Images of Kali Ma (Descriptions and Source References ( for KaliPadma and all))

[Guest guest]

Here are the source info and a description of each of the two images

I saw recently in books, of Kali Ma:

 

1) The first is

"Kali Ma. Photo by Max Maxwell. Courtesy of Ajit Mookerjee Kangra. Himachal

Pradesh, India.

 

I found it in a book called "The Heart of the Goddess" by Hallie Iglehart

Austen.

The image depicts Kaly naked, with a blue color to her body and her tongue is

sticking way out, a little like a shake. Around her waste is a skirt of

human arms with hands and flesh still on. Around her Neck is a garland of ( Len

is correct ) heads, with hair and some even with mustache, all males. She has

four arms, and she is standing on teh back of Shakti who is lying on top of

Shiva and they are either making love or Shakti has fallen asleep and is

dreaming herself into Shive. Kali's Right ( to her persepctive tho it's on the

left

if you're looking at the photo it is Her Right Foot ) is on the lower part of

the rear or buttocks of Shakti who looks completely spent. In her four hands,

Kali has: in one of her right hands a kind of pincher looking device i do not

know what it is; in her other right hand, which is raised above her head, is

a very intimidating sword that is dripping with fresh blood; one of her left

arms is raised up a little lower than the sword, and in it is a severed head,

with hair and even facial hair, definitely that of a man; and in her other left

hand, is a flower, and I assume it is a lotus flower ( though I could be

wrong, it certainly looks like a flower to me, and the author of this book calls

it the "lotus of fulfillment" and she suggests the severed head represents

severingor releease of the rational mind and ego. Certainly the alphabet is

also

from the rational mind ( btw, I looked up Kali in the index of the Schlain

book The Alphabet Versus the Goddess: The Conflict between Image and Word" and

did not find Kali inthe index. ).

 

2) the other image of Kali is

"Savasana, 18th century C.E. Collection: Navin Kumar, New York

 

I found it in a book called Lady of the Beasts: The Goddess and Her Sacred

Animals by Buffie Johnson

 

Sadly the image is very tiny and some detail is hard to discern. This much

is clear:

 

Kali is dancing on Shiva. One right hand holds a pincher looking thing I do

not know what it is; the other right hand is raised up and holds a sword. one

of the left hands is slightly raised a little lower than the sword, and has a

bowl of i presume, blood; and the other left hand holds what looks to me like

some kind of flower, which from a side view seems to have 4 petals, and is

handing it, or so it seems, to a rather tiny human.

there is a garland of heads but they are too tiny to make out details, she

does seem to be naked but for a skirt the details of which are difficult to make

out due to the tiny size of the photo.

 

Blessings,

Cathie