Ancient traditions, especially the pre-patriarchal integral traditions of Tantra, understood Kundalini as a Goddess. Those ancient adepts knew that Kundalini energy, existing deep within human beings, is an aspect of the Divine Feminine energy of the Supreme Goddess who creates and sustains the Cosmos.

The ancients had the awareness that our planet Earth is a living being with psycho-spiritual dimensions, a Goddess who is the Earthly aspect of the all-pervading Supreme Goddess. In ancient India, the Earth was revered as Bhoomi Devi and in ancient Greece, the planet was worshipped as Goddess Gaia.

After the scientist James Lovelock formulated the Gaia hypothesis that presents Earth as a collective superorganism, the Earth consciousness began to be referred as Gaia consciousness in popular parlance. Those who are aware of the ancient integral intuitive understanding of the Earth Goddess know that Gaia consciousness is a superconsciousness, which cannot be fathomed by theories confined to the conventional scientific framework of rationalist reductionism.

Kundalini Awakening is not simply a phenomenon of the Divine energy rising in individuals alone. According to ancient esoteric wisdom, the planet has a complex energy system that includes major Earth chakras, minor Earth chakras, a planetary spinal channel and a lunar channel and solar channel on the sides of the planetary spine, similar to the chakric system of human beings. Actually, the human chakric system is only a smaller version of this planetary chakric system in which the human race is immersed along with all other beings of Earth. Planetary Kundalini rises and circulates through this network of Earth chakras and channels.

Since humanity is an integral part of this Earth consciousness, Kundalini Awakening in individuals is intimately connected to the collective planetary Kundalini. Trying to separate from the Earth consciousness after individual Kundalini realisation, will lead to a lopsided awakening that is not integral. Some of the dreadful side effects associated with Kundalini rising happen due to the individual realisation not being in tune with the collective Kundalini of Earth.

Integral Gaia Yoga and Kundalini

Ancient integral Tantric yoga traditions saw the material Universe and Earth as real manifestations of the omnipresent Divine consciousness rather than as insubstantial illusions to escape from. In such an integral view, both Heaven and Earth are different expressions of the same Spirit and there is no need to leave Earth behind to enter Heaven. It is possible to manifest Heaven right here on Earth! Integral Enlightenment can dawn only when the ethereal summit of Heavenly consciousness unites with the depths of Earth consciousness.

Integral Gaia Yoga, which I practise, has evolved from the ancient roots of the integral Tantric yoga traditions. Integral Gaia Yoga endeavours to integrate all the aspects that have evolved on Earth so far, and also create new aspects of individual and collective evolution. The purpose is the simultaneous integral heightening, deepening and widening of individual and collective consciousness. Integral Gaia Yoga aims for an Integral Kundalini Awakening as part of this spiritual evolutionary process.

People with materialist orientation might focus on the lower chakras and ignore the higher chakras, leading to the energy getting stuck and stagnant. On the other hand, people who believe that the reality of the physical Universe and Earth is illusory, often neglect the lower chakras after the energy reaches the higher chakras, causing the loss of the grounding provided by the Earth consciousness. Actually, in all the chakras, both creative evolutionary and disruptive devolutionary energies are present, which must be worked out with an integral approach. Ignoring either the higher chakras or the lower chakras will lead to incomplete realisation. It is necessary to remember that in integral spiritual evolution, the words ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ do not denote superiority or inferiority of the chakras. In the interdependent arising of interwoven and integral multidimensional existence, all the chakras in the human body are equally important and exist as interconnected parts of an integral and holistic web of energy, which encompasses the Earth and the Cosmos.

The root chakra of an individual (Mooladhara) is the opening through which the planetary Kundalini inherent in the Gaia consciousness of Earth enters the individual. This planetary Kundalini activates an individual’s dormant personal Kundalini that sleeps like a coiled serpent in the root chakra, which initiates the process of the individual’s Kundalini Awakening. When we integrate all the interconnected chakras, the Divine Masculine Solar consciousness that enters the human body through the Crown chakra of Thousand-petalled Lotus unites in Communion with the Gaia consciousness that rises through the individual’s Kundalini from the root chakra, passing through all the chakras. This manifests an alchemical process within the physical body and consciousness of the individual resulting in an integrated existence of Spirit and Matter as the expression of One integral multidimensional Ultimate reality.

When the number of individuals who attain this integral Kundalini realisation reaches a critical mass, it will trigger a snow-ball effect eventually leading to a collective planetary Kundalini Awakening. This intensification of the Planetary Kundalini will pave the path for the evolution of an Integral Gaia Consciousness as the Earthly aspect of the Supreme Goddess in Communion with the Masculine Divine Consciousness of the Solar Spirit, manifesting Heaven on Earth.