Are we humans programmed for sex, sadness and liberation? According to tantric yoga, yes we are!
In the book Gods of Love and Ecstasy, Alain Danielou links the spiritual hearts of the Indian god Shiva with the Greek god Dionysus. In these two Divine personages of magic and transcendence, East and West meet, both literally and symbolically.
When the mystical labyrinths appeared in the land of Crete about four thousand years ago, Shivaism (Tantric Yoga) had already existed in India for thousands of years. “Since its remotest origins, Shivaism has been inseparable from Yoga”, writes Daniélou. He also claims that Shaivism as a sacred yogic culture spread over a vast area, from India to Greek and Celtic Europe.
In other words, the inner labyrinth of Yoga, the kundalini, which is a coiled serpent of creativity, sex, and spiritual liberation at the base of our spines, also manifests as outer labyrinths of the earth, as symbolic representations of the inner yogic journey. . And Danielou believes that these shamanic and yogic snakes crawled west from India and can be found in caves and terrestrial circles from the Ganges to England.
When you walk a labyrinth counterclockwise, you symbolically unwind the cosmic coil of kundalini, freeing yourself from the terrestrial cave of the Muladhara chakra. And this spiritual unwinding from within is the awakening of Shakti, the kundalini, so that it can unite with Shiva at the Sahasrara, the crown chakra.
All this inner enterprise of unwinding the inner labyrinth is what we call yoga. And it is a company that has lasted a few thousand years longer than the oldest yoga mat in the world, since people did their asanas on earth, sand and rock, since people did their meditation naked in the rain and the weather icy.
All energy is housed in this first chakra, the abode of the Shakti. In fact, there are four fundamental vrittis, or human yearnings, associated with this chakra:
dharma, or psycho-spiritual longing
artha, or psychic yearning
káma, or physical longing
mokÅa, or spiritual longing
In other words, the first chakra is not the “lowest” chakra, it is actually the seat of our spiritual yearning, our thirst for love both physical and spiritual comes from this inner labyrinthine cave. In fact, we are programmed for spirituality, for dharma, for bliss. It is also programmed for lust, but even more so for liberation, for spiritual union, for yoga.
That is why in India you will see people worshiping vaginas and penises made of stone. The vagina, the yoni or Shakti, is the labyrinth of the earth, the energy from which everything is created. This coiled feminine energy surrounds the male phallus, the linga or Shiva, the self-born consciousness erected in all things.
As you can see, tantric yoga was not created by puritans, but neither by hedonists. These yogis of old knew that beyond the first chakra there were numerous challenges ahead. These challenging vrittis, including hatred, delusion, possessiveness, cruelty, fear, and arrogance, are located in groups of six, ten, twelve, sixteen, and two, around the other six chakras.
As you can see, most of these vrittis are more psychologically challenging than the main four located at the Muladhara chakra. But there are also positive ones, among them hope, effort, discernment, and perhaps the most important of all, vritti love located in the heart chakra.
In addition, there is the human capacity to awaken spiritual knowledge, the famous apara vritti located in the ajina or chakra between the eyebrows.
The science of kundalini, chakras, and vrittis, and how these esoteric inner expressions are alchemically awakened, balanced, and controlled through hatha yoga and meditation, is complex and beyond the scope of this short blog. But the heart of this science is reflected in the labyrinth of the earth and the kundalini of the body.
In other words, the labyrinth of spiritual energy within us, the kundalini, is reflected in the sacred revelation of the labyrinth of the earth. As inside, so outside.
Our spiritual practice, our yoga, uncoils and releases the kundalini labyrinth and thereby frees us from containment in the earthly chamber of the first chakra.
