Understand
Maps of the subtle body exactly as the classical texts draw them: the coiled power, the lotuses, the channels and the knots.
Five tools →
Practise
Guided breath, chanting, locks, listening and meditation, with a builder that puts them together into a daily session.
Ten tools →
Integrate
Make sense of what you are experiencing, know when to slow down, and keep a private record of your path.
Two tools →In these traditions Kuṇḍalinī is honoured as the power of consciousness itself, the Goddess who sleeps in the body and wakes by grace. Use these tools gently. They are companions on the way, not a replacement for a living teacher.
Understand
Before we practise, it helps to know the ground. These maps follow the Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa and the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā closely, and say so where the sources disagree.
Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa · v.8–11
The Coiled One
In the root lotus, inside a small triangle that shines like lightning, stands the Svayambhū-liṅga. Around it Kuṇḍalinī lies coiled three and a half times, “like the spiral of a conch-shell”, as fine as the fibre of a lotus stalk.
The triangle points downward. The text calls it Traipura, and in the tantric picture a downward triangle is the sign of Śakti, the power that creates and sustains. Its three sides are often read as her three powers: will, knowledge and action (icchā, jñāna, kriyā). So the image is of the Lord resting inside the power that holds him, with Kuṇḍalinī wrapped around them both.
Her mouth covers the Brahma-dvāra, the door that leads into the central channel. While she sleeps the door is closed. When she wakes, it opens.
Pūrṇānanda, Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa, verses 8–11, trans. Avalon.
Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa · Avalon 1919
The Chakra Atlas
All seven lotuses as Pūrṇānanda described them in 1577: petals, letters, shapes, seed sounds, deities and śaktis. Use it to learn the centres properly, and to bring a clear inner picture into your practice.
Details follow Avalon’s translation and Kālīcaraṇa’s commentary. Where the commentators disagree, the main reading is shown.
The rainbow sequence is a modern convention, popularised from C. W. Leadbeater (1927) onward. The Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa gives the colours shown in “Classical”.
The petals of the six cakras carry the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, and the thousand petals of the Sahasrāra repeat them twenty times. The body becomes a living alphabet of creation.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 4.18 · ŚCN v.1–2
The Nāḍīs
Seventy-two thousand channels branch out from the kanda below the navel. Only one of them really matters for the rising: the suṣumnā. Inside it, like layers in a stalk, lie vajrā, citriṇī and, at the very centre, the hollow Brahma-nāḍī that Kuṇḍalinī travels through.
Other texts count differently: 300,000 or 350,000, as Avalon notes.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 4.69–4.88
The Knots and the Inner Sound
On her way up, the power meets three knots, the granthis of Brahmā, Viṣṇu and Rudra. The Pradīpikā describes their opening in four stages of inner listening, each with its own sound. Today’s teachers place the knots a little differently, and you can compare the two maps here.
Ārambha
the beginning · 4.70–71- Knot pierced
- Brahma-granthiBrahma-granthi · at Mūlādhāra
- Where
- The empty space of the heart
- Sound
- Tinkling, like jewelled ornaments
- Experience
- A radiant, healthy, fragrant body; the heart feels open and void
Ghaṭa
the vessel · 4.72–73- Knot pierced
- Viṣṇu-granthiViṣṇu-granthi · at Anāhata
- Where
- The “very empty” space, glossed as the throat
- Sound
- The kettledrum (bherī)
- Experience
- The breath unites and enters the middle channel; the posture becomes firm
Paricaya
familiarity · 4.74–75- Knot pierced
- — none named ——
- Where
- Between the eyebrows, then the great void
- Sound
- The drum (mardala)
- Experience
- Natural bliss (sahajānanda), beyond pain, ageing, hunger and sleep
Niṣpatti
completion · 4.76–77- Knot pierced
- Rudra-granthiRudra-granthi · at Ājñā
- Where
- The seat of Śiva, between the eyebrows
- Sound
- The flute, like a vīṇā
- Experience
- Mind and sound become one — this is called Rāja-yoga
Loud, outer-like sounds
Deeper resonances
The subtlest sounds
These are outer echoes, made to remind. The text describes sounds heard within — and advises (4.87–88) to keep attending to the subtle sound even while louder ones arise.
The language of the path
Sanskrit Glossary
Twenty-six words you will meet again and again. Hover or tap a card to turn it over.
Practise
Practices from the haṭha and Tantric traditions, made simple enough to start today. Begin with the practice builder if you are unsure where to start.
Your daily sādhanā
Daily Practice Builder
Tell it what you need today and how much time you have, and it puts together a complete session from the practices on this page, with a soft bell at every change.
Breathe without strain. Retention (kumbhaka) is best learned gradually and with a teacher; leave it out during pregnancy or with heart or blood-pressure conditions, and simply use the gentle mode.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 2.7–2.10 · Gheraṇḍa 5.39–44
Nāḍī Śodhana
Alternate-nostril breathing purifies the channels and brings iḍā and piṅgalā into balance. The Pradīpikā says that, practised faithfully, it cleanses the nāḍīs in about three months. It is the foundation the old texts build everything else on.
The Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā gives the classical proportion of 1 : 4 : 2.
Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā 5.84 · Dhyānabindu Upaniṣad
Ajapā · the 21,600
Every day the breath goes in and out about 21,600 times, softly repeating haṃsa: “I am That.” The yogis call it the prayer that prays itself. This is the gentlest practice on the page, and you can do it anywhere.
Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā 5.84 and the Dhyānabindu Upaniṣad: the breath goes out with “haṃ” and comes in with “sa” — the Ajapā Gāyatrī, the prayer recited without reciting.
Drone tuned to 396 Hz
The old texts give each centre a seed sound but no number of hertz. These tunings are modern: the Solfeggio tones (396–852 Hz) and the planetary tones from Hans Cousto’s Cosmic Octave, the ones used for chakra tuning forks. The drone is a recorded singing bowl, tuned so its note sits exactly on the frequency, with pure tones on the frequency and an octave below.
Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa
Bīja Chanting
Each centre has its seed sound: laṃ, vaṃ, raṃ, yaṃ, haṃ and oṃ. Chanted slowly, with attention on the centre, they awaken and steady it. Rising through all six draws the energy upward. Settling from the top down brings it home again.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 3.19–25 · 3.55–76
The Three Locks
Mūla at the root, uḍḍīyāna at the belly and jālandhara at the throat. These locks turn prāṇa back from its outward flow and guide it into the central channel. Held together they make the mahā-bandha, which the Pradīpikā calls the best of all.
The bandhas are strong practices. Learn them in person from an experienced teacher, never force them, and avoid them during pregnancy or menstruation, or with high blood pressure or heart conditions.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 2.35 · 2.59–67 · Six Dharmas of Nāropa
The Breath of Fire
Every tradition that speaks of Kuṇḍalinī also speaks of fire. The haṭha texts fan it with the breath: kapālabhāti cleanses, and bhastrikā, the Pradīpikā says, quickly awakens her and breaks the three knots. Modern Kundalini Yoga teaches a light, steady Breath of Fire. In Tibet the same heat is called caṇḍālī, the fierce one, kindled at the navel and carried up the central channel.
Here you can learn each one properly: the posture, the movement of the belly and spine, what it should feel like, and when not to do it. Then practise with a guide that keeps the rhythm for you.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā 2.35, 2.59–67 (trans. Pancham Sinh, 1914); Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā ch. 5; Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan; the Six Dharmas of Nāropa; Benson et al., Nature 1982; Kozhevnikov et al., PLOS ONE 2013.
How to do it
Fire breaths are strong medicine. Please don’t practise them if you are pregnant or menstruating heavily, or if you have high blood pressure, heart disease, epilepsy, glaucoma, a hernia or recent abdominal surgery, a history of panic, psychosis or bipolar disorder, or if your Kuṇḍalinī is already strong and unsettled. Practise on an empty stomach, never in water or before driving. Stop at once if you feel dizzy, cramped or tingling, and breathe normally.
Choose a fire, read the steps, then begin when you are ready.
Whenever you are ready.
Any outer sound fades away within the first minute, leaving you with your own inner listening.
Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā ch. 4
Inner Listening
Of all the ways to quiet the mind, the Pradīpikā praises listening to the inner sound above the rest. This timer guides you from the first loud sounds towards the subtle ones, and finally into the silence underneath.
Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra
A Dhāraṇā for Today
The Vijñāna Bhairava offers 112 small doorways into pure awareness. Each day a different one is shown here in plain words. Read it, then sit with it.
Verse numbers follow Jaideva Singh’s edition. The wording is our own paraphrase, not a translation.
Japa · the mālā of 108
Japa Mālā
A mālā has 108 beads and a larger guru-bead, the meru. With each repetition of the mantra you move on one bead. In many traditions the meru is never crossed. At the end of a round you turn the mālā and go back the other way.
Hold the back of your hand under the nostrils, or close each one in turn and breathe gently. Which flows more freely?
Choose the breath that is flowing now.
Śiva Svarodaya
Svara · the Breath of the Moment
The breath flows more strongly through one nostril and then the other, changing roughly every hour. The left breath favours calm, lasting work. The right favours effort and action. When both flow equally, the central channel is open, and that is the moment to meditate.
Śiva Svarodaya v.63 gives the change at about every 2½ ghaṭikās, roughly an hour.
Integrate
Rising is only half the work. The other half is understanding what is happening, and letting it settle into an ordinary, well-lived life.
The five signs and beyond
Understanding What You Feel
Heat, trembling, waves of bliss, sounds, sleeplessness. When the energy moves, the body speaks. This tool tells you what the tradition says about each experience and what tends to help, and it will tell you honestly when it is time to slow down or ask for help.
What have you been noticing? Choose everything that applies.
Your private record
Practice Log
A simple, private diary for your practice: how long you sat, what you did and what you noticed. Over weeks it becomes a mirror, and it is very useful to bring to a session with Hermes.
Your log is stored only in this browser, on this device. Nobody else can see it, not even us.
Sources
Every tool on this page was checked against these texts and translations. Where the traditions disagree, we tell you.
- Pūrṇānanda, Ṣaṭ-cakra-nirūpaṇa (1577), in Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe), The Serpent Power, 1919 — verse translation — source
- Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power, Introduction ch. 5 (senses, organs, nāḍī counts, knots) — source
- Svātmārāma, Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā, trans. Pancham Sinh (1914) — chapters 2–4 — source
- Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā ch. 5 — nāḍī-śodhana counts (5.39–44, 5.55) and the Ajapā Gāyatrī (5.84) — source
- Dhyānabindu and Haṃsa Upaniṣads — 21,600 breaths — source
- Vijñāna Bhairava Tantra — verse concordance (Jaideva Singh numbering) — source
- Lakshmanjoo Academy — automatic recitation (VBT 155–156) — source
- Abhinavagupta, Tantrasāra & Tantrāloka ch. 5 — the five signs; M. Dyczkowski’s course notes — source
- Lilian Silburn, Kuṇḍalinī: Energy of the Depths, SUNY Press, 1988
- Śiva Svarodaya — svara and the nostril cycle — source
Sound recordings
All sounds on this page are real recordings from Wikimedia Commons, trimmed and gently levelled for the site. Thank you to the recordists.
- Practice bell: “Tibetan Singing Bowl hit 4.5inch” by דג בלי מלח, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Deep bowl: “Tibetan Singing Bowl hit 11inch” by דג בלי מלח, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Drone bowl: “Tibetan Singing Bowl 4.5inch” by דג בלי מלח, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Bell (ghaṇṭā): “Ghonto (holophonic)” by Subhashish Panigrahi, CC BY-SA 4.0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Ocean: “Oceanwavescrushing” by Luftrum, CC BY 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Thunder: “Rhumphries - rbh-thunder-storm” by RHumphries, CC BY 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Kettledrum (bherī): “Timpani 64-c-p5” by spt3125, CC0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Drum (mardala): “Tabla drums demo” by tabladrumsonline, CC BY-SA 3.0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Conch: “Conch shell” by Dbolton, CC BY 2.5 — Wikimedia Commons
- Horn: “Hunting horn tone” by Alon-De-Lon, CC0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Small bells (kiṅkiṇī): “Windglockenspiel.Koshi” by Membeth., CC0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Flute: “Bansuri sample E bass” by an anonymous recordist, Public domain — Wikimedia Commons
- Vīṇā: “Shri Nilotpala Nayike, rendered on the Veena by L Ramakishnan” by L Ramakrishnan, CC0 — Wikimedia Commons
- Bee: “Hummel bee” by soerena, Public domain — Wikimedia Commons
These practices are traditional and powerful. They are offered for study and gentle personal practice, not as medical advice. If you experience strong symptoms, slow down, ground, and seek guidance from an experienced teacher and, where needed, a doctor.