Who is Goddess Kali? Why is she important for women in these times?
Goddess Kali is an enduring symbol of women's power. Today Goddess Kali is narrated in many different ways, but largely She is seen as a dark force that is terrifying and sometimes indiscriminately cruel. In other stories She is the force that destroys "evil" that is beyond the capacity of the other Gods. Despite these stories that have tried to bring her into the realm of our own limited frameworks, Goddess Kali's appeal, especially to women, has withstood all attempts to constrain and control Her.
The Indian dance practice of Goddess Kali is a personal and intimate invitation to women to find their own deep powers. Rather than waiting for that power to be conferred upon us, Kali asks women to know the depths of their own being and to embrace all of their womanhood. Practicing Goddess Kali in India dance is to sense the expansive fullness of womanhood, something than no stories of the paradigms we live in no can and will capture.
Goddess Kali is terrifying because She does not allow escape into the known. She draws our attention to the truth that the story of Woman is invisible unless we claim it ourselves from the depths of our own being. It is through women's bodies that the story of womanhood will manifest. And this story is the unleashing of a power beyond anything we know as humanity. It is the re-emergence of the dance of the Cosmos as Woman that is so needed to restructure our perception and sensation. When I work with women in my programs, I see how Goddess Kali makes Her presence felt through dreams and other channels. These are potent signals that indicate the visceral and intimate nature of Indian dance when it becomes a spiritual practice of the Divine Feminine.
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Who is Goddess Kali Why is she important for women in these times? Video Transcript
Padma Menon 00:00
Kali is one of the most misunderstood of goddesses perhaps across all cultures. And yet, even in these times, she holds such a powerful invitation to women all over the world. And I think this is truly a demonstration of that enduring power, the enduring relevance of consciousness of divinity as feminine and of Goddess centered practices and philosophies. So the Kali that we popularly know she is this dark goddess, who is portrayed with fangs, so quite bloodthirsty, she wears a garland of heads, human heads, she has this skirt made of human arms. She is known to be dwelling in cremation grounds in places of death, you know, places that are outside of cities and settlements and villages. So places that we don't really want to go to. And in a way that is, represents Kali herself today is this space of terror, of everything that frightens us of everything that is taboo. And yet, somehow, we are still drawn, you know, millions of people in India, and all over the world are still drawn to this practice of Kali. So there's something despite all of this story, about othering, clearly, there's something that draws us towards her. And Kali’s invitation to women is particularly personal and intimate, and powerful, especially for many of us women living in these times. So let me just share a couple of stories just to help you get a sensation or a feeling of what I mean by this. When I work with women, individually, in my individual transformation programs, they usually choose an archetype or a deity. And we practice that together. So whenever women choose Kali, there are some experiences that usually come up. One of that is the dreams that women have. So when they're practicing, women usually share with me that they have this dream, which is about this enormous black, being or force. It's, it's like they usually say it's so big, it's like a cosmos. It's beyond their comprehension. They feel that this is this huge, dark presence. And they are usually if they have children, they're sometimes holding the hands of their children. And they have this feeling that they are terrified, and they are running away. But at the very same moment, they also have this incredibly strong conviction, that if they just turned around and faced this, this force, that it would be the best thing that they ever did in their lives. And sometimes, some women even hear the words, “Turn around and face me”. So this call this darkness behind us, that is Kali. And for women, it is this darkness, the unknown of the other. Many of us as women, experience this othering all the time. We live in a story of life of world that is not inclusive of the women’s story. Many of us know this and many of us are knocking at the doors to be let in. We are asking to be part of the story. And yes, we there is a part of us that needs to keep doing that. But Kali’s invitation is this darkness. This darkness that hasn't been storied. That hasn't been seen. You know, it's so dark. And it's so cosmic. And it's behind us. And we haven't seen it. No one has seen it. No one has had the eyes, no one has just leaned back. No one has turned around and fallen into Kali’s velvet embrace. And her invitation is can we do that? Can we see her? Can we turn around and move into that into everything about us as women, our feelings, our bodies, our sensations, our particular experiences, which have not been seen, you know, the knocking at the door, is really to be to buy into the stories that are already there to be a part of it. But there is this whole cosmic night, the cave, the darkness, the goddess. And that is terrifying, because we don't know that. And so we have storied that terror into everything that terrifies us into this cruelty into this ferocity into this into this, you know, the space of the death and the space, that of cremation and everything that we are terrified. So we have stories of terror, but the death is really to the depth of all these stories that were not a part of and that we are knocking to be a part of. But if we can just fall into this looming darkness that invites us and that somewhere in the core of our being along with our fear of the unknown, we also know somehow somewhere in us, we will feel that it might be the best thing that we do when we do turn around to face the Kali in us.