This is a suggested list and you may not want or need everything here
Minimal requirements for Yantra Drawing and painting:
- Ideally, A3 watercolour textured (cold pressed – with slightly rough texture) paper, 300g/m2. (thinner good quality drawing or handmade paper will also be ok for light watercolour or gouache painting) A4 size paper is also fine but your drawing will obviously be smaller
- Drawing compass – any will do; however a ‘bow’ compass (or two) is recommended as they are stable and do not move when being used.
- Pencils – lighter – H or 2H and an HB
- Long Straight edge (a 30 cm ruler for example)
- Eraser
- Pencil sharpener
- Watercolour paint set – the solid ‘pans’ would be preferable to the tubes – (usually about 12 colours, though just the three primary colours are necessary).
- Palette for mixing paint (if not already included in your paint set) You can also use a white plate or anything similar
- Watercolour brushes – smaller size – 0 or 2, and a slightly larger – 3 or 5
- Container for water
Suggested optional materials:
- Sketchbook A4/A5 for notes and smaller drawings and ideas
- Pencils B or 2B for darker lines/shading
- Mechanical pencils 0.5/0.3 for fine line drawing
- Putty eraser – this is a soft eraser that can be kneaded and rolled
- Fine Sandpaper strip for sharpening compass leads
- Drop bow compass (a particular type of compass for very small circles)
- Coloured pencils or watercolour pencils (aquarelle)
- A wider selection of brush sizes
- Silver and gold gouache paints
- A directional compass. If you are very keen on this process, then it always good to know where we are in relation to the four cardinal points, literally, orientation, from ‘ad orientum’, meaning ‘to the east’
Puja Items
If you are inclined to do some simple form of puja (worship) of the yantra, either now or at any time in the future, a few items are usually used. Any puja process always has some guidelines, but we also need to involve ourselves in ritual in a way that is manageable and meaningful to ourselves, rather than follow instructions and worry that we may not be ‘doing it right’
Ritual is an external act to connect with an inner experience.
Items generally used include:
- Flower/s
- Water – a small container is needed
- A flame – candle/ghee or oil lamp – the ones used at Diwali for example, a small clay/glass/brass/metal container with a twisted cotton wick that soaks up the oil and is lit. If not available, a simple tea light or candle will suffice
- Incense
- Mantra
These five items are symbolic of the five elements, tattvas, that are offered to the deity acknowledging the deity as their source.
Flower is earth and earth is our stability, water is our unconscious and our emotional life, the jyoti is fire and fire is our ego, our will, our desire, incense is air and air is our love and compassion, mantra is ether as the mantra travels through the ether, through space, ether is our transcendence.
Additional items:
- Grain, plant or seed e.g. rice, barley, sesame, tulsi, etc. – These are also symbolic and there are variations according to the deity, the place and the occasion. Rice is generally a good one to use.
- Camphor – purifying and as it burns it leaves no residue, symbolic of the offering of the ego
As the creation of a yantra is a sacred act, and an act of invocation, worship and offering, some form of puja and connection should be done as part of the process. We need to make an energetic connection with the yantra so it becomes an active tool which we can use.
The concept of microcosm and macrocosm is essential to tantric practice.
What is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere
Vishvasara Tantra
As mentioned, there are guidelines for these pujas and rituals and often one will read that it is important to do these things absolutely correctly, and whilst that is true, it is not always practical for all of us. Hence, sincerity, openness and honesty are important, and one would hope that if we do these things with an open heart and pure motivation then all will be well.
There is surely nothing that the universe does not see.
Kshama Prarthana
Aavaham na janaami, na janaami visarjanam
Pooja chaiv na janaami kshamasva parmeshvara
Mantraheenam, kriyaaheenam bhaktiheenam janaardanam
Yatpoojitam mayaa dev, paripoorna tadastu me
I do not know how to invoke the deity, nor do I know how to bid farewell, I do not know how to worship, O Supreme, please forgive me. Without the knowledge of mantras, without the performance of rituals and without devotion, whatever I have been able to do as part of worshipping you, please accept it.
