The Serpent Power

596 Pages·1974·17.27 MB·English

by  Avalon Arthur (Sir John Woodroffe)

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Plate I] The Centres or Lotuses [Frontispiece
THE SERPENT POWER
BEING THE
SAT-CAKRA-NIRtJPAtfA AND
PADUKA-PAftCAKA
TWO WORKS ON LAYA-YOGA, TRANSLATED FROM THE
SANSKRIT, WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY
BY
ARTHUR AVALON
(SIR JOHN WOODROFFE)
DOVER PUBLICATIONS, INC.
NEW YORK
This Dover edition, first published in 1974, is a
republication of the seventh edition of the work as
published by Ganesh & Co. (Madras) Private Ltd.,
Madras, India, in 1964 (the first edition was pub­
lished by Luzac 8c Co., London, in 1919).
In the present edition, which is published by
special arrangement with Ganesh & Co., the Sanskrit
text that was included with the seventh edition has
been omitted, and Plates I through VIII, originally
in color, appear in black and white.
International Standard Book Number: 0-486-23058-9
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 74-75259
Manufactured in the United States of America
Dover Publications, Inc.
180 Varick Street
New York, N.Y. 10014
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE TO SIXTH EDITION
The growing interest evinced by the public to understand
rightly the literature of Tantra Sastra and more especially
the Yoga of Kundalini Sakti has encouraged us to bring out
this new edition of the almost unique original work on the
subject.
The opportunity has been availed of to add a translitera­
tion of all the Sanskrit verses and provide indexes in English
for half-verses, authors, citations, words, etc.
June 1958
PUBLISHERS’ NOTE TO FIFTH EDITION
Within the last three years most of the Works of Sir John
WoodrofFe have been published by us after they had been out
of print for nearly twenty years. It is gratifying to note
that the public have appreciated the valuable nature of these
books and their new, uniform get-up. The last Edition
of Serpent Power was exactly the same as its predecessor
but in the present one, to make reference to the Sanskrit
portion easier and more convenient to critical students,
indexes have been included for the verses, authors, citations,
bibliography and important words at the end of the book.
It is hoped that these additions would prove useful to at
least some of the readers.
November 1953
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION
This edition to which some additions have been made and
in which some errors have been corrected has been revised
throughout. Since the issue of the second edition several
new volumes have appeared in the series of “ Tantrik Texts ”.
In connection with this book the reader is specially referred to
the Kamakaldvilasa, one of such Texts, as also to the essay on
“ Creation in the Tantras 55 which with other new material
is printed in Sakti and $akta. The publishers have pub­
lished a volume called Mahamaya by Professor Pramatha
Natha Mukhyopadhyaya and myself in which comparison is
made of the concept of Maya as held by the Saktas and Maya-
vadins respectively. I repeat that it is not possible to under­
stand this Yoga without having been first well grounded in its
philosophy. I say ‘ understand 5 only because the question
of the reality and value of this form of Yoga is not one with
which this book is concerned.
Since the publication of the second edition, there has
been issued a monograph on the Cakras by the well-known
Theosophist, the Right Reverend C. W. Leadbeater, which
includes matter published by him in 1910. The volume
contains plates of the Cakras as said to have been seen clair-
voyantly as also a plate of the Cakras according to Johann
Georg Gichtel, a pupil of Jakob Boehme taken from his
Theosophia Practica originally issued in 1696 and reprinted in
1897 (Chacornac, Paris. See also Plates at the end of
Dr. Law’s edition of the translation into English of Behmen).
viii THE SIX CENTRES AND THE SERPENT TOWER
Dr. Rele has also published a book entitled The Mysterious
Kundalim (Taraporewalla, Bombay) to which I have written
an Introduction.
Oxford A. A.
September 11, 1928