NAVARAATHRI SPECIAL SERIES #8 Kaali – The Goddess of Revolution Part I
The way we see Kaali at any given moment has everything to do with where we are in own journey. Whether Kaali seems terrifying, fascinating, or loving depends on our level of emotional development. But she always invites us to a radical form of ego-transcendence. Very few people are able to hold her light and dark sides together, finding within her a path that transcends duality. She invites us to do the same, which may be why Kaali fascinates modern people. Kaali challenges us by daring us to look her in the face and find the love behind the pain of life.
There is in her an overwhelming intensity, a mighty passion of force to achieve, a divine violence rushing to shatter every limit and obstacle. All her divinity leaps out in splendour of tempestuous action; she is there for swiftness, for the immediately effective process, the rapid and direct stroke, the frontal assault that carries everything before it. But for her, what is done in a day might have taken centuries.
Kaali emerges out of the body of Shiva’s consort Sati during a critical moment in Sati’s marriage to Shiva. Sati’s father, who believes Shiva is not an appropriate husband for Sati, invites her to a celebration he organized, but not him. Not wanting to miss the event, Sati asks Shiva for permission to go without him. Shiva refuses. Furious, Sati takes on her fearsome form as Kaali. Shiva is terrified of her and tries to flee. But Kaali fills all of space with innumerable forms of herself until Shiva finally surrenders, sits before her, and asks, “Where is my beautiful Sati?” She answers that this is her real form, and that she has taken on the sweet body of Sati to reward Shiva for his austerities.
Violence is part of the creative process. The energy that pushes a baby out of the womb, in a process that is bloody and full of the threat of death, is full of creative violence. Another of Kaali’s teachings is that in order for something new to be born, old structures must be destroyed – whether in nature, society or in your personal life. It is only from the open freedom – left after the old structures are dissolved – that the new inspiration to create anew can arise.
Moreover, when Kaali is at work, she dissolves everything except that which cannot be destroyed. That’s why we need her. You don’t know what love is until you’ve felt the depth and fierceness of Kaali’s love. It’s a secret that you only come to know when you let her dissolve your defensive boundaries. To know her boons, you must, in some way, surrender to her intensity. The biggest experience of Kaali’s love always accompanies those moments when we have allowed ourselves to let go of our egoistic agendas.
To look Kaali in the face and receive her gifts is not easy. To actually court her ego-destroying boons is the work of a hero. But for many contemporary women, Kaali represents not the inhuman power in nature or culture, but the possibility of an audacious fierceness that has been historically denied both to the divine feminine and to individual women. Almost always, when a woman says “I need to find my Kaali side,” she’s looking for a way to stand up for herself, to discover her inner fierceness, or to express the outrageous side of her sexuality.
Despite her problematic aspects, or perhaps because of them, Kaali fascinates contemporary women. As a postmodern goddess, Kaali irradiates popular culture as the incarnation of the fiercely in-your-face side of feminine power. Kaali is the force many young women call on in those moments when they courageously face and move beyond their own trauma, or when they want to break through sexual shyness, politesse, insecurity and discomfort.
(will be continued later tonight)
There is in her an overwhelming intensity, a mighty passion of force to achieve, a divine violence rushing to shatter every limit and obstacle. All her divinity leaps out in splendour of tempestuous action; she is there for swiftness, for the immediately effective process, the rapid and direct stroke, the frontal assault that carries everything before it. But for her, what is done in a day might have taken centuries.
Kaali emerges out of the body of Shiva’s consort Sati during a critical moment in Sati’s marriage to Shiva. Sati’s father, who believes Shiva is not an appropriate husband for Sati, invites her to a celebration he organized, but not him. Not wanting to miss the event, Sati asks Shiva for permission to go without him. Shiva refuses. Furious, Sati takes on her fearsome form as Kaali. Shiva is terrified of her and tries to flee. But Kaali fills all of space with innumerable forms of herself until Shiva finally surrenders, sits before her, and asks, “Where is my beautiful Sati?” She answers that this is her real form, and that she has taken on the sweet body of Sati to reward Shiva for his austerities.
Violence is part of the creative process. The energy that pushes a baby out of the womb, in a process that is bloody and full of the threat of death, is full of creative violence. Another of Kaali’s teachings is that in order for something new to be born, old structures must be destroyed – whether in nature, society or in your personal life. It is only from the open freedom – left after the old structures are dissolved – that the new inspiration to create anew can arise.
Moreover, when Kaali is at work, she dissolves everything except that which cannot be destroyed. That’s why we need her. You don’t know what love is until you’ve felt the depth and fierceness of Kaali’s love. It’s a secret that you only come to know when you let her dissolve your defensive boundaries. To know her boons, you must, in some way, surrender to her intensity. The biggest experience of Kaali’s love always accompanies those moments when we have allowed ourselves to let go of our egoistic agendas.
To look Kaali in the face and receive her gifts is not easy. To actually court her ego-destroying boons is the work of a hero. But for many contemporary women, Kaali represents not the inhuman power in nature or culture, but the possibility of an audacious fierceness that has been historically denied both to the divine feminine and to individual women. Almost always, when a woman says “I need to find my Kaali side,” she’s looking for a way to stand up for herself, to discover her inner fierceness, or to express the outrageous side of her sexuality.
Despite her problematic aspects, or perhaps because of them, Kaali fascinates contemporary women. As a postmodern goddess, Kaali irradiates popular culture as the incarnation of the fiercely in-your-face side of feminine power. Kaali is the force many young women call on in those moments when they courageously face and move beyond their own trauma, or when they want to break through sexual shyness, politesse, insecurity and discomfort.
(will be continued later tonight)
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