Yantras & Symbols · 2D
Sri Yantra
Nine interlocking triangles · 43 small ones
Four triangles pointing up and five pointing down, woven around a single point until they form 43 smaller triangles. The queen of yantras: the whole cosmos unfolding from the bindu.
- Triangles
- 9 → 43
- Petals
- 8 + 16
- Enclosures
- 9
Watch it drawn with compass and straightedge, hear the chord of its lines, and turn the Dimension dial to raise its form in space.
Facts
- The traditional construction divides the vertical diameter into 48 equal parts and draws nine lines at 6, 12, 17, 20, 23, 27, 30, 36 and 42.
- Drawn that way, the lines only nearly meet. Here the figure is solved numerically so that every triple crossing is exact.
- Four upward triangles (Shiva, consciousness) and five downward ones (Shakti, energy) interlock into nine rings of triangles and enclosures (avaranas).
- Moving the lines even slightly breaks the triple crossings: very few settings make them all exact, which is why a true Sri Yantra is so hard to draw by hand.
- Toggle the triple crossings to see every point where three lines pass together.
History and meaning
The Sri Yantra (Sri Chakra) is the central diagram of the Sri Vidya tradition of Hindu Tantra, worshipped as the form of the goddess Tripura Sundari. Read from the outside in, its nine enclosures are a path of meditation from the world to the bindu, the point of pure unity. Its three-dimensional form is the Maha Meru.
Across the dimensions
- Shadow of Maha MeruRaise each ring of triangles into a terrace and the yantra becomes Mount Meru. From above, it is still the flat yantra.
Learn it step by step
- Journey The Plane RisesStep 9: The mountain in the yantra
