"The Coiled Serpent is brought back down to her original home at the base of the spine, recreating a new body experienced by the practitioner as divine"
"Physical embodiment, accordingly, is seen as a prime opportunity for spiritual growth, rather than as an unfortunate predicament requiring withdrawal from, or at least indifference to, the material and sensual realm.
Such an approach to spiritual development is epitomized in the famous Tantric discipline of the Serpentine Yoga (Kundalini Yoga), which utilizes the practitioner's own body as the prime vehicle for liberation. By concentrating and directing the cosmic and liberating energies that are manifestations of the Coiled Serpent Goddess (Kundalini) within one's own physical being, guiding her through the mystical centers (chakras) of the central subtle channel lying alongside or within the spine, one leads her to ecstatic union with Shiva in the topmost mystic center at the crown of the head. This ascent of the Coiled Serpent and her union with Shiva involves the successive dissolution of the world elements represented in the different mystic or psychoenergetic centers along the spine. Such dissolution, a reversal of the process of creation, is often seen in yoga texts as the basic paradigm for liberation itself. But the Serpentine Yoga does not end with the ascent. The Coiled Serpent is brought back down to her original home at the base of the spine, recreating a new body experienced by the practitioner as divine, infused as it now with the ambrosial nectar obtained from the union of Shiva and Shakti (the Coiled Serpent).”
The Song of the Goddess
The Devi Gita: Spiritual Counsel Of The Great Goddess
C. Mackenzie Brown, State University of N.Y. Press, 2002, pg. 10-11
Kundalini envisioned as Goddess or Serpent
"Kundalini literally means coiled. In Indian yoga, a 'corporeal energy' - an unconscious, instinctive or libidinal force or Shakti, lies coiled at the base of the spine. It is envisioned either as a goddess or else as a sleeping serpent hence a number of English renderings of the term such as 'serpent power'. The Kundalini resides in the sacrum bone in three and a half coils and has been described as a residual power of pure desire.
The Yogatattva Upanishad mentions four kinds of yoga, of which laya-yoga involves Kundalini.
Sri Ramana Maharshi maintained that the Kundalini energy is nothing but the natural energy of the Self, where Self is the universal consciousness (Paramatma) present in every being, and that the individual mind of thoughts cloaks this natural energy from unadulterated expression. Advaita teaches that Self-realization, enlightenment, God-consciousness, nirvana and Kundalini awakening are all the same thing, and self-inquiry meditation is considered a very natural and simple means of reaching this goal...
Sir John Woodroffe (pen name Arthur Avalon) was one of the first to bring the notion of Kundalini to the West. As High Court Judge in Calcutta, he became interested in Shaktism and Hindu Tantra. His translation of and commentary on two key texts was published as The Serpent Power. Woodroffe rendered Kundalini as 'Serpent Power' for lack of a better term in the English language but 'kundala' in Sanskrit means 'coiled'.”
Wikipedia
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