Ritual

The goddesses Dhumavati (right)
and Chinnamasta (left), with
their appropriate yantras below.
Dhumavati, one of the important
goddesses of the tantric mahavidyas,
is pale in complexion to symbolize
the upper spheres. Chinnamasta, in
her creative and destructive aspects,
signifies apparent dissolution and
return to the elements. The classical
imagery of these two icons is
transformed into a geometrical
energy-pattern, or yantra. Though
differing in appearance, the
representational and abstract
patterns bear a simultaneous
likeness in meaning and content.
From an illuminated manuscript
page. Nepal, c. 1760. Gouache on
paperboard.
52
To the tantrika these abstract terms reveal a significant order of
nature and resemble what to us, in the twentieth century, would
seem like the energies of science. Cymatics, a field of research
which studies the tangible effects of wave and vibrational processes
in material and in nature, has revealed many richly diverse
structures: vortices, hexagons, rectangles, overlapping patterns,
some of which resemble the primary shapes at the basis of tantric
imagery. The effects of cymatic phenomena are demonstrated, for
example, in the fact that when lycopodium powder is excited by
vibration, a number of circular piles which rotate on their own
axes are formed. If the vibrations are intensified the piles migrate
towards the centre.
Commenting on this process Dr Hans Jenny, exponent of
cymatic research, states:
Whether the heaps unite to make larger ones or whether they break up
into a number of smaller piles, they invariably form whole units. Each of
them is participative in the whole in regard to both form and process.
This brings us to a particular feature of vibrational effects: they may be
said to exemplify the principle of wholeness. They can be regarded as