The
Goddess in her aspect as the Kali Ma is the most recognizable,
and the most misunderstood of the Hindu Deities. She is also known
as Goddess Kali, The Dark Goddess, Dark Mother, The Black Goddess,
Kali the Destroyer, Cosmic Mother, Lady Life, Maha Kali, and Mother
Karma. Her name means Black and is also derived from the Hindu
word for time. She exhibits traits of both gentleness and love,
revenge and terrible death. She is the female principle of life
and death.
Her bad reputation in the West probably sprang from her association
with the cult of the Thuggees, forcefully suppressed by the British
during the days of colonization and government suppression by
the empire. The Thuggees — the word gave rise to our word
thug — were actually Muslims who took the goddess Kali as
their guardian angel deity. They specialized in ensnaring and
then robbing and murdering travelers. Originally, they were only
supposed to attack male travelers and in their latter days attributed
their downfall to the fact that they had started to kill women
travelers too. But Kali predates the Thuggees, quite possibly
by several thousands of years. No literature or historian has
been able to target her origin.
Kali is depicted in uncanny and in ambiguous images. Artists
renderings of Kali can be very upsetting unless one understands
the spiritual meaning behind the symbolism. Her very appearance
is meant to terrify the entities, demons and devils of the sinister
force and the dweller on the threshold. Modern pictures of her
depict her standing on the dead body of her consort Shiva, with
four arms, a necklace of fifty human skulls, a girdle of human
arms, holding an axe, a trident, a severed human head, and a bowl
of blood. Around her rages a battle — she herself can be
the color of a thundercloud. Her protruding tongue drips with
the fresh blood of her enemies. She is also pictured with black
skin and a hideous face smeared with blood, bare breast, and four
arms. Her necklace of skulls is draped with snakes. But these
images are but a few of many. Violence against any women is forbidden
by her. Blood sacrifices can be a daily part of her rituals, but
so are garlands of marigolds, strings of tinkling bells, incense
smoke, and gifts of sweetmeats and spices.
Kali is not always thought of as dark, but also as a loving
mother, and is revered by millions of Hindus especially in that
aspect. The triple Goddess of creation, destruction, and rebirth,
Kali Ma encompasses three aspects of Goddess spirituality. She
is the Virgin: the wild one who is whole and complete unto her
self; the Mother: creator and sustainer of all life; and the Crone:
the wise elder who is made more powerful by wisdom gained from
experience. She understands the mystery that death and birth are
parts of the same cycle, that new life begins with the destruction
of old forms. She combines the independence of the Virgin with
the nurturing and creativity of the Mother and cunning wisdom
of the Crone.
The Crone represents the strong independent one who is not afraid
of death, who understands the power of transformation and who
chooses to dance through the fires of life in order to find liberation
and renewal. This was an obvious threat to the formation of organized
religions and political units which thrived upon the fears of
individuals. The absence of the Crone archetype has resulted in
the rise of co-dependency in modern society. Knowing that our
vision of divinity largely influences our actions, we can choose
new paradigms. By reclaiming the Crone, we learn to create new
forms for relationships. The wall that truly keeps us from being
independent while in relationship, is fear. Kali Ma teaches us
to find true strength from within.
As the Kalika (Crone), she governs every form of death, but
also rules every form of life. She is always a Trinity manifested
in three forms: three stages of human life, three phases of the
Moon, three sections of the cosmos, three types of priestesses
at her shrines. As the holy trinity, Kali is called Prakiritia
(Nature). She commands the gunas, or threads of Creation, Preservation,
and Destruction, and embodies the past, present, and future. She
is said to command the weather by braiding or releasing her hair.
Her karmic wheel devours time itself.
The worship of, and reverence for Kali Ma is widespread throughout
India. Many contemporary pagans are also reclaiming a connection
with the Goddess in this fierce aspect. Feminine power has often
been represented as negative rather than in a truer light, so
it is also with Kali. Reclaiming this Goddess aspect is a way
of reclaiming your sacred right to rage. Kali is the ever becoming,
ever destroying force of life. She is both unimaginable horror
and abundant bliss, eternally intertwined in the dance of being.
She is seen in the deadly dance of the lion and the antelope.
She is the nurturing and creative mother. She is the sacred cycle
of all existence swirling with unbridled energy. Hail Dark Goddess,
wisdom of the mysteries and mother who is life and death. Dancer
adorned with Skulls, destructive as fire, spark of creation, sacred
devourer, sacred creator.
