Kali-Shyama

Kali is the equivalent not only to Parvati and Durga and all the other goddesses but to the great gods themselves.

She is the goddess of blood and destruction. Her skin is dark blue or downright black (Kali) and she is always represented as having wild instincts.

Like Shiva, Kali possesses a third vertical eye in the middle of her forehead and is naked. Her sole garment or ornament is a long necklace of skulls and a belt made of severed hands.

She is shown here with 10 arms and 10 heads. In all cases, her tongue hangs out, craving for hot blood.

Some say that her foot is on Shiva as a reminder of the fact that the divine Absolute needs an activating, vitalizing energy.

Everyone born is her creation as well as her victim.

"Certain is death for all those born"--so runs the teaching of the Hindu sacred writ, and in particular of the Bhagavad Gita (Song 11)--"and certain is birth for all those dead. Eternal and endless is this cycle"