CG JUNG - Countryside Anarchist

INDIAN PARALLELS
sciousness. It is the root of all limbs and the seat of prvõa, the breath of
life. Prvõa is vvju. Vvju comes from mÖlvdhvra, the root support. The
Hangsa Upanishads teach: in the heart region there is an eight-leafed
lotus. The eight leaves correspond to the compass and portray both
moral and psychic states. At the center lives Vairagya, passionlessness,
disinterest, and detachment (cf. Meister Eckhart).
According to another teaching brahman can be attained from four
cardinal points: these appear separately in the head, neck, heart, and
navel. In the Dhyanabindu Upanishads it is said, “The great and powerful
with the four arms, that is, Vishnu, should be worshiped in the navel.” In
the cakras the elements are cleansed with the help of Kundalini. In Kundalini
yoga six cakras, or centers, are distinguished. The first cakra lies
near the perineum and is called mÖlvdhvra. The second is named
svvdiü°hvna and is located in the small pelvis.
The third has its seat in the naval region: it is called maõipÖra. Anvhata
is located near the heart diaphragm. In the neck lies viçuddha. The uppermost
center, vjñv, lies in the head between the eyebrows. Still higher
than these corporeal cakras lie some metaphysical cakras: hence the
mana center and above that the soma cakra. This teaching of the cakras
should not be misunderstood as concrete and corporeal like the theosophers
tend to do today. These centers are not corporeal entities. When
one speaks of them, it is understood “as if” they were situated somewhere
in the navel, and so on. Two serpent lines lead from mÖlvdhvra to the
vjñv cakra. 12 And indeed, one begins in the left testicle and runs around
the cakras to the right nostril. The other has its beginning in the right
testicle and ends in the left nasal opening. This pair of paths are called
iìv and piõgalv (iìv =moon, female; piõgalv = sun, masculine). The one
lying to the left is the moon or water stream, the one to the right is the
sun or fire stream. Besides these, there is also a middle stream, suüumõv
(cf. the last picture of the patient). 13 The liberation through
knowledge and insight takes place along these paths. The knower becomes
brahman.
12 Jung is referring to the nvìzs. For a discussion of these, see Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Immortality
and Freedom, translated by Willard R. Trask (Bollingen Series LVI; reprint, London,
1989), 236–41; and Georg Feuerstein, Yoga: The Technology of Ecstasy (Wellingborough,
1990), 259–62.
13 Bericht über das Deutsche Seminar von Dr. C. G. Jung (1930), figure 30. In the preceding
seminars, Jung had commented on the visions of Christiana Morgan. The illustration in
question (not reproduced in The Visions Seminar) depicted a naked woman standing on a
ridge with outstretched arms under a stream of light with a crescent moon. A vertical black
line runs from her genitals to the top of her body. Jung commented: “This strip depicts the
way of the snake, the Kundalini” (92; mytranslation).
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