awakening the serpent
zambales 2022
circa 2021-2022
Cabangan, Zambales
San Juan, Metro Manila
In 2021, I signed up for my second yoga teacher certification, Kundalini Yoga.
I had received an email about the program and ignored it. In the same week, I spoke to my friend Carien, who told me she was taking a Kundalini Yoga Teacher training. To my surprise, it turned out to be the exact same one.
As the mystical bitch that I am, I took it as a sign. At this point, I was knee-deep into the occult, so this felt less like a coincidence and more like an assignment from my soul... because there is no free will.
This was a stranger kind of yoga. First of all, everyone wears white and wraps their heads with turbans to strengthen their aura. Second, you wake up at 4:00 in the morning for sadhana: a two-hour ritual involving chanting, meditation, breathing exercises, and yoga poses.
Third, many of the exercises involve repetitive movements, root locks, and attempts to awaken Kundalini energy—the dormant force said to reside at the base of the spine. I also learned that Kundalini energy is considered sexual energy, which opened an entirely separate rabbit hole that I am still exploring to this day.
It is slightly absurd that I spent half the pandemic waking up at 4 am, wearing white wherever I went, tying a cloth around my head, and chanting obscure mantras… all to experience the sexual serpent in my spine.
But then again, this was exactly the sort of thing I would do.
