The Sri Yantra is generated by the overlapping of five downward-pointing triangles (shown in blue) and four upward-pointing triangles (shown in red). According to Tantra, creation on every level and scale is the product of the union of the opposite polarities of the male and female principles. In Hinduism, these archetypes are embodied in the God Shiva and the Goddess Shakti. For this reason, the downward-pointing triangles are called "Shakti triangles" and the upward-pointing triangles are called "Shiva triangles." Notice that the nine triangles consist of four pairs of Shiva & Shakti triangles, two pairs of which are mirror images of each other, and an extra Shakti triangle that is unpaired. The lowest corner of this triangle is directly below the lowest corner of the central triangle enclosing the bindu (black dot). The latter corner is the only corner of the central triangle that is not also a corner of one of the 42 triangles that surround the bindu in the 2-dimensional Sri Yantra.

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