state to be attained _ for it is man's real nature. Attainment consists in removal of the
ignorance which veils the true state.
There are several ways of raising kundalini. The use of breath forms the basis of
hatha yoga, one of the major traditional forms of spiritual. culture for realizing the
union (yoga) of individual and absolute consciousness. Ha stands for the moon,, tha
for the sun. The solar and lunar currents circulating in the physical organism
constitute the life-current (prang) which can be directed by breathing techniques.
Breath and mind being one, the control of the one automatically effects the control of
the other_
Mechanism of Desire
The pram is interrelated with sexual energy. Kandalina, the mystic fire, can also be
expressed sexually. Mind and breath, united and rhythmically directed towards a
given goal, is the basis of sexual magic. The magically-charged breath is supposed to
have amities with the mechanism of desire. According to Eliphas Levi , the 19th
century occultist, if a man breaths in a certain way upon a woman's neck she will
automatically surrender to his will.
The ancient Hindu work Yoga Vasishtha contains a classic description of the
awakening of the great magic power (shako):
When the Kandalini is filled with prang she darts upward. She then becomes erect
and stifflike a stick or an excited serpent_ If the various physical orifices are closed,
the body is filled with prang and its physical and material components are
fundamentally changed_
A western counterpart of the sun, moon, fire trinity is the caduceus of Hermes. This
is the prototype of the magic wind used in ceremonial magic. It comprises the twin
Currents of moon and sun, symbolised as serpents twined about a pole or wand which
terminates in a winged and luminous bulb. The breath (or prang) represented by the
serpents attains perfect equilibrium and transmits its influence to the wand, which
thus becomes potent to perform the will of the magician. The bulb of the wand,
radiant with illuminated will, is symbolical of that radiance with which the head -
lotus (sahasrara chakra) is flooded when the risen goddess (Kundalini) unites with her
lord: Shiva, the Lord of Fire or Light,
Jumping like a Frog
The vagaries of kundalini when improperly or incompletely amused have
occasionally been recorded, One of the physical results of such a deviation is known
as buchari siddhi, or 'the power of jumping like a frog', This siddhi has been
described by Aleister Crowley who observed it of his guru., Allan Bennett, one of the
first to introduce Buddhism to England. One day, Bennett had been practising
pranayama and his body had assumed the rigidity characteristic of certain trance
conditions,, causing it to jump about erratically. When it came to rest it resembled an
overturned idiot He was completely oblivious that his body, galvanised by the
interior power, had been rocked from its asara (meditation posture) and thrown about
the room to land finally in a topsy-turvy attitude several yards from its original
position.
In the Tibetan Mystery Schools the breath plays a vital part in the process of death.
The lama appointed to aid the dying makes sure that the prang is maintained in the
sushumna (central canal) and not dissipated by re-entering the left or right nerve
currents. if consciousness is retained to the last, the breath or soul passes over
consciously to the barrio (after -death plane or realm of the disembodied `dead').
There it awaits re-birth in a form appropriate to its spiritual development. In this way
the breath, as the soul, survives the death of the physical organism.