Down into the Body: Kundalini and Mantra

Revisiting Ascension, Descent, and the Vibratory Nature of Shakti (From Part 2, Mantra in MTA)

Happy Valentine’s Day! I hope you have whatever flavor of romantic, erotic, friendly engagement your heart desires. For me, that would be complete celebration and adoration, upliftment, play, music and physical romping: in short mutual adoration. In the absence of that, I’m being my own Shiva Shakti this year, having a dance party with my yoga friends and eating detox herbs!

Please join this Sunday, February 16th, 2025 for our monthly Good Community gathering.

Sending you all the love. XO Christine

This week’s post: Kundalini Rises, Descends, Contracts and Expands

The classical understanding of Kundalini often centers on its upward movement—a latent energy said to rest at the base of the spine before rising through the chakras to the crown of the head. Yet, according to Berkeley scholar Christopher Tomkins, this ascension is only half of the story. There is also a corresponding descent, in which Kundalini enters through the crown, travels through the upper region of the sound and breath cavities, through the bindu and then permeates the body as living breath.

Tomkins frames this holistic process within a broader Tantric vision of Shakti. He notes that the energy of Shakti is not purely “dormant,” awaiting activation; rather, it is already flowing throughout the body—an ever-present vibratory field that animates our very being. From the moment we are formed in the womb, elements of space, fire, water, and earth (or the five great elements, including ether) coalesce with the Divine energy to shape our physical and subtle bodies. We simply forget this reality as we grow preoccupied with the external world.

“The whole body field and the prana shakti are vibrating on every level—from our mundane thoughts to our blood flow, from neuronal impulses to the subtlest states of consciousness—and this is what the tantras say is God vibrating.”
—Christopher Tomkins

When we chant mantra, especially in a focused and devotional way, this living field becomes more apparent. The chanting provides a container through which Kundalini can be felt descending as well as ascending. The sacred syllables invite the downward flow of Shakti through the aperture at the crown of the head, often considered a threshold for spiritual energy. In yogic lore and artwork, this same opening is sometimes depicted as the passageway through which the soul departs at death, suggesting it is both an exit and an entrance for consciousness.

The Art of Gathering and Shaping Energy

Tomkins describes a practice in which breath and attention play crucial roles in summoning the energy to the navel or the base of the spine, then sending it upward “like an arrow shot from a quiver.” But this gathering at the base is not about awakening something inert. Rather, it is about harnessing and shaping an energy that is already alive within and around us. By using breathwork, mantra repetition, and specific visualizations, we coil this energy at the root, ready to be directed where it is needed.

This “coil” evokes the symbolic image of Kundalini as a serpent—a spiral of latent power that can be consciously channeled. There is nothing truly dormant in us except our awareness of how to work with what is already present. Mantra chanting helps focus that awareness, aligning our breath, mind, and subtle body so that the flow of Shakti becomes more tangible.

Radiating in All Directions

Another essential point: Kundalini is not just a vertical channel from base to crown or vice versa. Once we tap into the core prana shakti of who we are, it can flood the entire body—flowing out through hair follicles, nails, skin pores, and even the eyes.

Chanting mantra aids in this radiating process, as the sonic vibration reverberates through every cell, reminding us that we are not limited to linear “up or down” pathways.

Indeed, many Tantric and yogic traditions speak of lateral energy fields and radiating currents that extend beyond the physical form. Mantra chanting, coupled with conscious breath, draws energy not only from the depths of our inner reservoir but from the surrounding field of life-force. It becomes a dialog between the cosmic and the individual, with the repeated sacred syllables acting as a beacon for Shakti’s descent and circulation.

The Crown as a Portal

The idea that Shakti pours into the body through the crown aligns with iconographic representations in which the top of the head is shown as a flower or an opening. Artistic depictions of yogis in deep samādhi often include a subtle suggestion of energy streaming down from above. The same gateway is said to be the exit point for the soul at death, underscoring its dual role: when we are born, the aperture “closes” behind us so we can live in the physical plane, and when we die, it reopens for the journey back to the infinite.

In conscious practices—whether chanting or meditation—this portal can be gently reopened, allowing divine energy to descend again and again. The old yogis, as Tomkins points out, recognized that an open crown not only facilitates spiritual awareness but fosters an ongoing interplay between body and cosmos.

Mantra as the Catalyst for Remembering

At the heart of Tomkins’s teaching is the reminder that this vibrant energy is always present; we simply forget. Chanting mantra becomes a sacred tool to reawaken the memory of our divine anatomy—the interplay of Shakti that dances from crown to base, from subtle realms to physical cells, and from our innermost essence to the outer world.

Mantra, when intoned with devotion and clarity, creates a sonic bridge. It harmonizes the internal frequencies of the body-mind with the larger currents of cosmic energy. In doing so, it underscores that Kundalini is not merely a single event of “rising” or “descending” but a continuous cyclical flow—an eternal pulse of creation that holds our earthly form together and beckons us toward our highest spiritual potential.

Kundalini is a multidirectional, omnipresent energy, pulsing in every breath and cell, and perpetually flowing down from the crown just as it rises from the root. Chanting mantra serves as a profound gateway to experiencing this dynamic reality. Through the power of sacred sound, we awaken to the truth that divine force shapes us at every moment—from birth to death and beyond. By remembering this truth, we realize that Kundalini’s descent is just as integral as its ascent, guiding us toward a more complete and embodied understanding of who we are—and revealing that, in fact, we and the cosmos are always vibrating as one.