Chapter Seven: The First Phase of Kundalini Awakening

The first phase of kundalini awakening is one of purifying fire. It ends with the release of the knot just below the belly button; initiation beyond this knot is an ego death resulting in a perspective shift in which there is awareness and consideration of others, as well as a movement into a witness state in which there is a separation from the chaos and unhealed projections created from trauma patterning.

In this phase, kundalini flows up the spine, as well as works its way through the channels of the body, to release the traumas, imprints, held emotions, and other blockages that are preventing us from experiencing liberation.

--The basic symptoms of kundalini awakening in this first phase are:

--Shaking or feeling of immense vibration arising from the tailbone or genitals up the midline

--Feelings of immense heat especially around the genitals but also frequent feelings of fever

--Spontaneous body movements and hand movements into yogic postures

--Sexual shifts: a huge rise in sexual energy

--Drastic shifts in consciousness: moments of transcendental nature, bliss states, release of identification with the chaos, projections, and wounding that has drastically restricted the peephole

--Surges in energy: movement from highly creative, energetic states to fatigue

--Emotional cycling, or release of huge bursts of emotional energy, especially fear

--Spontaneous breaths and “body locks”: for example, the pressing of the abdomen into the spine automatically

--Processing: the spontaneous emergence of unhealed material that is rising up into consciousness to be healed

--Digestive issues, including severe bloating

Although there are a wide range of other symptoms that have been pointed to, or experienced by those in this phase, these are the ones that are of the most significance, and are experienced by most who have kundalini awakening in their system.

However, what to look for are shifts in consciousness as a result of kundalini, not symptoms. There should be drastic shifts in perception if someone is experiencing a kundalini awakening- these shifts will be absent in those in pre-kundalini states or in individuals who believe they are experiencing kundalini falsely.

Large emotions, such as the reservoir of fear that tends to be located in the first chakra, emerge in the first phase, and so looking for significant processing (large emotions and trauma-related material arising all at once, many patterns arising at the same time) as well as the experience of symptoms like large energetic flows up the midline and volcanic heat, will point to someone who is in the first phase. If there is not a flow of energy up the midline, which is the route or pathway for consciousness to unfold within the human form, someone may be experiencing an awakening, but it is unlikely to be a kundalini awakening.

Despite the significant distress that can emerge in this stage, understanding that the symptoms that emerge are byproducts of purifying fire, or release from the channels, rather than having to do with consciousness itself (kundalini unfolding in the midline) is a helpful vantage point to have. As is understanding that any kundalini awakening properly flowing will allow for someone to eventually experience greater stability, as well as expanded perspective that allows for compassion and recognition of people and the world, and an increased ability to meet the world and the people in it with compassion.

Chapter Twelve: Finding Assistance

CranioSacral Therapy and Kundalini

It is not essential that your practitioner has awakened kundalini, or even necessarily knowledge of the topic of spiritual awakening. It is of far greater importance that the person you choose seems grounded, stable, and has a great deal of experience under their belt. I guarantee that any bodyworker who has been in practice for longer than five years will have experienced more than a few of their clients doing spontaneous movements or shaking on the table.

One of the things I would remind people experiencing kundalini awakening, as well as their clinicians and friends, is that this process, no matter how gradual, is traumatizing in and of itself. During times of trauma we tend to isolate and we will create beliefs to help us further disconnect, to take us further away from health, during times that we lack clarity and stability.

Some of the nervous system and physiological things that occur during the kundalini awakening process either need a very experienced teacher or a bodyworker versed in that type of work to traverse. There are some things that we cannot accomplish alone, or it would at the very least take decades to do something that we might accomplish with someone trained to work with the nervous system within a series of perhaps ten sessions.

We process things through our physical bodies, and the nervous systems of those with considerable trauma, or whom are going through a kundalini awakening process are often on edge, and difficult to soothe. This is due to a rewiring process that is going on, and help assisting the release of trauma in conjunction with soothing the nervous system and helping to maintain emotional-mental balance during the majority of kundalini awakenings is exactly what CranioSacral therapy excels at.

CranioSacral therapy is a light touch modality that works with the continuum of the sacrum, spinal cord, and skull, including the membranous structures that line the spinal canal and skull, osseous structures including the small bones that make up the skull and vertebrae, as well as the cerebrospinal fluid that flows through this continuum….

Since kundalini arises through the cerebrospinal matrix, and focuses on this continuum, especially the spinal column (although work may take place anywhere in the body) it is the ideal modality for those experiencing kundalini awakenings. It gently nourishes and decompresses the nervous system, reduces pain, and encourages flow… all without putting additional input into the body. It works with the rhythms and flows of the body as a whole, and considers the individual in front of them as a whole person, rather than a mechanistic series of parts.