Shaktism
The followers of the shaktism are called shakta , because they regard the shakti (energy, divine power) as the overriding principle. The term shakti applies particularly to the creative energy of the divinity, and it is through it that one explains the action in this world of a higher and transcendent divinity. Shiva deploys its Shakti like Vishnou its Lakshmî and Brahmâ its Sarasvatî. Generally, the condition of wife of the principal male divinity is anything else only the mythical Hypostase of the female principle which, in turn, takes different names according to the historical and religious contexts. In the worship of the god Shiva, his female aspects are generally Kâlî (“the black one”) and Durgâ (“the difficult to reach one”). It is through the veneration of the female component of the divinity as “a creative force” - reflection of old the worship of the goddess-mother - that is exceeded the Dichotomie between the Transcendance of the god and his terrestrial Immanence. The male god Shiva spreads himself, indeed, in this world, through his female aspects, Durgâ or Kâlî.
For the shakta, Durgâ would be even higher than her husband, who would not exist without the female principle. Durgâ would be thus similar to the brahman, Main cause of very whole reality, in perfect identity with the Absolute, while Shiva would represent the static aspect of the brahman. It is thus the female energy (shakti) which gives birth to and nourishes “material nature constantly” (prakriti). Durgâ-Kâlî is thus the goddess-mother and the central divinity of the shaktism. As images of the “large goddess” ( mahadevi ), the women of culture shakta enjoy a very great regard; at any time, for example, they were not immolées on roughing-hew it of their late husband and, since always, it to them is allowed remarier after one period of widowhood. The ritual shakta dyes strong erotic nuances. In the sexual union between a man and a woman reproduces, indeed, the perfect union of Shiva and the shakti, and the Coït is a form of the veneration of the shakti.
The shaktism is related to the Tantrisme: one and the other constitutes, in a certain manner, the extreme development of the Hindouisme.
See too