Vajrayogini- Tibetan GodDeity"Queen of the Dakinis"

The Red Dakini

Her body is ruby-red, the color of desire before it has cooled into something tame. She dances on a human corpse laid over a sun disc. In her right hand, a curved knife arcs upward. In her left, a skull cup brimming with blood she has transformed into nectar. She drinks it. Over her left shoulder rests a khaṭvāṅga staff, the essence of her consort Chakrasamvara carried with her even when she dances alone.

Five skulls crown her head. A garland of fifty freshly severed heads hangs at her chest. She wears the charnel ground like a queen wears silk.

In her form as Vajravārāhī (Dorje Pakmo), a small sow's head emerges from behind her right ear. The pig roots out what lies buried.

Naropa's Dakini

Naropa had endured twelve great hardships under Tilopa when Vajrayoginī appeared to him. She came in vision, red and fierce, and gave him the complete sādhana in a single transmission. From Naropa the practice crossed the Himalayas with Marpa, who carried it to Tibet alongside the mahāmudrā. The Kagyu school received it through Milarepa and Gampopa. A separate Sakya transmission runs through other Indian masters, each lineage preserving different ritual details but pointing toward the same red figure dancing on the same corpse.