Ten Mahavidyas

Chinnamasta

The Mahavidyas are the ten goddesses representing the transcendent knowledge (maha = great, vidya = knowledge), the ten aspects of the great goddess, the ten types of shakti, of Shiva's energy, and the energy of the whole universe, of microcosm and macrocosm which govern the whole existence.

These deities - venerated especially in Tantrism - represent everything that can be known. The one is from the other and represent all the phenomenal world, from its creation to its dissolution.

It is Kali, the black, the absolute night, the passage of time, the destruction.

Tara, the embryo from which the universe is born, the one who creates the space, the emptiness and the need to fill it, the hunger and the need to feed that is characteristic of all that is created: to exist you have to devour another existence and so on.

Sodashi, the sixteen year old girl, (Sodashi in Sanskrit means 'sixteen') the age of perfection, a full cycle of the moon from new moon to full moon.

Chinnamasta Yantra

Bhuvaneshvari, the queen of the world, the one who rules the world.

Chinnamasta, the decapitated, she who presides over the ritual sacrifice. The terrible goddess holding a bloody knife in one hand and in the other her own head drinking the blood gushing from the severed neck.

Bhairavi, the terrible, the goddess of terror, the one who presides over the death and dissolution. The goddess of desire that leads to the dissolution of the body.

Dhumavati, the goddess steaming, what remains of the universe destroyed by the fire of dissolution. Nothing remains, only smoke. And 'the goddess of poverty, misfortune, illness. His vahana is an ass.

Bagala, the goddess with the head of the crane, the goddess of hatred, jealousy, cruelty, black magic and poisons.

Matangi, the dominatrix, the power of the elephant symbol of royalty. Restore peace, tranquility.

Kamala, the maiden lotus, the one who gives joy. Pure self-consciousness, found unity.