Kali, Goddess of Skulls and Severed Heads
March 16, 2023
Meet Kali, goddess of feminine power and strength. While she has a softer, mothering side, this ain't it. This aspect, her primary aspect, emphasizes the "dark" power of the feminine - sex, death, destruction, devastation. All aspects of the female (in each of us) that our culture tries to ignore, whitewash, suppress. We seem to like our idealized feminine only sweet, docile, subservient. Kali is having none of it.
Yes, that's a severed head in her left hand, a bloody scimitar in her right. Yes, that's a necklace of skulls around her neck and a skirt of severed arms around her waist. Yes, she's standing on the corpse of her husband, the great god Shiva (see blue guy with trident in Varanasi). Yes, that's blood all around her mouth.
With advertising like this, of course we have to go to one of her primary places of worship. Not surprisingly, it's not in the tour books. Few Westerners. Goodbye friendly, smiling Buddhist pilgrimage places, we're headed to Tarapith, several hours north of Kolkata.