kundalini

English

Etymology

From Sanskrit कुण्डलिनी (kuṇḍalinī, “coiled”).

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: kun‧da‧li‧ni

Noun

kundalini (countable and uncountable, plural kundalinis)

1. (yoga) An energy said to lie coiled at the base of the spine and to be released by yoga.
   • 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 131:

     For us it is, of course, a symbol of the caduceus of Aesculapius, of the spinal column, of the kundalini-serpent of the Indians – you will be able to trace the ancestry of the idea through many continents and many religions.

   • 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 19:

     The physiology of Tantra yoga focuses on the magical numinosity of the male semen, but the experience of the awakening of kundalini is not an exclusively male phenomenon.

Derived terms

• kundalini syndrome

See also

• chakra
• pranotthana

Spanish

Noun

kundalini m (plural kundalinis)

1. kundalini