About Us

About Us
Shakti Kula is a spiritual community centered around Devi (Goddess) worship traditions from South Asia in the Shaktism and Tantra Hindu traditions.

Background on Shaktism

It is important to remember that eastern religions traditions are not like western religious belief systems. There is a great diversity in beliefs and a general greater tolerance for everything that falls under the eastern traditions (e.g. Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Shaktism, etc.).

Goddess traditions originally developed in the Indus River Valley system (in modern day Pakistan). The main surviving Goddess worship traditions can be viewed through regional groupings with shared commonality (e.g. which Goddesses they worship):

1. Bengali বাংলা / Bhojpuri भोजपुरी (and surrounding regions including Bihar, Odisha, Assam, Jharkhand, Tripura and Nepal)

2. Tamil தமிழ்

3. Malayalam (Kerala) മലയാളം

4. Northwest India, primarily in Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (also Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh)
5. Also, related, is Goddess worship in Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan Bon religion.

Shaktism is the worship of the Goddess (and her different manifestations). Shaktism is a broad, catch-all term used to describe those who follow the South Asian Goddess traditions.

We, the devotees or bhakts of the Goddess, refer to ourselves as Shaktists.

Shaktists believe that the supreme God is a woman and that our reality is metaphorically a woman.

There are no religious ‘priests’ or ‘imans’ in the western sense.

Instead we have teachers, also known as Guru (Gurvis), Swami, Yogi or Yogini, Mātā jī "revered mother", Pandit or Pujari. Though, we all should aim to strive to be our own guru.

Why Goddesses and not God?

Think about the world for a few seconds.

Our world is the metaphysical embodiment of woman — Mother Earth.

Why then wouldn’t the supreme creator also be female?

For many of us the idea of a masculine ‘God’ figure has been troubling for many reasons.

Patriarchal (Godhead “masculine” figures”) are individualistic.

Is it any wonder our materialist and narcissistic society is this way as well?

Matriarchal (Goddess figures), in their many shapes and forms, are focused on community and taking care of each other.

Goddess traditions present more realistic and holistic depictions of a supreme being — they are paradoxical, complex, and are more immanent (manifested in our material world) than solely transcendent.

Goddess figures are "approachable authority" — you love them because you do not always need to fear them. They may embrace you. We do not have the same up-down hierarchic mentality. Goddess figures are communal, democratic and inclusive.

It is for these reasons that we affirm that Goddess worship can serve as an antidote to western thinking (e.g. dualism, good/evil, us/them, capitalist materialism and greed, etc.).