Christ and the Kundalini

Knowledge of Reality

The most ancient Eastern spiritual texts, the Vedas, of India, tell us that the process of spiritual awakening by which one attains truth -awareness is called 'Self-Realization'. The Self Realized person lives in direct experience of reality -- this is called "Jnana" ( a traditional sanskrit word meaning 'knowledge' or 'Gnosis'). Such a person is called a "Jnani" ('knower ' or 'gnostic' ) or "dwijaha" ('twice born'; first from a human mother to the earthly plane then secondly as a child of the Goddess, or Divine Mother, who gives the seeker their second, spiritual birth, Self Realization, into the plane of mystic awareness- gnosis! ). The traditional Indian texts extol the 'Divine Mother' as the Cosmic Matriarch, bestower of the highest treasure of Self Realization upon Her deserving children. Many Indian mystic traditions say this same goddess is represented within the human being as the divine feminine power called Kundalini.

The Secret Book of John relates Christ's description of the Divine Feminine as the power of God Almighty. "She is the first power. She preceded everything, and came forth from the Father's mind as forethought of all. Her light resembles the Father's light; as the perfect power She is the image of the perfect and invisible Virgin Spirit. She is the first power, the glory, Barbello, the perfect glory among the worlds, the emerging glory, She glorified and praised the Virgin Spirit for she had come forth through the Spirit. She is the first thought, image of the Spirit. She became the universal womb, for She precedes everything, the common parent, the first humanity, the Holy Spirit". The Holy Spirit is here described as the Divine Power of God Himself. This power is maternal in its character (universal womb, She, the common parent) and all powerful as the 'first emanation of God'. More so, She is pure (Virgin) and She glorifies purity. So ancient Christian tradition seems to tell us that the holy spirit is actually the Divine Mother!

So, Christ seems to be telling us that the kingdom of Heaven, which is a state of God-like perfection and child-like innocence is attained by some inner phenomenon. In the Gnostic Scriptures Christ spoke directly of this as an inner transformation, self realization. He also told us that the Holy Ghost or Divine Mother is the power by which this is accomplished, but by what mechanism?

Let's take lateral look at the Indian tradition of Kundalini of which many local saints have spoken. Shankaracharya (700AD) and Gyaneshwara (1200AD) are two well known mystic exponents of Kundalini. They both describe the actualisation of self-realisation in their classic poetry, such as the Saundarya-Lahari, Sivananda-Lahari and the Gyaneshwari (itself a commentary on the Kundalini Yoga described by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita ). They describe a force of pure (virgin) spirituality, which lies dormant within the human being.

By constant purification and self perfection the seven vital energy centres (chakras) which govern all aspects of mind, body and soul, are prepared for the awakening of Kundalini. Once awakened by divine grace, the Kundalini passes through these centres, not unlike a string through beads, enlightening each as it passes through. Arriving at the seventh centre (Sahasrara) the seeker's awareness is united with the eternal-self-within. The experience is transrational, non causal, a tangible and real bliss of truth-awareness. Indian mystics called the Sahasrara "Paradise", "Heaven" or, as Christ has called it "The Kingdom of God Within". As the Kundalini passes through each of the vital centres, they are stimulated to produce a pure, nourishing energy. The Vedas (Ancient Scriptures of India) describe this energy as a sacred river emitted by each of the seven chakras. Shankaracharya called this energy "spun". He too described its nature as being like divine water showering down upon him as he meditated in the ecstasy of devotion. Other Indian scriptures call this energy "Paramchaitanya" (energy of supreme consciousness). The miracle of Whitsunday wherein the Apostles became empowered with their spirituality sounds similar to the experience of these chakras manifesting this same divine energy.

Shankaracharya said "All Glory unto the current of Divine Bliss which, brimming from the river of Thy Holy stories, flows into the lake of my mind, through the canals of intellect, subduing the dust of sin and cooling the heat of memory". Much of the Gnostic texts repeat this ancient Eastern understanding.

Consider this tract from the Book of Hymns of the Dead Sea Scrolls: "I have reached the inner vision and through Thy Spirit in me I have heard Thy wondrous secret, through Thy mystic insight Thou hast caused a spring of knowledge to well up within me, a fountain of power, pouring forth living waters, a flood of love and of all embracing wisdom, like the splendour of eternal light". The "fountain of power", "spring of knowledge", "Living water", "flood of love", "eternal light" all directly describe the experience of Kundalini awakening! Consider this from the Nag Hammadi Library, the Apocryphal Gospel of Phillip "The Tree of Life is in the centre of Paradise, as is the oil tree from which the anointment Chrisma comes. The Chrism is the source of resurrection". Krishna, the divine being, c4000BC, also described the Kundalini as an inverted Tree of spirituality, whose roots lay in the brain. The 'Tree of Life' is a well recognized symbolic parallel of the Kundalini. So too is the Holy Grail, the cup from which Christ drank at the last supper its symbolic significance being that Christ's sustenance arose from a cup, that is, an object whose receptive qualities reflect the nature of the divine feminine -- yet another parallel of the Kundalini.

It is likely that St Phillip's 'Chrisma' is the same 'spun' described by Shankaracharya, the 'Paramchaitanya' or in Christian terminology 'God's grace'. In the Gospel of Peace, Christ explains that the experience of spirituality is foremost. He says the Scriptures are merely conveying an intellectual knowledge, but we are to have the 'living knowledge', that is the experience of our own spirituality. He says "Seek not the law in your Scriptures for the law is life, whereas the Scripture is dead. I tell you truly Moses received not his laws from God as writing but through the living word. The law is living word for living God to living prophets for living men. In everything that is life to the law is the law written, for I tell you truly all living things are nearer to God than the Scripture which is without life. I tell you truly that the Scripture is the work of man, but life and all its hosts are the work of our God. Wherefore do you not listen to the words of God which are written in his works? And wherefore do you study the dead Scriptures which are from the hands of men?". That is, seek the divine experience which is beyond definition, do not settle for mundane human interpretations of the mystic's suprahuman experience. Thus Christ's law is a living, cosmic and experiential one, and is actuated by the awakening of the spiritual experience within the seeker, not by intellectual study or by following those who themselves have not truly had the experience. This directly parallels the eastern teachings; that self- realization, the pure spiritual awakening, is attained by the righteous and itself gives greater righteousness. More so, self realization is a process of genuine, inner spiritual transformation which must be experienced to be understood, since it lies beyond the domain of scriptural description or theological definition. Since it is gained by the grace of the Divine Mother( Holy Spirit) alone, it is most certainly not possible to organize or institutionalize this experience in human terms.

This contrasts with the way in which the Churches have pigeonholed and categorized Christianity in terms of 'blind faith', 'obedience to the church' and empty ritual. In the Gnostic Scriptures, untouched by the organized churches, Christ urges us to perceive and experience the cosmic order for ourselves and not to rely on so-called scriptural authorities -- such as the churches -- to prescribe it to us.

C.G. Jung recognized the link between the Divine Feminine and the Eastern principle of Kundalini. He understood that the Kundalini was the representation of the Goddess within each of us. Is the Holy Ghost the Kundalini? Was the Kundalini a central principle in early mystic Christianity? Such an assumption would help us reinterpret many parts of the mainstream bible, for example; In the Gospel of John, Christ explains to the Pharisee Nicodemus, " Verily I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the spirit; he cannot enter the kingdom of God", this second birth far from being a license for so many born again Christian fundamentalists is something much more mystical and subtle in nature. To be "born of the water and the spirit" describes the awakening of Kundalini. She is often described as a divine mother whose ascent within the spine of the seeker gives them rebirth into mystic/gnostic awareness, the 'divine water' is its nourishing energy. The Kundalini enters the Sahasrara and there unites the seeker's awareness with the self or spirit. This is described as a blissful, infinite experience of the kingdom of God within. Thus, Christ's 'born again' Christianity might actually refer to those Christians who have entered the realm of direct experience of divinity, in the state of self realization.

Other Canon (mainstream) Scriptures can be more deeply understood in this light. In the Gospel of Matthew, Christ says "Be Ye Perfect, even as Your Father which is in Heaven is perfect". (Ch.5, v. 48). This is a clear exhortation by Christ to strive and achieve spiritual perfection, just as the Buddha and other Eastern sages taught their disciples. Christ tells us about our innately divine nature "Ye are Gods" (Psalm 82, v.6; John 10, v.34). Furthermore "Behold the Kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17, v.21), that is the experience of Heaven is an internal phenomenon. This implies that the inner state of the seeker is the source of their spiritual fulfillment. We could well say that Christ's idea of Heavenly Salvation was an internal state of Godlike perfection.

When the seeker's awareness is completely united with the Eternal Spirit/Self/Atman the true self (not ego, mind, intellect, personality, body or memory) is experienced or realized. Since the spirit is no less than a reflection of God itself then in the state of complete Self Realization the seeker experiences perfection" as our Father in Heaven is perfect". The Eastern term for this state of Self Realization is God Realization and it represents the final stage of our spiritual evolution.

Central to his teaching was the understanding that the feminine aspect of God, God the Mother, was the means by which self-realization and spiritual evolution to god-awareness occurred. Christ venerated the Divine Mother as the Holy Spirit. It is this power, described in the East as residing in the human being as the Kundalini, that is the last vestige of the Goddess-tradition in the Christian West.


Why did the Churches suppress these true Christian traditions? Partly because they are patriarchal institutions based on the questionable dogma of Paul who perceived women (and therefore the feminine principle) as inferior entities. Partly also because spirituality which focused on the Divine Feminine would also focus on the redemptive power of God the Mother and on Her role as the grantor and matriarch of mystical experience. This kind of understanding, like all mystics and mysticism, defies organization, dogmatic hierarchies and institutions preferring the role of individual experience, revelation and progressive growth toward divine awareness.

The Holy Ghost, then, threatened to neutralize the fear-oriented dogma which the Churches have used, in the name of Christ and Spiritual Truth, to maintain their secular power and wealth.

Christ's promise of a comforter, the "second coming", implies another divine incarnation to bring about the redemption of humanity. As we have seen it is the Divine Mother who has the power to redeem her children, the Sons of Man (as the Gnostics put it), in the eyes of God the Father. Who better to comfort the children who suffer, as does the West and much of the world from a culture whose ethic of materialism and immediate gratification is characterized by terms such as "the lost generation", "eco-disaster", "terrorism", "future shock" and "psycho-social alienation", than the Divine Mother?

C.G. Jung, in his critique of the Western psyche keynoted the absence of the Feminine Principle as a major cause of much of the West's psycho-cultural imbalance. The return of the Divine Feminine would indeed facilitate the spiritual redemption of Western Culture.

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