Tantric Kali: Secret Practices and Rituals

Preface

A certain number of practices that I received directly from my teacher Lalita Devi are not part of any treatises that I am aware of. I received my knowledge of the rituals and secret practices from her. Concerning the rituals of Kali, I also benefited from the magnificent presence of Shri Maa, a yogini disciple of Ramakrishna, who lives in the Napa Valley in California and who is a great admirer of Kali.¹ I never practice the ritual without donning the rudraksha (seed of Shiva) necklace that she gave me.

KRIM: the seed syllable (bija mantra) of Kali

INTRODUCTION

Kali and the Tantric Path

The mention of Kali evokes a shadowy world cloaked in mystery, for this Indian goddess emerged from humanity’s ancient past. Although she has been worshipped for centuries, most of the treasures of her mythology and practices still remain virtually hidden in Sanskrit texts and esoteric sects. But Kali has many gifts for us.

I am Great Nature, consciousness, happiness, the quintessential, says Kali in the Chudamani Tantra. She is the Cosmic Mother, dark as storm clouds, naked with wild hair falling to her knees. She comes to us from a rich past devoted to the worship of feminine power—a veneration of the Great Mother that was universal before the advent of religions. The civilization of the Indus Valley is where we find the seeds of the great ideas that were to form the movement that revered the Great Goddess. Terra-cotta statues of her can still be found, dating back 4,500 or 5,000 years. Paleolithic sites represent the Goddess in the form of triangular stelae or rounded rocks, some of which are still worshipped in India.

Kali sprang forth from pre-Vedic (before 1500 BCE) rural traditions that were wild and shamanic before migrating slowly into Indian tradition. She was perhaps the ancient goddess worshipped by the inhabitants of the Vindhya mountain range, which separates north from south in the center of India.

According to Sir John Woodroffe (Arthur Avalon), writing in the Garland of Letters, Kali is the deity in that aspect in which It withdraws all things which it had created into Itself. Kali is so called because She devours Kala (Time) and then resumes Her own dark formlessness.¹ He quotes the Mahanirvana Tantra as follows:

At the dissolution of things it is Kala (Time) who will devour all and by reason of this He is called Mahakala and since Thou devourest Mahakala Himself It is Thou who art called the Supreme Primordial Kalika. . . . Resuming after Dissolution Thine own nature dark and formless, Thou alone remainest as One, Ineffable, and Inconceivable.²

Kali speaks to us of the darker aspects of nature and our own human nature, yet she also speaks to us of love, for she became the consort of Shiva, adopted by tantric*1 practitioners of the Kaula path. Kaula is the vamachara path, often called the left-hand path, but because vama also means woman, it would be more accurate and in harmony with the Kaula path to translate vamachara as the Shakti path.

In the realm of Tantra, "the central theme is the divine energy and creative power (Shakti) that is represented by the feminine aspect of any of various gods; personified as a devi, or goddess, she is portrayed as his wife, above all as the wife of Shiva."⁵ The tantric texts usually take the form of a dialogue between Shiva and Shakti. Kali, or Kalika, is one of the many forms of Shakti, whose name and form parallel that of the particular aspect the god takes, such as Kala and Kali, Bhairava and Bhairavi.*2

The world of Kali is huge. It would be presumptuous to think that I could treat the whole of it, but I did want to bring together in one book the essentials of the mythology, rituals, and practices as well as the mystical worldview that they represent. Here you will find several texts that are being published in English for the first time.

Chapter 1 explores Kali’s origins and symbolism, which will make it clear from the outset that she will be our guide to territory of the human psychophysical being that is usually scorned or forbidden in religion.

In chapter 2 the Kaula path and its spread across India is described in greater detail, with glimpses into the fecund field of Kali mythology, as well as an introduction to the thirty-six principles of reality (tattvas). This chapter includes translations of the Kaula Upanishad and the Kularnava Tantra, which makes it clear that the value system of the Kaula tradition is very nonconformist.

Kali, however, is still able to speak to us, primarily through practices we enliven within our own beings. Chapter 3 introduces preliminary practices that are essential preparations for entering into Kali’s profound rituals of transformation.

Chapter 4 contains the first publication of an English translation of the Nirrutara Tantra, the oldest presentation of the Kali ritual.

The Kali ritual is presented in detail in chapter 5, culminating in the ritual of Sacred Union.

Practices and visualizations to guide the aspirant along the Kaula path are given in chapter 6, including a focus on the eight chakras and sixty-four yoginis, the Yogini’s Practice of the Heart, and the Devouring of Inner Demons.

In addition to inspiring the composition of many tantric scriptures, Kali has also evoked devotion in the form of hymns and songs, several of which are presented in chapter 7.

Civilization has brought us many marvelous things, but it has also cut us off from our ancient roots and from our connection to nature, to animals, and to the cosmos. The arrival of religions has added all sorts of regulations and rules, which have repressed our fundamental connections with the world. We have become frightened, conformist, moralizing, guilty, and terrified by these impulses that violently surge up in us, sometimes in sexuality and sometimes in confrontations. They can astonish us and shock us.

This is the context in which the practices of Kali are invaluable for today’s practitioner. They allow us to reintegrate all of the volcanic impulses that flow through us in the labyrinths of imagination and dreams. As a presence that was established before the great religious movements, Kali has the power to reconnect us to our roots, to restore the complete range of what it means to be human, to offer us acceptance of all our richness—she encompasses the whole history of humanity from the first babblings to its final development.

1

Kali's Origins and Symbolism

THE BIRTH OF KALI

According to the mythology, Kali sprang forth from the third eye of the Great Goddess Durga, who was unable to overcome the demons, led by Canda and Munda, sent to oppose her in a cosmic war. She concentrated her powers in order to produce an incarnation of absolute violence and lanced Kali onto the battlefield. The story is related in the Devi-Mahatmya, written about twenty-five hundred years ago.

7.2 Then they saw the Goddess, smiling slightly, mounted on her lion on the great golden peak of the highest mountain. [3]

7.3 Having seen her, they made ready in their efforts to abduct her,

While others approached her with swords drawn and bows bent. [4]

7.4 Ambika*3 then uttered a great wrathful cry against them, And her face became black as ink in anger. [5]

7.5 From the knitted brows of her forehead’s surface immediately

Came forth Kali, with her dreadful face, carrying sword and noose. [6]

7.6 She carried a strange skull-topped staff, and wore a garland of human heads;

She was shrouded in a tiger skin, and looked utterly gruesome with her emaciated