Rather than a single coherent system, Tantra is an accumulation of practices and ideas which has among its characteristics the use of ritual, energy work, in some sects transgressional acts, the use of the mundane to access the supramundane and the identification of the microcosm with the macrocosm. The Tantric practitioner seeks to use the divine power that flows through the universe (including their own body) to attain purposeful goals. These goals may be spiritual, material or both.

A practitioner of tantra[tantrik] considers mystical experience or the guidance of a Guru imperative.In the process of working with energy the Tantric has various tools at their disposal. These include yoga to actuate processes that will yoke the practitioner to the divine. Also important are the use of visualizations of the deity and verbalisation or evocation through mantras which may be construed as seeing and singing the power into being; identification and internalisation of the divine is enacted often through a total identification with a deity, such that the aspirant ’becomes’ the deity , the Ishta-Devata.