As a feminist scholar and spiritual person, I embody my respect for the earth and Her people by respecting the Buddhist and Hindu traditions through which I know Tara. The "Three Jewels of Refuge" (presiding principles) in Buddhist spirituality are the Buddha (the root of understanding), the Dharma (the path) and the Sangha (the community and teachers).

I acknowledge that Buddhism is not my path (one's path might be said to be the way one "walks" and "talks" as a spiritually conscious being; it is also the form and content of one's daily and/or regular spiritual practices). My primary spiritual community and teachers do not identify as Buddhist and do not call their communities "Sangha."

Buddhist teachers, writers and lay practitioners have, however, greatly informed how I live consciously as a spiritual being in a human body. I respect Buddhist tradition, which teaches that one must receive instruction from a lama to be empowered to recite the various Buddhist mantras. (For an interesting perspective on this aspect of Buddhist tradition, see lay practitioner Sherab.)

One of Tibetan Buddhism's mantras, Praises to the 21 Taras, is the exception to the rule. Reciting it does not require official instruction. Yogi Chen quotes his guru Rona Rimpoche:

"...without initiation anyone may repeat the Tara ritual and meditate on her visualization and they will be saved from every kind of calamity."

In The Cult of Tara: Magic and Ritual in Tibet, Stephan Beyer reports that Buddhist monks visualize the Praises being chanted by all sentient beings, the sound of the chants arising from the elements themselves. According to Khandro Net, anyone can read, chant or sing the Praises, though doing other liturgical recitations and ritual actions requires initiation or instruction from "an accredited teacher."

Given these and other permissions, Goddess devotees and other seekers can feel free to incorporate Tara visualizations and the Praises into their spiritual practice without mindlessly appropriating and perhaps disrespecting living spiritual traditions.