Geo made this piece while he was traveling in India, immersed in asana, pranayama, meditation and lucid dreaming. His studies and resulting experiences gave him a clearer image of the relationships between the Chakras, the nervous & endocrine systems, diet, Prana & Chi, and heightened spiritual experiences. He wanted to embed these teachings of inner balance into the symbolism of the piece.
From Joseph Cambell’s Myths of Light:
‘The two spinal nerves at either side of the sushumna (central spinal channel), left and right, are, respectively, the channels of the female and the male energies (ida & pingala), which the ordered breathing of the yogi is to bring together. Moreover, the kundalini itself, the coiled serpent power, is conceived as female.’
‘Her voyage up the spine, therefore, is the flight of an awakened girl burning with desire through a forest of perils and deceptive allures to her own extinction and fulfillment and fulfillment in extinction: a lover’s quest.’
‘The yogi is to realize within himself this ideal through an awakening of the power (shakti) of his own omniscience, defending it from loss in the forest of allure and guiding it up the way to the deity of the head.’
‘The ultimate goal is to transcend duality–and that is achieved at the crown of the head, the sahasrara, ‘the thousand petaled lotus.’
From The Tantric Path to Higher Consciousness by Sunyata Saraswati & Bodhi Avinasha:
‘In Tantra and other Yogas, there is a science and art of weaving the male and female principles within the human body. Ultimate Reality is One, but we percieve reality as dualistic, that everything has its opposite, and that duality is sexual.’
‘Tantric Kriya Yoga is the left-hand path–Vama Marga–a rotation of conscious sexual forces between two partners, mixing the male and female energies in an internal alchemy. Out of this comes the same illumination that a celibate Kriya practitioner can experience, but much more quickly. To connect your energy with your mate’s accelerates your progress.’
‘Kriya is the ancient Tantric science of rotating consciousness through the astral pathways of the body to produce a profoundly altered state of consciousness. Kriya uses a process of ‘Internal Alchemy’ to magnetize the spine, literally pulling etheric energy into the cerebro-spinal fluid and altering its electrical properties. The breathing and meditation cleanse the latent tunnels between the coccyx (sacral reservoir of cerebro-spinal fluid) and cranial cavities. Then the electrically charged fluid (shakti) wells up into the unobstructed channels to flood the brain with cosmic energy. This Shakti Kundalini activates the third eye, the seat of individual consciousness, and stimulates the pineal and pituitary glands–direct links to cosmic awareness. It transforms the entire nervous system, so every sense is expanded. It produces a continuous mild orgasm throughout the central nervous system.’
‘In that moment one experiences union with the beloved. There is no separation, no “I” as apart from “you.” In that moment we transcend into the state of Samadhi, blissful union between the individual consciousness and the Cosmic. Wave after wave of love and peace infuse waking consciousness. The anxious, striving, separated individual self becomes merged with the total flow of cosmic life energy, bathed in its unchanging quality of intense joy.’
Here are a few related videos that further describe this powerful experience:
Kundalini awakening animation from Parabola music video by Tool & Alex Grey - 2 min
What is Kundalini? Q&A with teacher Tao Semko – 7 min.
Check out Tao’s youtube channel for more in-depth information on Kundalini.
Fun animated description of Chakras and how to balance them from Spirit Science – 8 min
Dynamo Jack - 10 min. Fact or fiction? This healer can apparently project a flow of current from his body into other people and objects, with amazing effects. A team of scientists use electronic equipment to measure this energy. In the Yogic system, these powers of raised Kundalini are called Siddhis. There is a moral at the end demonstrating the dangers of misuse! This version of the film at 4:50 makes mention pulling of ‘the correct proportion of Yin (feminine energy) and Yang (masculine energy)’ into the navel chakra.