The Serpent Power. This item is unavailable.The Serpent Power

The image source book for Western adaptations of Kundalini yoga. The Serpent Power comprises translations and commentary on tow ancient Sanskrit texts: the Satckra-nirupana ("Description of and Investigation into the Six Bodily Centres") and the Paduka-Pancaka (Five-fold Footstool of the Guru"). In addition to practical yoga instruction, Avalon gives a detailed explanation of the chakra system and writes with clarity and elegance on the often misunderstood topics of mediation and mantra. While maintaining his public profile as a judge and scholar of British Indian Law, Avalon- whose real name was Sir John George Woodroffe- was also a private student of the Tantras. He published a large body of texts and translations and thus pioneered the modern academic study of Tantra in the West. He was born in 1865 and died 1936.

Born on December 15th, 1865,John Woodroffe was educated at Woburn Park School and University College, Oxford, where he graduated in jurisprudence and the Bachelor of Civil Law examinations. In 1890, He moved to India and enrolled as an advocate in Calcutta High Court. He was soon made a Fellow of the Calcutta University and appointed Law Professor there.He was appointed Standing Counsel to the Government of India in 1902 and two years later was raised to the High Court Bench.After serving for eighteen years in the bench, he became Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in 1915.After retiring to England he became Reader in Indian Law at the University of Oxford, and finally moved to France in his retirement, where he died in 1936. Alongside his judicial duties he studied Sanskrit and Hindu philosophy and was especially interested in the esoteric Hindu Tantric Shakti system. He translated some twenty original Sanskrit texts, and under his pseudonym Arthur Avalon.He published and lectured prolifically and authoritatively on Indian philosophy and a wide range of Yoga and Tantra topics. His most popular and influential book, a major contribution to the appreciation of Indian philosophy and spirituality, is The Serpent Power The Secrets of Tantric and Shaktic Yoga ,which is the source of many modern Western appropriations of Kundalini practice. Other writings (published under his own name, as well as Arthur Avalon include: Shakti and Shakta Principles of Tantra (2 vols) Great Liberation) Hymns to the Goddess and Hymn to Kali The World as Power The Garland of Letters