Manasa Devi

One of my favorite Demi-Goddesses from India is Manasa Devi. She is a
tribal goddess that has a small cult in India, especially in the Bengal
area. She is not a mainstream deity, but has about a million devotees.
She is truly beautiful!

Like Santissima Muerte in Mexico she is popular among the lower masses
of society who seek her boons to cope with life's challenges. It is
said that one who worships her will never lack prosperity, and that she
is easily pleased. Acccording to my Guru Bhoothnath, who advised me to
work with her, she craves the worship of humans, and so gives boons
easily. She is a Naga Queen. The Nagas are serpentine demi-gods that
are propitiated in India (and other countries such as Tibet) to keep
calamaties away and to bring prosperity and healing. Manasa Devi is
worshipped for all these things and more. There are many stories about
her origins. One story says that she is the illegitimate daughter of
the Lord Shiva. In this story, Vasuki's (one of the Naga Kings) mother
sculpted a statue of a beautiful girl. Lord Shiva was sexually aroused
by this image, and after he pleasured himself before it, his semen
brought it to life. Vasuki took Manasa into the Naga world, where she
was accepted as his sister. Later Manasa was taken by Shiva into his
home, and Shiva's wife got jealous, thinking that she was Shiva's
concubine. Shiva's wife Chandi (or in some accounts Parvati) burned one
of Manasa's eyes out of jealousy and kicked her out of the home of Shiva
and the community of the gods. Manasa spent much time thereafter
engaged in spiritual practices to increase her spiritual powers, and
descended to earth to get human devotees. Because of her illegitimacy,
Manasa did not get the same worship and acceptance due to other gods and
she has always wanted to be treated equally. So she appreciates any
little worship that is given to her, and rewards the devotee lavishly.
Manasa also has a dark side to her. If she wants someone to worship
her and he refuses, she will destroy their lives and take everything
they love away from them. This was the fate of Chand Sadagar, a devotee
of the Lord Shiva who refused to give her any worship. Manasa cursed
him where he lost all his wealth, his sons, his health, everything that
was of value to him, quite similar to Job in the Bible. After the
desperate pleas of his wife and daughter-in-law Chand finally agreed to
worship Manasa Devi, and offered a flower to her image while looking the
other way. The small gesture of worship pleased Manasa so much that she
restored his wealth, children (by resurrecting them), and everything
else, and rewarding him with much more than he previously had. This
story shows that Manasa can be easily pleased. Although this story is
told often in Bengal, Manasa turns out to actually be a goddess who is
much older than most think she is.

The Devi Bhagavatam, an old scripture, gives a different origin to
Manasa Devi and says that she is the mind-daughter of the Sage Kasyapa.
In it she is mentioned as a glorious goddess to whom animal sacrifices
were once performed to. She is called by twelve names in that scripture
which are her epiteths:

Kârupriya, Jaratkâru, Jagadgaurî, Manasâ, Siddha Yoginî,
Vaisnavî, Nâga Bhaginî, S'aivi, Nageshvarî,
Jaratkârupriyâ, Âstikamâtâ, Visahari, and Mahâ
Jñanayutâ

Two mantras are also given for her:

Om Hrîm Srîm Manasâ Devyai Svâhâ

Om Hrîm Srîm Klîm Aim Manasâ Devyai Svâhâ. 

The Devi Bhagavatam says that one who repeats her mantra 10,000 times
will have no fear of snakes, and snakes will be tamed by him. Manasa is
very popular with snake tamers as well as with healers of snake bites.
If one recites it 500,000 times he will get success, name and fame in
life.

The Sama Veda describes Manasa Devi in a hymn:

"I meditate on the Devî Manasâ, Whose colour is fair like that
of the white champaka flower, whose body is decked all over with jewel
ornaments, whose clothing is purified by fire, whose sacred thread is
the Nâgas (serpent), who is full of wisdom, who is the foremost of
great Jñanins, who is the Presiding deity of the Siddhas, Who Herself
is a Siddha and who bestows Siddhis to all."

Worship of her is also mentioned in the following way:

"O Muni! Thus meditating on Her, one should present Her, flowers,
scents, ornaments, offerings of food and various other articles,
pronouncing the principal Seed Mantra."

In the Bengal area Manasa Devi is worshipped in the form of a cactus (a thin
cactus that stands upright) or through the image of a snake.

My guru told me that her worship, cactus image and offerings should always be kept outside, as to do it inside the house will attract snakes in the house. Her mantra, however, can be recited inside the home with no bad effects. You can also keep her picture in the home on your altar without any problems.

In India you will see outside many houses a cactus. Devotees take that as an image of Manasa, consecrate it to her, invite her in it and make offerings daily or once a week to it. Offerings consist of items from the five elements such as red or yellow flowers (ether), candles (fire), incense (air), fruits, (earth), and water, given while chanting her mantra and meditating on her. One should also recite one of her mantras 108 or more times a day and talk to her image from time to time. It may take afew months to build a relationship with her, but once its done, Manasa can be very helpful. She can give one knowledge, empower one's magical spells, bestow prosperity and other favors. And as I said before she is easily pleased, which is why my Guru recommended her to me. When you make contact with her you will have dreams of snakes and she will appear to you in a vision or in a dream in the form of a snake or half-snake half-woman who will answer your questions. I've been working with her for afew years now, and since she is relatively unknown, I wanted to share about her worship to everyone.