Shakti (Devanagari: शक्ति, IAST: Śakti; lit. "Energy, ability, strength, effort, power, capability") is the primordial cosmic energy and represents the dynamic forces that are thought to move through the entire universe in Hinduism, and especially Shaktism, a major tradition of Hinduism. Shakti is the personification of the energy that is creative, sustaining, as well as destructive, sometimes referred to as auspicious source energy.