Tara: The Star Goddess Who Carries You Across the Ocean of Suffering

“She is called Tara because she carries you across—across the ocean of suffering, across the night of ignorance, across the gap between what you are and what you could be. When all other lights have failed, she remains: the star that never sets.” — Tantric Teaching

The Goddess Who Always Answers

There is one Mahavidya known above all others for one quality: she never refuses a cry for help.

Call her in the darkest night. Call her when all seems lost. Call her when the guru has failed, when the teaching hasn’t worked, when you’re drowning and cannot find the surface.

She will come.

This is Tara—the second of the Dasa Mahavidyas, the Star Goddess, the Savior, the One Who Carries Across.

If Kali is the fierce mother who destroys what isn’t real, Tara is the compassionate mother who guides you safely to what is. Kali works through fear and awe; Tara works through love and rescue.

Both liberate. But Tara’s way is gentler—the way of the lighthouse, not the storm.

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She Who Carries Across

Tara (तारा) term

From the Sanskrit root tṛ meaning “to cross over” or “to traverse.” Tara thus means “She Who Saves,” “She Who Ferries Across,” or “Star” (that which guides sailors across dark waters). She is the divine force that carries beings across the ocean of samsara (cyclic existence) to the shore of liberation.

The name Tara contains her entire teaching:

Life is an ocean. Sometimes calm, often stormy, always dangerous for those who don’t know how to navigate.

You are caught in this ocean. Birth, death, rebirth—round and round, wave after wave, no shore in sight.

Tara is the boat. Or the star. Or the current that carries you. She is whatever is needed to get you across.

Other goddesses offer power, beauty, abundance, transformation. Tara offers rescue. Not as an insult to your capacity—but as recognition that sometimes, something larger than your own effort is required.

Tara doesn't ask if you deserve saving. She doesn't ask if you've been good enough, practiced enough, believed enough. She responds to the cry itself—because the cry IS the karma that invokes her.

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The Myth: How Tara Saved Even Shiva

Tara and the Poison

The most famous story of Tara involves the churning of the cosmic ocean (Samudra Manthan):

As gods and demons churned the ocean for the nectar of immortality, terrible poison (Halahala) emerged—so potent it threatened to destroy all creation.

Shiva, in his compassion, drank the poison. It lodged in his throat, turning it blue, and Shiva began to lose consciousness, overwhelmed by the toxin.

Tara appeared. Taking Shiva into her lap like a child, she suckled him at her breast, neutralizing the poison with her own milk. She who carries across—here, she carried even the Lord across the threshold of destruction.

The teaching:

• Even the highest consciousness (Shiva) needs saving sometimes
• Tara’s compassion extends even to the divine
• Her nurturing power (the breast, the milk) is the antidote to worldly poison
• No one is too great or too small for her rescue

Tara’s Independent Arising

Another tradition says Tara didn’t arise from any event—she is eternal, self-born, without beginning or end. She IS the principle of rescue inherent in consciousness itself.

The teaching: Compassion isn’t created by circumstances. It is a fundamental aspect of reality. Tara embodies this eternal compassion-principle.

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The Iconography: Fierce Compassion Made Visible

Tara’s form is simultaneously terrifying and nurturing—fierce like a mother protecting her children, tender like a mother nursing them.

The Blue-Black or Green Complexion

Her skin color varies by tradition:

• Hindu Tara: Deep blue or dark blue-green (Nila Tara, Ugra Tara)
• Buddhist Green Tara: Vibrant green (action, protection)
• Buddhist White Tara: Pure white (peace, healing)

The blue-black represents:

• The night sky filled with stars (she IS the guiding star)
• The infinite space of consciousness
• Connection to Kali’s cosmic darkness, but softer
• The depth of compassion that has no limit

Seated on a Lotus or on Shiva

When seated on a lotus, she emphasizes her nurturing, guiding aspect. When seated on a corpse like Kali, she reveals her equally fierce protective power.

Four Arms, Four Powers

The scissors are significant: Tara’s specialty is cutting. Not the dramatic beheading of Chhinnamasta, but precise surgical cutting—severing karmic connections, cutting bonds of attachment, snipping the threads that bind you to suffering.

The Third Eye and Matted Hair

Like Shiva, she often has:

• Third eye — Divine vision, seeing beyond appearances
• Matted hair — Renunciation, wildness, untamed wisdom
• Crescent moon — Connection to cycles, gentle illumination

The Tiger Skin and Skulls

In her fierce form, she wears:

• Tiger skin — Mastered animal nature, fearlessness
• Skull garland — Like Kali, mastery over ego and death
• Serpent ornaments — Kundalini energy, primal power

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Tara and the Cosmic Word (Shabda Brahman)

Tara has a special connection to sound, speech, and mantra—the vibratory aspect of consciousness.

Shabda Brahman (शब्द ब्रह्म) philosophy

Shabda (sound/word) + Brahman (ultimate reality). The teaching that the universe arises from primordial sound, that consciousness expresses as vibration, and that mantra is a direct doorway to the divine. Tara presides over this sound-dimension of reality.

Why Tara and sound?

• The root tṛ (“to cross”) has sonic significance—a vibration that moves you across
• Her mantras are considered especially powerful, specifically designed for quick result
• She is associated with the second chakra of the throat—the center of expression

When you call Tara through mantra, you’re using the very medium she governs. It’s like calling a water goddess while standing in a river—you’re already in her element.

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Tara Among the Mahavidyas

Understanding her place in the ten-goddess system:

Tara is called Kali’s sister because they share similar fierce forms, but differ in emphasis. Kali destroys; Tara saves. Kali ends; Tara transitions. Both are needed—destruction and rescue, death and crossing over.

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The Psychology of Rescue: Why We Need Tara

When Self-Effort Isn’t Enough

Modern spirituality often emphasizes self-reliance: “You are the only one who can save yourself.” This is true—but also incomplete.

Tara represents the counter-truth: Sometimes, you CAN’T save yourself. Sometimes grace is required. Sometimes the boat comes—and you didn’t build it.

This isn’t weakness. It’s recognition that consciousness is interconnected, that help comes in mysterious ways, that something larger than the individual ego operates in spiritual life.

The Psychology of Asking for Help

Research shows that:

• Asking for help activates the same brain regions as receiving a gift
• Those who ask for help are perceived as stronger, not weaker
• Social connection (like invoking a deity) reduces cortisol and stress

Tara worship is, in psychological terms, conscious activation of the help-seeking circuitry—acknowledging need, opening to receive, trusting that response will come.

Crisis and Calling

Studies on near-death experiences and crisis situations show that people often report:

• Sense of being guided or helped
• Mysterious interventions
• Feeling “carried” through impossible circumstances

Tara is the personification of this phenomenon—the principle of rescue made conscious, named, and invokable.

Calling Tara is not admitting defeat. It is admitting reality: we are interdependent, we need each other, and something larger than our individual ego operates in the cosmos. She is that something, made personal.

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The Sadhana: Practices for Invoking Tara

The Mantras

The Ugra Tara (Fierce Tara) Mantra

ॐ ह्रीं स्त्रीं हुं फट्

“Om Hreem Streem Hum Phat”

Effects: Protection, cutting through obstacles, fierce intervention, clearing danger.

Use when: In crisis, under attack (physical or psychic), when obstacles seem insurmountable.

The Peaceful Tara Mantra

ॐ तारे तुत्तारे तुरे स्वाहा

“Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha”

This is the famous Buddhist Green Tara mantra, which Hindu practitioners also use.

Meaning:

• Om — Primordial sound
• Tare — “O Tara!” (first invocation)
• Tuttare — “Save us from fear and danger”
• Ture — “Grant liberation, swift aid”
• Svaha — “So be it” (offering)

Use: Daily recitation for ongoing protection and guidance. 108 repetitions or more.

The Nila (Blue) Tara Mantra

ॐ ह्रीं तारे च स्त्रीं हुं

“Om Hreem Tare Cha Streem Hum”

For: Deep spiritual work, connecting with the fierce Hindu form of Tara.

Tara Meditation

The Star in Darkness Practice:

1. Sit in darkness (literally if possible, or with eyes closed). Tara’s element is the night.

2. Feel the darkness as vastness, not threat. This is Bhuvaneshwari’s space.

3. See a single star appear in the darkness. Blue or green, distant but clear. This is Tara.

4. Let the star grow brighter. It approaches, resolving into a feminine form—dark blue skin, four arms, fierce yet tender face.

5. She reaches toward you. Feel her hand, or her energy, making contact with your heart.

6. Offer your fear, confusion, or suffering. “Mother, take this. Carry me across.”

7. Feel yourself lifted. Not ascending—but ferried, carried, moved by power not your own.

8. Rest in the movement. You don’t need to know the destination. She does.

9. When movement settles, rest in stillness. The shore. Arrival. Safety.

10. Thank her. Return slowly. Know she is always available.

Duration: 15-30 minutes. Use especially during crisis, fear, confusion, or life transitions.

Tara in Crisis

When you can’t do formal practice—when disaster strikes, when danger is immediate:

Simply call her name: “Tara! Tara! Tara!”

Or the mantra: “Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha”

No altar. No ritual. No preparation. She responds to the cry itself. The tradition is unanimous: she never fails to answer sincere distress.

Offerings to Tara

• Blue or green flowers — Her colors
• Rice and milk — Nurturing offerings
• Incense — Communication through scent
• Sweet prasad — She is not only fierce
• Tears — She receives honest suffering
• The problem itself — “I offer this difficulty to You”

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Modern Applications: Living Tara’s Protection

For Anxiety and Fear

Tara specializes in fear. When anxiety grips:

1. Call her name
2. Visualize her blue presence surrounding you
3. Offer the fear: “Take this, Mother”
4. Feel her power absorbing, neutralizing, carrying away

For Difficult Transitions

Tara is the goddess of crossing. During life transitions (job changes, divorce, moving, death of loved ones):

Practice: “I am crossing. She carries me. I don’t need to know the shore; I need to trust the boat.”

For Addiction and Destructive Patterns

Tara cuts bonds. If caught in patterns you cannot escape:

Invoke the scissors: Visualize her kartri (scissors) cutting the invisible threads that bind you to the behavior. Call her to sever what you cannot untie.

For Helping Others

Tara is the savior principle. When you want to help someone who is suffering:

Practice: Invoke Tara and ask her to work through you. “Let me be your hands, Mother. Let me carry this one, as you carry me.”

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The Final Truth: She Is Already Carrying You

Here is what Tara knows:

You have never been alone. Even when you felt abandoned, the star was shining. Even when the ocean overwhelmed, the boat was near. Even when you struggled, you were being carried—you just didn’t know it.

Tara worship doesn’t CREATE rescue. It reveals rescue that was always happening.

You are already being ferried across. The only question is whether you’ll resist or relax into the crossing.

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The Invitation

Somewhere tonight, someone is in crisis. Somewhere, fear grips a heart. Somewhere, confusion clouds every path and no solution appears.

Call her.

She doesn’t ask if you deserve help. She doesn’t check your credentials or count your merits. She responds to the cry because responding to cries is what she IS.

You don’t need to be worthy. You need to be honest. You need to admit you cannot swim this ocean alone.

And in that honesty, the boat appears. And in that surrender, the star reveals itself. And in that trust, Tara carries you home.

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Related explorations: Kali: The Fierce Sister | Tripura Sundari: Beauty as Liberation | Bhuvaneshwari: The Space She Crosses | Dhumavati: When Tara’s Night Comes | Kamala: The Shore She Carries You To

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