Whenever I think about kundalini I think of that passage that says "cursed are those able to rouse Leviathan".

Does anybody get the suspicion that maybe kundalini isn't a good thing, however faint? I have had many kundalini risings and I know Phil has written about it but in the back of my mind I wonder.

Also, Phil I saw your downloadable Doctoral disertation but couldn't download it. What is your PhD in exactly?

Darin, I can see the attraction to this interpretation, but that would be a purely esoteric (even occult) one, leaving out the mythological understanding:

quote:

The Biblical references to Leviathan appear to have evolved from a Canaanite legend involving a confrontation between Hadad (Baal) and a seven headed sea monster named Lotan which Hadad defeats, and they also resemble the Babylonian creation epic "Enuma Elish" in which the storm god Marduk slays his mother, the sea monster and goddess of chaos and creation Tiamat and creates the earth and sky from the two halves of her corpse.

- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan

I don't think you could use this to make any kind of biblical point about whether or not kundalini is a good thing.

You can find out more about my doctoral project here.

I've read the Enuam Elish. I take creation stories as mirrors of Gods way of manifesting in us in a way. Seven days of creation and seven chakras. To find God maybe you have to internally and mystically reverse the process of the seven days of creation?

When I studied Talmud I think the Rabbis said that scripture can be interpreted literally, figuratively, historically and mystically. (I was raised Catholic but my moms side is Jewish.)

Have you read the Zohar or Sefer Yetzirah?

Darin, I've not read the Zohar, but am aware of it being part of the Jewish kaballah tradition. I decided to look it up and found it in its entirety on a web site. Kind of fun to read, but smacking of the same kind of gnostic tendencies one finds in the kaballah.

Note the intro from this site.

quote:

. . . In the centuries that followed, the Zohar was often suppressed by religious and secular authorities who feared its power to transform the lives of those who gained access to the sacred writings. The sages of Kabbalah, too, realized that the Zohar must wait until humankind was ready to receive it. . .

Ah yes, the repressive religious authorities! What a common theme in conspiracy theories, not to mention a common preface for occult literature.

Have you read it? Comments?

It's not Gnostic anymore than the mystical parts of the Talmud are Gnostic. Which of course they might be.

Maybe you could define Gnostic. I think they were best known for believing that the world is evil and some secret "knowledge" will save them?