As an artist and meditator, I’ve been fascinated with the art of India and Asia for decades. One of my favorite sources of creative inspiration (plus Jyotish remedy and Vastu rectification) is the archetypal image known as a yantra. "Yantra" literally means “tool” in Sanskrit. Yantras are Vedic sacred geometry, thousands of years old.
Transcendence Design offers many yantras for Vastu and Jyotish support, both as individual yantras and as discounted yantra sets. We also have the latest expanded edition of the Yantra Guidebook created by Sherri and her colleagues.
My favorite book on the topic is my friend Madhu Khanna’s Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity, a thorough and insightful well-illustrated study of these powerful archetypal icons that she also calls “power diagrams.” I learn valuable things and get inspired each time I look at it.
There is also quite a bit of excellent information in the esteemed scholar Heinrich Zimmer’s book Artistic Form and Yoga in the Sacred Images of India, including an in-depth look at the Shri Yantra. As Joseph Campbell said in his forward to this book, Zimmer wrote about “the spiritual foundations of a tradition of religious art where the aim is not to arrest the eye but to effect in both artist and the worshiper a psychic transformation.”
Wow. Art has the power to transform the artist and the viewer of the art! This became the basis of part of my doctoral dissertation on creativity, art, and the sacred. Reading this years ago also catalyzed the intention behind my own artwork, like this Kali yantra pastel painting. I still have the original in my art archives. You can buy a limited edition art print of this in two sizes to bring its supportive energy to your home.
Australian artist David Wardman’s beautiful limited edition yantra prints and notecards
have been best sellers through Transcendence Design for many years. You can contact me to order these, but they are no longer online. He also has a delightful book of color yantras plus other images and information, Tantra Rasa: Notes on the Tantric Path, an much expanded version of an earlier, now out of print book titled Tantra Yantra Mantra. Here is his Tara yantra:
You may also enjoy Harish Johari’s book Tools for Tantra, which gives instructions for constructing a number of yantras.
To truly become adept at drawing and painting yantras, I highly recommend studying with Mavis Gewant, who was Harish Johari’s assistant and student for over twenty years. Mavis’ classes on this meditative esoteric art make it easy for anyone to create these precise, potent, sacred tools, even for those of us who think we are not able to draw a straight line. If you want, you can commission her through Transcendence Design to custom create yantras for you. Mavis starts drawing on the correct day for that yantra, chanting the appropriate bija mantra the entire time she is drawing and then painting the yantra for you. Send me an email through the contact form or give me a call to order this.
You can also take classes with the talented and delightful Chanti Tacoronte-Perez, who created the wonderful Yantra Wisdom Card Deck and Soul's Desires Card Deck (now out of print) that I was honored to offer through Transcendence Design. These are gorgeous and potent inner guidance decks, what many call divination cards. Do check them out. They are the most successful gifts I've ever given to friends! You cn still get the Yantra Wisdom Deck directly from Chanti and her website.
I also recommend Sarah Tomlinson's lovely yantra deck, the Yantra Bliss Oracle Deck! She too has put a lot of soul work into her deck that you will enjoy.
One more fun tool that I recommend is Karl Schaffner’s The Yantra Deck. This divination set of 64 cards “of wisdom and intention” with a book and spreadsheet has beautiful, uplifting images (yantras and other symbols) and ideas. One friend who bought it marveled as the results of doing the suggested spread and wrote all of its answers in her journal. I used to offer it but now ask you to follow the link earlier in this paragraph to grab your copy on Amazon.
Enjoy your yantra explorations! May they bring you guidance, healing, and support on your path.
Originally published July 17, 2014. Updated March 29, 2017 and December 19, 2019.