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TCF-1 division D
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Section One – Internal Fires – Fire by Friction
Section D – Kundalini60, 61 and the Spine
60 "Kundalini, the serpent power or mystic fire; it is called the serpentine or annular power on account of its spiral-like working or progress in the body of the ascetic developing the power in himself. It is an electric fiery occult, or fohatic power, the great pristine force which underlies all organic and inorganic matter." - H. P. Blavatsky.

61 "Kundalini is the static form of the creative energy in bodies which are the source of all energies including Prana... "This word comes from the adjective Kundalin, or "coiled." She is spoken of as "coiled" because she is sleeping, lies coiled; and because the nature of her power is spiraline... "In other words, this Kundalini shakti is that which, when it moves to manifest itself, appears as the Universe. To say that it is "coiled" is to say that it is at rest – that is, in the form of static potential energy... "Kundalini shakti in individual bodies is power at rest, or the static center round which every form of existence, as moving power, revolves."
- The Serpent Power, by Arthur Avalon.

Very briefly, owing to the impossibility of revealing much on this necessarily dangerous subject, we will consider the subject of kundalini and the spine.
We must remember here that we are dealing with the etheric counterpart of the spine, and not with the bony structure which we call the spine or spinal column. This is a fact not sufficiently recognized by those who treat of the matter. Too much emphasis has been laid on the three spinal channels that compose the threefold spinal cord.
These channels are important in connection with the [135] nervous system of the man, but in relation to the matter in hand, they are not primarily so important as the etheric channel, which is the unit enclosing these three. Therefore, we must strictly remember that we are dealing with
  1. The etheric channel
  2. The fire that passes up the channel,
  3. The conjunction of this fire with the radiatory energizing fire of the physical body at the point between the shoulder blades,
  4. Their united ascension into the head,
  5. Their blending eventually with the manasic fire which energizes the three head centers.
D.I. Kundalini and the three Triangles
The fire energizing the triangle in the head is the higher correspondence to the triangle of prana, midway in the body, and its lower reflection at the base of the spine. We have, therefore, in the human unit three important triangles:
  1. In the head: The triangle of the three major centers,
    1. The pineal gland,
    2. The pituitary body,
    3. The alta major center.
  2. In the body: The triangle of prana,
    1. Between the shoulders,
    2. Above the diaphragm,
    3. The spleen.
  3. At the base of the spine: The three lower centers,
    1. A point at the bottom of the spinal column.
    2. and
    3. The two major sex organs in the male and female. 62 [136]
62 It is not my intention to lay any stress on the sex side of this subject, for these are organs with which the occultist has nothing to do. I will not therefore enumerate them in detail. I would only point out that in the transference of the fire at the base of the spine and the turning of its attention to the two higher triangles comes the redemption of man.
The merging of the fires of matter and the fires of mind results in the energizing of the sumtotal of the atoms of the matter of the body. This is the secret of the immense staying power of the great thinkers and workers of the race. It results also in a tremendous stimulation of the three higher centers in the body, the head, the heart, the throat and in the electrification of this area of the body. These higher centers then form a field of attraction for the downflow of the third fire, that of Spirit. The many-petalled head center at the top of the head becomes exceedingly active. It is the synthetic head center, and the sumtotal of all the other centers. The stimulation of the centers throughout the body is paralleled or duplicated by the concurrent vivification of the many-petalled lotus. It is the meeting place of the three fires, those of the body, of the mind, and of the Spirit. The at-one-ment with the Ego is completed when it is fully stimulated, and combustion then ensues; this is duplicated in the subtler vehicles and causes the final consummation and the liberation of Spirit.
The merging of the fires of matter is the result of evolutionary growth, when left to the normal, slow development that time alone can bring. The junction of the two fires of matter is effected early in the history of man, and is the cause of the rude health that the clean-living, high-thinking man should normally enjoy. When the fires of matter have passed (united) still further along the etheric spinal channel they contact the fire of manas as it radiates from the throat center. Clarity of thought is here essential, and it will be necessary to elucidate somewhat this rather abstruse subject.
  1. The three major head centers (from the physical standpoint) are the:
    1. Alta center,
    2. Pineal gland,
    3. Pituitary body. [137]
  2. They form a manasic triangle, after their juncture with the two fires of the two lower triangles, i.e., when they become synthetic.
  3. But the purely manasic triangle prior to this merging is,
    1. The throat center,
    2. The pineal gland,
    3. Pituitary body.
This is during the period when the human unit consciously aspires and throws his will on the side of evolution, thus making his life constructive.
"1. The Master-soul is Alaya, the universal soul or Atma, each man having a ray of it in him and being supposed to be able to identify himself with and to merge himself into it.

2. Antahkarana is the lower Manas, the path of communication or communion between the personality and the higher Manas or human soul.

At death it is destroyed as a path or medium of communication, and its remains survive in form as the Kama-rupa – the shell."
- Voice of the Silence, page 71.

"The antahkarana is the imaginary path between the personal and the impersonal self, and is the highway of sensation; it is the battlefield for mastery over the personal self. It is the path of aspiration, and where one longing for goodness exists the antahkarana persists."
- see Voice of the silence, pp. 50, 55, 56, 88.

The other fire of matter (the dual fire) is attracted upward, and merges with the fire of mind through a junction effected at the alta major center. This center is situated at the base of the skull, and there is a slight gap between this center and the point at which the fires of matter issue from the spinal channel. Part of the work the man who is developing thought power has to do, is to build a temporary channel in etheric matter to bridge the gap. This channel is the reflection in physical matter of the antahkarana63 that the Ego has to build in order to bridge the gap between the lower and higher mental, between the causal vehicle on the third subplane of the mental plane, and the manasic permanent atom on the first subplane. This is the work that all advanced thinkers are unconsciously doing now. When the gap is [138] completely bridged, man's body becomes coordinated with the mental body and the fires of mind and of matter are blended. It completes the perfecting of the personality life, and as earlier said, this perfecting brings a man to the portal of initiation – initiation being the seal set upon accomplished work; it marks the end of one lesser cycle of development, and the beginning of the transference of the whole work to a still higher spiral.
We must always bear in mind that the fires from the base of the spine and the splenic triangle are fires of matter. We must not lose this recollection nor get confused. They have no spiritual effect, and concern themselves solely with the matter in which the centers of force are located. These centers of force are always directed by manas or mind, or by the conscious effort of the indwelling entity; but that entity is held back in the effects he seeks to achieve until the vehicles through which he is seeking expression, and their directing, energizing centers, make adequate response. Hence it is only in due course of evolution, and when the matter of these vehicles is energized sufficiently by its own latent fires that he can accomplish his long-held purpose. Hence again the need of the ascension of the fire of matter to its own place, and its resurrection from its long burial and seeming prostitution before it can be united with its Father in Heaven, the third Logos, Who is the Intelligence of matter itself. The correspondence, again, holds good. Even the atom of the physical plane has its goal, its initiations and its ultimate triumph.
Other angles of this subject, such as the centers and their relationship to manas, the fire of Spirit and manas, and the eventual blending of the three fires, will be dealt with in our next two main divisions. In this division we are confining ourselves to the study of matter and fire, and must not digress, or confusion will ensue. [139]
D.II. The Arousing of Kundalini
How this fire at the base of the spine can be aroused, the form its progression should take (dependent upon the Ray), the blending of the fire with pranic fire and their subsequent united progression, are things of the past with many, and fortunately for the race, the work was achieved without conscious effort. The second blending with the fire of manas has to be effected. Scarcely as yet have men succeeded in directing the fire up more than one channel of the threefold column; hence two-thirds of its effect in the majority is yet confined to the stimulation of the organs of race propagation. Only when the fire has circled unimpeded up another channel is the complete merging with the fire of manas effected, and only when it progresses geometrically up all the three – with simultaneous action and at uniform vibration – is the true kundalini fire fully aroused, and therefore able to perform its work of cleansing through the burning of the confining web and of the separating particles. When this is accomplished the threefold channel becomes one channel. Hence the danger.
No more can be imparted concerning this subject. He who directs his efforts to the control of the fires of matter, is (with a dangerous certainty) playing with a fire that may literally destroy him. He should not cast his eyes backwards, but should lift them to the plane where dwells his immortal Spirit, and then by self-discipline, mind-control and a definite refining of his material bodies, whether subtle or physical, fit himself to be a vehicle for the divine birth, and participate in the first Initiation. When the Christ-child (as the Christian so beautifully expresses it) has been born in the cave of the heart, then that divine guest can consciously control the lower material bodies by means of consecrated mind. Only when buddhi has assumed an ever-increasing control [140] of the personality, via the mental plane (hence the need of building the antahkarana), will the personality respond to that which is above, and the lower fires mount and blend with the two higher. Only when Spirit, by the power of thought, controls the material vehicles, does the subjective life assume its rightful place, does the God within shine and blaze forth till the form is lost from sight, and "The path of the just shine ever more and more until the day be with us." [141]