Kali Ma - the Dark Mother © Jo Jayson 2012

Kali – Kali Ma (or Kalika, or Maa Kali) from the Sanskrit ' Kala' meaning ‘Darkness and beyond Time.’ Kali is normally depicted as the most ferocious and fearsome of all Hindu deities and yet she is revered and adored more than all the others. As her name suggests, she is the energy of pure creation, destruction and the darkness of nothingness from which she comes. It is within this dark nothingness that pure consciousness exists and the destructive and nurturing aspects of creation and life are born from.

Conflicting myths describe her origin, but the most popular is that she was born from the brow of the great mother goddess Durga….as the forceful offspring that would bring about the destruction of all that was false and the slaying of all that was ego driven. She is often depicted in bloodthirsty scenarios and disturbing representation which has over time made many fearful of her power. However, steeped in symbolism, these frightening depictions speak of a much kinder, more protective and most powerful of energy. Kali’s Mudra (hand position) is of blessed protection and her Yantra (sacred symbol) contains all that she is.

Many times Kali is represented with a string of 51-53 skulls around her neck. These represent the ‘Garland of Letters”…each letter of the Devangari or Sanskrit alphabet holding a divine wisdom and divine energy. Kali represents all of the energies and wisdom of each Sanskrit sacred letter and hence is often thought of as the Mother of Mantras.

Always depicted as blue or black skinned, symbolizing the non-physicality of Kali, her un-manifested form, the force behind creation. She has no permanent quality, she is ever changing and her expansiveness is within the darkness of the chaos and perfection of the universe.

Kali is pure Shakti (the feminine) and in Tantric traditions she is honored and perceived as the main consort to Shiva (the masculine). Their union together brings about the Oneness, the completeness and the merging of all aspects of the Divine and its universes.

These qualities of pure magnificent Shakti energy are the force that destroys the old and brings in the new. Kali is change…she is the hurricane that brings destruction to allow for new life to come forth. She is beyond time, the dark hole of the nothingness from which everything is born. Yet in all of this chaos, she is fiercely protective and compassionate to those who are true to themselves and true to their own divinity. Kali destroys what no longer serves and gives birth to the new reality in the universe as a whole and in our lives. .....© Jo Jayson

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