It has been twenty years now that I have been teaching principles such as mapping, the mechanics through which everything in life and existence is interconnected.

I originally started my school to teach healing.  However, it quickly became evident that my methods of healing could not be conveyed unless deep and abstract principles of life were evident to the student.  To teach healing was to teach profound spiritual principles.  Few were willing to go that deep.  They wanted simple step-by-step techniques… a sort of paint by numbers or cookbook approach to healing.  Healing is life – profound, vast, far reaching, intricate, yet rooted in the one and only absolute truth that underlies all existence.

For years I spoke of the personified aspect of all things… a river valley, a mountain, any and every aspect of human physiology.   I spoke of how those fundamental principles permeate all levels and aspects of existence, the operators of existence.

The language of existence is personified in nature – the Grahas, the Gods, etc.  No other language can sing the song of life, lest it’s meaning fall far short of full eloquent expression.

I originally intended this blog to address specifically the universal principle of the serpent.  How snakes map through all levels of existence.  I trust that what I have said here, combined with what follows from Pandit Prasad and Lakshmi, will attain that objective.  It is up to you to connect the dots.  That is done in one and only one place… namely, within you.  Are you willing to go there?  Though all long to go, few are willing.  In order to see, you have to be willing to look.

Before and/or after pujas and homas here at Mount Soma, we like to briefly discuss the mechanics of creation in terms of the Deity we will be addressing.  The following emerged from one such discussion after a lovely Karthideya puja.  Ever deepening is our understanding of the Divine.

From Pandit Prasad and Lakshmi:

Nadis are a network of subtle channels.  According to Shivasamhitha (ancient scriptures), there are 14 principal nadis.  Of these, the ida, pingala, and sushumna are most important.

Ida is the left channel originating in mooladhara (1st chakra) and ends at the top of the left nostril.  Ida is Valli, Karthikeya’s wife.

Pingala is the right channel that also originates in mooladhara and ends at the top of the right nostril.  Pingala is Devasena, Karthikeya’s other wife.

Sushumna is the central channel (the straight line going up the spine, like a serpent).  It starts just below the mooladhara chakra and it goes through the third eye, touching both the ida and pingala, and reaches the sahasrara (7th chakra).  Sushumna is Karthikeya and looks like a snake.  According to Vedic scriptures, Karthikeya (Subrahmanya) is the snake god.  Those who carry the curse of the snake should awaken the nadis (in other words, meditate, worship Karthikeya).

These three nadis play a vital role in kundalini yoga.  The first step of kundalini yoga is the purification of nadis.  We purify them by performing the Karthikeya puja and of course, meditation.

In another sense, if we look at our physiology, each nerve looks like a snake.  Also, in regard to reproduction, sperm looks like a snake.  Even when the sperm attaches to the ovum, it still looks like a small snake for the first month.  This is why Karthikeya is the one to worship for fertility and family.