Glossary - exWitch Australia (formerly 'Born Again Pagan')

KALI

In Hinduism, Kali is the daughter of Shiva, High Priestess of the Thuggees. She is "the black one" or "the black mother", the Goddess of time and death. She is also known as Kalaratri, the "black night".

It is thought that Kali is a pre-Aryan goddess, belonging to the civilization of the Indus Valley, because there is no evidence that Aryan people ever raised a female deity to the rank that she held in the Indus and currently maintains in Hinduism. Speculation is that she was an ancient deity of vegetation and agricultural; but evidence that animal and human sacrifices were offered to her suggests that Kali became a fertility deity. Animal sacrifices are still made to her, notably in temples such as the one at Kalighat in Calcutta, where a goat is immolated in her honor every day. On her feast in the fall, goats and buffalos are the usual victims, along with certain types of vegetation. Although human sacrifices have been banned, there are occasional reports of sacrifices to authorities from remote areas.

Blood sacrifice is important in the worship of Kali. Kali demanded only males be sacrificed; a custom dating back to the primitive belief that the male had no part in the cycle of generation. The god Shiva, Kali's sacrificial spouse, commanded that female animals must not be slain on the altar.

According to her devotees, Kali was the Ocean of Blood at the beginning of the world; she might be said to be the primordial mass from which all life arouse; and her ultimate destruction of the universe is prefigured by the destruction of each individual, though her karmic wheel always brought Reincarnation. After death came nothing-at-all, which Tantric sages called the third of three states of being; to experience it was like the experience of Dreamless Sleep. This state was also called "the Generative Womb of All, the Beginning and End of Beings." Kali devoured Time, she resumed her "dark formlessness," which appeared in all myths of before-creation and after-doomsday as elemental Chaos.

In her iconography Kali is fearsome. Kali is depicted with black skin. She wears a necklace of skulls, carries a knife to cut through illusion, a mirror of reflection and drinks from a skull cup of blood. She stands above her disemboweled lover, phallus erect, his blood feeding the earth. Her tongue lolls, she is naked, and wears a garland of skulls. She has four arms representing the four directions of space; one hand holds a sword, the power of destruction; another a severed head to show the living their destiny; a third is an attitude to remove fear; and the fourth bestows bliss. Her visage is terrifying. She is loved and feared for her destructive powers, for she is both womb and tomb simultaneously.

Kali is also stronfgly associated with Kundalini, the Serpent Power, which arises from the depths of the body in tantric yoga. The Tantric worshippers of Kali readily acknowledge and accepted her Curse; they accepte her terror of death. Kali's sages communed with her in the grisly atmosphere of the cremation ground, to become familiar with the images of death. One traditionalHindu invocation of Kali is, "His Goddess, his loving Mother, in time who gives him birth and loves him in the flesh, she also destroys him in the flesh. His image of Her is incomplete if he does not know her as his tearer and devourer."

Her cult is especially strong in Bengal and eastern India, where she is often worshiped as Durga, Devi, Shakti, Sati, Uma, Parvati, and other names under which she appears as the consort of Shiva.

A much "watered down" version of Kali is often a part of Wicca and Neo-Paganism.

Anton Szandor La Vey's Satanic Bible lists Kali as one of the Infernal names.

PLEASE NOTE:
One of the major problems with 'defining' Paganism and/or its beliefs and practices is that it is an 'organic' movement, in that it is undergoing constant change and re-evaluation from within, and as such any 'one-size-fits-all' approach to understanding Paganism will be found wanting.

Due to the very 'organic' nature of Paganism, and the many differing Paths and Traditions within it, in many cases no one definition may be universally accepted by all Pagans. Therefore, where such cases of possible conflicting and/or contradictory meanings of certain terms occur I have endevoured to give not only the generally accepted meaning, but also any major 'variations' in belief and/or practice.

Christians who believe this difference in meaning of certain key terms, beliefs and practices to be unique to Paganism need to remember that such conflicts also arise within the Body of Christ - the Church. Take for instance the differing practices amongst Christians concerning Baptism and the different attitudes towards women in the clergy.

- Jean-Luc