The Adi Shakti Mantra – The Mantra of the Divine Feminine

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The Mantra and Translation:

The Adi Shakti Mantra is the Kundalini Shakti Mantra, or the Kundalini Power Mantra, because it calls out to the Divine Feminine that surrounds us and resides within each of us. In practice, the power is called out to three times and then we bow to that power.

Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Adi Shakti, Namo Namo

Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Sarab Shakti, Namo Namo

Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Pritham Bhagvati, Namo, Namo

Kundalini, Mata Shakti, Mata Shakti, Namo, Namo

Adi Shakti – The First Power

“Adi” means first and “Shakti” means power. This is in reference to the primordial power, the power that existed at the beginning of time, the power of Creation itself. This creative force is seen as inherently feminine. It is the physical realm and body that are seen as masculine.

Sarab Shakti – All Encompassing Power

“Sarab” literally translates to all. So this portion calls out to the Divine Feminine that exists all around us and within each of us. The creative capabilities that exist.

Pritham Bhagvati – the Sword Wielding Goddess, Destroyer of Demons

Pritham Bhagvati refers to the Hindi Goddess Parvati. She is the Goddess of War and Destruction. She is the slayer of demon and clearer of the path. With her many arms and divine sword, she is able to liberate all those in suffering. We call out to this sense of power to help us cut through the Maya and the ego of the Self so that we might join the group consciousness and eventually the divine consciousness.

Kundalini, Mata Shakti – Creative Force, Mother Force

The kundalini energy is the energy of the soul. This is our center of creative force in our physical bodied. The kundalini is located just behind the navel center, about three fingers down from the belly button. This would also be the same area as the uterus in female bodied individuals. “Mata,” meaning mother, “Mata Shakti” calls out to our Divine Mother. The essence of creation that brought us into this iteration of life and our abilities to birth our own creations.

Namo, Namo: To you I bow.

This mantra is deeply devotional and should be practiced with reverence, gratitude, and love. With consistent practice these feelings should flow freely. This mantra has a beautiful lesson embedded – the lesson of surrender. In bowing before our sense of the divine we are able to release our burdens and inherit our birthright without any blockages.

The Benefits of Mantra:

• This meditation has the power to free you from insecurities that block your growth and freedom
• This mantra is deeply devotional and filled with love. This mantra can be very opening and healing for the heart center; especially for those that suffer from early childhood trauma or traumas involving female figures.
• When recited as a prayer, this mantra is especially powerful for sisters, mothers, and other feminine figures in our lives.
• This mantra helps embody the lessons and love in bowing to your sense of the Divine, and the Divine Feminine Mother.

My Reflection:

As I have said before, mantras are magic. For me, this was one of the game changers. I was introduced to this mantra during my Kundalini teacher training. We were on a luscious, four-day retreat in the beautiful Nevada City, California. If that doesn’t say spoiled enough, I had the privilege to be learning from Prabu Nam Kaur. She is such a powerful person and a beautiful example of worship, surrender, and bowing at the feet of the Guru.  We chanted this mantra for 31 minutes and I remember having such an intense emotional response. It was one of those deep emotional responses that seems to clear out the corners of the Self that have collected dust.

I feel very privileged to be able to offer a teaching on the Adi Shakti Mantra. Being a Two-Spirit individual, I have a balance of both masculine and feminine energies that can be seen as unique. I grew up hiding my true identity from my family and others around me and this built up resistance to the feminine aspects of my own identity. In recent years I have begun to embrace all of me more fully. This has been challenging, infuriating, freeing, and blissful and I do think that this mantra has played a huge part in my healing.

Additionally, this mantra is very supportive when it comes to healing trauma and healing women. I am a survivor and holder of trauma and have been actively working toward clearing and healing over the last, almost, three years. When I began the mantra practice I found myself confronted with a lot of pain and darkness associated with my history, and in specific, my history with my mothers. I have the honor of having a biological and step mother – each handed me many lessons, cases of trauma, and now, lasting friendships. I know that I have a long way to go in my recovery and that my relationship with my mothers is still healing and growing but I feel the ripples in this mantra. It was not a practice that stayed here just for me.

I began to use this mantra as a prayer for my mothers, sisters, friends, trans family, and students. I have been teaching at an all-girls school for the last two years and my aim has been to heal and elevate through alchemizing our trauma, fear and darkness into tools, power, wisdom, and light. It is said that there is nothing more powerful than the prayer of the beloved and living in a crumbling patriarchy, I have noticed that it can be difficult for women to get their due and to feel supported enough to flourish. This is how I play a part in combating that. Holding space for the Divine Feminine to flourish, nurturing my inner Goddess to inspire and guide others on that path as well.

Finally, it was through the practice of the Adi Shakti mantra that I learned what surrender meant. In the West, this idea of surrender has many negative connotations from being weak to letting others walk over you. Yet, when I was able to surrender to the divine, I have never felt more liberated and supported. When we are able to release our need for control we can inherit our birthright free of blockages. Our birthright to live happy, healthy, and blissful lives.