When I'm super meh, my bestie, the Viking, will bestow his own brand of wisdom upon me. From the motto of Freya ("If you can't lay 'em, slay 'em.") to the wisdom of Odin and the Buddha, I've gotten an earful of various deities centered around empowerment and/or ass kicking.

A couple days ago he suggested I look up his buddy, Green Tara.

source

In Buddhism there are 21 Taras, each with their own color and focus. Green Tara is considered the Mother of all the Buddhas, which is to say she brought clarity to those who've reached a level of enlightenment denied to most. Her origin story is basically she was born from the tears of an enlightened soul who saw a world of pain; Tara is there with her compassion for those who require it.

Seated Tara . Detail from a Bodhisattva statue. West of inner entrance of Monastery 1, Ratnagiri. Source

In Buddhist religious practice, Green Tara's primary role is savioress. She is believed to help her followers overcome dangers, fears and anxieties, and she is especially worshipped for her ability to overcome the most difficult of situations. Green Tara is intensely compassionate and acts quickly to help those who call upon her.

She has a mantra:

om tare tuttare ture svaha

According to Tibetian tradition, by saying the mantra,

When we chant the Green Tara mantra, we are not simply asking for Tara’s blessings and help with our lives and our “real world” problems.

Actually, we are also asking to be liberated from the misery of the mental delusions and negative emotions that blind us to true freedom, and to achieve the same enlightened body, speech and mind that Tara represents, not only for our own benefit, but for the benefit of all sentient beings.

and

Per a 1987 teaching by Lama Zopa Rinpoche really opens up to us the profound meaning and benefits of practicing Tara’s powerful mantra. Lama Zopa walks us through the mantra in a long discussion on Tara, which we have excerpted and shortened below:

In short, om tare tuttare ture soha means “I prostrate to the Liberator, Mother of all the Victorious Ones.”

The Tara mantra is om tare tuttare ture soha. To explain the meaning of tare tuttare ture: tare means liberating from samsara.

• Tare shows that Mother Tara liberates living beings from samsara, from true suffering, or problems. You can relate this to the particular sufferings of human beings: birth, old age, sickness and death; meeting undesirable objects and experiencing aversion; not finding desirable objects or finding them but gaining no satisfaction… All these are the problems of true suffering. If you rely upon Tara by taking refuge in her and doing Tara practices—such as the recitation of mantra or praises — with tare, Tara liberates you from all these true sufferings.

• The second word, tuttare, liberates you from the eight fears. There are eight fears related to external dangers from fire, water, air, earth, and also from such things as thieves and dangerous animals. However, the main dangers come from ignorance, attachment, anger, pride, jealousy, miserliness, doubt and wrong views. These eight disturbing thoughts that you have in your mind are the main dangers… This second word, tuttare, which liberates you from the eight fears, frees you from the true cause of suffering: karma and the all-arising disturbing thoughts.

• The third word, ture, liberates you from disease. Now, of the Four Noble Truths, ture shows the cessation of suffering, which is the ultimate Dharma. In terms of liberating from disease, the actual disease we have is ignorance not knowing the absolute nature of the I, and all the disturbing thoughts that arise from this ignorance… By liberating us from disease, ture actually liberates us from the true cause, disturbing thoughts, and also the true sufferings.

• The rough meaning of these three words tare tuttare ture is: “To you, embodiment of all the Buddhas’ actions, I prostrate always — whether I am in happy or unhappy circumstances — with my body, speech and mind.”

• The final word soha means establishing the root of the path within your heart. In other words, by taking refuge in Tara and doing Tara practice, you receive the blessings of Tara in your own heart. This gives you space to establish the root of the path, signified by tare tuttare ture, in your heart. By establishing the path of the three capable beings within your heart, you purify all impurities of your body, speech and mind, and achieve Tara’s pure vajra holy body, holy speech and holy mind, which are signified by om. Your body, speech and mind are transformed into Tara’s holy body, holy speech and holy mind.

This is the rough meaning of om tare tuttare ture soha.
source

I like the cerebral aspect of this goddess. I tend to view all deities through an anthropological lens, and appreciate them for the various archetypes they represent. I can dig the protectress who loves to hug, maybe indulge in some Ben and Jerry's, you know, before facing the world with as much grace as one can muster.

Kudos to the Viking for pointing me in her direction!