Kundalini Rising: Serpents, Socks & Sustainable Awakening

In this episode of Third Eye Roll, Justine and Scarlett dive into the mystery and mythology of Kundalini—that coiled serpent of hidden life force at the base of the spine. They unpack definitions from the Hatha Yoga Pradīpikā to modern teachings on Kundalini Awakening Process, exploring how this energy moves through the body, why purification matters, and why “gentle and sustainable” cultivation is wiser than flashy, chaotic awakenings.

Along the way, they link Kundalini to Purva Bhadrapada nakshatra and the upcoming eclipse cycle, weaving in cosmic timing, Ayurvedic seasonal cleansing, and the imagery of spiritual fire. The conversation spirals through fashion, music, and film—from Disney serpents and Joseph’s rainbow coat to Tool’s bass lines and Apocalypse Now. A mythic mic drop reframes the Sword in the Stone legend as a metaphor for Kundalini’s effortless flash of awakening, crowned by sovereign energy.

The hosts emphasize that Kundalini doesn’t make you “enlightened” or “nice”—it amplifies whatever is present. That’s why traditions across cultures—from Tibetan Buddhism to Arthurian legend—stress preparation, ethics, and safe containers. The takeaway: Kundalini is real, powerful, and not to be rushed. Instead, it’s an invitation to align with rhythm, ritual, and community as this serpent energy slowly uncoils.

Transcript

Justine Lemos (00:47)
Welcome back

to third eye roll podcast. I'm Dr. Justine Lemos and I'm here with Scarlett Trillia. And today we're talking about Kundalini. What the heck? WTF is Kundalini. WTF is Kundalini. Well, this word gets bantered about and thrown about in so many ways.

Scarlett (01:04)
⁓ WTF is koonalini. ⁓

Justine Lemos (01:15)
in the spiritual community, especially with yogi bhajans, so-called Kundalini yoga, especially with Venant Wang and a few other people out there doing this Kundalini tickling energy work. And then of course, Kundalini awakening process, Dr. Glenn Morris's new improved Kundalini awakening process as taught by Teo Semco and others.

and myself, which is part of our lineage, which is something that we are weaving in to our episodes this new season. I thought I'd read the definition of Kundalini from, Teo Semco's Kundalini awakening process blog, which I think is a really interesting definition. And he says,

Or I'm not sure if it's Dr. Glenn Morris's writing. I can look it up. But he says, Kundalini is the ancient accepted term for the biological and spiritual potential of the human body. A tiny replica of the huge potentials that exist in nature. Think lightning and the cosmos. Think Big Bang. In 99.99 % of people,

Kundalini goes unharnessed and lying dormant deep within their nervous and endocrine systems. In the unawakened human being, these systems are poorly connected, rusty, poorly synchronized and unable to carry much more signal than keeps that person alive. Kundalini awakening occurs when the various parts of the brain, spine and nerve ganglia

along with the different endocrine glands begin to rejuvenate, better link and synchronize the gonads, adrenals and digestive glands connected to the experience of lower emotions, connect to the master glands at the heart, throat and brain. These systems rapidly rejuvenate, function more efficiently and begin to carry larger quantities of bioelectric, neurotransmitter and endocrine traffic through the body. It's a little like comparing

56K modem to a broadband T1 line. EEG and EKG scans show that awakened quote unquote individuals have more efficient mental and biological processes. Kundalini is what causes the great visible physical illumination, charisma and healing abilities of saints and prophets. Every art lover has seen countless representations

of the illumination of the sages, the halo and golden sheen around saints and holy figures of all traditions. Kundalini has been symbolized as the Codicus, medical staff entwined with snakes, Moses' burning bush, the Oribos, the world-encompassing serpent swallowing its own tail, Excalibur, King Arthur's sword, the apolistic flame, the descent of the dove, the Kabbalistic tree of life, and more.

How about that? How about that?

Scarlett (04:30)
How about that? I thought of so,

so many things have come to mind. Can I throw a few out there? Cause we're talking about Teo.

Justine Lemos (04:38)
Please,

and we're also gonna relate this back to the Jotish.

Scarlett (04:43)
We are. So I may actually take the first step in that direction with this comment. many years ago, long, long ago, far, far away, we had a retreat and Teo came and the, the, the placement, I believe of the moon at the beginning of that retreat was in Purva Bajrapada, which we're going to talk about in terms of the upcoming full lunar eclipse this weekend. And the

Justine Lemos (04:59)
It was. Yes. Yes.

Scarlett (05:10)
One of the symbols of that nakshatra is a lightning strike, which you just mentioned in that description. But I was smiling because on that retreat... So another symbol of Purvabhadrapada and the lightning bolt is like a one... is it a one-legged goat?

Justine Lemos (05:24)
It's a one-legged, it's a goat with one leg, Eka-ajapada, or one, like it's either has just one leg oftentimes depicted or it's standing on one leg. And ⁓ this is, and you know, I wrestled with like, what the heck is that? And actually I talked to Teo, our

Scarlett (05:38)
You

Justine Lemos (05:48)
lineage teacher in this practice of Kundalini awakening process, which is a non-denominational practice. And he spoke about like the focused concentration of energy and the weight of just standing on one foot. Everything is there and the lightning flash down through the central axis of the body because

Scarlett (06:01)
Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (06:13)
Kundalini moves in this up and down fashion. Base of spine up to the navel, back down to base of spine, all the way up to crown of head. And then there's also a downward moving flow. This is in Hindu mythology iconography discussed as the ascent of Shakti and the descent of Shiva. And those two like up. yeah, yeah, yeah. And know, Shiva...

Scarlett (06:36)
Interesting.

Justine Lemos (06:39)
has a moon in his top knot from which the Ganges River falls down. This is Agni rising up and Soma falling down and these two things. Because there's not just an ascent of Kundalini, there's then a descent and integration, which is generally speaking more gentle and Tinkerbell-like.

Scarlett (07:01)
and Tinkerbell-like. So when we went on that retreat, it was kind of a convergence of like two clans and lineages coming together. ⁓ it was very much a convergence of back in the Thin Min. And the first thing that you handed out, do you remember this? Under this, a single sock, one sock with two balls.

Justine Lemos (07:03)
you

you

It was. It was very much a conversion of masculine and feminine also.

was a sock, a single sock.

Yes!

Scarlett (07:27)
And we all had one

sock with two tennis balls in it that we were swinging around and we were using it for like spinal adjustments, but fush or release along the spine, which also is related to Kundalini. But I didn't, of all the things to be burned into one's brain, those socks have persevered through the ages.

Justine Lemos (07:35)
Fascial release along the spine, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Well, it's when we invented

the cult of the one sock.

Scarlett (07:54)
It is when we invented the gold of the single stock. And here we are today, years later, and the eclipse is aligned with our convo- we didn't plan this, but... Anyway, let's talk about Kundalini rising. and descending.

Justine Lemos (08:07)
Well, and wait, so Eka-ajapada-purvabhadrapada,

this is the star sign, the nakshatra, where this full moon and lunar eclipse happens. And it is also known as the early happy feet. There's all this foot symbolism that happens here in Purvabhadrapada and its pair Utara-bhadrapada.

and this is the burning of the funeral pyre. This is the very end of the life cycle or the cycle of karma. And the Shakti of Purvabhadrapada nakshatra, the star sign where this full moon and lunar eclipse happens, is Yajamana Ujjamanashakti, which translates to the power to spiritually elevate the aspirant.

or the power of the spiritual fire. And Kundalini is related to spiritual fire. Ekaajapada is also the deity of this star sign, is also a one-legged goat or also a form of Rudra, the very fierce form of Shiva. The God of yoga is kind of like this prototype of Shiva who is spiritual fire and the foundation.

of the spiritual universe. This nakshatra where we're going to have an eclipse, eclipses always are surprising, is a completion. It's the beginning of a completion. And I'm going to venture to say, you know, it's been very interesting. Eclipses are always confusing. We've talked about this. It's been very interesting to watch on the interwebs. Is Trump dead? Is he alive? Is he dead? Is he alive?

Scarlett (09:36)
Sunday.

Justine Lemos (09:58)
And this is very much the energy of this eclipse in Purvabhadrapada.

Scarlett (10:03)
Yeah, and let's just add a few more details. So this is the full lunar eclipse, which is full.

The moon will be within just a few degrees of north of Rahu. So full lunar eclipse and then two weeks later when the moon gets over to where the Sun is, new moon, it's a partial solar eclipse which will complete this particular eclipse cycle. So the 7th, 8th of September, this coming weekend after the recording of this podcast and then two weeks later. Very interestingly, I have been asked to, I'm just stepping back into teaching as we mentioned and I have been

asked to teach during both eclipses, of course. Typically, and tangent, but it's always useful.

Typically at this time of year in September, and we don't need to derail the podcast, I can actually make this full circle if we need to, but this is typically a time that we would do a little bit of like a gentle cleanse, maybe a fast or a gentle cleanse to release heat that has built up through the summer months and clear the body before adding healthy heat like warming spices in our food as we prepare to descend into the darkness and coldness of winter. And it's very interesting.

that it coincides right now with this eclipse cycle.

because between the lunar and solar eclipses upcoming is an excellent time to purify the diet. And we would typically recommend whether or not you're taking protocol and actually doing an aerobic type of cleanse. This would be a time to maybe not drink, not eat meat, whatever you choose as your practice, it's kind of doubly indicated. So hard suggestion, no pressure, but like double suggest.

Justine Lemos (11:26)
Yes.

Scarlett (11:44)
that this is a nice time for that kind of. ⁓

Justine Lemos (11:45)
Yeah, I may offer my Ayurvedic cleanse

out to people right now. I was just thinking that I need to do that. so I likely will. ⁓ Circling back to Kundalini. Yes, bring it, bring it.

Scarlett (11:56)
Yeah.

Let me let me close the gap Kundalini will

Will be more able to move inside the body when the body is purified right

Justine Lemos (12:11)
Yes,

yes, and much of.

You know, Hatha Yoga, and I suppose we should talk about the sun and the moon and Kundalini, but this is a big topic. The text Hatha Yoga Pradypika, which is a 14th century text, much of the text is concerned with practices of purification. And then the later chapters,

talk about Kundalini and how Kundalini is awakened. You know, I've got the verse from Hatha Yoga Pradyapaka because of course I do. So the first two chapters of Hatha Yoga Pradyapaka are about like where do you do retreat? How do you prepare your body for spiritual retreat?

Scarlett (12:53)
Of course you can.

Justine Lemos (13:04)
⁓ not vacation, not spiritual vacation, which is a lovely thing to do, but this is not that it's like, where do you build your retreat hut? What food do you eat? How are you sitting? What breath work are you doing? And this is the first text that we have that lists actual yogic postures. They're all seated except for one, which is an arm balance. But in this text chapter two, you'll, we will find pranayam.

breathwork practices that we use in modern postural yoga. We find Nadi Shodhana, alternate nostril breath. We find Brahmari Pranayama, bee buzzing breath. We find Sita Li Pranayama, a mouth inhalation, a nose exhalation. this is 14th century Patanjali Yoga Sutra, second century. There's no mention of postures or Pranayama. Whether or not people were doing them, we don't know.

Scarlett (13:45)
Interesting.

Justine Lemos (13:58)
But it's all the way into the 14th century in Hatha Yoga Pradyapaka that we find this manual of practice. And in that manual of practice, it's specifically concerned in chapter three, where it gets into these esoteric practices with Kundalini and Hatha Yoga Pradyapaka chapter three. Like in the later verses, it says, like a serpent, she lies coiled, closing with her mouth at the opening.

of the Shushumna, the central channel. When she is awakened, she rises upward like a snake struck with a stick. So it's that up and out movement. And when she rises up, she moves through the blocks, the grunties, these knots or gateways at the navel.

the heart and the head and then drinks the amrita, the nectar that's been generated at the crown. And you know, it's interesting. I've never heard anyone talk about this and I don't know, but I'm just making a correlation that just came to me right now. There are these three major grantees or big knots in the subtle body listed in these early texts. The naval

the pelvis, the heart, and the head, there's likewise three Gandanta points in the zodiac of the meeting of fire and water and these karmic knots that the planets and planetary energies get to go through.

Scarlett (15:31)
We also have the three bandas.

Justine Lemos (15:33)
Yes, yes, of course, which are related to these three grantees. Yeah.

Scarlett (15:35)
⁓

So here's the image that came to mind that also helps us tie together and kind of reflect back on that 14th century text that you're mentioning. I hope this, you can help me hone this till it's the perfect metaphor. But it's like, okay, imagine the kundali energy that we're talking about cultivating and awakening is the water that comes out of a tap, right?

And have you ever taken like a dirty spoon and gone to try and wash it and you turn the tap on too hard and it like goes into the spoon and now there's like food and water all over you, right? So we're typically in no structured teaching environment are we

Justine Lemos (16:09)
Yep. Yep.

Scarlett (16:17)
attempting to blast off Kundalini without warning straight out the top of your head. Where like, you could hit the snake with a stick, it would be a lot safer to coax the snake to gently unravel itself towards you. Right? So if you have something like peanut butter on a spoon,

and you're trying to just power wash it with the tap, you're gonna make a mess. If you turn it on gently, you can get some of that peanut butter off and then start to kind of... I mean, it's not a perfect metaphor, but... But you get where I'm going with this, right? It's like when the water's turned on too hard, it goes from being something that's purifying to something that's creating a new kind of mess. Okay, it's like it's not clogged or blocked anymore, but now there's water everywhere. Like this is...

Justine Lemos (16:49)
I it.

Yes. I'm reminded, I'm reminded of when we were doing

a punch of karma, purification process for someone and the water went off and then we had to go open the tank to try and get a small pot of water. like there's mass amounts of water coming out. Now with that, metaphor in place, I do want to talk about

Scarlett (17:17)
Mm-hmm. ⁓ Yeah, a hut?

Justine Lemos (17:28)
a little, about these different Kundalini phenomena that are being advertised and engaged in throughout the popular spiritual world. And, especially this phenomena of Kundalini tickling, where basically you have a weekend workshop and you have one magnetic teacher.

who is offering what we call Shaktipat on some level where the teacher ignites some of this Kundalini in a student. That's a time-honored method. You know, the teacher tickles you with a peacock feather and you get something, right? But in this new form, I think we could call it new of Kundalini playing, tickling, you have usually two people

who are one who's receiving, one who's giving, who doing this energy work that then allows this other person to be writhing and moving with this so-called Kundalini in them. there's a lot of things that could be said about this. Have you seen this on the interwebs? Have you seen like Instagram videos of this Kundalini tickling?

Scarlett (18:46)
No, but I, for all that this is my primary area of interest, I have cultivated and curated for myself a social media experience that is very different.

Justine Lemos (18:56)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I also have, but I'm aware of it because of

Teoji, et cetera.

In part, this is the cultivation of an addictive experience of energy moving in the subtle body because it can be very pleasurable.

Scarlett (19:07)
Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (19:15)
And then like we've talked about with cults, et cetera, that experience becomes dependent upon a certain people or a group or certain conditions.

Scarlett (19:25)
Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (19:26)
And we are more interested in Kundalini awakening process as taught by Dr. Glenn Morris, et cetera, by our teachers. It's about the self sustenance of this Kundalini and a very gentle awakening of Kundalini that is not dramatic, but it is sustainable. Yeah.

Scarlett (19:41)
Exactly in the sense that

let's keep using the tap as a metaphor Let's say that I mean and there isn't actually a limited supply of energy. I mean, that's that's not we're we're not gonna well Hmm. Okay. It's not a perfect metaphor But let's let's say that you have some sort of pressure-based tank and you just go full blast You might blast it all out

Right? Whereas if you turn on a trickle, that trickle can run for a very, long time and maybe before the tank runs out, it's able to pump up more from the well and it's like a constant trickle versus a single giant blast that made a mess and splashed water everywhere and then left you actually high and dry. Is that... I don't know the perfect metaphor, but I'm working on it. This is a off the cuff, off the cuff. Yeah.

Justine Lemos (20:27)
Yeah, I like it. I like it. Let me define

Kundalini. And this is from the Sanskrit Kundala, which means coil or ring, and then ini, which is the coiled one. Also, the kunda is the pit or the offering, the container of an offering for yajna, for fire ritual, the kunda. We offer into that pit of consciousness.

Scarlett (20:55)
Which

also has three layers just to keep it in threes. Yes, it does. Another tangent for another time.

Justine Lemos (21:00)
Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yes.

Right. so she's described, Kundalini is described as the dormant coiled serpent power. And these images and metaphors of serpents are found cross-culturally around

Kundalini-like phenomena. She's described as the goddess energy or Shakti that is curled three and a half times and then she awakens, right? And that three and a half times is very important. And we find like serpent power in many traditions, you know, the Ouroboros from the Greek, the Codicus, Quasi-Cultal, the...

Scarlett (21:36)
interesting.

for you again.

Justine Lemos (21:53)
rainbow feathered serpent. And then we find Nyo-Gur at the roots of Yedrasil, which is the Norse world tree. And all point to this kind of hidden life force that's coiled and waiting and transformative. Also the Nagas, who are the ancestral serpent deities of South India. So we find this in many, many ways. Also the serpents.

that are driven out of Ireland. We find these serpents at the edges of mythology of the world. We also find serpents and or dragons who are related at the edges of many mandalas or many different patterns of mythos that are at the edges protective and then also raising energy.

Scarlett (22:45)
I guess a serpent kind of only has one foot. Like, ⁓ mean, or it only has one point on which it could stand if to say. ⁓ Yeah, exactly. It rises up. It is standing upon its single self. That is correct.

Justine Lemos (22:50)
Yes, a serpent only has one foot.

Yeah. And as it rises up, it looks as if it has one foot.

Let's

talk fashion.

Scarlett (23:10)
Ooh, okay, so immediate comes to mind is the serpent character in the Disney Robin Hood. ⁓ At one point he gets like tied in a knot and put in a basket, but he's so awesome because he has no arms or legs, but he has like a little outfit that he wears.

Justine Lemos (23:18)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Yes. Also

the, was mentioning this when I was teaching Jotish the other day, cause we were studying Ashlesha, the entwining serpent star. In Jungle Book, there is the serpent that has the eyes that are totally hypnotic, right? Do they both? Yeah. Yeah.

Scarlett (23:44)
Mm-hmm. I think in both. I think in Robin Hood too. Or maybe,

yeah, yeah, they do. And actually in Disney, they reused a lot of those template drawings because Baloo and Little John are also the same character. They're the same shaped bear. Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (23:52)
Mm.

Yes, yes. ⁓ I, cause I had first mentioned Robin

Hood as the serpent. And one of my students was like, no, no, you mean jungle book. And I was like, okay. And I couldn't remember because I, yeah, yeah, it's both. So fashion is, is the snake in Disney's little suit.

Scarlett (24:06)
It's both. So fashion though, ⁓ hang on.

I can't, maybe we do it slightly better. So for no good reason at all, what initially came to mind as we were turning on to record this, I don't have any explanation for this, is Joseph and the Magic Technicolored Coat. What is that called? Yes. ⁓

Justine Lemos (24:29)
yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think, think yes, because it's like rainbow color. There is this relationship between the serpents and the rainbows because of the rainbow of the chakras. Bring it what you got.

Scarlett (24:34)
Yeah, with the rainbows. Yeah, that's exactly right.

The Rainbow Goblins! Did you have that book? Do you know what I'm talking about? It's like a German book? Yes. There is a relationship between rainbows and serpents. And Kundalini, actually. It's full spectrum, full light spectrum. So I think... yeah.

Justine Lemos (24:46)
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. And Kundalini.

Yes, exactly. And that awakening, that awakening is

like, but you know, any kind of serpent snake pattern stuff, like is fashion.

Scarlett (25:10)
Yeah, rainbow serpent. Tiny waistcoat, tiny hat. I can't just... Okay. Who is...

Justine Lemos (25:12)
you

You

we've got a chat message. Who's chatting us. Hi,

Kevin. I don't even know if I want to read it. I don't want to read it. Okay. Hey Kevin, what's up? Okay. all right. Music, tool, anything by tool.

Scarlett (25:27)
No, no, no, it's fine.

music what

really fascinating okay

Justine Lemos (25:41)
The heavy, heavy bass

is used to vibrate the lower chakras and to start to awaken Kundalini like a volcano or a latent volcano. And the spirals and the Kundalini awakening, those heavy, heavy bass tones are very useful in moving the inert.

Scarlett (26:02)
Okay. Yeah.

Justine Lemos (26:06)
and stuck energy in the lower chakras. So I give a shout out for tool also the polyrhythmic nature of tool.

Scarlett (26:19)
Fair. I was gonna say like, Sytrance Festival. Similar idea, you know, great sound system, there's heavy bass, you know, and then there's like, the high sounds, it's kind of full spectrum. I was gonna say people wear interesting things at those festivals that could be part of the fashion pick. Yeah.

Justine Lemos (26:23)
yes. yes.

Yes.

I also, yeah, yeah, bring it.

yeah. I think Beyonce

has a song that she does like a dance or did a dance with like a serpent and has like halo light around her. But I would, I've got to look it up, but I think that would definitely be a music pick.

Scarlett (26:59)
Okay, that would be, okay.

Justine Lemos (27:01)
Yeah, film.

Scarlett (27:04)
I'm trying to think.

Justine Lemos (27:07)
mean, we can't

pick the Matrix again.

Scarlett (27:10)
No, we can't. And we can't pick the Technicolor code film rendition either. Because I have to... I mean, we can't pick Disney Robin Hood again because we already used these ones. I'm trying to think. There is... It's too bad I haven't seen more movies. ⁓ I'm not a big movie watcher. I know, I'm like, I can't just use the same seven DVDs I grew up with for,

Justine Lemos (27:16)
You

Ha ha ha!

it's too bad I haven't seen more movies.

Scarlett (27:36)
My 1990s VHS collection is like the outer limits. No, but let's think. would be... Okay, so before we answer this, because I actually do have some ideas. I don't know why I was thinking of a beautiful mind. That's not my pick, but for some reason that came up. We've talked about this on this podcast in the past and...

Justine Lemos (27:39)
is

Scarlett (28:00)
It's something that I, ooh, did you have a thought?

Justine Lemos (28:02)
Yeah,

yeah, yeah. Well, you were talking about beautiful mind and we should mention that if there is a lot of stuck energy and yeah, and Kundalini begins to awaken, there can be phenomena that may be registered as madness, which is not to say that all bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, et cetera, is Kundalini gone wrong. That is not the case, but there can be,

Scarlett (28:10)
This is what I was going to say. Yep.

Mm-mm.

Justine Lemos (28:30)
There can be, and actually Teoji, our teacher, works with a lot of people with PTSD and partial Kundalini awakening happens a lot to soldiers in particular because of the massive release of adrenaline that happens in battle. And then there, the body has not been prepared at all. And there is a lot to be said about Kundalini.

Scarlett (28:41)
a lot.

Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (28:55)
awakening in martial arts practice and why there's not as much, Kundalini actually that happens in yogic practice these days.

Scarlett (29:04)
Yeah. And we've talked about this,

you, you picked right up on the thought thread where I was going to say we've started to allude to this in past podcasts. And I've been bringing this up also, and you know, again, slight tangent, but I've had a lot of requests recently to teach like transcendental breath work or teach practices that are specifically designed to rapidly elicit a Kundalini awakening. And so I've been giving a lot of talks about trauma and about preparation for this because

Justine Lemos (29:22)
huh. Yeah.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Scarlett (29:34)
Like we said, we're not trying to blow our brains out with energy awakening. We're trying to cultivate a sustainable relationship with our own Kundalini that we can experience in safe ways for a long, time. ⁓

Justine Lemos (29:48)
Exactly. And

⁓ in Kundalini awakening process, we always say that when Kundalini awakens, it's very gentle. It's very gentle and sustainable.

Scarlett (29:54)
Mm-hmm.

So the movie pic that came to mind as you were explaining that is Apocalypse Now. Sorry. I'm sorry. That is such a dark, weird thing to bring up. it goes back to our point, which is that yoga has been kind of branded as a lovely, loving, light.

Justine Lemos (30:06)
You

Hey, no. Yeah.

Scarlett (30:18)
Everything going up, heart open, angels singing type of thing. It is absolutely not that it is everything. And this coiled serpent of energetic potential that we are discussing resides at the base of the spine. It resides in darkness. It resides where we tend as a society to take all of our most difficult, unresolved things and push them down out of sight. Right. And I mean, it's, it's literally essentially mixed up with your lower colon. And I mean, just.

Justine Lemos (30:26)
Yes.

Correct.

Scarlett (30:48)
to be perfectly frank about it, it's where your shit is. So of course fasting and clearing things out at a physical level, of course that will make for a safer, cleaner ascension of energy. Of course, we're not just, ⁓ it's September, we fast in September. I these are really thoughtful statements that we're making and there's just not room on one podcast to go deep on all of them, but.

Justine Lemos (30:48)
Yes, yes it is.

Yes.

Absolutely.

Scarlett (31:16)
there is a very clear relationship between safe cultivation of Kundalini awakening and purity of mind, body and spirit. And it's not to say that you need to be free of, no one is free of trauma, no one is free of shit, right? And there's absolutely no shame in having...

Justine Lemos (31:25)
Absolutely.

Scarlett (31:35)
big complicated things that are coiled up with your own energy. It's simply about having awareness of the potential to awaken all of these things at once, right? Whatever's rising up is what's there. So...

Justine Lemos (31:45)
Ahem.

Absolutely.

Scarlett (31:49)
That's what you're gonna get exposed to. And so, yes, it is so important to create safe spaces, safe practices, safe containers, safe communities, sanghas, all of the things that we've been talking about are not like, we're not gatekeeping when we say slow down and we're not, but do the really interesting breath work. It's like, yeah, we'll get there. We will get there, yeah.

Justine Lemos (32:13)
Right, exactly.

you know, there, but, and yet there is a very specific, perceptible, embodied, kinetic, energetic experience of Kundalini awakening. That is, and it's not just a metaphor.

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Scarlett (32:36)
We've seen it.

awesome.

Justine Lemos (32:57)
Right? How about a nice meth?

Scarlett (33:00)
Nice myth. Have we said it all? So we've begun our music fashion movie. That's covered.

Justine Lemos (33:04)
Mm. Yes.

Scarlett (33:07)
I just wanna say one last thing. Which is, even if you have awakened Kundalini in this physical lifetime, you still have to live on Earth. I'm sorry to say. You still have to live on Earth. Nope.

Justine Lemos (33:09)
Please say it.

You still have to live on earth and it doesn't mean that you're a nice person. Kundalini

is going to exacerbate or enhance whatever it is, which is why there's so much emphasis put on preliminary practices in like Tibetan Buddhism. The yogic practices of Tibetan Buddhism like Domo, et cetera, are all about the awakening of Kundalini, but there are...

so many preliminary practices that are done to stop you from being an asshole when Kundalini is awakened, because then you're just going to be more of an asshole.

Scarlett (33:50)
That's correct.

That's correct. I mean, I was thinking, as I often do, I was thinking about the yama and the yama, the first and second steps on the path. But now I'm confused, because that's Patanjali's eightfold path of yoga,

Justine Lemos (33:58)
Yes.

Yeah, Hatha Yoga

Pradyapaka lists Yama-niyama, but there are 10 of them instead of eight of them, or there are more of them. There 10 in Patanjali Yoga Sutra. There are 12 or 16. I'll have to go back. There are more and they are some overlap and some are different, but Hatha Yoga Pradyapaka gives Yama-niyama. Everybody gives.

Scarlett (34:10)
Okay.

No, no, no, there's ten. There's more. There's ten in Patanjali's.

There's more.

Interesting.

end.

Justine Lemos (34:34)
like do's and don'ts, not as, not as morals like you're going to go to hell, but in order for, as you practice these more esoteric practices, you will develop powers or siddhis. You will develop psychic powers. You will develop magnetism. You will develop these powers. I've got a film. And, and so you need these moral precepts to keep you from being an asshole.

Scarlett (35:01)
the very first preset and the this is this will have to be a separate podcast the reason why I got confused is because from that text from Patanjali's text there is mention of postural yoga and pranayama but I just wanted to clear that question about that but later but no specifics okay so

Justine Lemos (35:17)
There are but no specifics. No specifics.

It's just like do some asana, do some pranayama, but he doesn't tell you how. But Dhanjali Yoga Sutra is not a manual of embodied physical practice.

Scarlett (35:25)
What? Okay.

It took 1200 more years to get to that.

Justine Lemos (35:35)
Well, or people were doing it and not writing it down. We don't know. But I have a film. Yeah, go.

Scarlett (35:37)
and not document it. But the point for the purpose of... Okay, say the film and then I'm

going to make a statement on the yamas and the yamas and then we'll tell a myth. You go first.

Justine Lemos (35:45)
wonderful

world of Henry Sugar.

Scarlett (35:49)
interesting. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Justine Lemos (35:51)
Right? Uh-huh. Because of the development of siddhis through his yogic practice and

he develops these great siddhis. Right?

Scarlett (36:01)
Yeah, you

know, it bears mentioning that Roald Dahl was a World War II fighter pilot. He was a World War II and he was so tall that his head stuck out of the top of some of the airplanes that he flew. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if like, you know, these, the fictional stories that he wrote,

Justine Lemos (36:07)
Yes, yes, exactly.

Wow. Wow. Crown chakra.

Scarlett (36:27)
are super trippy if you really think about it. But anyway, so...

Just to kind of put a cap on that part of the conversation that we were having, the very first thing that we are instructed to do on Patanjali's Eightfold Path of Yoga is to not hurt anybody. Don't hurt anyone or yourself. And the very first thing that we are instructed to do in the Niyama, which is paralleling, is to be clean, to clean up. And we like to teach these in pairs. So Ahimsa and Sautra is basically saying, if there's a mess in your bowels, in your space,

Justine Lemos (36:44)
Yes.

Scarlett (37:03)
your heart in your mind, it's not going to go well. Clean it up before you start doing these esoteric practices. If you're hurting someone in this course of this practice, you're not going to be able to continue with it, right? Like it's like step one, if you can't get past step one, keep working on that before we make this any more complicated. And

Justine Lemos (37:05)
Clean it.

Mm-hmm.

Scarlett (37:25)
I just think it really bears mentioning and repeating at any given time. And the context I was thinking about that in yesterday is if you are considering yourself to be an informed and active and engaged practitioner and aspects of your practice don't extend beyond yourself to help reduce harm in this world, that's a big question to be percolating on, right?

Justine Lemos (37:49)
Absolutely.

Increased pleasure, decreased pain. Prime objective. ⁓ Okay, really quick myth. So I wanted to talk about the sword in the stone.

Scarlett (37:54)
Mm-hmm. Myth.

Excalibur.

Justine Lemos (38:05)
Because there are not

as far as I know any actual myths about Kundalini. From, you know, the Hindu Vedic tradition actually about Kundalini. We don't have a myth about her nor the Nagas themselves. I mean, I might be able to pull one up, but I didn't have one at the top of my head. But in Arturian legend, there's this sword, right?

driven into a stone. And so that is that downward, inert root chakra mineral. And the prophecy is only that the true king could draw it out. And everyone tries and tries and they pulled, but the stone stays, the sword stays as if the stone was holding it. And then here comes this very small boy.

very weak, very overlooked, and he just places his hand on it and it slides free. That lightning flash of awakening that we prepare and then when lightning strikes, we don't know when it will happen. All we can do is prepare and then that lightning flash of Purvabhadrapada that is the surprise awakening. The spontaneous Sahaja awakening.

Scarlett (39:19)
Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (39:24)
written about by the great mystics like Lala. And so this makes him king, not just politically, it's the awakening of the hidden power that is sleeping or locked in the earth. And then there's some very beautiful things that happen in that mythic cycle. Now, I'm not saying that this mythic cycle is about Kundalini, but there are parallels. It then

gets it goes into the lake it gets thrown into the lake which is the swadhisthaya the the second chakra is water and then it rises up by the lady of the lake kundalini she lifts it up out of the water as a flaming sword as manipuri chakra and as it rises up and of course there is you know all of the legends and metaphors of

the knights and the attainment of the grail, which is the cup or the chalice of Amrit that lies in the upper centers. So that's what I was thinking about. You know, as Kundalini rises, then we're crowned by the sovereign energy of our own nervous system, lit with this charisma and power and grace.

Scarlett (40:41)
I love that. The thing that came to mind as you were describing Arthur, who is a child without any known particular strength, who just effortlessly releases the sword from the stone, it reminds me of how...

Of course, so let's say in postural yoga practice, we practice and we practice and we refine our practice and there are peak poses or challenging poses that we may strive to attain for a long, time and no matter how hard we do it, we just simply cannot get into that shape or find that balance and then one day without really thinking about it, we suddenly do and it's like the body just clicks in and it's have we done a lot of preparation?

Justine Lemos (41:25)
Mm-hmm.

Scarlett (41:28)
and practice and strength to get there, yes, and it's actually in the moment when we are not really trying to attain anything that the mind suddenly creates the space to do that. And... Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (41:42)
Right. That's a hajja awakening. Right.

And we could do a whole podcast about the parallels with use of psychedelic drugs and plant medicines that allow us to see what is that potential is. And we often see in rainbows, but it's not sustainable. Right. It, it shows us like we've never seen in color before. It shows us that color exists. And then we have to generate

Scarlett (41:59)
Mm-hmm.

Justine Lemos (42:09)
self-generate that potential within ourselves.

Scarlett (42:13)
That's right. On that note.

Justine Lemos (42:14)
Well, that was a

really fun episode. Good job.

Scarlett (42:18)
⁓ We'll be back after the eclipse and we'll have more on that topic. We can talk about the relationship between the eclipse axis and Kundalini and the chakras as well. Yeah, stay tuned for more.

Justine Lemos (42:32)
Om Namah Shivaya.

Scarlett (42:34)
you there.

Justine Lemos (42:35)
Great, that was good.