Seven lights of the candles represent contact with higher spiritual degrees or Jacob’s mystical ladder to heaven. However, according to Brian Lancaster (2000, 64–65) the connection between Menorah and the human body, specifically the lungs, is important: “The analogy of the lungs might seem a little weird now. Yet for Malbim lungs had a very important role in our intellectual life. People believed that by purifying the air and forcing this spiritual steam up for the brain (...) the relation to lungs is about mystical identification of breathing and intellectual soul of the man.” In Yoga, breathing is very important, as it is through breathing that the kundalini and the chakras are stimulated, so that liberation – samadhi – can be reached. Also the Islam mysticism of Sufism, especially its great spiritual leader Inayat Khan, speaks about the importance of breathing. Breathing is a physiological process, but as the text explains, it also has an effect on the more subtle levels of the body (chakras) and intellect. Khan (Witteveen 1998, 116) claims: “Those, who have some intuition or whatever miraculous power, got possession of it through breath. The first and basic condition though is the clear channel for breath, this channel is meant to be human body itself. If this channel is blocked, then air cannot pass freely.” The text indicates that they are nadi channels that prevent “breathing” in a subtle level. Kundalini energy is released with the help of breathing, and then it flows through the energy channels, which need to be cleared from all obstacles, so that the chakras may be activated. We can see illustrations of the chakras even in the New World, which also supports the thesis of universality of this phenomenon. Ravindra Kumar (2006, 70–71), citing R. Sheer, says: “[i]n Peru, we find in the ancient stone-built temples engravings that depict a puma, condor and snake – symbols of the three empires: our Earth, a world above it and a world below it. Between the engravings, there are seven holes, placed one on the top of each other. (...) According to the early Kichwa mythology, each of these seven hollows was filled up with gold and diamonds (...) energy that the Incas called Kori Machakway is the same transformation that the Indian people describe as kundalini. Activation or awakening of the chakras is bound to the kundalini energy, which is showed even more frequently than the chakras themselves.” Again, Ravindra Kumar (2006, 70) – with the help of J. White – offers examples of such symbolic expressions: “It (kundalini) was described in historical writings from the ancient Egypt, Tibet, Sumer, China, Greek, and other cultures and religious traditions, including the early Judaism and Christianity. Crown of the pharaoh, Mexican feathered dragon, dragon in Oriental mythology or the snake in the Garden of Eden – these all are hints of kundalini. Also Aesculapian staff, two snakes twisted around the staff – the modern symbol of medical practice. It is said that this staff came from god Hermes, the founder of Hermetic tradition of higher knowledge.” Symbolic illustrations of the chakras are more or less seen in various spiritual traditions. The precision of positioning of the chakras on the body is remarkable, as well as depiction of kundalini and experiences in individual chakras. Kundalini represents 102 (6) Slavomír Gálik - Sabína Gáliková Tolnaiová
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