The essence of tantra yoga is about letting go, through connecting to our feminine energy. Tantra (and Hinduism and Ancient India Mysticism in general) uses an array of Deities as metaphors. Shaktism in particular emphasises the divine Goddesses, worshiping the feminine, to represent Divine Consciousness.
The 10 Wisdom Goddesses represent the 10 Great Knowledges (cosmic forces) of power, as Shakti. Shakti is the power of peace, or of love. In the West we tend to think of power as a dominating, violent, aggressive, masculine force. In the East the masculine is passive, it is the feminine that is active. It is Shakti (feminine energy or power) that unites with and activates Shiva (consciousness).
This union of Shakti and Shiva has resulted in many people seeing sex as being overly important, especially in western neo-tantra. But this is a misunderstanding. Tantra is not about sex, but about the transformation of sexual energy. It is an energetic approach to the spiritual path. Unfortunately, for many, the focus is on the Gross rather than Subtle body and, while being a great healing tool, merely scratches at the surface as a spiritual practice, so people tend to stay trapped in the physical aspect of entertainment, pleasure or self-indulgence.
While the body is the vehicle of the divine, we need to recognise there are three bodies. The Gross is our physical body, the body of the senses. The Subtle is our energetic body, where our chakra system resides for the awakening of kundalini. We need to progress from the Gross to the Subtle in order to step beyond, to the Causal body (the Karmic Sheath) which is our higher consciousness.
It is worth reminding ourselves that Tantra Yoga is the yoga of inner awareness and presence. “Our sexual energies in their ordinary expression are not helpful for the practice of Yoga, because they are diverted outwards.” Tantra Yoga, on the other hand, “directs these energies inwards for revitalisation and the development of higher consciousness.”
Although the 10 Wisdom Goddesses can be seen as beneficial and terrible, it is usually the first three that are seen as most important, representing as they do power, wisdom and beauty, which correlate to the destroyer, the creator and the preserver (the Goddesses Kali, Tara and Sundari).
Kali is mysterious and unpredictable. She represents time and is the Goddess of Yogic Transformation. She is our desire to live, our Being (Sat), and the power of death, the dissolution of our desires. Kali is power in action, located in the Heart Chakra (of the Subtle body)
Tara is the purifying force of the vital breath; the creative vibration. She is the deliverer and saviour; saving wisdom to guide us along the creative path; consciousness (Cit). She helps us cross over samsara (the cycle of life and death) as such she is located in the Navel Chakra, but is a rising current through to the 3rd Eye/Ajna Chakra.
Sundari is beauty as truth, derived from the light of consciousness; pure perception cleansed of its conditioning. She brings us home to the Supreme Self, the Divine I AM; the bliss (Ananda) of spiritual realisation, and as such is located at the Crown Chakra
Bringing it all together
The Goddesses are personifications of the feminine aspects of the Divine; the Absolute. Combined Kali, Tara and Sundari represent the threefold nature of the Absolute; sat-cit-ananda; being-consciousness-bliss. They can be represented in anthropomorphic form or as formless abstractions. To the Ancient Indian devotee there is no contradiction. They are simply tools that help us discover higher truths for ourselves.
They help us on our journey to self-realisation.
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