Shakti

Shakti (Sanskrit, “power”), in Hinduism, the power of the supreme goddess. In Hinduism, the female principle is associated with the dynamism and creative power of the universe. Every male god is said to have his shakti, the embodiment of his own potencies, expressed through his consort; and every human being has a shakti, although women have more than men. The name Shakti is used for the supreme goddess herself, said to have been created by the merging of all the powers (shaktis) emitted by the male gods, who needed her to kill the buffalo demon Mahisha. As the deity of Tantric Hinduism, Shakti is worshipped at shrines said to have arisen from the parts of her dismembered corpse.