KALI
Once upon a time the world became populated by demons.
They filled the world with their copious greed,
and reproduced themselves endlessly.
They consumed the light of day, they soiled the air
they ate the trees, they swallowed the waters
they devoured the lands
with their insatiable greed
Eating, eating. Fill me! Fill me!
Until there were no more things of beauty made,
or new dreams dreamed,
or children born.
The unborn ones called to me,
The ones yet to come:
The time had come
to say Enough
and No More
I am the Goddess of No More!
I, I am the one who devours
I, I am the eater, fool.
I am the shadow
of all those who cannot remember
how to say enough
and No More
Maybe I just feel like dancing.
Maybe I just feel like dancing......
I, I am the Mother
Of all those
who are yet to come
Jai Ma
Kali Ma
by Lauren Raine
When the Hindu Gods could not defeat a plague of demons,
they called at last upon Kali.
Severed heads adorn Her necklace, Her skin is
black as night, and Her tongue protrudes from Her black face with the bloodlust
of battle, and the immense laughter of Kali, destroyer of illusion, who sees
beyond all appearances. Kali's dance is the destruction that must occur for
each new beginning. Kali's love is tough love; yet the dancing feet and the
flaming sword of Kali are among the most powerful expressions of Divine Love.
I wanted to create a performance for Kali. As I drove to the
event, I brought a costume, and snake with me, thinking the snake represented
the serpentine energy of the kundalini. But I didn't know what to do.
I went on stage, and read a paper, I just let the mundane
despair come out. "I can't stand it!" I said, and then I turned my
back to the audience, just breathing, and whispered, "When I meditate,
sometimes I become a Goddess......." Then I put on the mask. And a hot, hot
energy seemed to rip through me. I turned around, and words fell out of my
mouth.
As I picked up the snake, I remember saying, "This is
the Kundalini, this is the serpent." I spoke about how we channel that
enormous energy into sexuality, but we don't understand that it can rise
further into our hearts, our vision centers, infusing our entire being. All of
this was spontaneous! I genuinely can't say it was I, Drissana, who did it.
When I went into the dressing room later, I was shaking. It was as if Kali had
left, and I was just this small, exhausted person, who for a moment had been
inhabited by that ferocious intelligence.
Kali is the surgeon. She cuts away what has to go. I ask for
that quality when I have to cut something out of my life; an addiction, or a
relationship that no longer is about growth. And I ask it be done precisely,
this cutting away of dis-ease, malignancy, the aspects that no longer serve.
Kali was the last resort savior. When the Gods couldn't kill the demonic forces
that ravaged the Earth, they called on a woman's wrath.
We all have the ability to call the Goddesses into
ourselves. I can do this in my dance, but in everyday life it's more difficult.
That's why I thrive on performance, because I can freely let those forces work
through me. What I forget is that we can call on them at other times. We've
forgotten that the Goddess dwells within us, all the time, and not just when we
wear a mask, or are in workshop, or a ritual. We are, in Tantric terms,
extensions or emanations of the Gods and Goddesses - we are their material
aspects. We're not bodies that are seeking the spirit, we're spirits that are
seeking bodily experiences.
Remembering is a devotional practice. In the Hindu
tradition, everyone has a deity they focus on as their personal deity. In the
West, as we begin to reclaim the Goddess for spiritual practice, we each need
to create a relationship with the Goddess form we have chosen, in order to
manifest what we need for spiritual and emotional growth, to invoke the help we
need. That practice is not just cerebral. We function out of our whole self,
our bodies and spirits. The body-mind. That is where we re-member, we
communicate with the Goddess within ourselves.
Women need to become angry. Now. About the women of
Afghanistan, the meaningless wars, the destruction of our environment. The
demons of insatiable lust are devouring our planet. Those souls who await the
future are being denied their birthright.
Kali is the catalyst for saying
"No more". She's the voice of women whose voices aren't being heard,
women who need to open their mouths and speak for the first time. It's time to
embrace the sword of Kali and start cutting away the delusions that are
destroying our world. This is the ferocious mother who says "get away from
my children, or I'll kill you." Mothers today aren't saying that. They're
giving their children away. Giving them away to war, giving them away by
allowing our environment to be depleted, giving permission to the powers that
be to destroy their future.
This time of change is the dance of Kali.
by Drissana Devananda (1999)
