THE ARCANE ARCHIVE
	a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.

Path: shell.portal.com!shell.portal.com!not-for-mail
From: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
Newsgroups: alt.fan.kali.astarte.inanna,alt.magick.tyagi,alt.mythology,alt.yoga,alt.pagan
Subject: Kali Aum Aum Aum!
Date: 15 Sep 1996 01:10:07 -0700
Organization: Portal Communications (shell)
Lines: 143
Sender: tyagi@shell.portal.com
Message-ID: <51gdkv$58k@jobe.shell.portal.com>
Reply-To: tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com (nagasiva)
NNTP-Posting-Host: jobe.shell.portal.com
Reference: omkali-REQUEST@portal.com (OmKali Elist)
Xref: shell.portal.com alt.fan.kali.astarte.inanna:820 alt.magick.tyagi:10392 alt.mythology:30133 alt.yoga:7894 alt.pagan:173651

kaliyuga
49960913 FRIDAY! AA1  Hail Satan!


jai Kali!

my Mystress asked:

# What, if anything, does Kali have to do with Shakti and/or Kundalini?

just got this from the public library today:

	Given Kali's intimidating appearance and ghastly habits,
	it might seem that she would never occupy a central 
	position in Hindu piety, yet she does.  She is of 
	central importance in Tantrism, particularly left-handed
	Tantrism, and in Bengali Sakta devotionalism.  An
	underlying assumption in Tantric ideology is that reality
	is the result and expression of the symbiotic interaction
	of male and female, Siva and *sakti*, the quiescent and
	the dynamic, and other polar opposites that in interaction
	produce a creative tension.  Consequently, goddesses in

	Tantrism play an important role and are affirmed to be as
	central to discerning the nature of reality as the male
	deities are.  Although Siva is usually said to be the 
	source of the *Tantras*, the source of wisdom and truth,
	and Parvati, his spouse, to be the student to whom the
	scriptures are given, many of the *Tantras* emphasize
	the fact that it is *sakti* that pervades reality with
	her power, might, and vitality and that it is she (under-
	stood in personified form to be Parvati, Kali, and other
	goddesses) who is immediately present to the adept and
	whose presence and being underlie his own being.  For the
	Tantric adept it is her vitality that is sought through
	various techniques aimed at spiritual transformation; 
	thus it is she who is affirmed as the dominant and 
	primary reality.

	Although Parvati is usually said to be the recipient of
	Siva's wisdom in the form of the *Tantras*, it is Kali
	who seems to dominate Tantric iconography, texts, and
	rituals, especially in left-handed Tantra.  In many 
	places Kali is praised as the greatest of all deities
	or the highest reality....

	*Sadhana* (spiritual endeavor) takes on a particularly
	dramatic form in left-handed (*vamacara*) Tantrism.  In
	his attempt to realize the nature of the world as 
	completely and thoroughly pervaded by the one *sakti*,
	the *sadhaka* (here called the "hero," *vira*) undertakes
	the ritual of the *pancatattva*, the "five (forbidden)
	things" (or truths).  In a ritual context and under the
	supervision of his guru, the *sadhaka* partakes of wine,
	meat, fish, parched grain (perhaps a hallucinogenic drug
	of some kind), and illicit sexual intercourse.  In this
	way he overcomes the distinction (or duality) of clean
	and unclean, sacred and profane, and breaks his bondage
	to a world that is artificially fragmented.  He affirms
	in a radical way the underlying unity of the phenomenal
	world, the identity of *sakti* with the whole creation.
	Heroically, he triumphs over it, controls and masters it.  
	By affirming the essential worth of the forbidden, he 
	causes the forbidden to lose its power to pollute, to
	degrade, to bind.

	The figure of Kali conveys death, destruction, fear, terror,
	the all-consuming aspect of reality.  As such she is also
	a "forbidden thing," or the forbidden par excellence, for
	she is death itself.  The Tantric here does not propitiate,
	fear, ignore, or avoid the forbidden.  During the *panca-
	tattva* ritual, the *sadhaka* boldly confronts Kali and
	thereby assimilates, overcomes, and transforms her into a
	vehicle of salvation.  This is particularly clear in the 
	*Karpuradi-stotra*, a short work in praise of Kali, which
	describes the *pancatattva* ritual as performed in the 
	cremation ground (*smasana-sadhana*).  Throughout this text
	Kali is described in familiar terms.  She is black (verse 1),
	has disheveled hair and blood trickling from her mouth (3),
	holds a sword and a severed head (4), wears a girdle of
	severed arms, sits on a corpse in the cremation ground (7),
	and is surrounded by skulls, bones, and female jackals (8).
	It is she, when confronted boldly in meditation, who gives
	the *sadhaka* great power and ultimately salvation.  In Kali's
	favorite dwelling place, the cremation ground, the *sadhaka*
	meditates on every terrible aspect of the black goddess and
	thus achieves his goal.

		He, O Mahakali, who in the cremation-ground, naked,
		and with disheveled hair, intently meditates upon
		Thee and recites Thy *mantra*, and with each 
		recitation makes offering to Thee of a thousand
		*Akanda* flowers with seed, becomes without any
		effort a Lord of the earth.

		O Kali, whoever on Tuesday at midnight, having 
		uttered Thy *mantra*, makes offering even but
		once with devotion to Thee of a hair of his *Sakti*
		{his female companion} in the cremation-ground,
		becomes a great poet, a Lord of the earth, and
		ever goes mounted upon an elephant.

	The *Karpuradi-stotra* clearly makes Kali more than a terrible,
	ferocious slayer of demons who serves Durga or Siva on the
	battlefield.  In fact, she is by and large dissociated from the
	battle context.  She is the supreme mistress of the universe (12),
	she is identified with the five elements (14), and in union with
	Siva (who is identified as her spouse) she creates and destroys
	the worlds.  Her appearance has also been modified, befitting her
	exalted position as ruler of the world and the object of 
	meditation by which the *sadhaka* attains liberation.  In addition
	to her terrible aspects (which are insisted upon), there are now
	hints of another, benign dimension.  So, for example, she is no
	longer described as emaciated or ugly.  In the *Karpuradi-stotra*
	she is young and beautiful (1), has a gently smiling face (18), 
	and makes gestures with her two right hands that dispel fear and
	offer boons (4).  These positive features are entirely apt, as
	Kali no longer is a mere shrew, the distillation of Durga's or
	Parvati's wrath, but is she through whom the hero achieves 
	success, she who grants the boon of salvation, and she who, 
	when boldly approached, frees the *sadhaka* from fear itself.  
	She is here not only the symbol of death but the symbol of 
	triumph over death.

	_Hindu Goddesses_, by David Kinsley, UC Press, 1986; pp. 122-5. 

	_______________________________________________________________

by 'triumph' and 'overcoming' I interpret this as that death no longer has
any power, no charge, to the adept.  it does not factor into the actions
of those who have achieved this state of living/being.   it merely becomes
one of a number of releasable factors amongst a throng of attractions and
repulsions, variably perceived.

aum krim namah kali

tyagi@houseofkaos.abyss.com
nagasiva   


-- 
see http://www.hollyfeld.org/~tyagi/nagasiva.html  and  call: 408/2-666-SLUG!!!
 ----  (emailed replies may be posted)  ----  CC public replies to email  ---- 
 * * * Asphalta Cementia Metallica Polymera Coyote La Cuckaracha Humana * * *