Rise, O my snake!

When rituals beyond lighting candles and mumbling some poetry begin, some strange feelings can occur.

When you begin to raise and direct energy, assume god forms or attempt to go out of body, these feelings will occur.

In the West we gained enlightenment and developed spiritually through Ritual, while in the East they used Meditation.  Merging the two together, West and East, as with God and Goddess, Mercy and Severity, Yin and Yang, and so on.  We can form a total system.

Some Wiccans incorporate Yoga such as Kundalini, which I will be covering here, because it is far easier and more a stable method of attaining the same results.  Rather than just from intense ritual work for this spiritual awakening.

Just because one Speaks Spanish, does not mean they can not enjoy Sushi.  Just because one Practices Martial Arts, does not me they can not be peaceful.  The same applies to Wicca and Kundalini, just because ones religion is Wicca, does not mean they can not practice Yoga.  Merging Kundalini and other forms of Yoga into your system is fairly simple, or you can keep it separate, the same way you would go to the gym for exercise and go to your sacred space for magick.  Just because you practice magick, does not mean you can not practice rowing.

Take a look at how Aleister Crowley merged Kundalini with his system in this beautiful piece:

I am the Heart; and the Snake is entwined
About the invisible core of the mind.
Rise, O my snake! It is now is the hour
of the hooded and holy ineffable flower.
Rise, O my Snake, into the brilliance of bloom
On the corpse of Osiris afloat in the tomb!
O heart of my mother, my sister, mine own,
Thou art given to Nile, to the terror Typhon!
Ah me! but the glory of ravening storm
Enswathes thee and wraps thee in frenzy of form.
Be still, O my soul! that the spell may dissolve
As the wands are upraised, and the aeons revolve,
Behold! in my beauty how joyous Thou art,
O Snake that caresses the crown of mine heart!
Behold! we are one, and the tempest of years
Goes down to the dusk, and the Beetle appears.
O beetle! the drone of Thy dolorous note
Be ever the trance of this tremulous throat!
I await the awaking! The summons on high
From the lord Adonai, from the Lord Adonai!

The Golden Dawn also had a method vary similar to Kundalini work.

The Qabalistic Cross, instead of moving up from the base chakra, came down from just above the head, and down into the floor.  Then from the heart centre spread out to each side.  From a Kundalini sense, we could see this as work on our Arms and Legs, in preparation for Kundalini.

The Middle Pillar, this is by far the most obvious.  Down from Kether, just above the crown light is drawn to the throat center, then to the heart center, the base center and to the feet and at either side stands the two pillars.  This symbolised the Man on the tree of life.  I did not agree completely with Regardie’s view on this, I believed that the 7 chakra can be likened to 7 aspects of the tree.  Kether = The Crown, the synthesis of Chokma and Binah = The Brow, the synthesis of Chesed and Geburah = The Throat, Tiphareth = The Heart, the synthesis of Netzach and Hod = The Solar Plexus, Yesod = The abdomen and Malkuth the Base chakra.  The arms and legs already worked in the Qabalistic cross and also the belief in one of the simplest forms of Qabala, the Tree of 11 sephiroth was the Evil Tree.  The goal is not to assimulate oneself with the Tree of the Qlippoth, but with the Tree of Life.  Not including Daath, but eventually returning Tiphareth to its correct place (Daath) that was left after the fall.

Anyway….

In Wicca Kundalini can be merged in many ways, and this is totally up to your creative skills.  There is no set way to merging, and to my knowledge there is no Wiccan Tradition which directly mentions Kundalini, though practices (as with Crowley’s and the Golden Dawns previously mentioned) that are very similar do exist.

Raising Kundalini.

There are many ways of raising Kundalini.  The quickest way, and probably the most dangerous way is to overload/over stimulate the base chakra.  When the base chakra is overloaded it bursts with energy that moves upward, activating all the other chakra until it reaches full Kundalini or hits a blockage.
Another way, is longer, but said to be safer.  And that is to stimulate all your chakra, one at a time, work them a prepare them attempting to remove any blockages.  Then stimulate each chakra until you feel the “pressure” one at a time from the base to the Crown.  This can in itself trigger kundalini, but usually the base is stimulated to the overload point again, and Kundalini Awakens.
Another method is with long meditation sessions just moving your consciousness up and down your spine, around your aura, etc, in a fashion you choose.

My Recommended Method

Spend a bit of time “opening” or “stimulating” each of the chakras.  Don’t just overload the base and expect it to work, it can cause some serious discomfort and the need to stop practice if it hits a blockage with too much force.  Working the other chakra and even the path prior to attempting to raise Kundalini will reduce this risk.  For those who have practiced the above Western methods of the Cross and Pillar, the path is prepared, the 7 chakra now just need to be prepared and full Kundalini is not far off.

Research

There are many good books of Kundalini.  Basic principle.  Don’t buy to deeply into the scare tactics, though some dangers do exist, I am sure there are thousands of people who practice Kundalini who well say differently.
Find a system you like.  I recommend reading both the Modern methods and the more traditionally correct methods.  You will find modern works which remove the core and create, through the authors practical experience, a method which delivers results quicker.  Similar to Crowley’s work in Book 4 part 1 which summed up the main points of importance and allowed people to gain a good level in Dharana in a few months, rather than spending years learning and mastering countless Asana before even glimpsing Dharana (Dharana being of great importance in Magick — loosely translating to “Concentration”).