Lakshmi

Myth and origin

Lakshmi appears already in the late Vedic period in the Sri Sukta, a Vedic hymn appended to the Rigveda praising Sri-Lakshmi as goddess of prosperity. Sri ("radiance, glory, sovereign splendour") was originally a quality of cosmic kingship and abundance; "Lakshmi" was originally a related but slightly distinct concept of auspicious sign or fortune. These two merged into the single goddess Sri-Lakshmi, who became the consort first of various deities (Indra, Soma, Kubera) before settling definitively as the consort of Vishnu in the Puranic period. The Indus Valley civilisation's lotus-mother iconography (c. 2500 BCE) may be a prehistoric precursor.

The chief sources for her mythology are the Puranas (Vishnu Purana, Bhagavata Purana, Padma Purana, Lakshmi Tantra), the Mahabharata, the Vaishnava Agamas, and the great Tamil and Sanskrit hymns to her, including the Kanakadhara Stotra attributed to Shankara. The famous origin myth of her rebirth in the churning of the ocean (samudra manthan) is told at length in multiple Puranas: when gods and demons churned the cosmic ocean with Mount Mandara as churning-rod and the serpent Vasuki as rope, fourteen treasures emerged, including Lakshmi rising radiant from the churning, choosing Vishnu as her husband, and being established as goddess of all good fortune.

Attributes and stories

You recognise Lakshmi by her golden complexion (the colour of ripe wheat and gold), her seat upon a fully opened pink or red lotus, her four arms bearing lotuses in the upper two and the gesture of abundance and giving in the lower (one often shown with gold coins streaming out), her splendid red or pink sari, her crown and rich jewellery, the elephants flanking her who pour water from raised trunks (the famous Gaja-Lakshmi iconography), her companions the lotus and the owl Uluka. She is shown enthroned alone or with Vishnu, sometimes also with Ganesha and Saraswati (the famous three-goddess Diwali triad).

Her eight classical forms (Ashta Lakshmi) cover all dimensions of prosperity: Adi Lakshmi (primordial), Dhana Lakshmi (wealth), Dhanya Lakshmi (grain/food), Gaja Lakshmi (royal power with elephants), Santana Lakshmi (offspring), Veera Lakshmi (courage), Vijaya Lakshmi (victory), and Vidya Lakshmi (learning and wisdom). She is not merely material wealth: she is the auspicious quality that makes any endeavour fruitful, the sovereign blessing without which no kingdom prospers. She accompanies Vishnu through all his avatars: as Sita kidnapped by Ravana and rescued by Rama; as Radha, Krishna's eternal beloved; as Rukmini, Krishna's queen at Dwaraka. Without Lakshmi at his side, even the cosmic preserver loses his power; she is sometimes called the shakti of Vishnu, his active feminine principle.

Modern reception

Lakshmi is one of the most universally worshipped Hindu deities. Her image appears in virtually every Hindu home, shop, business, and office; her great festival Diwali (Deepavali) is celebrated by an estimated billion people worldwide, with lamps lit to welcome her into homes, gold and silver bought for prosperity, and account books opened ceremonially for the new business year. Mahalakshmi temples (Kolhapur, Mumbai, Tirupati) draw enormous pilgrimage. She has been a major focus of Vaishnava devotion through Sri-Vaishnavism, where she is considered the supreme reality's eternal feminine consort, equal in dignity to Vishnu himself (in some theologies even his pre-eminent mediator).

In contemporary practice Lakshmi is invoked through the Sri Sukta, the Lakshmi Ashtottara, the Mahalakshmi mantra (Om Shrim Mahalakshmiyei Namaha), and the great Sri Mahalakshmi Stotram. Friday is her sacred day; gold, red flowers, lotuses, and rice are her offerings. Astrologically she corresponds to Venus (beauty, love, abundance, the Friday-goddess) and to Jupiter (prosperity, expansion, blessing). She has affinities with Taurus (Venus-ruled, abundance) and Cancer (home, nourishment). The mythological deity test can reveal whether her golden presence flows in your life. Continue with Vishnu, Ganesha, and Kali.

Symbolic depth

In the tarot, Lakshmi corresponds most clearly to The Empress (III) as the great Venusian goddess of abundance and beauty, to The Star (XVII) as the radiant blessing who pours forth fortune, and to The World (XXI) in her sovereign cosmic dimension. The Queen of Pentacles is her purest small-arcana representation, the Ace of Pentacles her overflowing abundance. On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life she resonates with Netzach (Venus, victory, the sphere of natural splendour) and with Chesed (the great benefic mercy, expansion, blessing).

Jungian readings see Lakshmi as a profound integration of the loving, sovereign, abundant feminine—what Marion Woodman called "conscious femininity," the feminine that does not split between mother and lover, between holy and worldly, between spirit and matter. Her shadow is the danger of mistaking her for crass material acquisition rather than the sovereign auspiciousness that makes all giving and receiving fruitful—Lakshmi-without-Vishnu is restless wealth, Vishnu-without-Lakshmi inert preservation. Working with this archetype invites you to welcome abundance without grasping, to honour the lotus that rises from mud unstained, and to recognise that fortune is not luck but the felt presence of the auspicious. Return to the main glossary.

Also known as

• Sri
• Mahalakshmi
• Padma
• Kamala
• Gajalakshmi
• Sridevi
• Bhargavi