What is a tantric necklace? A guide for the curious

People find their way to this question from all sorts of directions. Some have seen a photograph - a long, intricate necklace resting against someone's collarbone - and felt something catch in them. Something unnameable. A sense of recognition before understanding.

Others have been practising Kundalini Yoga for years and are only now starting to wonder about the objects that sit at the edges of that practice: the white clothing, the turban, the mala. What do they mean? Why do they matter?

And some simply type the words into a search bar, curious, not entirely sure what they're looking for.

Wherever you've come from, welcome. Let me try to answer properly.

A tantric necklace is not jewellery in the conventional sense. It is a tool. A practice object. A talisman.

The word 'tantric'

Tantra is one of the most misunderstood words in the Western world. In popular culture it tends to appear in the context of a very specific kind of conversation, but in its original tradition, tantra is something far more expansive and far more interesting.

The Sanskrit root of the word means 'to weave' or 'to expand.' Tantric philosophy is fundamentally about the integration of opposites: masculine and feminine, form and formlessness, the earthly and the divine. It is not about transcending the body, rather it is about moving through the body as a vehicle for awakening.

A tantric necklace sits within that understanding. It is an object made to support the wearer's movement through this integration. A physical anchor for something essentially non-physical.

What makes a necklace tantric?

Not all long necklaces or mala beads are tantric necklaces, though there is overlap. What distinguishes a tantric necklace is a combination of things: its construction, its intention, and the knowledge that went into its making.

In the Kundalini Yoga tradition, tantric necklaces are built around a sacred geometric structure, a pattern that carry specific energetic frequencies. The most fundamental of these is the equilateral triangle, which represents the trinity: the masculine, the feminine, and consciousness itself. When this geometry is woven into a necklace using natural stones and mantra, something happens that is difficult to quantify but that practitioners recognise immediately when they hold one.

The stones are not decorative. Each one is chosen for its energetic properties, such as what it carries, what it opens, what it protects. The mantra woven into the construction during making is also not incidental. It is part of the structure of the piece, present in every knot.

How I came to make them

I didn't set out to become a maker of tantric necklaces. I came to them the way most people come to the things that matter most ... sideways, through a door I didn't know was there!

I was working in book illustration when something began to shift. A Kundalini Yoga class with Emma and Charles. It was fun - they are a hoot - but it resonated immediately, unlike other yoga lineages I've practiced over the years. Powerful, shifting, opening. So one month turned into another, then another. A fairly rapid, powerful unravelling of almost everything I thought I understood about what I was doing with my life! 

I began to study sacred geometry and these necklaces in earnest. And eventually, through the practice of making, through the long meditative process of working with stones and thread and intention, I began to understand what a tantric necklace actually is. Its not so much a concept, but more a lived experience.

Each piece I make is a prescription, for the energy the person is actually asking for.

Is it right for you?

A tantric necklace is not for everyone, and I mean that without any judgement! It is for people who are on some kind of inner journey, who are working with their energy, their awareness, their relationship to the deeper currents of their life.

It is for people who understand that an object can be more than an object. That the way something is made matters. That intention is not metaphor, it is a real force that can be woven into physical things.

If you've read this far and something in you is nodding, it's probably for you.

If you're not sure which piece is right for you, reach out. This is exactly the kind of conversation I love to have. Sometimes the right prescription takes a little listening.

Emily x