Kundalini is one of those words that sounds mysterious, even a little intimidating, until someone explains it plainly.
So let me give you the explanation I wish someone had given me: simple, honest and free of jargon.
What Does the Word "Kundalini" Mean?
"Kundalini" is a Sanskrit word. It is usually translated as "coiled" or "the coiled one," which is where the famous image of a sleeping serpent comes from.
Kundalini is the spiritual energy within each of us that connects us to the Divine. You'll often hear it called Kundalini Shakti, a Sanskrit term VillyMa describes as your all-powerful energy system.
You don't need to learn Sanskrit to understand it, though. You don't need to join a religion, adopt a belief system or change your faith. Kundalini isn't something you believe in. It's something you can experience.
The Simplest Explanation: The Lamp and the Cord
The simplest way to understand Kundalini is a lamp and its cord. It's the best explanation I've ever heard, it came from my Guru, VillyMa, and it's the one I still use whenever I explain Kundalini.
Think about a lamp. The electricity exists. The lamp exists. But unless the lamp's cord is plugged into the socket, there is no light.
Kundalini is the cord that connects us to the Divine. The Divine is the power source. When the cord is plugged in, the light comes on: peace, stillness, love, joy, bliss and a deep sense of oneness.
I use the word "the Divine" because it's the most open word I know. You might say God, the Universe, Source, Spirit or Creator. Use whatever word feels true for you. The experience is the same.
Go deeperWhat Does Kundalini Awakening Feel Like?What Happens After a Kundalini Awakening?
What Is Kundalini Shakti?
Kundalini Shakti simply means Kundalini as power. You'll often see the two words together, and "Shakti" is generally translated as power or energy.
In India's spiritual traditions, Shakti is also the divine feminine power, the creative energy behind all of life, which is why Kundalini is traditionally described as a goddess. Kundalini Shakti is that same divine power, resting within each one of us.
Kundalini Shakti is that power living inside you as your own spiritual energy. You can picture it coiled at the base of your spine, waiting to rise and reconnect you to the Divine.
It's a beautiful idea. It means the connection you're looking for isn't somewhere far away. It is already inside you, waiting.
Where Does Kundalini Come From?
Kundalini comes from India's ancient spiritual traditions, where it has been taught for centuries in yogic and Hindu texts. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit kundala, meaning "coil."
One of the best-known classic texts on yoga, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika (15th century), describes Kundalini as a sleeping power coiled like a serpent, and says that whoever knows it knows yoga. Traditionally, it rises through a central channel along the spine, passing through the chakras to the crown of the head.
The idea reached the West in the early 20th century, notably through Sir John Woodroffe's book The Serpent Power (1919), and is now known around the world.
Different traditions describe Kundalini, and how to awaken it, in different ways. What I share on this site is what my Guru, VillyMa, taught me through the Satya Awakening System™, together with my own experience. For a scholarly overview, see Britannica's entry on Kundalini.
Why Is Kundalini Shown as a Serpent?
Kundalini is traditionally pictured as a serpent coiled three and a half times at the base of the spine, sleeping. When it awakens, the serpent uncoils and rises up the spine toward the crown of the head.
The serpent is a symbol, not a literal snake. VillyMa teaches that this coiled energy rests inside the sacrum bone, and that all of us are born with it. When it awakens, you may feel warmth, tingling or energy moving in your body; or you may notice only peace.
Go deeperSigns of Kundalini Awakening
Where Is Kundalini Located?
Traditionally, dormant Kundalini rests at the base of the spine, in the area of the sacrum bone, near the Root Chakra.
In the Satya Awakening System™, we work with three energy channels that run along your spine: a left channel, a right channel and a center channel. Along these channels sit the seven main energy centers, the chakras.
When Kundalini awakens, it rises through these channels and chakras to the Crown Chakra at the top of the head, where it reconnects with the Divine.
How Does Kundalini Relate to the Chakras?
If Kundalini is the cord, the chakras are the gates it has to pass through on its way up. There are seven primary chakras:
- Root Chakra at the base of your spine.
- Sacral Chakra just above the sacrum bone.
- Navel Chakra (often called the Solar Plexus).
- Heart Chakra in the center of your chest.
- Throat Chakra.
- Third Eye Chakra, about an inch above the center of your eyebrows.
- Crown Chakra at the top of your head.
For Kundalini to rise freely to the crown, these gates need to be clear. And this is where the challenge lies: they become blocked easily.
Trauma, painful experiences and strong negative emotions (anger, fear, guilt, shame, resentment, frustration) can leave energetic blockages in the chakras and channels. Blockages are what stop Kundalini from rising. That's why clearing them is at the heart of the Satya Awakening Technique™: it is designed to awaken Kundalini, clear the blockages and raise the energy to the crown.
Go deeperThe 7 Chakras ExplainedBlocked Chakras: Signs and How to Clear Them
Why Is Kundalini Asleep in the First Place?
Kundalini falls asleep because, as we grow up, we lose our conscious connection to the Divine. Here is how VillyMa's teaching explains it.
We weren't born disconnected. We were all born with Kundalini connected to the Divine, and we remained in that state of Union until around three years of age.
Then something changes. Through conditioning, we start forming an ego-based identity: I'm a boy or a girl. I'm good or bad. I'm tall or short. With it grows a sense of being separate from one another and from the Divine.
As that separation forms, the cord unplugs, and Kundalini rests, dormant, at the base of the spine. VillyMa teaches that this disconnection is why we become so restless. Then life adds its blockages on top, every time we experience trauma or feel anger, fear, guilt or shame.
In other words, Union with the Divine isn't something to be achieved. It's something we return to. It's our natural state, and the Satya Awakening Technique™ is a path back to it.
The cord has simply come unplugged. (How I came to this teaching is in my story.)
What Is a Kundalini Awakening?
A Kundalini awakening is when that dormant energy begins to stir and rise, and you start to consciously experience your connection with the Divine.
It can be subtle or dramatic. You may notice warmth or coolness, tingling or vibration, energy moving in your body, emotions rising, deep stillness or peace, or a cool or warm breeze on your palms or above your head. You may also notice nothing at first. What begins as brief moments of connection can gradually deepen with regular practice.
Mine arrived on an ordinary Tuesday morning, on my walk to work. I was flooded with a peace and love so overwhelming that I sat down under a tree and stayed there all day. I never made it to the office. Nothing around me had changed. The happiness was coming from within me. I've told that day in full here.
Go deeperWhat Does Kundalini Awakening Feel Like?Signs of Kundalini AwakeningMy Kundalini Awakening Story
Is Kundalini the Same as Kundalini Yoga?
No. Kundalini and Kundalini Yoga are easy to confuse, but they are not the same thing.
Kundalini is the energy itself. Kundalini Yoga is one particular style of yoga that uses breathing, postures and chanting with the aim of awakening it. It's one approach among many.
The practice I share, the Satya Awakening Technique™, is not the Kundalini Yoga you'd find in a yoga studio; it's very different. You sit comfortably on a chair or cross-legged, and we work gently through the chakras with mantra, attention, affirmation and touch, so that Kundalini can awaken naturally. (The four tools are explained here.)
Go deeperWhat Is the Satya Awakening Technique™?Kundalini Meditation for Beginners
Is Kundalini Religious?
Kundalini comes to us through the language of Indian spiritual tradition, but it isn't a religion and it doesn't ask you to join one.
VillyMa herself isn't connected to any religion, and the Satya Awakening System welcomes people of every faith and of none. A Christian might call the experience the Holy Spirit; someone else might simply call it peace. The energy doesn't need you to name it correctly in order to work.
All it asks is an open mind and an open heart.
Is Awakening Kundalini Safe?
Kundalini can be awakened in a way that is very gentle and very safe. When people say Kundalini can be dangerous, they're usually talking about forceful, unguided, intense practices that try to push the energy before your body and energy system are ready. The Satya Awakening Technique™ is the opposite: gentle, guided and based on allowing, not forcing. And you can always open your eyes and pause.
I've written a full, honest guide to the risks and how to stay safe.
Go deeperIs Kundalini Awakening Dangerous?
What Comes After a Kundalini Awakening?
After a Kundalini awakening comes the real journey, because awakening is the beginning, not the finish line. This is the part I most want you to know.
My own first experience faded (here's why, and what helps).
What VillyMa taught me is that awakening is the first step on a longer path: Awakening, then Clearing, then Integration, then Surrender, leading to Union with the Divine, a connection you learn to carry with you while you work, eat, walk, drive and live your ordinary life.
Your first experience of Kundalini is not the end of the journey. It's your invitation to something so much greater. Beyond it is Union with the Divine: our most natural state.
Go deeperWhat Happens After a Kundalini Awakening?How to Awaken Kundalini
Would You Like Me to Guide You Through Your First Steps?
You now know more about Kundalini than I did when my journey began. Back then, I didn't understand the chakras, and I didn't know what spiritual energy was supposed to feel like. I never imagined that a simple practice could lead me to one of the most beautiful experiences of my life. But it did.
That's why I'm so passionate about sharing it. Because understanding Kundalini and experiencing it are two very different things.
If you'd like to read more first, start with my guide to how to awaken Kundalini, read about the Satya Awakening Technique™, or explore everything on Kundalini in one place.
And when you're ready to experience it for yourself, I'd be delighted to guide you.
Ready to experience Kundalini, not just read about it?
The Kundalini Awakening Experience
This is where I recommend everyone starts: 9 video lessons that teach you the Satya Awakening Technique™, the same practice that began my journey, with a simple 10-day plan of about 30 minutes a day.
No experience needed. About 30 minutes a day.
- 9 short video lessons
- The Four Tools for awakening
- The Satya Awakening Technique™
- A simple 10-day practice plan
30-day money-back guarantee. Instant access.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Kundalini in simple words?
Kundalini is the spiritual energy inside every person that connects us to the Divine. Think of it as the cord between a lamp and its power source. It is said to rest at the base of the spine until it awakens and rises through the chakras to the crown of the head.
What is the Kundalini spirit?
Kundalini isn't an outside spirit or being that enters you. It is your own spiritual energy, given to you at birth as a gift from the Creator. In Christian language it has been called the Holy Spirit, and the coolness it can bring is spoken of as the cool breeze of the Holy Spirit.
What does active Kundalini mean?
Active Kundalini means the energy is no longer simply resting at the base of the spine. In VillyMa's teaching, Kundalini is first activated and then rises through the chakras, and a blocked chakra holds it back. When it is active, you may feel warmth, coolness, tingling or a breeze above your head, or simply deep peace.
Does everyone have Kundalini?
Yes. Everyone is born with Kundalini connected to the Divine. Around the age of three, conditioning and a growing ego-based identity cause it to disconnect and lie dormant at the base of the spine, where it waits, all our lives, to be reawakened.
How long does it take to awaken Kundalini?
Some people feel something in their very first session. For others the process is more subtle and simply needs more repetition before the first signs become obvious. Give yourself at least ten sessions, approach them with curiosity rather than expectation, and notice the changes outside meditation too.
With love,
Caleb