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In Fred Botting's apt characterization: " Gothic signifies a writing of excess " (1). The representations of the goddess Kālī in Hindu and Western texts constitute as many writings of excess. There is simply too much of her and about her: too many arms, too many skulls dangling around her neck, too much blood smeared on her black face, too long, dishevelled hair, too much impunity in her stuck-out tongue when stepping over the body of Shiva, her celestial husband, too much nudity, all in all too much communicated violence, sexual licentiousness, aggression and appeal to the senses for the mind to comprehend and the spirit to transcend. Kālī is exuberant and excessive in appearance and actions; she constantly pushes the limits of endurance. The uncrowned queen of what may be called Tantric Gothic,1 Kālī repels, attracts and escapes erasure in spite of the many civilizing attempts made to tame her, contain her and portray her as a minor deity who, sneaking from the margins of respectable religious practices and beliefs steals the show of worship through her problematic devotees that would certainly serve more reputable gods if it weren't for her commanding presence. Kālī's Western symbolism replicates the subcontinental one. Thus, although famous/ infamous in the West for her deadly attributes which more often than not prevail over her benevolent characteristics, the overall negative context which marks Kālī's fictional representations is not the mere product of the British colonizers' attempts to demonize the Subcontinent's beliefs and practices so as to justify their civilizing enterprise. Conversely, the benign Kālī – mother, healer, and source of Shakti (power, energy) – is the avatar on which 1 As Urban states: " For European colonizers, Orientalist scholars, and Christian missionaries of the Victorian era, Tantra was generally seen as the worst, most degenerate and depraved example of all the worst tendencies in the " Indian mind, " a pathological mixture of religion and sensuality that led to the decline of modern Hinduism " (1). Kālī's depictions are associated with typical Tantric imagery: unleashed sex, blood, orgies, human sacrifices, etc.
Esoteric Quarterly
Kālī the Dark Mother2019 •
Kālī - the most powerful and most misunderstood of Indian goddesses, she is an Image of Divinity whose roots extend well into the ancient Goddess worship of prehistory to reemerge in the Purāṇas and the Tantras. Under her name of Kālī, the Black Goddess rapidly ascended to the status of Alpha and Omega, the Ultimate Source itself in the Śākta stream of Indian religion. This article traces some of the history of her evolution, examines the legacy of the Tantras and of Śaktism, and touches on her current renaissance among certain segments worldwide. It suggests that Kālī could be morphing into an image of the Divine more in tune with our current search for the feminine face of God in our religious traditions, as well as embodying a cosmic image of divinity more in accord with the demands of ecospirituality, with its acknowledgement of a spiritual connection between human beings and the environment , and the most recent discoveries of the new physics. In the final reckoning, Kālī is seen to be an image of the Divine which cannot be disregarded or dismissed lightly.
R. Mahalakshmi (ed.), Art and History - Texts, Contexts and Visual Representation in Ancient and Early Medieval India, Bloomsbury, New Delhi.
Giving Ākāra to the Goddess: Kālī in Textual and Visual Traditions2019 •
2012 •
Journal of Asian Research
Kali, Untamed Goddess Power and Unleashed Sexuality: A Study of the 'Kalika Purana' of Bengal2017 •
This paper attempts to analyse the paradox inherent in the myth of Kali, both in her iconic delineation and the rituals associated with her worship as depicted in the twelfth century Kalika Purana. The black goddess Kali breaks conventional stereotypes of feminine beauty and sexuality in Hindu goddess mythology. She is the dominant sexual partner straddling the prone Siva and the wild warrior goddess drinking demon blood. She is originally depicted as a symbol of uncontrolled fury emerging from the fair, beautiful goddess Ambika in the battle with the demons in older goddess texts. Thereafter she gains independent existence both as the dark, mysterious and sexually demanding version of the more benign and auspicious Parvati and the Primordial Goddess Power pre-dating the Hindu trinity of male gods, the Universal Mother Force which embraces both good and evil, gods and demons in the Kalika Purana. Unlike other goddess texts which emphasize Kali's role in the battle against the de...
Jung Journal
James Hillman’s Tantric Sadhana: An Introduction to "Notes on the Meaning of Kali Symbolism"2018 •
James Hillman’s early psycho-biography and initial research at the Jung Institute in Zürich can be understood through the lens of a depth psychologically-informed “tantric hermeneutic.” From his “failed” expedition to Kashmir, including the important matrilineal dream of his Mother-Grandmother, through the Jung Institute and his first research paper on the fierce Hindu Goddess Kālī, and onto his later archetypal explorations of the puer and Hero, I will show how Hillman’s maternal dream work both constellated and was “worked through” in scholarly and imaginal ways that can be considered “Tantric.”
2022 •
The Concept of the Tantric KALI & the Buddhist Tantric HEVRAJA by appreciating paintings and sculputres
It is not Shyama Kali or Samshana Kali, but Tantrical Kali whom the tantricas adore it
International Journal of Hindu Studies
Kālī’s Tongue: Shame, Disgust, and the Rejection of Blood and Violence in Vedic and Hindu Thought2015 •
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