Madame Blavatsky called FOHAT. This force, in the human organism, is called KUNDALINI, the Serpent-Power. There are any number of systems which attempt to tell unwary students how to awaken the sleeping Kundalini. They are too often successful, and the results of their misguided efforts are human wrecks and derelicts, people driven to madness and obsession. For the fact is that Kundalini is a real force, and is as powerful in destruction as it is in integration. Every person automatically receives the instruction he needs to awaken Kundalini when the time comes for that awakening. In the meantime listen to no one who tells you that he can help you to unfold powers by setting the serpent-force in action. Such practices are the most dangerous known to man. The proper way to prepare yourself for the time when you can do such a thing safely is to learn how to control your body, your mind and your emotions. When you have done this you will know what your next step is to be. Kundalini is not a force to be feared. You really use it every day of your life. But you use it naturally, and without giving it conscious attention. For even in its latent state it is the force behind your activities. It is automatically controlled by subconsciousness. Subconsciousness is the woman in Key 8, and she has the lion in complete control. Because TAROT works by giving suggestions to subconsciousness it works automatically towards the expansion of consciousness that makes for an ever greater control over continually increasing powers of personality. The other symbolism in this Key has been explained elsewhere. 9—THE HERMIT The Hermit represents the ONE IDENTITY, or I AM. He represents the consciousness of the man who has attained enlightenment, and he stands upon the mountain peaks as a light bearer for those below him on the path. He is solitary, alone. This symbolism points to the fact that in reality the central Self of every one of us, which seems to us to be separate from every other self, is that same ONE IDENTITY. Because this Key represents the ONE IDENTITY, it also symbolizes Will, since the manifested universe came into being by an act of the Primal Will of the ONE IDENTITY. The Hermit’s grey robe, by its color, symbolizes the neutralization of all of the pairs of opposites in manifestation by each other, because opposite colors mixed equally produce grey. The staff corresponds to Will and the Archetypal World. He stands in darkness, because what is behind our personifications of the Supreme Reality is dark and incomprehensible to our intellects. Yet he carries the golden six-rayed light, symbolizing cosmic principles and laws. As our consciousness awakens to the understanding of these laws
