Who are the 64 Yoginis ?

When I decided to call my Yoga Pathway “The Yogini” it was never ever because I was a female Yoga Teacher.

On the contrary!

I’d come back from Nepal and had immersed myself in The 64 Yoginis .

I wanted to honour them and bring their wild raw untamed feminine energy into my Workd and the world of all women who held back.

The 64 Yoginis: Gateways of Wild Wisdom, Ecstasy & Power

🌀 Who are the 64 Yoginis?

The 64 Yoginis are not simply goddesses, nor are they mere symbols of feminine energy. They are forces of nature, embodied shaktis, and fierce protectresses of tantric truth. They are the guardians of sacred space and consciousness—wild, elemental, and unbound.

Unlike the domesticated forms of deity often worshipped in temples, the 64 Yoginis were revered in open-air circular shrines, called Yogini Peethas, under the vast sky—outside of caste, patriarchy, and convention. These shrines are portals into liminal space, into the great womb between heaven and earth, where time dissolves and transformation becomes possible.

They are both individual emanations—each with her own name, power, and face—and a collective circle, a mandala of divine feminine consciousness. You cannot approach them with flattery or flippancy. You must arrive naked—of masks, of illusion, of control.

🌑 Origins: Blood, Tantra & Rebellion

The cult of the 64 Yoginis flourished between the 8th and 13th centuries CE in India and Nepal, rooted in Kapalika and Kaula Tantra traditions. These were radical mystical lineages that embraced the body, desire, death, and the wildness of Shakti as direct gateways to liberation.

Many Yogini temples still exist today, though partially ruined and often misunderstood:

• Hirapur in Odisha

• Bhedaghat and Mitauli in Madhya Pradesh

• Ranipur-Jharial, and several others across central India

These were not places for common worship but initiation chambers. The Yoginis were invoked through ritual, mantra, dance, blood, and sexual energy, not for bhakti in the traditional sense—but for shakti transmission, healing, protection, and empowerment.

They are often associated with the Matrikas, the Dasha Mahavidyas, and the goddesses of the Vajrayana Dakinis—and in some traditions, even Guhyakalis and the Mahayoginis of Buddhist Tantra.

🔥 How to Work with the Yoginis Today

You do not worship the Yoginis. You walk among them, sit with them, and listen.

1. Create a Yogini Circle

You might begin by creating a physical or energetic circle—an altar, a mandala, or a circle of stones. Invoke the Yoginis as guardians and companions, placing an offering to each direction: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Ether, and beyond.

2. Choose a Yogini Ally

Let one Yogini choose you. She may come in dreams, visions, or emotional surges. Work with her deeply. Research her name, chant her mantra, dance as her, journal in her voice. Allow her to shape-shift your inner landscape.

3. Ritual and Movement

Movement is key. The Yoginis are not still statues—they are alive in spiral motion, ecstatic dance, laughter, and transformation. Incorporate Laya yoga, trance dance, or breath-led kriya to access their presence.

4. Shadow Alchemy

The Yoginis are not all light and bliss. Some are terrifying, grotesque, primal. Dvesha. Raga. Abhinivesha. They bring it all forward. To walk with the Yoginis is to walk with your entire Self. Let their presence initiate you into wholeness, not purity.

5. Sound & Mantra

Each Yogini has her seed sound, often a powerful bija or phrase, which when repeated, pierces the veil of mundane mind. Chanting together in a group can invoke their collective presence.

🌺 Why They Matter Now

We are in a time of returning to the wild feminine—not as a trend, but as a necessity. The Yoginis remind us that sacredness is not always still, silent, or sanitized. It can be wild, erotic, raging, untamed.

They restore our lost fragments, reclaim the body as divine, and return sovereignty to the feminine path.

They are not goddesses to be placed on a pedestal.

They are you.

In your pain. In your power. In your primal pulse.

They are the circle you forgot you belonged to.

✧ Final Whisper

“Come to us with blood on your hands and fire in your breath.

Come not to pray—but to remember.”

– The Yoginis