{"id":1508,"date":"2013-09-26T14:26:35","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T21:26:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myownashram.com\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2013-09-26T14:26:35","modified_gmt":"2013-09-26T21:26:35","slug":"attempting-yantras","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/awitchsashram\/2013\/09\/26\/attempting-yantras\/","title":{"rendered":"Attempting Yantras"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Yantras are intricate, geometrical Hindu designs. Tantric Hinduism uses them for meditation, magic, and devotion. It\u2019s an ancient practice that involves a lot of training, preparation, and precision. So I thought I\u2019d make some. In a morning. Silly me.<\/p>\n

I have only ever seen yantras in books or on-line, never in person. I\u2019ve been intrigued by the idea of doing some for myself since I first began my Hindu quarter at the beginning of this blog. Now, with my eldest child in kindergarten and my youngest in morning preschool, I have 2.5 hours of child-free time. I thought surely that would be enough time to make some small yantras. But I was wrong.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know exactly<\/em> what the process or requirements are for making yantra. From what I can tell, it involves purification, meditation, preparations, and puja. So this morning I censed my house, made kala (a purification rite), meditated, aligned my souls, and made a brief puja. I called upon Durga and Kali. I made offerings and petitioned their blessings and assistance.<\/p>\n

Then I began to draw. I am not a visual artist, but I did my best. My eyes started watering, my hand started cramping. I clearly don\u2019t do this very often. By the time I was done drawing and inking my three mini-yantras an hour had flown and it was time to get my daughter from preschool!<\/p>\n

Here is what I have so far:<\/p>\n

\"Shiva<\/a>
Shiva yantra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Durga<\/a>
Durga yantra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"IMG_0728\"<\/a>
Kali yantra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I will have to do yet more puja tomorrow and spend some meditative time coloring them. There is a part of me that wonders if I\u2019m bringing calamity on my house by not having the geometry exact or the lines just so. I figure that these are all gods I have a relationship with, I prepared myself to the best of my knowledge and abilities, and the efforts are in good faith. This isn\u2019t some casual, smart-ass coloring project.<\/p>\n

For comparison, here are some pictures of actual yantras:<\/p>\n

\"Kali<\/a>
Kali yantra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Durga<\/a>
Durga yantra<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next week I\u2019ll post my colored final yantras.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yantras are intricate, geometrical Hindu designs. Tantric Hinduism uses them for meditation, magic, and devotion. It\u2019s an ancient practice that involves a lot of training, preparation, and precision. So I thought I\u2019d make some. In a morning. Silly me. I have only ever seen yantras in books or on-line, never in person. I\u2019ve been intrigued […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1300,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,25,28,32,51,55,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-durga","category-hinduism","category-kali","category-magic","category-sacred-arts","category-shiva","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nAttempting Yantras<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yantras are intricate, geometrical Hindu designs. 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