Definition of "kundalini"

For us it is, of course, a symbol of the caduceus of Aesculapius, of the spinal column, of the kundalini-serpent of the Indians – you will be able to trace the ancestry of the idea through many continents and many religions.

1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 131

The physiology of Tantra yoga focuses on the magical numinosity of the male semen, but the experience of the awakening of kundalini is not an exclusively male phenomenon.

1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 19