Chhinnamasta

Chhinnamasta is the sixth Mahavidya — 'the self-decapitated one'. She is the most shocking and esoteric of the Mahavidyas. In her iconography she holds her own severed head in one hand while three streams of blood flow from her neck — one into her own mouth and two into the mouths of her attendants. She represents the transcendence of ego, the surrender of identity, and the paradox of death in the service of life. Her worship is extremely advanced tantra and is not recommended for beginners. She grants liberation from all attachments to the embodied self.

Naked, standing on the copulating forms of Kama and Rati, holding her own severed head in her left hand while a sword cuts her neck in her right. Three blood streams flow into three mouths. Two attendants (Dakini and Varnini) drink the blood.