Goddess Kali: The Element of Death

Do you know that a completely different person sat in your place 7 years ago? A radically different person. Meaning literally every cell of your body was different, and so were tissues, organs, bones, cartilage – everything went through a bunch of stages of renewal during these 7 years. Each day you woke up a little different, breathed a little differently, felt differently, your needs and tastes shifted a little… Upgrades and transformations rolled in like a gradient, progressively changing your body and its layers, and today you are a completely different person. Literally. Cellularly a different person. But this is biology. But what exactly happens on the subtle plane? The same thing happens: gradient and renewal.

You know that awkward feeling when you find your notes or messages from 10+ years ago? Immediately you would feel ashamed and embarrassed – what a dummy I was, for blog’s sake, how could I have been such an asshole (or an idealist, a cynic, a fool, a gullible sissy…)? I would have slapped myself, honestly. So! Take note of that state of mind and think about yourself back then. 10 or 20 years ago. Remember what you dreamed about then, what made you angry, what goals and ideals you set for yourself. Do you feel that? This very nasty feeling that you’re a different person now. And back then, someone else lived in your place, called themselves a little differently, had a different social life, behaved in ways that YOU would never have behaved. It’s a strange feeling, isn’t it? As if that person is already dead. Actually, they are. This feeling of detachment from the past and “once upon a time” is the very essence of the element of Death.

From the point of view of metaphysics, the element of Death is a part of the triad of elements Life-Time-Death, i.e. the process of transformation and the very cellular gradient that makes all living things go through life cycles one after another. In ba-tzu there is a concept of pillars and their change, these are the same “7 years”, only for the subtle body. Since birth and up to about 20 years a person lives in the signs of the year of birth, he is small, inexperienced and stupid. Until the age of 25, he undergoes a complete transformation – he has time to turn from a child into a teenager, then into a young man or a woman (well, or a combat drone, I do not follow the gender hysteria, sorry), to hit bumps, to make mistakes and draw conclusions based on them, to lose maximalism and stupidity… In short, fully entering the pillar of the month at the age of 25, you feel the global waves of change – you yourself are changing, the social surroundings and interests are changing, as well as tastes, views… This wave of transformation is very noticeable not only from the inside but also outside. And finally a new person with your passport will live till about 35-38 years, accumulating new experience, traumas, problems, events, social circle and skills. Then again, here comes a wave that washes away the outmoded, old, unnecessary, sick… And you are a whole new person again. With the exception that you’re already 40. And then at the age of 60 there will be another wave… In some African and Polynesian tribes a person even changed his name during such waves, and this is the right approach to “small dying” indeed.

These cycles are the endless passage of every cell and particle through the element of Death and “dying a little”. A small, demo version of death. In your lifetime, you die many, many times in a row. You come into contact with death not only through the pillars, but every time you these or those events and feelings pass through you, causing you to emotionally “die a little.” Falling into a creative or love ecstasy, experiencing severe shock and loss of loved ones, discovering something that turns your consciousness upside down – every time you get this eerie feeling that after all you’ve experienced, you can never be the same person again. This event, or feeling, has split your life into a Before and After. It will be different for everyone, everyone meets death in their own way.

The element of Death is called the element of small transformation, as opposed to the element of Chaos, which arranges not such trifles as human lives, but entire highways and millennial milestones of events. Yes, reality and life itself is also transformed, and also by a gradient, and also through Death. Every living being goes through these cycles, but all in a different sequence and at a different level.

In the past, people had knowledge about transformation, moreover, the work with dying the correct way was carried out everywhere and competently, allowing to direct a dead person to a new life of his choice, clean and peaceful, achieving the necessary goals. And with the arrival of monotheisms this understanding about rebirth and eternal cycle of transformation of both bodies and souls was actually annihilated, hence the purpose was also lost. But earlier in all religions there was such understanding. Yes, it was wrapped in songs and dances and mythology, but people knew about death and prepared for it calmly, no one lived like now – like an immortal, one day, and as if there would always be plenty of time until the end.

There were also practices aimed at purification from all emotional and mental junk through passing death as if ahead of schedule and in a deliberately harsh form while still alive. For example, the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism, many cults of India and Japan, as well as the forgotten cults of Egypt and Africa in general, are based on them. There are meditations on the stage of death, burial, associative with the symbolism of dying and much more. All these rituals, hardening the spirit and allowing at the moment of the real death of the body, to achieve their goals – this is necromagic in its purest form. Work with transformation of the spirit, work with gradient waves and cleansing from dirt and junk by passing through death. And then, deprived of the true idea of the purpose of this direction in magic, people began to mess around with corpses and to grow self-importance to the clouds. Necromagus is coming, step aside, losers.

Crowds of Gurias and All inclusive

Having taken away the idea of transformation from people, the vacuum had to be filled with something, so the most delusional concepts of heaven and hell appeared. After all, if we talk about the way up, we will have to talk about reincarnation, and there will be even more uncomfortable questions… So there appeared heaven and hell, where the true goal – transformation and through it – development and the way up, were successfully replaced by some vague idea that after death we will all either come to God or to his antipode. And there we will be either good or bad, but both ways without any specifics. Have you ever noticed that a coherent description of heaven is nowhere to be found in the religious texts of the monotheisms? And the description itself falls apart with just half a pint of logical questions. On the average, we are promised unlimited food, alcohol, virgin women and closeness to gosh for the sufferings we experience during our lifetime. The rest is not spelled out. And for the sake of this doubtful set, supposedly, is it worth it to work hard in life? To endure torments, hardships, to submit to all sorts of abominations, to deprive oneself of tasty treats? I’m not sure. Why would women want virgins as a prize for many decades of any kinds of deprivation? Yeah, much like a crowd of male virgins, you know, is a very questionable prize, too. Just like most mentally healthy men who aren’t prone to pedo-sadism don’t need virgins. Well, as well as a weird purpose in the form of food and booze, considering all these things can be safely savored in life. This looks more like some kind of Turkish resort, not a paradise. You want to eat, eat! Maybe you’ll feel better, but don’t mix borscht with metaphysics. Hell is even funnier there… Well, let Aliyah be with them, just take out the popcorn and enjoy the show.

The theory of heaven and hell is such nonsense that a healthy person cannot get into his head, so he starts to deny everything altogether, just in case. He starts to deny gods with their heaven and the soul, and any subtle matter, just to avoid getting into this idiocy. I don’t believe in anything, they’ll bury me and I’ll go feed the worms. But in this case the essence of life itself is completely lost! What did you live for? To feed the worms? To eat? To breed? To do what?… What is the purpose of your life, exactly the purpose and the result you want to achieve for yourself? People no longer have answers to these questions, they have them hidden deep and safe. For good. That’s why people became afraid of death so that it is impossible to talk about it out loud, this phenomenon was pushed out into the subconscious and buried deep, so that gods forbid, not to come into contact with it before the very last second of their miserable and aimless existence. But if you think about death, then uncomfortable questions will immediately pop up, and you find nothing particular about the meaning of life written in Wikipedia, not a single detail. About the meaning of death – even more so. Only gurias, only hardcore!

I’ll tell you. You need to live in order to be transformed. To live through and reevaluate the unnecessary, dirty, painful, and go through transformation going upward, gaining experience and keeping only the necessary and valuable. Becoming higher, better, cleaner, more interesting, more developed and achieving the goals set for life. If a person dies more than once during his life, then for many cycles of rebirths he dies thousands and hundreds of thousands of times… Time after time, life after life, in an eternal cycle of transformation and purification. Someone is spinning in it like in a washing machine, floundering aimlessly, spending thousands of lives and achieving nothing. He did not set any goals for himself, he just lived, ate, slept, fucked… And pathologized with quotes that the path is the goal. Well, someone for several cycles leaves this small human circle and enters a bigger and larger circle, where higher and larger beings are transformed and purified in the same way.

Death passes through everyone living in the worlds and not just cellularly. Each living being leaves a piece of itself in the place where it has lived and each is connected to the places of its past lives, as well as small and big deaths. Death cuts off the basic bindings, but everything that was torn and dropped on the wave of changes remains in the area where the being was purged. Like sparks of energy. Like preserved capsules of a former importance. And when the transition to a radically new level comes, these bits and pieces return to the owner, if they desire so. These remnants, forgotten by each departing creature, refill the wheel of rebirths, slowly building up its experience, strength and follow the creator. Although in the process of the cycle of births the connection with the creator becomes completely lost. This is how the wheel of sansara is replenished. Eternal movement, eternal novelty against the background of some clear Laws and Cycles.

Goddess Kali — Transformation, Darkness and Death

You might ask me why the article is named after the goddess Kali if I’m grumbling about monotheisms here? Because Wikipedia says Kali is the goddess of transformation and death. And, as you can see, it took me as much as 11 paragraphs to chew it up for you on that mealy-mouthed characterization. I’m being boring for a reason, because with the current level of information garbage, it’s not enough to just say “death and transformation” for the audience to understand me correctly. And it’s pretty disappointing.

Kali is the feminine form of “time” concept in Sanskrit, and also “black” and “dark” concepts therein. In my series of articles on the Mahavidyas, I have elaborated on the fact that each Mahavidya is essentially an infinitely recurring hypostasis of the same woman – Ma. One endlessly lives in her 16th year, one is always an old woman and widow, one seeks adventure, one gives birth to children and maintains the household… And so it goes 13 times + retinue. Kali is the face of Ma where she undergoes a wave of change. She is endlessly changing, frozen in the very concept of change. Which makes her both the steward of Death, Darkness and Time. Especially for fans of primitive concreteness, Kali is a demon and a necromancer and a master of time all at once 🙂 Though she is more complex and interesting than any of those concepts. Demonology was already existing at that time, too.

Kali is a person who still remembers the times when Death and Time were the same element, so she sees it flowing in a very peculiar and fascinating way. And when addressing her, you should keep in mind that her understanding of things may be very much different from yours. She will initiate this wave of change and transformation, but you will have to deal with it. 🙂

It is possible and necessary to approach this hypostasis of Ma when:

* You need to open and cleanse something: eyes and ears, karma, perception, truth and understanding where they are lacking, kundalini, etc. To remove the unnecessary and purify to the depths.
* To experience the wave of changes and transformation, to embrace the new and heavy and not lose one’s mind.
* To catch any form of ecstasy, such as creative, artistic ecstasy, when you need to step outside of academic art and create something radically new and vibrant.
* In general, when you need to go beyond something and you are frightened or don’t know how.
* To initiate a transformation of strength and energy.
* To survive through the death of a loved one or to accept correctly your own or someone else’s death. For example, when you are seriously ill.
* When you are confused and exhausted and just want to remove all the junk in one fell swoop.

There are millions of variations of the addressing and its purposes, everyone chooses the way which feels closer and brings what Kali herself will point out to him. Do not use ready-made recipes for sadhanas. Don’t use ready-made recipes for anything at all where personal and individual matters are concerned. There is no such thing as ecstasy happening by the book and dying by someone else’s template, everyone is one-to-one with Death.

Mylene Maelinhon \ Sathelard (c)