Who Is Goddess Kali?

The Dark Mother

Kali is one of the great goddesses of Hinduism, worshipped above all in the Shakta traditions, which honour the Goddess as the supreme reality. Her name is tied to kala, time, and she is time itself, which all things meet in the end.

To those who love her she is Ma, Mother Kali: fierce, protective and very near. In Bengal especially, devotees sing to her as a child calls to its mother.

She ends what cannot be ended

In the Devi Mahatmya, a sacred Sanskrit text in praise of the Goddess, Kali springs from the brow of the Goddess when her face darkens with anger in battle.

Later comes the demon Raktabija. Every drop of his blood that touches the ground rises as a new demon. The more he is struck, the more of him there are. No ordinary fight can end him. Kali opens her mouth wide and drinks the blood before it falls, and so he is ended.

This is her gift. She ends what you cannot end: the thing that multiplies each time you strike at it.

Her image

Kali is shown dark as the night sky, hair loose, eyes blazing, tongue out. She wears a garland of severed heads and holds a curved sword and a severed head, while her other hands often bless and reassure. In many images she stands on Shiva, who lies calm beneath her feet.

Devotees and teachers read these signs in many ways. One beloved reading: the sword is the sword of knowledge, and the head it has severed is the ego that keeps us bound. No single reading exhausts her.

Fierce, because she loves

Kali’s fierceness can frighten those who meet her outside her tradition. Inside it, she is first of all a mother. Her violence is turned only against what devours life. Her terror is for the demon; her tenderness is for the child.

For women who were told to be pleasing

Women are often told their power must be gentle before it can be accepted. Kali is not gentle, and she is adored. She shows that a woman’s power can be formidable and still be love, and that the cut, made cleanly, can be mercy.