Within the Shakta traditions, ritual life is remarkably rich and varied, yet it revolves around a single intuition: the Divine Mother is both the immanent presence in daily life and the transcendent power behind the cosmos. This is reflected in simple household pūjā as well as in elaborate temple and festival worship. Daily rites typically involve offerings of flowers, incense, lamps, food, and water, accompanied by mantras and devotional hymns addressed to forms such as Durgā, Kālī, or Lalitā. Many practitioners also engage in regular mantra recitation and meditation, sometimes centered on sacred texts like the Devī Māhātmya. These daily observances are not merely perfunctory duties; they are structured encounters with the living presence of Śakti in ordinary time.

Alongside these domestic practices stand the great public festivals that shape the ritual calendar of Shaktism. Navarātri, the nine-night celebration of the Goddess, and the closely related Durgā Pūjā in regions such as Bengal, involve fasting, collective recitation of scriptural texts, and highly developed temple or image worship. Kālī Pūjā, often performed at night, focuses on the fierce and transformative aspect of the Divine Mother, using mantras, offerings, and in some lineages more austere or transgressive elements. These festivals are not only communal celebrations but also extended liturgical dramas in which the Goddess’s victory, protection, and grace are ritually re-enacted.

Shaktism also preserves a range of more specialized and esoteric ceremonies. Tantric rituals employ mantra, yantra, mudrā, nyāsa, and visualization to internalize the Goddess’s presence, sometimes including carefully regulated observances that are restricted to initiated practitioners. Śrī Vidyā traditions center on the worship of the Śrī Yantra, where the geometric form of the yantra becomes the mandala of the Goddess Tripurasundarī, and ritual attention to it is paired with inner contemplation. Fire rituals (homa or yajña) dedicated to Devī, as well as formal initiation (dīkṣā) from a guru, further structure the aspirant’s relationship to Śakti and to the lineage that transmits her worship.

Certain ceremonies highlight the perception of the Divine Mother as present in living beings and in the sacred geography of the tradition. Kumārī Pūjā venerates a prepubescent girl as an embodiment of the Goddess, honoring her with washing of the feet, gifts, and mantras. Pilgrimages to renowned Śakti pīṭhas and other temples dedicated to forms such as Kāmākhyā, Kālī, or Meenākṣī extend this reverence into sacred space, where local festivals and processions express regional understandings of the same cosmic Mother. Fasts and vows (vratas) undertaken for specific goddesses, and observances such as the recitation of the Devī Māhātmya (often called Chandi Pāṭh), further weave the worship of Śakti into the rhythms of time, body, and community.