Shiva-Shakti

Paradoxical and gruesome, Kali is the most cherished and widespread of the personalization of the Indian cult of Tantra. She inspires awe and love. Though her image is filled with terrifying symbols, their real meaning is not as it first appears. They have equivocal significance.

Kali is the symbol of the cosmic power of time (kala) & in this aspect, she signifies annihilation, yet through death, the seed of life emerges. Wearing only a girdle of human hands, Kali is naked and in her nakedness, she is free from all the veils of illusion. Her disheveled hair forms a curtain of death, which surrounds life in mystery. Her garland of human heads symbolizes power and knowledge. She wears a girdle of human hands! Hands are the principal instruments of work and so signify the action of karma. In one of her left hands, she holds the severed head of a demon, symbolizing evil, the blood from which falls into a bowl held in another left hand. The beheaded body lies in a pool of blood at her feet. In the right hand, she flaunts the blood-smeared sword used in the gruesome killing.

She is the changeless, limitless, primordial power awakening the un-manifested Shiva lying passive beneath her feet. In this image she symbolizes all pervading, all embracing power.