Shakti is a Sanskit word meaning energy or power.
Shakti is a Sanskrit word meaning energy or power. In The Tantrik Goddess, Shri Gurudev Mahendranath wrote that it is the power by which the Absolute manifests itself. One who aligns with that power is a Shakta.
Shakti or Shakti Devi also names the consort of Shiva: the active, dynamic side of the Divine Mother. The word is used as well for the energy of Shiva in the tattva lists, and, in Kaula speech, for the female practitioner of Tantra.
Within the International Nath Order, Shakti is the current that sadhana is built to conduct. It is not an idol and it is not the name of the initiate. Work in the zonule is work with this power: will, knowledge, and action as one force, received, expanded, and applied. The Order’s Uttara Kaula inheritance treats the Mother as that same power in form. A woman in the Kula may be called Shakti; that usage names the person as a vessel of the current. Do not read Shakti as another word for Shakta. Shakta is the holder. Shakti is what is held.