Kali

We bow to you, Mother, who stands in the cremation grounds atop the corpse of Shiva, surrounded by howling jackals, smiling the sweet smile of Death with your blood-soaked lips! The Gods themselves fail to grasp Kali’s nature and origin. Did Parvati take on her form to defeat the asura Andhaka? Did she emerge from the forehead of Great Sarasvati, her anger made manifest? Did Queen Sita first take on her Mantle to end the Thousand-Bodied Ravana? Did Durga bring you forth from herself, to be Shiva’s eternal Companion? Or were you there before all of them, the Primordial Night from whence countless Brahmas, Vishnus, and Shivas arise like unto the foam at the edge of the sea?

Kali wears around her waist the Girdle of Human Hands, for no action can touch her. She wears the 50 letters of the Sanskrit alphabet about her neck on severed heads with silent voices, for what language can possibly describe her? Is she skeletal, or voluptuous? Terrifying or alluring?

Kali strides the line between asura and Devá, Titan and God, a little too closely for comfort. Kali dances, unconcerned with what the other Gods think, with Durga and Lakshmi at her side as sister-selves and defenders, for she has been them at times and they her.

Kali rarely Incarnates directly into the World. She has sometimes manifested directly to her Chosen, but often works through omens or proxies, unremarkable people in the right place at the right time. When Scions of Lakshmi or Durga need her, she aids them, as she did for Lakshmi’s Incarnation Sita when the latter stood up alone against Ravana. Her Scions tend to be iconoclasts with a single-minded fervor, and have ranged from wandering ascetics who shun society to reformers fighting against the caste system and suttee, to serial killers. In traditional tales, Scions of Kali have often clashed with each other, each believing in their own version of right. As Goddess of Freedom and Liberation, Kali passes no judgement...as the End of All Things, they will all, saint and sinner, come back to her in time.