# Welcome to the Tantrāloka Home Study Program lectures on: The World of the Yoginis.

We are pleased to present Dr. Mark Dyczkowski’s exposition of the The World of the Yoginis.

This course consists of twelve lectures with a total length of about 19 hours. Mark Dyczkowski’s goes through his own translation and exposition of The World of the Yoginis.

These lectures are about one of the cardinal features of all Kaula cults – worship of Yoginīs. We shall see that Kubjikā, like all the great Kaula goddesses (Kālī and her forms, Kubjikā, Tripurā, Siddhayogeśvarī, Candayogeśvarī etc.) are powerful and very special Yoginīs. Yoginī cults are a prominent feature of many Tantric traditions, including Buddhist and even Jain, that developed from about the 7th century onwards. Our main concern here will be the Yoginī cults that developed from this time up to about the 13th century, first in the Bhairava and then the Kaula Tantras that evolved out of them and were, in a sense, the culmination of their development. In order to understand the origins of the Yoginīs we must seek the help of other Sanskrit sources that preceded the Tantras as well as literature, medical treatises, the law books and more. These need to be combined with the evidence we can glean from the archeological record, temple architecture and inscriptions. A comprehensive treatment would require a separate book. Our concern here is to frame the figure of goddess Kubjikā in the context of the family – Kula – of Yoginīs and their partners of whom she is the head and leader.

For the background on this text and its relationship to the larger topic of Kashmir Shaivism, please see the Program Overview on this site. You may also like to listen to the free course on Locating Trika, which provides historical overview.

Information on content and pricing:

12 lessons, approx. 19 hours in length – $50

Course materials:

• •12 Audio links—downloadable.

• •Email support: If you have questions of a more personal or individualized nature, concerns about the course, or complex intellectual questions that go beyond the scope of the Facebook group, please email info@anuttaratrikakula.org, and we will respond to your question confidentially and appropriately. For more advanced intellectual or content-related matters, we will forward your question to Dr. Dyckzowski to respond to you directly.