Śivasaṃhitā 5.57

The description of Kuṇḍalinī appears here for the first time in chapter V: sleeping at the base of mūlādhāra, coiled three and a half times (sārddhatrikuṭala), biting her own tail like the uroboros of Western alchemical tradition. The westward orientation (paścimābhimukha) indicates she faces the body’s interior, not outward, pointing toward brahmarandhra—the crown opening—found in the opposite direction from the pelvic floor.

Kuṇḍalinī—from kuṇḍala (spiral, ring, earring)—is śakti (energy-consciousness) in its latent state, folded upon itself as unactualized potential. The three and a half coils have correlates in tradition: some interpretations relate them to the three avasthā (states of consciousness) plus the turīya state; others, to the relationship between the three guṇa with the half-turn as the moment of transcendence. The image of biting one’s own tail suggests the self-sufficiency of latent power: it needs no external nourishment.

Describing mūlādhāra as Kuṇḍalinī’s residence establishes the fundamental topology of Śaiva tantric yogic physiology: the lowest point of the suṣumnā axis is simultaneously the place of greatest material density and the starting point of ascent toward pure consciousness. The paradox is structural: the highest energy sleeps in the lowest place. Yoga is the process of its awakening and ascent.