The chakras. A monograph

bottom of the diagram, and then rises again in the curve on the right-hand side of the figure.

A diagram labeled FIG. 3 shows a vertical oval divided into three sections labeled FIRST OUTPOURING, SECOND OUTPOURING, and THIRD OUTPOURING. The diagram includes labels for the planes of existence: DIVINE OR ADI PLANE, MONADIC PLANE, NIRVANIC PLANE, BUDDHIC PLANE, MENTAL PLANE, ASTRAL PLANE, and PHYSICAL PLANE.

We now find that the force of the Third Logos the Creative Deity also rises again after touching its lowest point, so we must imagine that the vertical line in the center of the figure returns upon its path. Kundalinî the serpent-fire is the power of that Outpouring on its path of return. It works in the bodies of evolving creatures in intimate contact with the primary force already mentioned. The two act together to bring the creature to the point where it can receive the Outpouring of the First Logos, and become an ego, a human being, and still carry on the vehicles even after that. We thus draw God's mighty power from the earth beneath as well as from heaven above; we are children of the earth as well as of the sun. These two meet in us, and work together for our evolution. We cannot have one without the other, but if one is greatly in excess there are serious dangers. Hence the risk of any development of the deeper layers of the serpent-fire before the life in the man is pure and refined.

We hear much of this strange fire, and of the danger of prematurely arousing it; and much of what we hear is undoubtedly true. There is indeed most serious peril in awakening the higher aspects of this furious energy in a man before he has gained the strength to control it, before he has acquired the purity of life and thought which alone make it safe for him to unleash a potency so tremendous. But kundalinî the serpent-fire plays a much larger part in daily life than most of us have hitherto supposed. There is a far lower and gentler manifestation of it which is already awake within us all, which is not only innocuous but beneficent, which is doing its appointed work day and night while we are entirely unconscious of its presence and activity. We have of course previously noticed this force as it flows along the nerves, calling it simply nerve-fluid, and not recognizing it for what it really is. The endeavor to analyze it and to trace it back to its source shows us that it enters the human body at the root chakra energy center.

Like all other forces, kundalinî the serpent-fire is itself invisible; but in the human body it clothes itself in a curious nest of hollow concentric spheres of astral and etheric matter, one within another, like the balls in a Chinese puzzle. There appear to be seven such concentric spheres resting within the root chakra energy center, in and around the last real cell or hollow of the spine close to the coccyx; but only in the outermost of these spheres is the force active in the ordinary man. In the others it is "sleeping," as is said in some of the Oriental books. It is only when the man attempts to arouse the energy latent in those inner layers that the dangerous phenomena of the fire begin to show themselves. The harmless fire of the outer skin of the ball flows up the spinal column, using, so far as investigations have gone to the present, the three lines of Sushumnâ, Idâ and Pingalâ simultaneously.

THE THREE SPINAL CHANNELS

Of these three currents which flow in and around the spinal cord of every human being, Madame Blavatsky writes as follows in The Secret Doctrine:

The trans-Himalayan school locates Sushumnâ the central spinal channel, the chief seat of these three Nâdîs energy currents, in the central tube of the spinal cord, and Idâ the left spinal channel and Pingalâ the right spinal channel are simply the sharps and flats of that Fa the musical note F of human nature, which, when struck in a proper way, awakens the sentries on either side, the spiritual Manas Mind and the physical Kâma Desire, and subdues the lower through the higher. ¹ The Secret Doctrine, Vol. III, p. 503.

It is the pure Akâsha spiritual ether that passes up Sushumnâ; its two aspects flow in Idâ and Pingalâ. These are the three vital airs, and are symbolized by the Brahmanical thread. They are ruled by the will. Will and desire are the higher and lower aspects of one and the same thing. Hence the importance of the purity of the canals. From these three a circulation is set up, and from the central canal passes into the whole body. ² Ibid., p. 537.