with The

Theosophical Society, but they are equally observable in very many other
organizations, though to a lesser extent in most cases.

1) By " the Path " I refer to that short cut up the mountain side of evolution whereby an individual, who has the necessary detachment from present
circumstances and an adequate grasp of essential truth, may compress into a
comparatively few lives the growth which ordinarily takes a century and more of
incarnations. Mr. Lloyd George, the British statesman, said during the War that
the world was traversing in a few years the distance which ordinarily it would
take centuries to achieve. It is also possible to traverse in a few lives the spiritual distance which it would ordinarily take possibly thousands of years to achieve.

But the help of a Master is needed, of One who Himself has achieved, has taken
the short cut up the mountain side. Such an Elder Brother may from time to time
apprentice to Himself persons "who show signs of being capable of enduring the
hardships attendant on the heavy climbing—hardships which more often than
not cause the would-be climber to decide to revert to the longer and easier route.

2) The Great Brotherhood, or Great White Lodge, consists in part of those highly
evolved Souls who have reached that stage of the evolutionary pathway which
gives them membership of what is called in occult literature the Inner

Government of the "world, and in part of those who, though far off from such a
stage, are nevertheless sufficiently advanced to be trained to become members of
this Government, compared with which all outer governments are but toy
governments, in the future. Membership of the Great Brotherhood, or Great

White Lodge, is open to the very earnest and faithful worker who has begun to
know the nature and purpose of life. But he stands on the lowest rungs of the
great Ladder of the Inner Life, is but a student of government, not a veritable

Master in the science.

Chapter 5

THE DEVELOPMENT OF KUNDALINI

IT is interesting to note the progress of a particular experience in developing

Kundalini, or rather in stirring Kundalini into activity. In the particular case
observed, the principal work is done during sleep, and appears at first to consist
in the preparation of the spinal passage by moving Kundalini from the base of
the spine to the top of the head. The individual out of the body can do this work,
for though there are physical effects the Fire itself is non-physical. The globe or
sphere at the base of the spine contains within it the Kundalini Fire coiled
spherically. The prescribed concentration upon the globe, and thus upon the Fire
within, begins to stir it into activity, provided the right kind of life has been lived beforehand for a considerable period, which is to say provided it is fed with the
right kind of fuel. Even if the right kind of life has not been lived, a stirring may
take place, but the effect of the premature stirring, if any take place at all, will be disastrous, as has already been pointed out.

Assuming the stirring takes place along right lines, there is a gradual dissolution
of the globe caused by the frictional energizing of the Fire itself. The Fire is
fanned into bright heat and becomes active, forcing its way through the matter in
which it lies embedded, burning it up, and causing the globe to become a Radiant

Sun, instead of the dull though glowing mass it normally is. This Sun radiates in
all directions heat which is physically felt, specially in the surrounding areas of
the physical body.

This Kundalini Sun would seem to rush upwards when it moves fast, as often it
does not, along the spine as a bullet passes through a grooved gun-barrel. There
is something spiral about the movement. In any case, there seems to be a direct
rush upwards, without passing beyond the top of the head, but specially
stimulating centres according to the individual's Ray. The sensation is that of pressure, while as regards the centre at the top of the head unusual heat will be
felt.

During the waking hours this process may be continued, and from time to time it
seems to occur of itself, so that a warm glow passes up the spine, producing a
most interesting effect. A beautiful expansion of consciousness is physically
experienced, so that the individual feels full of a glorious life and of a sense of
intimate contact with what must be the developed intuitive consciousness. He
imagines what life would be like if he could keep this experience constant,
instead of only intermittent. There is a fine sense of at-one-ment, of radiance, of
contact with the Real. Barriers seem to have been broken down, so that the
individual sees into the heart of things, no matter what they are, and sees them
as growing entities, their glorious future disclosed to him as embryonic in them.

It is so difficult to describe this condition of consciousness, but the physical,
indeed much more than the physical, seems transcended, and some veils at least
are lifted so that he gazes upon a Real, less hidden by the clouds of illusion.

In the beginnings of this process a certain amount of dizziness is noticeable. A
new constituent has become active. It is as if a new dimension had opened out, so
that a new world is entered. The dizziness is perhaps the physical expression of a
new relativity, of a new adjustment, other worlds than the physical beginning to
be open to a gaze which the individual has not yet learned to control, so that he
looks out as it were with all " eyes " vaguely open, instead of with those
appropriate to the particular plane on which he happens to be dominantly
functioning. Later on he will be able to close the eyes he does not need, leaving
open only those he does. And later on still, he will be able, perhaps, to use all "

eyes " simultaneously, each " eye " dovetailing into the others, so as to avoid distortion and flickering between one state of consciousness and another—the
effect being the dizziness.

Yet another effect, presumably only in the earlier stages, is that of seeming to be
elsewhere. The individual feels as if he were living elsewhere, so that the outer
world seems to be at a distance. He is far away, and the noise and rush of life
come to him only as a faint murmur. He is as a spectator at a play, and he looks
at the players on the stage as denizens of a world other than his world. This
sensation is more or less continuous, and invests the outer world with a peculiar
unreality, the physical expression of which is the hearing of the world as if
muted. It is almost as it he were deaf. He looks out upon the world as if he had no
concern with it. His physical brain is in one sense numbed, definitely numbed,
though at the same time it is extraordinarily alert to the Real, full of a hitherto
unexperienced keenness, fire, clarity. It is beautifully stimulated. There seem to
be momentary flickers from far-away consciousness, so that a flash of other-
consciousness occurs from time to time, though only shadowy. This flash seems to
take place when there is special warmth at the top of the head, possibly the
result of a little escape of Kundalini Fire.

Sensitiveness is enormously increased, chiefly in the region of the spine, though to a certain extent throughout the whole body. A loud noise seems to grate as
upon a raw spine, and sends a shock through the whole body. A special jar may
cause a kind of inner dislocation for quite a while. This sensitiveness has the
further effect of making the individual a kind of sensitive plate upon which, for
example, people in the outer world imprint themselves, so that in a flash he
knows their natures, specially the high lights of quality and the low lights of
defect. He will at once have either a positive or a negative impression. The former
will be positively good or positively unfavourable, and in either case general
tendencies will be perceived, though not perhaps the details. Sometimes there is
nothing about the person worth considering, there is nothing to be noted about
him one way or the other. He is ordinary, and may for some time longer be left to
the nursing of the ordinary circumstances of life. But one knows as in a flash,
even though details may not be forthcoming.

As time passes the whole body seems to glow with Fire, which one imagines to
extend some distance, so that a person very near should almost feel the glow and
become stimulated by it. The process is temporarily fatiguing to the physical
body, and it is pleasant to lie down. Does the Fire glow more easily when the
spine is in a recumbent position? I am inclined to think that the restriction of the

Fire, so that ordinarily it does not pass beyond the top of the head, tends to
exercise pressure upon the physical brain and induce somnolence.

Chapter 6

SUN-KUNDALINI AND EARTH-KUNDALINI

HOW 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

THE 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

MORE 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

CURIOUSLY 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

CAN 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

LET 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 inthe 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.

Table of Contents

- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 11