The Four Currents: Shakti, Aditi, Artemis and Ala

Every sanctuary rests on something older than itself. Ours rests on four feminine forces that appear, under different names, wherever people have tried to describe the power that creates, holds and renews life.

We call them the four currents. They are not deities we ask you to worship. They are archetypes: patterns of energy you can recognise in yourself, call on when you need them, and notice when they are missing.

Shakti · the creative fire

In the Hindu traditions, Shakti is the dynamic power of the universe, the energy that makes form move. Nothing is created, spoken or begun without her.

You feel Shakti when an idea will not leave you alone, when desire rises in the body, when you finally say the thing you have been holding back. You feel her absence as flatness: days that are productive but joyless, work that is competent but not alive.

Call on Shakti when you are ready to create, to be seen, or to want something without apologising for it.

Aditi · the boundless source

Aditi appears in the Rig Veda as the mother of the gods, and her name means unbound or limitless. She is the vast space from which everything else is born.

Aditi is the part of you that is not your to-do list. She is the sky that weather passes through. When you meditate and, for a moment, the noise thins and something wider opens, that is her.

Call on Aditi when you feel crowded, defined by your roles, or too small for your own life.

Artemis · ascension and focus

Artemis, the Greek huntress of the moonlit forest, is sovereign and self-directed. She chooses her aim and does not waste her arrows.

For leaders and creators, Artemis is the discipline of attention. She teaches that focus is not strain. It is the decision to let most things go so that one thing can be done well.

Call on Artemis when you are scattered, over-committed, or saying yes to everything because you have not yet decided what matters.

Ala · the grounding earth

Ala is the earth goddess of the Igbo people, honoured in Odinani as the source of fertility and the guardian of morality. Whatever is done on her soil, she witnesses.

Ala reminds us that spiritual life is not an escape from the ground. It is tested in how we treat people, keep our word and build things that last. Ascension without Ala becomes drifting.

Call on Ala when you feel ungrounded, when your ambitions have outrun your integrity, or when your body is asking you to slow down and come home.

Working with the four

Most of us lean heavily on one or two currents and neglect the others. A visionary rich in Aditi may lack Artemis. A disciplined executive strong in Artemis may have forgotten Shakti. A deeply rooted Ala person may need Aditi to remember how much wider life can be.

Try this. Read the four descriptions again and notice which one your body leans toward and which one it pulls away from. The one you pull away from is often the one you need most this season.

Each of our Apothecary blends is aligned to one current, and our 30-day path, The Ascent, moves through all four elements in turn. But the practice begins with noticing. Today, ask yourself one question: which current is missing from my life right now?