What is Kundalini Awakening?
Kundalini Awakening is a spiritual and psychological process that propels an individual toward enlightenment—it is the precursor. It activates and mobilizes the energy of the unconscious, bringing forth the obstructions of our psyche that must be healed and cleared for us to attain self-realization.
Kundalini Awakening marks the beginning of the “second life”; once this energy is activated from its dormant state, a person is compelled to develop and integrate higher levels of perception and their corresponding dimensions of energy and consciousness.
This new beginning is the development of the suprapersonal. Supra refers to what is “above” or “beyond”; thus, a Kundalini Awakening, in its most practical understanding, means the development and integration of levels of consciousness beyond the primary dimension of the ordinary human personality—it is the direct realization of the divine.
Awakening means uncovering a principle truth inherent in the cosmological ethos: consciousness is all-pervasive and fundamental to evolution and reality as a whole, in the individual psyche and all matter in the cosmos. It is the direct realization that God is consciousness, and the energy that powers consciousness is called “Kundalini.”
What is Kundalini Energy?
The Intelligent Energy of the Cosmos
Kundalini is the fundamental energy of the cosmos, which powers and produces all evolutionary processes. It is the intelligent energy that organizes matter into more complex forms and animates reality. Thus, we can see it as the energy responsible for evolving human consciousness into its most elaborate state. Kundalini is packaged in dormant layers of energy in the human system and is only partially utilized by most people.
Kundalini energy gives birth to our “second life” and is expressed in the mythological context as the Great Mother or Goddess archetype. In the ancient practice of Kundalini Yoga, the primary gods Shiva and Shakti represent the masculine and feminine archetypal forces of the cosmos functioning within the human system of consciousness. Shiva represents the all-pervasive nature of consciousness, while Shakti is the energy that animates him. She is Kundalini.
The Anima Archetype
In Jungian psychology, Kundalini and the Goddess are synonymous with the anima archetype. Kundalini takes on many forms and images in the psyche, similar to how this energy expresses itself in the cosmos. She can consume and destroy in the form of the devouring mother, the dark side of the anima, or she can give birth and awaken us in the form of the Goddess and the Great Mother.
To the Christian mystics known as the Gnostics, the serpent is Soter, the saviour, for it provides healing and liberation when arisen and awakened. However, to the Catholic church, the serpent is a source of evil and human corruption. Religious or scientific power structures often distort symbols to push people away from becoming conscious for purposes of money and control. Both knowledge and venom can be a healing nectar and a poison. Kundalini energy is the source of creation and destruction. Depending on the qualities of the psyche that attempt to brandish the serpent, one can become enlightened or consumed by the forces of the unconscious.
The Goddess Kali and Kundalini
In Shakti’s image and form of Kali, she is a bloodthirsty destroyer of evil and a beheader of demons who explodes from the forehead of the Goddess Durga. When Kundalini is initially awakened, Kali’s archetype and energy are encountered. In its early stages, the Kundalini is violent as it pierces the body and psyche from the unconscious, bringing out our wounds and demons to be purified and “beheaded.”
She is the image of the Goddess but also a living energy of the cosmos and the psyche. In this sense, to anyone who awakens, the Goddess exists and is as real as water and more powerful than oil. She is a nuclear explosion in our consciousness. She is the force of all alchemy and change, in psyche and in nature. Without persuasion, those who awaken become natural devotees of the Great Mother, the Devi—they will inevitably fall in love with Her transformative force and accompanying image, irrespective of spiritual or cultural tradition. When the archetype of the Goddess becomes conscious, she becomes a focal point and guiding element of our lives.
Kundalini is symbolized as a coiled serpent power that, when “stepped on” without intention or activated through spiritual practices, uncoils and rises upwards, beginning a long-term process of purification and awakening. Most people have not activated this energy’s full potential, so their consciousness remains adhered to the material level of reality, unaware of their hidden potential.
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What are the Chakras in Kundalini Yoga?
Kundalini interfaces with the human system of consciousness through the subtle body and chakras, known in the yogic system as energy centers that spin and modulate the flow of Kundalini. These energy centers exist in the quantum substrate of our bodies, providing energy to our consciousness and assisting in regulating our biological processes. They are the mediating conduits of energy obstructed by trauma, conditioning, karma (memory and actions), and samskara (patterns and complexes).
When awakening opens these energy conduits, our trauma inevitably becomes conscious. This triggers us to heal and evolve to higher levels of consciousness, attaining the wisdom and perception associated with the subsequent integration required at each stage of development. In the image of the chakras in Kundalini Yoga, each chakra has a sound—bij mantra—and related symbology associated with it. There are 114 chakras, 112 in the body and two just above the head. They are divided into seven major centres, which is the structure most people are familiar with.
Kundalini Awakening is an intelligent and autonomous process of conscious evolution—once initiated, it is beyond our total control. It involves the purification of the chakras by a primordial and divine force of cosmic energy arising from the deeper layers of the unconscious, which is connected to the universe likely through quantum entanglement.
When Kundalini awakens, the energy intelligently heals these obstructions to achieve a frictionless flow of divine energy through the chakras into our conscious experience of life. Successfully accomplished, the efficient and unobstructed flow of energy is the essence of enlightenment and the intentional goal and purpose of a Kundalini Awakening. This process can take many years to complete and be quite turbulent.
Signs of a Kundalini Awakening?
Realization of the Divine
The individual touched, or instead ignited, by this intense and life-altering process of spiritual development will have little mystery of its divine origin. The word divine essentially means what is unseen and hidden, so in this context, Kundalini Awakening reveals the undiscovered and dormant aspects of consciousness that connect us to the external matrix of reality. The mystery of God is exposed and gnosis is attained—direct knowledge of the spiritual dimensions of life. The underlying network of consciousness and our connection to it is revealed and integrated into the psyche.
It is far too powerful and altering of conscious perception to be ignored; it will change everything about a person and their experience of life. Once activated, the unconscious expedition must be lived and integrated; there is no turning back. We pay a hefty toll to cross the bridge of divine perception.
Physical, Spiritual and Psychological Symptoms
Kundalini symptoms are indescribably surreal and mind-bending. They are physical, spiritual, and psychological, including sensations of energy running up the spinal column, merging us with the creative life force of all existence. We can experience intense, involuntarily shaking of the body as the newly expanded stream of energy alchemizes our obstructions. The unconscious is continuously and systematically activated, leading to the healing of childhood and ancestral traumas and complexes.
This can involve mood swings and periods of depression as the energy is released and the healing is integrated. We will realize the divine Oneness of all creation as we merge with the deeper underlying fabric of cosmic existence. We can also have intense spiritual experiences of ineffable bliss, horrific plunges into the darkness of the “underworld” leading to ego death, and visions of deities, demons, and spiritual entities that provide us with archetypal messages of guidance on our path. In other words, the collective unconscious, the repository of all human knowledge and patterns of life, will influence us in the form of entities that guide us along the journey to its completion.
Spiritual Emergency and Kundalini
Often, people experience non-ordinary states of consciousness and spiritual crises mistaken for psychosis if the awakening happens abruptly and without preparation. The limited psyche that once identified with the mind and body is thrust into a non-dual relationship with the all-pervasive nature of consciousness. Western culture has yet to fully integrate an understanding of this beneficial process, which often appears highly disordered in its initial stages.
Everything we thought was unreal will become real. And everything we thought was real will become unreal. It is the allegory expressed in Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She must follow the White Rabbit to a totally different world of existence, but only if she is willing to have her reality turned upside down. She has to integrate higher dimensions of perception into an organized and structured system of thought or risk being unravelled and destroyed, never to return from the underground layer of the rabbit’s home—the collective unconscious—to the surface of the ordinary world.
An experienced guide who has successfully navigated the process and understands its difficulties and pitfalls is an absolute requirement. Regarding psychological development, Kundalini Awakening is the equivalent of Navy SEAL training. We must become elite spiritual warriors from the perspective of what is demanded of us by this intense process of transformation, but we cannot “ring the bell” and quit. Immense sacrifices must be made to prioritize this challenging developmental process.
Benefits of Kundalini Awakening: How Can it Change Your Life?
Enhanced Perception and Creativity
The most difficult things in life are also the most rewarding, and this universal principle certainly applies to Kundalini Awakening. The most immediate benefit is an expanded perception of consciousness and vastly enhanced creativity. Having identified Kundalini as the fundamental creative principle and energy of the cosmos, in an unawakened state, our creative capacity is limited to our bandwidth of transmission from the divine source. All music and art touch our soul, for it is the divine reaching for itself through our internal expression.
When Kundalini awakens, our capacity for writing, poetry, art, music, or any creative expression expands tremendously. All great poets and writers have at least partially opened the higher chakras, most certainly the heart centre, which pours out divine love through artistic expression.
Healing and Relationships
If our deepest wounds and psychological complexes are alchemized during the awakening journey, we will naturally have more fulfilling relationships. We will no longer be compatible with unconscious and toxic people, which significantly reduces the size of our dating pool but prepares us for more meaningful bonds. Due to the sensitivity of our unconscious during early awakening, our relationships will trigger unhealed aspects of the self to become conscious for transmutation.
During early awakening, we may find ourselves in a “limbo” state, where our unstable frequency repels both unconscious and spiritual people while our energies clear and harmonize on a higher level. There can be a portion of our journey where being alone is essential while we heal and discover the true Self. We can connect with people on a much deeper level, and partnerships that prioritize the spiritual dimensions of life are possible. Over time, as healing continues, we can have faith that deeply spiritual and rewarding connections will manifest at the right time.
Soul’s Guidance and Life Purpose
Kundalini Awakening will destroy, heal, and alchemize all obstructions that stand between us and our soul’s purpose. Our purpose need not be one specific thing, nor must it be particularly spiritually oriented. It only means that we can pursue whatever our soul longs for in life without the programmed narratives and familial and social influences that limit and constrain us to an ordinary life.
The Kundalini will push us to individuate, and if we resist, she finds a way to smack sense into us. The soul becomes the primary source of guidance and moral compass. With an open heart, we become highly empathic. As a result, we will do what is right for ourselves and others. We will naturally want to contribute something to the world.
Giving Back to the World
Our relationship with the world shifts from a “parasitic” attitude, which prioritizes taking something for ourselves and dominating others, to a “symbiotic” and giving relationship, where we naturally desire to contribute something of value to others. We can still make money, for money is only energy, but as our perception of consciousness extends beyond the ego, our priorities naturally shift to a collective rather than purely individualist mindset, even though we become highly unique individuals.
If you’d like to learn more about the process of Kundalini Awakening from a Jungian and mythological perspective, you can purchase my book in paperback on Amazon or in eBook format using the links below:
Written by Nicholas Brethour
