Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Pi and Kundalini: Rounding Up?
The astrologer in Laxman Jhule asked me yesterday if I knew why Kundalini is supposed to be coiled 3.5 times around the spine (and we get 3.5 drops of ojas, and whatever other similarities exist regarding muladhara chakra and 3.5). I said I didn't, and he let on that he did, but wasn't going to tell me. "Go ask your yoga teacher."
During practice today, the thought occurred to me that the golden ratio, object of obsession by artists and philosophers for centuries (Pythagoras, Da Vinci, Keppler, Dali) is found in a logarithmic spiral -- you may remember the scene from the movie Pi where the old mathmetician, after finally going insane, leaves behind his Go board covered in a spiral. (the constant Pi, 3.14 etc etc etc, is closely related with the golden ratio.) The nautilus shell is often quoted as a naturally occurring example of the golden ratio/fibonacci spiral. Anyhow, I got to thinkin' -- when all this Kundalini hullabaloo was first investigated lord knows how many milennia ago (way before Pythagoras came up with measuring circles accurately), and they said that Kundalini spirals 3.5 times around the base of the spine...well, is 3.5 really such a bad estimate for 3.14? (And consider the linguistic concern of recording in the texts an abbreviated irrational number vs. a nice whole-and-a-half figure...)
Is 3.5 as it relates to Kundalini really just a rounded-up expression of another instance of the golden ratio at work, this time at the level of the energetic plane? This is what I wondered today.
Also, during a prolonged performance of Ardha Matsyendrasana today, on the solar side, I think I may have had my first (audio) experience of akasha tattva. This is exceedingly exciting.
The astrologer in Laxman Jhule asked me yesterday if I knew why Kundalini is supposed to be coiled 3.5 times around the spine (and we get 3.5 drops of ojas, and whatever other similarities exist regarding muladhara chakra and 3.5). I said I didn't, and he let on that he did, but wasn't going to tell me. "Go ask your yoga teacher."
During practice today, the thought occurred to me that the golden ratio, object of obsession by artists and philosophers for centuries (Pythagoras, Da Vinci, Keppler, Dali) is found in a logarithmic spiral -- you may remember the scene from the movie Pi where the old mathmetician, after finally going insane, leaves behind his Go board covered in a spiral. (the constant Pi, 3.14 etc etc etc, is closely related with the golden ratio.) The nautilus shell is often quoted as a naturally occurring example of the golden ratio/fibonacci spiral. Anyhow, I got to thinkin' -- when all this Kundalini hullabaloo was first investigated lord knows how many milennia ago (way before Pythagoras came up with measuring circles accurately), and they said that Kundalini spirals 3.5 times around the base of the spine...well, is 3.5 really such a bad estimate for 3.14? (And consider the linguistic concern of recording in the texts an abbreviated irrational number vs. a nice whole-and-a-half figure...)
Is 3.5 as it relates to Kundalini really just a rounded-up expression of another instance of the golden ratio at work, this time at the level of the energetic plane? This is what I wondered today.
Also, during a prolonged performance of Ardha Matsyendrasana today, on the solar side, I think I may have had my first (audio) experience of akasha tattva. This is exceedingly exciting.
