Myths and Legends

Kali REDUX

So earlier this year, I think back in March, I did a chapter on Kali. But it didn't really talk about the mythology that is Kali. It was more of a " I wanted to talk about her but sources..." situation. Now I really wanted to talk about Kali because Hindu myths are amazing and her story is seriously metal. 

Kali's earliest appearance is that of a destroyer of evil forces. She is the goddess of one of the four subcategories of the Kulamārga, a category of tantric Saivism Over time, she has been worshiped by devotional movements and tantric sects variously as the Divine Mother, Mother of the Universe, Adi Shakti, or Adi Parashakti. Shakta Hindu and Tantric sects additionally worship her as the ultimate reality or Brahman. She is also seen as divine protector and the one who bestows moksha, or liberation.Kali is often portrayed standing or dancing on her consort, the Hindu god Shiva, who lies calm and prostrate beneath her, the reason behind that I will get to a little later. Kali is worshiped by Hindus throughout India especially in West Bengal.

Now there are many versions on how Kali came into existence.  Now try and stay with me on this. First there Shakti ,a cosmic universe goddess. Then there is Parvati, the motherly aspect of Shakti. After Parvati is Durga, the warrior aspect of the nurturing Parvati. And then comes Kali, the pissed off warrior aspect of Durga. In some tellings, Kali comes from  when Parvati shed her dark skin....It's a really complicated. They are often seen as the same deity that takes on different forms depending on the situation. SO with that out the way, onto the story. (Sidenote: Like many myths this as many different versions, so I'm sorry if you know a different one.)

The story begins with Durga and the Matrikas fighting Chanda, Munda, and Raktabija and their horde of faceless minions . Now the trio fighting Durga are the Asuras that are the evil deities in Hindu mythology. Raktabija has this stupidly OP ability that makes him hard to beat. When ever a drop of his blood touches the earth, a duplicate pops out, basically making him a more annoying version of Naruto Uzamaki. Durga's frustration caused Kali to spontaneously pop out of her forehead and start kicking ass. And to summarized the experience in word: Terrifying. Kali is literally frustration and wrath personified.  She manages to kill Chanda and Munda with ease and turned her attention to Raktabija. How did she beat him you ask? Well...

First she ate all his clones and then proceed to juice Raktabija like an orange....it's not something one should imagine, and drinks his blood, thus killing him thoroughly...metal. With that the Devas (the good deities) basically won, but because Kali is the living embodiment of rage, she doesn't exactly chill out. Kali continues to wreak havoc and murders everything that had the unfortunate fate of crossing her path and then she danced on the bodies of those she killed. It got so intense that they had to call up Shiva to come get his very angry wife, though he was confused at first because Parvati was in the other room. 
Shiva goes and survey the situation and comes to the conclusion that a sacrifice must be made in order to calm her down. Shiva dives under her feet midstomp to protect the universe. Kali realized she just Kirk Franklin Stomped her husband and immediately calms down. Which is good because I've established that destroying the universe was Shiva's job.

Now there are other stories involving Kali, one being the time a  Brahmin monk was almost a human sacrifice. A band of thieves dragging him to the nearest temple, the thieves prepared to make the sacrifice in front of the statue of Kali when suddenly the statue came to life. Outraged at the thieves' plan to kill a monk, the goddess took swift revenge and decapitated the whole gang, even tossing their heads about for fun, whilst naturally the Brahmin escaped to continue his life of scholarly reflection. 
Kali is a playable character in the popular game SMITE, where you can pick a pantheon of gods from around the world. There was a lot backlash, mostly on how she was portrayed in the game, which wasn't off from her actual description, but you know...cultural translations and what not.