Dictionary:

Kali

  (kä'lē)

One of the manifestations and cult titles of the wife of Shiva and mother goddess Devi, especially in her malevolent role as a goddess of death and destruction, depicted as black, red-eyed, blood-stained, and wearing a necklace of skulls.

[Sanskrit Kālī, from kālī, feminine of kāla-, dark, of Dravidian origin; akin to Kannada kāḍu, black, blackness.]

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Kali, sandstone relief from Bheraghat, near Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh state, India, 10th century … (credit: Pramod Chandra)

Destructive and devouring Hindu goddess. She is a terrifying aspect of Devi, who in other forms appears as peaceful and benevolent. Kali is commonly associated with death, violence, sexuality, and, paradoxically, with motherly love. Noted for killing the demon Raktavija, she is usually depicted as a hideous, black-faced hag smeared with blood. In her four hands she holds, variously, a sword, a shield, the severed head of a giant, or a noose for strangling. Nearly naked, she wears a garland of skulls and a girdle of severed hands. She is often shown standing or dancing on her husband, Shiva. Until the 19th century the thugs of India worshiped Kali and offered their victims to her. In the late 20th century she became a symbol of feminine empowerment in some circles.

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A popular Indian goddess of Assamese origin, mentioned but hardly ever revered in Buddhism although elements of her iconography and worship may have been borrowed by practitioners of late anuttara-yoga-tantra.

One of several forms of the great Indian Goddess or Devī (see Devī, Pārvatī, Durgā, śakti), Kālī is the black goddess of destruction, the logical wife for Śiva (see Śiva) in his aspect of great Destroyer in the dance of existence (see Dance of Śiva). But whereas Śiva's dance is in the cosmic realm, Kālī's is in this world. Kālī's name is the feminine form of the word kāla, meaning Time, that which relates to the ever-devouring principle that dominates the animate world. Her name is also related to the Vedic (see Vedic entries) name for one of the tongues of the sacrificial fire. Kālī might be said to be the embodiment of the Hindu (see Hinduism, Hindu Mythology) belief: that the world exists only by way of sacrifice. Essential to this belief is the idea that the consumption of aspects of life is the source of prosperity. It should be noted in this connection that “Prosperity” is the meaning of Lakṣmī (see Lakṣmī), the wife of Viṣṇu (see Viṣṇu), the Preserver. In the popular depiction of Kālī, who has wild eyes, bloody fangs, and human heads as a necklace around her neck, she is standing on an apparently dead Śiva, who nevertheless has an erection. The combination of Śiva's virility, the destructive nature of the Kālī figure, and the fact that the goddess carries a bowl overflowing with the abundance of life, would seem to suggest the necessity of death for fertility and the constant creation of life. It may be said that Kālī's rampages also represent the spiritual necessity of killing weaknesses of the spirit without mercy in order to discover the true self. Kālī is particularly popular in Bengal.