10 Mahavidya Yantras

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I made these yantras. I celebrate the big oneness with this series of yantras which are visual, abstract, geometric representations of specific qualities of each of the 10 Mahavidya G-ddesses (1, 2). Mahavidya means "great wisdom." I chose colors for each based on my research. Read on for more info, or jump to more images; there are chakra images and more yantra images including instructions to make the Shri yantra, below. 

Within Sanatana Dharma (what outsiders call Hinduism), yantras are visual representations intended to help people connect visually with the big oneness. For example, mantras, like "Om," are ways to connect via sound. Mudras are ways to connect via hand positions. Yoga is a way to connect by moving one's body and body parts. Puja (3) is a way to connect via ritual, karma via action, bhakti via devotion, jnana via learning, study, contemplation, and leading an ascetic life are a few of the many ways. Yantras are visual symbols or images intended to provoke engagement, enlightenment, and to inspire deeper understanding and interconnectedness with the big oneness. There are many paths to moksha, enlightenment, loving-kind awareness of one's own being as both uniquely individual and part of the universal oneness.

These yantras celebrate the 10 Mahavidya or great (maha), wisdom (vidya) G-ddesses.

1. Kali
2. Tara/KuanYin/Guanyin
3. Tripura Sundari/Shodashi/Lakshmi
4. Bhuvanishvavri/Durga
5. Bhairavi/Chandi
6. Chinnamasta
7. Dhummavati
8. Bagalamukhti/Pitambara
9. Matangi/Saraswati
10. Kamala/Lakshmi and also
11. Shri yantra

The extra 11th Shri yantra represents Shakti or the G-ddess and manifest forms, including us. There are chakra images and more yantras below. Read more for why I made them and their broader context, as I understand it today. 

Indian cultural history is rich and deep, with evolving religious roots spanning from today to least 3,000 years prior to the common era (CE) (4) or more (5). The word "Hinduism" is actually a name created by other people outside of India, so I will refer to the practices of the Indian people by what they called their way of life since at least Vedic times: Sanatana Dharma or Sanatan Dharma. Similar to the Christian, Muslim, and Jewish religions, Sanatana Dharma in Vedic texts had one G-d; the Vedic neutral-gendered name for the big oneness -- which is everything, unmanifest and all manifestations including deities, us, animals, plants, rocks, space, time, ideas, etc.-- Brahman. We are each part of Brahman; Atman, our individual being transcends time and even this life within Sanatana Dharma. There are many ways to understand this big oneness, as in the metaphor of the blind ones each describing a different part of the elephant and all being right about their part. What we experience and how we contextualize reality depends upon our position. For example, some prefer to access the oneness as Shakti (female), whereas others choose different aspects on which to focus. In addition to Sanatana Dharma or Hinduism, there are other religions that also embrace various forms of dharma that include Jainism, Buddhism, Sikhism (see this cool map). 

Today those who practice Sanatana Dharma seldom exclusively venerate Brahman or even Brahma (the personified form); instead there are diverse personal, family, local, and regional traditions and ways to practice that are alive and evolving (see Hugging Saint) including Shaivism (focus on Shiva), Vaishnavism (focus on Vishnu, including Radha/Krishna, 1 of Vishnu's 10 main incarnations), Shaktism (focus on the goddess), the Trimurti (Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva), and Smartism (Vishnu, Shiva, Shakti, Ganesha, Surya, or any other that is meaningful to you).

As a child I read about the practice of Sanatana Dharma, learned, and began to meditate. Then in college I studied primary sources in translation and began to practice yoga, ecstatic dance, and lucid dreaming. During my active frontline service work I was inspired to add learning about mudras (hand gestures). Now I am continuing to learn and apply what I learn by making yantras.

Over time the practice of Sanatana Dharma has evolved to include seemingly infinite applications and so many levels that it seems fractal. I must acknowledge that, like any study of another culture or even specific aspects of one's own culture, no matter how deep my academic knowledge, not having been raised in the culture, I will never fully understand. Please forgive my ignorance; do email me comments and corrections.

In 2023 during a serious illness I completed the Proverbs Series then the next month of June, I was inspired to study the Shakti (Goddess or Shaktism) branch of Sanatana Dharma. These 11 yantras emerged in a feverish flurry of inspiration during the month of June, 2023. I was inspired to make more yantras, below including yantras for other G-desses and their families, Vishnu's 10 (or more) avatar yantras, and novel, step-by-step visual instructions for a simple way to use 7+1 chakras to make your own Shri yantra as part of my healing journey.

I am a science-loving and evidence-based person. I love and respect the world we share with other organisms and want to use my time here fully in service. Since I was a child art has flowed out of me. Each series communicates something different. 

I hope these yantras will inspire deep awareness, peace, emergence of manifest and unmanifest, healing in myself and in each of us, regardless of culture or religious (or not) orientation.

Make a yantra for yourself! Find your favorite, construct an outline, and then color it in your own way!

Please do contact me if you want me to do a personalized version of your favorite yantra. Comments? Corrections? Contact me at jen@jenseron.com

I created the yantra from end-to-end: I designed, picked colors, and made these Jyoti yantras! They were inspired and flowed out of me!

In the midst of my very practical life, this visionary art emerges (see Proverbs , 10 Mahavidya Yantras, and Rumi series too). Please consider this art as a gift. May you be healthy, happy, present, appreciate life, and empower others, including young people, by sharing your wisdom and giving them a chance to grow and bloom.

The superficial meaning is that Jyothi, Jyoti, or Jothi (Hindu goddess, a representation of the big oneness and Shakti, the divine feminine), wants to be recognized. She manifests youth, wants to be acknowledged, respected, hugged, loved, and given a seat at the table. Youth are our light, our Vel, and worthy of inclusion among leaders and the divine. This is what I felt when I met her in a dream and what I need to communicate and share. The red-yellow colored yantra emerged after the initial dream and then two more blue-colored yantras popped out this morning before dawn.

I do not know why other than to answer the question, why me? I am a scientist as well as intuitive. Also, I have learned from experience not to ignore my intuition; I generally wait for a second source of evidence before acting. Jyoti looked sad that she/they was not recognized. We need to put a face to the energy. Youth needs a representative. Youth deserves so much more than we as a global culture provide. I got the message. It would be wrong for me to ignore the clear vision related to Jyoti that I've been given, not once but twice. 

We are all made of the same physical raw materials and captured sunlight (CH2O, sugars and starches from photosynthesis) that we use for energy during respiration. We share an underlying connection. Develop your own awareness of the physical connection, try to use your life in service, and see where it leads. You are already there? Please let us meet halfway. Share your journey, too! Even though Jyoti is related to Hinduism, she/they are outside of any religious framework in a universal, even scientific nature. 

I do not know what they mean. My guess is that right now we need Jyothi in the world to help us get through whatever hugely challenging times we face as individuals and as a culture, just as I do. Everyone agrees that Jyothi (Jyoti) represents pure light. Einstein noted that energy is equal to mass times constant speed of light squared (E=MC2). Energy and matter are interconvertible. Maybe it is well past time that all of us recognize that we are made of not only matter but also energy? Matter can be combined in infinite ways (you, me, rocks, comets), but energy is energy everywhere throughout us and the universe. Every religion embraces this radical idea that Einstein put into scientific terms. Jyoti may represent a the link between science and religion in general? Not one religion or another, but something underlying all religions, like light underlies all matter. Regardless of our age, location, or status, all of us are made of the same sunlight bound to form. You say, "Duh, I know that already." There is a difference between knowing and wisdom. Are you acting as if everyone is your sister, cousin, or grandparent? Does your care extend to the furthest reaches of your manifest family, beyond humans to rocks, plants, other organisms? You are important and so are we! Maybe it is not just youth but all of us who would benefit from remembering that we are all made of captured sunlight and energy bound to form?

In tradition, Jyothi (Jyoti) is a manifestation of Shakti, the divine feminine, who emerged from her mother Paravati's forehead/ajna chakra as Vel (see chakra info below) to be used (as a long thin fast spear of a weapon with a pointy triangularish flame on top) by her brother Murugan, (Skanda, Kartikeya), to defeat the big challenge/demon in that story. I did not know the story of Jyothi (Jyoti) before that dream. I can still see Jyoti's pale, shining face, sad at not being recognized, wanting to be acknowledged as form as well as light. Since that dream I've found other people who had related visions! See: https://murugan.org/jyoti.htm

What do you make of this? When you go to sleep, ask for your own vision of Jyothi (say it: Joti). Let's embrace manifest light and find ways to acknowledge and fan the flame of the light in all of us, including in our youth and the young people in our lives from communities local to global who we can encourage and support! I embraced Jyoti in my dream. I'm sending you a hug, too!

I am in the process of learning. I had to put this out into the world. Comments? Corrections? Contact me at jen@jenseron.com

I made these rough chakra images. These images are my version of the 7 main chakras or energy conduits of the human body. There has been so much written about chakras that all I have to add is these fun images. Note that they're not perfect. In 2019-2020 I pieced them together as best I could and left the imperfections. I also uploaded a drawing I did of the human body with colorful chakras overlaid with EFT spots for useful fun. For more images. see more yantra images, yantras for the 10 (and more) avatars of Vishnu, how to use chakras to make the Shri yantra, or go back to the 10 Mahavidya G-ddesses.

I love the chakra framework as a method of focusing energy and clarifying one's intentions. These rough images flowed out of me just before COVID hit us all. 

The 7 chakras (among many) can represent our connection to the big oneness through our functional energetic body that links matter and energy, internal and external via: 

1. Root chakra = red (root, excretory system, base of spine, survival and safety)

2. Sacral chakra = orange (reproductive organs, below belly button, emotions and sensations)

3. Solar chakra = yellow (digestive system, belly above belly button, power and energy for action)

4. Heart chakra = green (heart and circulatory & pulmonary systems, chest, love and relationships) 

5. Throat chakra = blue (communication, throat/top of spinal cord, expression and using your voice)

6. Third eye chakra = indigo blue (vision, nervous system, forehead, perception + intuition + wisdom)

7. Crown chakra = purple to pink (coordination, brain, top of head, interconnectedness and flow)

How do you envision your chakras? How do you envision them flowing in the most healthy manner? Which chakra is your favorite today? Why?

Make your own version of your own chakras today. How do they feel? Illustrate them all or pick just one. Have fun and reflect on your own shining, beautiful energetic being! 

Contact me if you want me to do a personalized version of your favorite chakra! I can do it remotely if you tell me which chakra you like and what your favorite colors are! Comments? Corrections? Contact me at jen@jenseron.com

I made these yantra images!. Yantras are visual, often geometric, representations of different aspects of the big oneness related to Sanatana Dharma, which some call Hinduism. In this section are more yantras I created. The Durga Bis and Brahma yantras wanted to incorporate Dewata Nawa Sanga (6, 7) symbols, so I let it emerge. The Jyothi/Jyoti/Raka (light, full moon light!) yantra had no reference I could find, but it is here because this morning I woke up from a dream (ask me) where she told me her name (I did not recognize her), hugged me, and seemed to want to be represented! I did the best I could and let it emerge. How can I not try to represent her after that dream? Note: these yantras contain images and symbols but no words, so please refer to other sites and sources for traditional yantras.

Look at the yantras and reflect on the colors and patterns. I'm learning, so please consider these my first drafts. For me, right now these mean healing, peace, resilience and awareness of our interconnectedness with the big oneness. What do they mean to you? 

There are so many levels and multiple stories, sometimes contradictory, but Parvati/Durga/Kali are all consistently consorts of Shiva (power and destruction). Parvati and Shiva are parents to Ganesha and Kartikeya/Murugan/Skanda, Jyothi/Jyoti/GoddessRayaki/Raka/Jwalamukhi, and more. Saraswati/Gayatri (personification of the Gayatri mantra)/Matangi are consistently consorts of Brahma (preservation and protection). Lakshmi/Kamala/Sita/Radha/Gopis and more are consorts of Vishnu/Rama/Krishna and more (creation). Vishnu's loyal friend is Hanuman. I'm barely scratching the surface but the cultural history is so deep and is constantly evolving, even today. The thing to remember is that these personified traits and stories are metaphors and access points to underlying philosophy. Just like life, you can go as shallow or as deep as you want. 

This entire series has been flowing out of me; I am trying to keep up. This feels like I've been plugged into an electrical outlet and am a conduit for the current. Or I'm a river through which a torrent is flowing and I'm doing my best to divert enough to irrigate without flooding. I hope you enjoy the inspired images as much as I've enjoyed the process of learning, research, and creation.

I love creating yantras. Since June of 2023 I've been inspired to celebrate Sanatana Dharma as one way to access the big oneness, in addition to mudras, mantras, yoga, etc.!  I love the symbolism, beauty, and meaning of yantras related to specific qualities humans value. After creating the 10 Mahavidya G-ddesses (Devi) series I wanted to do a 9-yantra Dussera series; but, after doing yantras for the G-ddesses Parvati, Durga, Lakshmi, and Saraswati I got distracted. Shiva and Ganesha wanted representation too, etc. See also my version of the 7 chakras. 

Which of the yantras resonate most with you right now?  Why? Think about your favorite colors and shapes. What would your own yantra look like if you were to construct it in 2 or 3 dimensions? I hope you're inspired to make some yantras and represent your life in nested, colorful geometric shapes. Namaste! Best wishes and joy to you in your journey.

Contact me at jen@jenseron.com for more.

I made these! Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) is an evolving framework that reaches back beyond writing with history and timeless legends that link ancient to modern human culture. I have respect for all ethical philosophies, religions, and ways of life that reflect a love for the big oneness in practice and/or principle, peacefully. There are many paths. I've been celebrating and learning Sanatana Dharma with a series of yantras (graphic, symbolic, often geometric, visual meditations on the deities). Please excuse any departures from the traditional mode of yantra representation and accept these as an inspired offering to the big oneness, of whom we are extrusions reflecting upon itself. 

There are enough of Vishnu's avatars, at least 10 (dasavarata) to warrant their own section. They have been flowing out of me during July to early August 2023 as I read Soundarya Lahari (8, 9). I've been dreaming them. For example, this morning I woke with a vision of how to do Varaha's yantra. During this health crisis, after the Proverbs series flowed out, I was inspired to learn about Sanatana Dharma and this series is one of the results.

Please contact me at jen@jenseron.com if you want to talk about these or have comments and suggestions. 

I made these drawings! The Shri yantra is a symbolic, geometric representation of Shakti, the G-ddess. I'm learning and wanted to share how I finally was inspired to make the Shri yantra via starting with the 7 chakras in late July through early August of 2023. Constructing the yantra with chakras involves being able to envision the totality while also understanding how the parts work together. Making the yantra for me was an inspired metaphor for conscious, mindful living in the world. I am thankful to be here and share this first draft with you.

Do you know the 7 chakras? Within Sanatana Dharma (Hinduism) there are many energy centers through which energy flows (or not). Within the human body the 7 that most people focus on are the base of the spine, below the naval/the reproductive organs, the solar plexus above the naval, the heart, the throat, the middle of forehead, and the crown on top of one's head. I used the metaphor of the sleeping snake resting at the bottom of the spine (red), rising with awareness to the crown (purple) to join with the big oneness, then sinking energetically and emanating joyfully inward, outward, down through the body bringing health and joy, creating the Shri yantra. 

I hand-drew a numbered Shri yantra diagram then photographed a few of the stages from the totality (#00, the diagram/plan I was inspired to create) to beginning (#01, the 7 chakras) to end (#11-12, the Shri yantra filled in. Note that in #12 I corrected the wrong color in yantra shapes 25 & 26. 

Please contact me at jen@jenseron.com if you want to talk about these or have comments and suggestions.