Kali's topics are rebirth, cycles, joy, courage, hope, cleansing and alter. Her symbols are blossoms, dancing, iron, swords, peacock feathers and honey. Kali, a Hindu Goddess whose name means 'time', is that the genetrix of natural forces that either build or destroy. In destruction, nevertheless, She reminds us that great really could come of bad situations. If you find your hopes and dreams are crushed, Goddess Kali can alter the cycle and produce life out of nothingness. Where there is sorrow, She dances to deliver joy. Where there is fear, She awakens in courage.
During the Festival of Shiva, or Maha Shivratri, Hindus gather at Shiva's temples to honor this heavenly dance of production, and Kali dances together in spirit. Beforehand, they quickly and bathe in holy waters for purification. Doing equally (in your tub or shower) will purge your body and spirit of unwanted impacts. Insert some flower petals or candy perfume tot the bath to invoke Kali's power. To Combine Kali's assistance in bringing new life to stagnant projects or destroyed goals, leave her an offering of honey or blossoms, and also make this Kali amulet: Take any dark fabric and wrap it around a flower dabbed with a drop of honey, saying:
‘Kali, turn, dance, and change
Fate rearrange
End the devastation and strife
what was dead return to life.’
Carry this with you until the situation changes, then bury it with thankfulness.”
(Patricia Telesco, “365 Goddess: a daily guide to the magic and inspiration of the goddess”.)
Who will comprehend the Divine Paradox of Mother Kali? Fierce, black in color, large, shimmering eyes, damaging, triumphantly smiling amidst the slaughter of billions of demons, wearing a necklace of skulls and a skirt of severed arms, luminous effulgently like the moon at the night sky, holding the head of a demon, a Trident that cries like lightning and a knife etched with holy mantras and infused with Divine Shakti, Kali stands calm and material, suffused with all the fragrances of jasmine, rose and sandalwood!
Goddess Kali is equated with all the eternal night, is the transcendent power of time, and is the consort of the god Shiva. It is believed that its Shiva who destroys the world, and Kali is the energy or power with which Shiva acts. Therefore, Kali is Shiva's Shakti, without which Shiva could not act. Frequently, those not comprehending Her many roles in life call Kali the Goddess of death and destruction. It's partly correct to say Kali is a Goddess of departure, but She brings the death of the ego as the illusory self-centered view of reality. Nowhere in the Hindu stories is She observed killing anything but demons nor is She associated specifically with the process of human dying like the Hindu god Yama (who really is the god of death). It is correct that both Kali and Shiva are said to inhabit cremation grounds and devotees often go to these places to meditate. This isn't to worship death but rather it's to overcome the I-am-the-body idea by reinforcing the awareness that the body is a temporary condition. Shiva and Kali are said to inhabit these places because it's our attachment to the body which gives rise to the self. Shiva and Kali grant liberation by removing the illusion of the self. That is underscored by the scene of the cremation grounds.
According to Hindu myth, The Goddess Kali is an incarnation of Parvati. She supposed this form so as to vanquish the demon Raktabija, whose name means "the seed of blood". The gods couldn't kill the demon Raktabija because he'd received from Brahma the blessing of being born anew a one thousand times more powerful than before, every time a drop of his blood was shed. Every drop of the blood that touched the floor transformed itself into a different and more potent Raktabija. In a few minutes of striking this demon the entire battlefield covered with countless Raktabija clones. In grief, the gods turned to Shiva. But Shiva was lost in meditation in the time and the gods were reluctant to disturb him. Hence they pleaded with his consort Parvati for Her assistance.
The Goddess immediately set out to do battle with this dreaded demon in the form of Kali or “the Black One”. Her eyes were red, Her complexion was dark, Her features gaunt, Her hair unbound, and Her teeth sharp just like fangs. As Kali came into do conflict, Raktabija experienced fear for the first time in his demonic heart. Kali ordered the gods to attack Raktabija. She subsequently disperse Her tongue to pay the battle preventing even a single drop of Raktabija's blood from falling on the bunch. Therefore, She prevented Raktabija from reproducing himself and the gods were able to subdue the demon. Another form of the legend claims that Kali pierced Raktabija using a spear, and at once stuck Her lips into the wound to drink all the blood as it gushed from the body, thus preventing Raktabija from replicating himself.
Drunk on Raktabija's blood, Kali ran throughout the cosmos killing anyone who dared cross Her path. She adorned herself with the heads, limbs and entrails of her own victim. The gods were seeing the balance of the universe being shattered. As a last resort they had to rouse Shiva out of his meditation. To pacify Her, Shiva threw himself under Her feet. This ceased the Goddess. She calmed down, adopted Her husband, shed Her ferocious form to eventually become Gauri, "the Fair one". Kali intends Her bloody deeds and jealousy for the security of the great. She may get carried off by Her gruesome actions but She isn't bad. Kali's damaging energies on the highest level are regarded as a vehicle of salvation and eventual transformation. She destroys only to recreate, and what She destroys is sin, ignorance and decay. The Goddess Kali is represented as black in colour. The Goddess Kali is represented as black in colour. Black in the ancient Hindu language of Sanskrit is kaala --the female form is kali -- therefore She is Kali, the black person. Black is a sign of The Infinite and the seed stage of all colors. The Goddess Kali remains in a state of inconceivable darkness that transcends words and thoughts. Inside Her blackness is the amazing brilliance of illumination. Kali's blackness symbolizes Her all-embracing, comprehensive nature, because black is the color where all the colours merge; black absorbs and dissolves them.
Kali's nudity has strong significance. Oftentimes She is called garbed in space or sky clad. In Her absolute, primordial nakedness She is free from all covering of illusion. She is Nature (Prakriti in Sanskrit), stripped of 'clothes'. It symbolizes that She is completely beyond name and form, completely beyond the consequences of maya (illusion). Her nudity is believed to represent totally illumined consciousness, unaffected by maya. Kali is the glowing fire of fact, which cannot be concealed by the clothes of ignorance. Such truth simply burns them away.
She's full-breasted; Her motherhood is a ceaseless invention. Her disheveled hair forms a curtain of illusion, the fabric of space -- time which organizes matter out of this chaotic sea of quantum-foam. Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, signifies the repository of wisdom and wisdom. She's a girdle of severed human hands -- hands that are the primary tools of work and so signify the action of karma. Hence the binding effects of the karma have been overcome, severed, as it were, by loyalty to Kali. She has blessed the devotee by clipping him free from the cycle of karma. Her white teeth are symbolic of purity (Sans. Sattva), along with Her lolling tongue that is red dramatically depicts the fact that She absorbs everything and denotes the action of tasting or enjoying what society sees as forbidden (i.e.. Her indiscriminate enjoyment of all of the world's "flavors").
Kali's four arms represent the complete circle of destruction and creation, which is contained within her. She reflects the inherent dangerous and creative rhythms of the cosmos. Her right hands, which makes the mudras of "fear not" and conferring boons, signify the creative aspect of Kali, while the left hands, holding a bloodied sword and a severed head represent Her damaging aspect. The sword is the sword of knowledge, that cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false familiarity (the severed head). Kali opens the gates of freedom with this blade, having cut the eight bonds that bind human beings.
Eventually Her three eyes represent the sun, moon, and fire, with which She is able to observe the three modes of time: past, present and future. This attribute is also the source of the title Kali, that's the female form of 'Kala', the Sanskrit term for Time. Kali is regarded as the most fully realized of all of the Dark Goddesses, a great and strong black earth Mother Goddess capable of horrible destruction and represents the most effective form of the female forces in the Universe. Worship of the Goddess Kali is largely an effort to appease Her and avert Her anger.
Her followers gave her offerings of blood and flesh, which was important in Her worship, just as blood sacrifice was significant in worship of the ancient Biblical God, who commanded that the blood must be poured on his alters (Exodus 29:16) for the remission of sins (Numbers 18:9). As mistress of blood, She presides over the puzzles of the life and death. No matter Her followers still found Her to be a potent warrior Goddess and discovered Her greatest strength to be that of a guardian.
Kali isn't always considered as a Dark Goddess. Despite Kali's origins in battle, She evolved into a full-fledged emblem of Mother Nature in Her creative, nurturing and devouring aspects. Many groups of people, unfamiliar with all the precepts of Hinduism, visit Kali as a satanic demon probably due to tales of her being worshipped by dacoits and other similar people indulging evil acts. By not knowing the story behind Mother Kali it is easy to misinterpret Her iconography.
In exactly the exact same manner one can say that Christianity is a religion of death, destruction and cannibalism where the practitioners drink the blood of Jesus and eat his flesh. Of course, we know this is not the proper comprehension of the communion ritual. Rather, She is known as a great and loving primordial Mother Goddess in the Hindu tantric tradition. In this regard, as Mother Goddess, She is Known as Kali Ma, meaning Kali Mother, and countless Hindus revere Her as such.
Of all of the kinds of Devi, She is the very compassionate because She supplies moksha or liberation for Her children. She is the counterpart of Shiva the destroyer. The ego sees Mother Kali and trembles with dread since the ego sees in Her its own eventual death. Someone who is attached to her or his ego will not be receptive to Mother Kali and she'll appear in a fearsome type. A mature soul who participates in religious practice to remove the illusion of the ego sees Mother Kali as quite sweet, affectionate, and filled up with incomprehensible love for Her children.