Śivasaṃhitā 2.23

Kuṇḍalinī is presented here through two simultaneous and complementary images: vidyullatākārā, ‘having the form of a lightning creeper’, and a serpent coiled three and a half times at the mouth of suṣumṇā. The first evokes speed, luminosity, and electrical power; the second, latent potential, precision, and the sacred geometry of three-and-a-half, which in Tantric cosmology corresponds to the three states of consciousness plus the transcendent state.

Vidyut (lightning, electricity) and latā (creeper, vine) form a compound describing kuṇḍalinī as energy that coils and climbs, alive and luminous. Paradevatā — ‘supreme goddess’ — places her at the apex of the Tantric pantheon: she is not a minor energy but the primordial śakti, identical to universal consciousness in its dynamic aspect. Kuṇḍalinī derives from kuṇḍala (ring, coil), describing her characteristic form.

The three and a half coils (sārdhatrikoṇa) correspond precisely to the three guṇas — tamas, rajas, sattva — plus the state that transcends them. In her dormant condition, kuṇḍalinī ‘sleeps’ with her head blocking the entrance to suṣumṇā, preventing the upward movement of energy. The yogī’s work consists in awakening her through prāṇāyāma, bandhas, and meditation so that she ascends through the central channel.