SHAKTI

"If one has faith in the roots, of what use are the branches and the leaves?"

Anadi rupa: shakti is eternal. Shakti is the ananda rupini, the eternal bliss by whom creation manifests itself, and who pervades the universe as does the oil a sesame seed. There are as many names for shakti as there are goddesses: each goddess is in effect the shakti of their god counterpart, just as the prime shakti is the wife, mother and emanation of Brahma [the creator].

Lalita: she who plays, whose play is world play; whose eyes playing like fish in the beautious waters of her divine face, open and shut with the appearance and disappearance of countless worlds now illuminated by her light, now wrapped in her terrible darkness.

The forms of the mother of the universe are threefold:

1. Supreme [Para], of which none can know.

2. Subtle [Sukshma], in the form of mantra.

3. Gross [Sthula], or the physical form available for contemplation.

The form of shakti often creates a variable when coupled with a particular deity. Shiva, for example, has numerous consort, each modifying his primaevil presence as the destroyer/creator. When coupled with Lakshmi the goddess on the mountain, he is a god of nature and animalia. When coupled with Kali, he is inert beneath her dance of chaostrophy, the shakti in complete dominence of the Shiva principle. Examples of the numerous shaktis of Shiva:

Kali - Shodashi - Bagala - Dhumauti - Chinnamasta - Tripurasundari - Bhuvaneshvari - Tara - Matangini - Bhairavi.

Chinnamasta means 'split head', and she is a prime example of a Tantric shakti. She is depicted as an emanation of three dark-skinned form, and is the veritable goddess of thaumaturgy. She holds her severed heads in her hands, blood gushing from her decapitated trunk and falling into the open mouths of the heads. Her other bodies dance together, holding massive bloody scissors used in this process. It may seem gruesome, but she is in fact a shakti variable, and depicted alone this entire image decoded as the self-division of the ego.

Another common display of the shakti is in intercouse with her male or daemonic counterpart. Typicly, where the male is daemonic the female is beautiful, and vice versa. These images are elaborate depictions of the yin-yang, representing the polarities of vearious principles.

Shakti is also the force contained in ourselves. Just as the intercourse of shakti with deity perfectly illustrates the dynamic, passionate element of such a force, so too sexuality in humans can be used to draw up our inert shakti energies, turning lovemaking into profound mystical exploits rather than passive, procreative sex. "He who does not worship at night nor in the evening, is religously restricted about intercourse. One must worship at night as much as in the daytime.