The Royal Path of Shakti

The first step-by-step guide to the techniques of Kaula Tantra, the practical yogini path to enlightenment. Written in the 8th century by the sage Matsyendranatha, the Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra records the secret erotic and magical practices of the Yogini Kaula tradition, a tradition focused on practical methods for attaining enlightenment. Although the text contains roughly 60 practices, it was written in a “twilight language” that obscures the secret principles that make the techniques work. It is the role of a master to awaken the initiate to the esoteric meaning of the practices within the text. Revealing the practices and secret principles of Kaula Tantra with permission from his Himalayan tantric yogini master Lalita Devi, Daniel Odier explains each erotic and magical technique of Kaula in depth. Providing a complete translation of the Kaulajnananirnaya Tantra from Sanskrit, he connects each practice to the text by Matsyendranatha and offers vivid stories of his initiation into the practices. He explores techniques from the complete mystical method that the yogini have been transmitting directly for millennia, such as how to open the nadis, the body’s energy channels. He details Kaula techniques for acquiring siddhis—magical powers such as the ability to hear far away things or appear in several places at once—as well as sacred protection and black magic practices. The author explains how the Kaula practices are related to the 8 Red Goddesses, who can each be found within the 8 chakras and each represent a different aspect of the Royal Path of Shakti. He shares a system of illuminating visualisations to integrate the body of the practitioner with vibration (spanda) and consciousness until there is no difference between the inner world and the cosmos. Presenting the first step-by-step guide to the techniques of Kaula Tantra, Odier details the practical yogini path to enlightenment and offers a direct transmission through the liberating power of the written word.