Yoga and Meditation: Perspectives, Context and Methodologies (15PSRH046)

750 Word Book Review – The Serpent Power

The Serpent Power

This short book review will focus on a critical analysis of Woodroffe’s – “The serpent power”.
The objective of this review is to coherently present a fair portrayal of Woodroffe’s work in
a focused and precise manor. This review will enumerate the strengths and weaknesses
present within Woodroffe’s work; as well as elaborating such opinions by providing
scholarly evidence.
Published in 1918, The Serpent Power is a unique publication for its time. The Scholarship
does not follow the common pattern of Orientalist discourse which was too often laden
with colonial tropes of power and cultural superiority. In contrast, it is the absence of these
“typical western conceptions of the orient”, which made the reading of this book the all
surprising.

Woodroffe’s work serves as a sourcebook and commentary on Kundalini-Yoga and more

specifically the process of the Bhūta-śuddhi1 – whilst providing the first annotated
translations of several texts, such as the; Sat-cakra-nirūpana and the Pāduka-pañcaka. His
writing is fluid and informative, familiar to the scholar, practitioner and newcomer alike. It is
the absence of biased or overly opinionated dialogues, which make Woodroffe’s discourse
intriguing. A great amount of effort is made to highlight the discriminatory and flamboyant
nature of other methodical approaches, as well as their generalisations towards the study of
yoga. Woodroffe dismisses their arguments and points out their flaws as a way to build
upon his own methodology.2 Despite the fact that Woodroffe’s work is a subtle
manifestation of his insider experience – it retains a high level of scholarship. His practise of
Yoga never forms as a subject within the text. It is eluded too, only confirmed by later
biographers.3 Overall this forms an intriguing and revealing read, into the early development
of methodological approaches into the study of Yoga.

1
Woodroffe, S.J. (1918) pp.2 (“purification of the elements of the body”)
2
Ibid, pp. 4-5
3
Taylor, K. (2001) pp.11
Yoga and Meditation: Perspectives, Context and Methodologies (15PSRH046)
750 Word Book Review – The Serpent Power

Woodroffe is most concerned with pioneering an accurate historical and scientific

framework to the study of Yoga, which engages with the context of philosophical, ritual and
doctrinal discourses.4 The authors efforts to legitimise Yoga as a real tangible science are
specifically interesting, Woodroffe expresses that his work is an endeavour for a rational
presentation of the subject as a whole.

Although an intriguing and equally important text it can be subjected to several key
criticisms. Chapter 7 propounds a wild theory, about the early presence of the Six Chakras
and in extension Kundalini Yoga in the early Upanishads and Vedas themselves. 5
Under the present framework of study, such a theory would be heavily criticised and
dismissed, not only are the so called “Early Upanisads” considered to be much later, but the
additional understanding of Buddhism’s contribution to the development of Yoga and
tantra, has led to the ability of roughly dating the periods of these Vedantic teachings, based
upon their clear correspondence and reception of Buddhist doctrine. 6

In Woodroffe’s defence, scholarship had not yet advanced to the degree it has today, the
important links between the crossovers of Shramanic, Yogic and Brahmanical schools of
thought had not yet been made. Woodroffe’s theorem should therefore be taken as an
attempt to trace the historical developments of Yoga from the contemporary to the ancient
time. Furthermore it is important to note that Woodroffe, engages in no clear historical
debate on texts, - which is still notoriously difficult to do so7, he instead remains objective,
faithful merely to his theory which he feels is backed up by the source material which he
provides extensively within the notes of his text.8

Another important criticism must be drawn, using ideas of King, R. (1999) – one could
accuse Woodroffe of being an Oriental Romanticist, his previously mentioned theorem can
be accused as being similar to other such Indological works, his clear love for the Orient is
also an indication, likewise Woodroffe fits King’s description of a romanticist, who provides

4
Woodroffe, S.J. (1918) pp. 25
5
Ibid, pp. 263
6
Malison, J. & Singleton (2017) [See Chapter: 1] pp.5
7
Ibid, pp. XXXIX
8
Woodroffe, S.J. (1918) pp. 257 “Chapter: VII Theoretical Bases of this Yoga”
Yoga and Meditation: Perspectives, Context and Methodologies (15PSRH046)
750 Word Book Review – The Serpent Power

“… commentaries that claim to represent the thoughts and actions of the Indian Subject…”9
Yet it is Woodroffe’s clear rebuttal of any generalisations and the oversimplification of
esoteric yoga tantra, which would again prevent him from being classified as such.
Woodroffe does not make any suggestion about the superiority of the Indic culture, or its
spirituality a factor important to King’s classification of the Oriental Romanticist.

The methodological approach to the study of Yoga and meditation has undergone much
development in the past century, which is observable through Woodroffe’s portrayal of the
subtle body chakra system and his discourse on the Saiva Shakta Tantra - in The Serpent
Power. As scholarship advances, it is paramount that such works are not dismissed, due to
the era they have been published or confined in; but are used to enrich and inspire
continuing discourse because of their thematic value.

9
King, R. (1999) pp.90
Yoga and Meditation: Perspectives, Context and Methodologies (15PSRH046)
750 Word Book Review – The Serpent Power

Bibliography

King, R. (1999) Orientalism and Religion: Postcolonial theory, India and ‘the mystic East’
London: Routledge

Malison, J. & Singleton (2017) Roots of Yoga Milton Keynes: Penguin

Taylor, K. (2001) Sir John Woodroffe, Tantra and Bengal: ‘an Indian Soul in a European
body?’ London: Routledge

Woodroffe, S.J. (1918) The Serpent Power Glastonbury: The Lost Library