The Serpent - part 2

The word chakra comes from the Sanskrit cakra meaning wheel or circle (wheel of life). It’s pronounced chuhkruh, with ch as in chart and both a as in yoga. The notion of a chakra as an energy node in the human body can be found mainly in Hinduism and its spiritual systems of yoga, and in the New Age movement. (1)

We will here go into a lot of numbers, especially number seven. Therefore I suggest also reading the chapter about this most elusive number that can be found HERE. This part and that chapter can't be understood separately.


The Spiritual Currents in the Wheel of Life

There are seven main charkas, each with different attributes and powers, aligned from the base of the spine to the top of the head. They are: (2)


Chakras are the loci of prana, life-energy/spiritual currents, which flow through the nadis, Sanskrit for channel, in the human body. There are three principal nadis. The first is the sushumna or in other words the spinal column through which the prana flows and by which means we enter and leave the body. The second nadis is the ida associated with the higher mind, or manas, and the third is the pingala associated with the force of desire. (3)

In Hinduism these three principal nadis, or pathways if you will, are all represented in the Caduceus of Hermes. The rod itself symbolizes the spinal column, the sushumna, and the two serpents conduct the spiritual currents, or pranas, along the ida and pingala channels. This is symbolized by the double-helix pattern from the chakra at the base, root, of the spine up to the top, the pineal gland, and the pair of wings (mercury/intellect). The serpents represent the positive and negative energy ascending and descending from above and below.

There has been some interesting experiments with caduceus-wound coils, or tensor coils, which is basically an ordinary copper wire wound in a double-helix, like the two serpents, but around a ferrite core instead of a staff. This coil has shown some amazing properties.

Firstly it has zero impedance, which means when fed electrical energy it does not get hot. Secondly it has infinite resonance, which means it can resonate strongly on any number of frequencies randomly spaced in the spectrum. A signal pumped into the coil can’t be detected by standard RF (radio frequency) detection apparatus. Thirdly, and most astoundingly, it has been known to levitate, pulsating bursts of microwave frequencies eerily reminiscent of a connection with something divine

The tantric texts Sat-Cakra-Nirupana and the Padaka-Pancaka describe the chakras as emanations of consciousness from the Brahman. The chakras are part of an emanationist theory, like that of the Kabala, Lataif-e-sitta in Sufism and Neo-Platonism. The Wikipedia Encyclopaedia says:

“The energy that was unleashed in creation, called the Kundalini, lies coiled and sleeping, and it is the purpose of a tantric yogi to arouse this energy, and cause it to rise back up through the increasingly subtler chakras, until union with god is achieved in the Sahasrara chakra at the crown of the head.”

When a serpent attacked Buddha, as the legend goes, it bound itself seven times around his waist, which could be symbolic of the seven main charkas, each with different attributes and powers, aligned from the base of the spine to the top of the head, but because of Buddha’s inner strength the serpent surrendered and became his follower. The serpent here is not a malevolent creature that Buddha masters, but instead the cosmic energy that lies coiled up inside that he gains control of.

This energy is the Kundalini, derived from a Sanskrit word meaning either coiled up, coiling like a snake or serpent power. The Caduceus of Hermes is thought to be an ancient symbolic representation of Kundalini physiology. Kundalini, according to the Yogic tradition, is curled up in the back part of the Root chakra in three and one-half turns around the sacrum. (4) Rumi, a Sufi mystic, wrote of Kundalini:

“You have the energy of the sun in you, but keep knotting it up at the base of your spine.”

The Yogic philosophy of ancient India is the originator of the Kundalini concept, which is the mothering intelligence behind yogic awakening and spiritual maturation. Both Charles Webster Leadbeater (5) and Carl Gustav Jung (6) gave early western interpretations of Kundalini.

There is also a connection, or similarity, with the Masonic CHiram (7) and the Kundalini as Manly P. Hall points out in The Secret Teachings of All Ages:

“…CHiram may be considered a symbol also of the Spit Fire moving through the sixth ventricle of the spinal column. The exact science of human regeneration is the Lost Key of Masonry, for when the Spit Fire is lifted up through the thirty-three degrees, or segments of the spinal column, and enters into the domed chamber of the human skull, it finally passes into the pituitary body (Isis), where it evokes Ra (the pineal gland) and demands the Sacred Name.”

The chakras are supposed to vitalise the physical body and interact with both the physical and mental nature. They are levels of consciousness and states of the soul difficult to prove scientifically, but it is interesting that the positions of the chakras correspond with the positions of the glands in the endocrine system and also the positions of nerve bundles called ganglions along the spinal column.

Since chakras are seen as having its existence in the spirit or psyche these glands can be the proof that they also exist in the physical body. The various hormones secreted by these glands can have dramatic effect on the psyche of a person if they are imbalanced. The most potent secretion of these glands is DMT synthesized by the pineal gland.

In men the region of the first chakra, the Root, has no gland but here lies the muscle that controls ejaculation. Together with the ovum in women this clearly symbolize the location of the genetic code that lies coiled up in the sperm/ovum. This fits the legend that the Kundalini lies coiled up in the Root chakra ready to uncoil and bring man to his highest spiritual potential.

The second chakra’s primary function is related to emotions, sexuality and creativity. The testis and the ovaries that produce sex hormones can both cause dramatic mood swings.

The third chakra, the solar plexus, is related to energy and digestion and here is the pancreas and the adrenal cortex that play valuables roles converting food matter into energy for the body.

The fourth chakra is connected to love and well-being. The thymus, in the chest, is part of the immune system. It produces T cells responsible for fighting of disease and can be harmed by stress.

The fifth chakra equals communication and growth. The thyroid, a gland located in the throat, produces thyroid hormones responsible for growth and maturation.

The sixth chakra, the third eye, is linked to the pineal gland, which is a light sensitive gland that produces the hormone melatonin. This hormone regulates the instincts of to sleep and awake, and also produces trace amounts of the psychedelic chemical dimethyltryptamine.

The final chakra, the Crown, controls all the other six. The pituitary gland secrets hormones in order to control the rest of the endocrine system and also connects to the central nervous system via the hypothalamus. The thalamus is thought to have a key role in the physical basis of consciousness. (8)

In The Secret Teachings of All Ages Manly P. Hall explains that the Brahmin and Egyptian initiates: “employed the lotus blossoms to represent the spinning vortices of spiritual energy located at various point along the spinal column…” These correspond with the chakra and endocrine glands as such:


There are clear similarities between the Seven Souls of esoteric Indian culture and the Seven Souls of Egyptian culture as well as the Egyptian hieroglyphics of the Seven Constitutions of Man: (9)



The chakras, the Seven Souls of India/Egypt and the constitutions of man all correspond with each other. If these are abbreviated and summarized into an essential form and compared to the seven stages of alchemical transmutation we get:



The Double-Helix

Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, stores all the information needed to make all parts of a living being. It contains four types of bases: adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine abbreviated A, T, C and G. Similar to a computer that uses 1s and 0s to store data, the cells in the body use As, Ts, Cs and Gs to store the genetic data such as gender, facial features and all things that can be inherited.

DNA resembles in form two serpents that are entwined, much like the Caduceus of Hermes, is referred to as the double-helix. Jeremy Narby’s book The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the origins of knowledge centres around this theme and delivers and interesting theory that explains how ancient people knew of the hidden secrets to life, the DNA, and correctly represented its shape and form as that of two entwined serpents or a ladder.

Most famous of these ladders is Jacob’s Ladder. In Genesis 28:12 it says that Jacob ”dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.”

Jeremy Narby writes in The Cosmic Serpent - DNA and the origins of knowledge:

“Scientists have found spread out among the non-coding parts of the text a great number of endlessly repeated sequences with no apparent meaning… they have called this apparent gibberish, which constitutes the overwhelming majority of the genome, junk DNA… There is even a 300-letter sequence that is repeated a total of half a million times. All told, repeat sequences make up a full third of the genome Their meaning, so far, is unknown.”

The most stunning similarity in all this is the creation myth and the DNA-serpent in Genesis and the fact that all things alive are made of genes.

Could all this mean that not only does the entwined serpents of the Caduceus represent DNA and the source of life, but also great technological powers, such as the caduceus-wound tensor coils, perhaps already known to the antediluvian world. If the forces that flow through the pranas… or is all this just mere coincidence?

If the Staff of Hermes symbolise the Above and Below, the Visible and the Invisible, and the Serpent crawling and twirling around it represents moving in and out, up and down, these two realities then the Serpent is some sort of vessel. More than the source of Wisdom it is the Vehicle of Wisdom.

It is difficult with certain subject to keep them in different categories since they literally intertwine. The continuation of these two parts of The Serpent continue HERE, which is a chapter on the number seven.

Footnotes:
(1) Traditional Chinese medicine has a similar system for energy in the human body.
(2) There is also a transpersonal Chakra above the crown Chakra together with many minor Chakras between the major Chakras.
(3) From G. de Purucker’s Man in Evolution and Fountain-Source of Occultism.
(4) Composite triangular bone of anchylosed vertebræ forming back of pelvis.
(5) Leadbeater often claimed to have been born on the 17th of February, 1847, although his birth records states it was the 16th of February, 1854. He was ordained an Anglican priest in his mid-twenties and later in life, when 62, consecrated a bishop in the Liberal Catholic Church. Aleister Crowley called him a senile sex-maniac and in 1906 Leadbeater was forced to resign from the Theosophical Society, where he was an associate of Annie Besant, because he was teaching masturbation. Was he a loon or a man before his time? Regardless Leadbeater was readmitted three years later. He died on the 1st of March, 1934.
(6) Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961).
(7) CHiram is a representation of mans spiritual death and regeneration, also identified with both Osiris and Hermes.
(8) Worthy to note is that some argue the pineal gland is the seventh Chakra and the pituitary gland is the sixth. See Arthur Avalon’s book Serpent Power.
(9) In the Kabbalah these are the corresponding names: Guf, Kuch ha Guf, Nephesh, Ruach, Neshamah, Chayah and the seventh being Yechida.

© deviadah