This past weekend saw many around the world celebrate Deepawali, known in the English speaking world as India’s Festival of Lights.

However, where my family is from in Bengal, the dawn of the new moon in the month of Kartika coincides with a festival celebrating the Great Goddess Kali. As such, I thought I would share a little bit about the goddess and why we worship her.

Kali is an incarnation of the Great Mother Goddess and can be thought of as the Wild Feminine. Her name is the feminine version of one of the epithets of her partner, the god Shiva, also known as Kala.

Kali can be seen in one aspect as a representation of chaos and the horrible aspects of life that most people do not want to think about. But chaos has to exist as a complement to creation and thus help us reach for balance in life, and in the universe as a whole.

Kala in Sanskrit can mean 'black' but also 'Time'. Over centuries, both meanings have come together as being embodied in Kali. She represents the consumption of Time as well as the liminal space between destruction and creation. In a sense, Kali represents that which is beyond time and her blackness represents formlessness.

One could make a connection between the goddess Kali in her appetite for destruction & moving beyond form wirh the modern understanding of a black hole. Kali is seen as fierce and often depicted in a frightening manner. But what she can help with is the destruction of fear—particularly fear that arises from ignorance and the ego. And she is often associated with Mother Nature in all her cyclical glory.

There are a few stories of her slaying demons, but the most famous one concerns the demon, Raktabija (literal translation: Blood Seed). It starts with the devas (gods) fighting the demon but they’re getting worn down as Raktabija is able to create a clone of himself with every drop of his blood that spills onto the earth.

In one version of the story, Shiva asks his wife, Paravati, to help. It was said that from her eyebrows knitted in anger sprung forth Kali. Kali was able to defeat Raktabija by not only consuming all the clones, but also lapping up any blood before it hit the ground.

However, in her dance of destruction, she becomes consumed with this energy of destruction and starts trampling all in her way.

In a bid to stop her, Shiva lays down in her path. When she realizes that she has stepped on her husband, Kali sticks out her tongue in shame, giving rise to the image often seen of Kali’s embarrassment as one of her feet lands on the chest of a prone Shiva.

The depictions of her right foot on Lord Shiva’s chest signify Dakshina Kali, or Bhadra Kali, the benevolent Mother Goddess, and also the “right-hand path” of worship with blessings and boons. She is pictured holding the sickle in her left hand. Pictures showing her left foot forward and raising the sickle in her right hand are of Vama Kali, or Shmashana Kali, and here she embodies the energy & power of destruction.

One way to interpret this image is to think of Time being held by Consciousness. Shiva represents the universal conscious body, which is eternal, pervasive, and the purest form of creation. But it takes Time to perceive creation and allow it space to exist. So this image becomes symbolic of the intersection of the two meeting and creating Conscious Time.

Another way to think of this image is that without ‘Shakti’ (enrgy, power, Kali), Consciousness—represented by Shiva—is inert, prone, still.

It is also worth recognizing that in addition to Kali's reputation as both the fearsome warrior goddess of destruction & death, she is also a goddess associated with sexuality and motherly love. As such, Kali is ultimately the deity of transformation who assumes the role that is needed at the appropriate time.

And speaking of appropriate times, there also exists this idea that when there is excess ‘adharma’ (so the opposite of ‘dharma’ which can mean righteous path, moral way, and authentic living), Mother Earth invokes Maha Kali (Great Kali) so that she will appear in her fierce and wild form to perform her dance of destruction and rid the world of adharma.

Ultimately, the common theme between Kali Puja and Deepawali is the symbolic triumph of good over evil, hope over despair, and knowledge over ignorance.

With tomorrow’s Libra New Moon, I wish all who read this good health and prosperity.

May the darkness allow your imagination to flourish, give rise to the light in your spirit-soul, and may both fuel your onward cosmic journey.