In my research of pre-Christian mystery Religions what I found was that any information about them, mostly comes from those who were opposed to them. So apart from telling us that their rituals involved licentious sexual behaviour they don’t tell us much about them. As paganism was completely destroyed by Christianity in Europe and only survived in coded form in Freemasonry, Rosiccrucism and Alchemy. We have to look to areas of the world were paganism survived, and that is in Hinduism and Taoism, to understand the what were the original Goddess teaching were like.
Although Taoism and Hinduism have been mostly taken over by patriarchy Matriarchal elements still survive in both religions. Within Hinduism it mostly survives in Tantra, and both Taoism and Tantra like the Mystery Religions use sex in their spiritual practices.
The followers of Tantra worship the Goddess Kali. Of all the deities worshipped today, the Goddess Kali has to be the most bizarre and unsettling of them all. What are we to think of a Goddess who is nude, black, has a bloodstained sword in her hand, a necklace of the skulls or heads of men, a skirt of the cut-off arms of men. And is always shown with her tongue sticking out and walking or dancing on the body of a man. To say she is bloodthirsty is an understatement, because in her stories she will massacre whole armies of men or demons. In some stories she gets so drunk on drinking the blood of demons that she starts to massacre the whole of mankind. Though the story goes on to say that the God Siva saves the day by coming to Earth and throwing himself at her feet and thus appeasing her blood lust.
From a Christian point of view, she would be considered an evil Goddess and is even referred to by Christian commentators as a Hindu Devil, but in India she is revered as either “The Mother”, “The Saviour of the World” or “Female World Ruler”. She is worshipped by millions of normal people in India and even by people in Western Countries.
Her devotees claim that she is a very ancient Goddess, who is worshipped all over the world under different names. Even today in Catholic Churches in Southern Europe there are statues of Black Virgins, which is an unusual colour for a Christian image. It seems these Churches were built on pagan Temples of Black Goddesses, many being the Black Isis who was very popular in Roman times though there is evidence that the Black Isis replaced a even older Black Goddess. So in effect the Virgin Mary became a Goddess and followed a tradition of being painted black. Kali is also associated with the ancient Celtic Goddesses Caillech, Cale, Scotia, the Finish Goddess Kalma and many other European Goddesses who like Kali are called The Black Mother and Creatrix of the World. In Ancient Egypt there was Sekhmet, the lioness Goddess, who like Kali would slaughter whole armies of men or Demons and get drunk on drinking blood. There is also the Aztec Goddess Coatlicue, who had a skirt of serpents, a necklace of human hearts and a human skull in her hand. In some images her head has been cut-off and from her neck flow two streams of blood, which is also similar to traditional pictures of Kali.
If it is possible to connect Kali with Coatlicue, then Kali would have to be a very ancient Goddess, because to do this would mean that she is older than the time when there was a land Bridge between Siberia and Alaska. This goes back to the time of the last ice age which sounds incredible, until you ask the question; why were the people in Northern Europe worshipping Black Goddesses? It is normal for people to worship idols of the same race as themselves. Christians in Northern Europe have statues of Christ with fair-hair and blue eyes, while in Africa his statues are that of a black-man. The only reason why people would worship a statue of a race different from themselves is that the Deity had an extremely long visual tradition that people forgot why they made the Deity that way. Human beings probably evolved in Africa, which is a hot country, so in spite of the drawings you see of early cave-men that show them to be white. It is more than likely that they were black and some of them only slowly became white when they lived many thousands of generations in cold climates. Kali could be by far the oldest Deity that is being worshipped in the world today. In some images Kali is shown as a very old woman, perhaps an indication of her great age? Also she is known as the Goddess of time, suggesting that she is timeless. This has been partly confirmed by Archaeologists, who have discovered images of Goddesses going back 30,000 years.
[Kali representing women dancing on the defeated Siva represent men. From book Kali, The Feminine Force, by Ajit Mookerjee.]
In the images and stories of Kali there is a great deal of symbolism that is very strange and puzzling. The Hindus have attempted to make sense of this symbolism, they claim that Kali is so destructive because she is the Goddess of time, and everything is destroyed over great periods of time. The necklace of heads she has around her neck are 50 in number which represents the 50 letters in the Sanskrit alphabet. The reason she sticks out her tongue is because she is shy! The reason she stopped massacring mankind when she stepped on Siva was because she is married to Siva and a good Hindu wife would feel embarrassed at doing this! Except for saying that Kali is the Goddess of time, somehow these explanations do not ring true, and they sound like wild speculation.
Like with Freemasonry imagery the symbolism surrounding Kali is never explained or given only superficial explanations. So Freemasonry and Tantra are similar in that they have something to hide and they only reveal their teachings through confusing symbolism. So as with Freemasonry the way to break their code of their symbology is to be aware that Tantra was once a matriarchal religion.
In most images of Kali she is Black, and one of her names is 'the Black Goddess'. In Christian symbolism black is evil and white is good, but because of the ancient history of India this view can also be seen as racist. In the caste system of India caste means colour. Suggesting that a white race that conquered India in pre-historic times, who became the rulers while the common native people were black. This is the view of European scholars who claim that India was once conquered by a white Aryan race; this is now disputed by Indian scholars who point out there is no real evidence of this, except for the caste system. So to say white is good and black is bad means that this is about class and racial prejudice. This shows that Kali was probably one of the native Goddesses before the white invaders invaded India.
Religious symbolism can mean different things in different parts of the world. In the west we associate light with goodness and dark with evil. So it comes as a surprise to many people that the Australian Aborigines see it the other way around. The reason for this is that Australia is a hot and dry country where anyone can die quickly in the hot sun without shade or water. So to the Aborigine the sun and light are dangerous while the dark is safe and a relief from the heat of the sun. White people coming from colder climates regard the sun and fire as a relief from the cold, and fear darkness because of the long nights when it is winter. In the past, winter was when most people in northern counties died of cold and starvation, so it is no wonder they regarded the dark as evil. The Aztecs feared the darkness so much that they sacrificed thousands of people to their Sun God to ensure that the sun came up every morning. Indicating that they also originally came from a cold climate.
The archaeologist Marija Gimbutas claimed that the last Matriarchal age ended when patriarchal invaders came from the North to conquer the peaceful Matriarchal communities further south. So it seems that patriarchy started with white people in cold countries. So the same thing could of happened to India in pre-historic times, with white patriarchal invaders coming from the north.
Kali is also shown as naked, which is sensible in a hot climate but is often seen as primitive behaviour by people coming from colder climates where clothes are needed. When white invaders arrived in India, they wore clothes to protect their fair skins from the burning sun. They imposed their dress code on the natives; in much the same way as white people did in the last century in other hot countries. Even though the natives saw no reason to put on uncomfortable clothes in a hot climate. So it is of interest that there is a tradition of holy-men in
India who walk about stark naked, and can be very aggressive in the way they behave. To the degree where they carry weapons like swords in their hands and show they are willing to use them. This is a very old tradition because the Greeks wrote about them when Alexander the Great invaded India. In many warm countries, though the native people do not wear clothes they don't attach much importance to this fact, whereas these holy-men are using their nudity as a form of defiance. So this could have originally been a gesture of defiance against the white rulers and their customs to prove that they were not being intimidated by them.
All other Hindu Gods and Goddesses are shown as clothed, but with Kali she is mostly nude and this is commented on in songs and verses about her. Yet nudity seem to be commonplace in older Deities like Diana, Aphrodite and Pan. So it seems that there is a point to her nudity, which is probably that she is not a part of the patriarchal establishment. So therefore she existed in India before the patriarchal invasion. This is reflected in the story of the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were also nude before the serpent tempted them. The snake can be a symbol of the penis, so the snake could be a man or masculine knowledge. The story could be symbolizing that while Adam and Eve were nude they lived in the paradise of a matriarchal society. Then it was invaded or influenced by patriarchy. So the wearing of clothes would be a symbol of Adam and Eve accepting patriarchal religion and its way of life. Unfortunately the result of this was that they were thrown out of the paradise of the Garden of Eden. Eve was forced to take second-place to Adam, while he was forced to work "By the sweat of his brow". This probably came about because in a matriarchal society, everyone was equal so people would only have to work to support themselves and members of their family. In a patriarchal society the people not only had to work to support themselves and their family but the hierarchy of rulers, priests and warriors. They also had to work hard building useless things like palaces, fortresses, large Temples, Churches, pyramids and weapons of war.
Another feature of Kali is that she is always shown with her tongue sticking out. The Polynesians, who are related to the Indian people, use this as a sign of an aggressive challenge. In Britain today, children will also stick out their tongues as a sign of defiance. Kali is also shown carrying a bloody sword and with her expression of aggression we have to regard her as a warrior. She would then be a war Goddess; but why would warriors want a woman representing them unless the warriors happen to be women? This suggests that Ancient India might have been once an Amazon nation. Many people today regard Amazons as myths, not knowing that archaeologists have dug up graves of many Amazon warriors throughout Europe. So it suggests that when India was invaded by patriarchal armies from the north the women learnt to arm themselves and fight back. Though it seems like the Amazons in Europe and Africa they were finally defeated.
In her images Kali is shown walking or dancing on the body of a man; mostly this is the God Siva who is white. Some scholars claim that he was a native God who existed in India before it was invaded by patriarchal tribes. This is because he is worshipped as a penis in many of his temples. As the patriarchs were contemptuous of this form of worship, they stamped it out in many other countries it suggests that like Pan he was once a Matriarchal god. Which shows that the invaders were compromising with the native people at a very early date if they were willing to adopt the native gods. In much the same was the Christian turned many pagan Gods and Goddesses into Christian saints. After being adopted by the rulers of the country, he soon became a white man. This is emphasized in some of his stories and images as he is covered in white ash. So we have a native Goddess dancing or walking over a white man who is symbolic of the privileged rulers of the country. This means we have to regard Kali as a rebel leader of the native people who is dancing triumphantly on the defeated rulers.
In one Hindu sect, called Thuggee, who worshipped Kali, the followers would carry with them a cord and quietly strangle people sleeping on the street at night as a sacrifice to Kali. The British successfully stamped out this sect, but how did such a bizarre sect come to be created? In Southern Italy, after the Austrians had conquered them, a resistance movement called the Mafia was created. After the Italian people rose up and freed themselves of Austrian rule, the Mafia didn't disband but continued as a criminal organization. So the same could of happen to the Thuggee. After the British conquered India there was some resistance to British rule. Not having the ability to defeat the British in open warfare some Indian resistance fighters hit back in other ways. They would break into British soldiers' barracks at night and murder hundreds of them silently, while they were asleep. So this form of stealthy resistance is traditional in India, which points to the Thuggee sect being created originally as a resistance movement. As the Thuggee worship Kali it points to them being originally matriarchal, fighting to rid the country of the patriarchal invaders. They clearly failed in this, but they continued the killing long after the cause was lost and in time they forgot the purpose of doing this over hundreds of years.
Tantra, also worships Kali, and is very similar to Taoism in China. They both teach the concept that a man when having sex with a woman should not ejaculate. Many reasons are given for this, like, if a man ejaculates he wastes his spiritual energy, or that it is a type of yoga training to go beyond the temptations of the flesh. These sound like the usual patriarchal explanations that have allowed Tantra and Taoism to survive into the patriarchal age, while allowing a matriarchal practice to continue in secret. At a basic level, for a man to be able to withhold his orgasm is a great advantage to the woman, as it allows her all the time she needs to have an orgasm or even several orgasms. Without any fear that the man will ejaculate and cut short her enjoyment. Also because a man doesn’t ejaculate he is not going to be worn out and will always be, “on the boil” whenever the women wants sex. In modern day Western countries with the rise of feminism, women are already making these sorts of demands on men. Where a man has to learn foreplay and how to not ejaculate until the women orgasms. In Tantra, men are also encouraged to have sex with virgins. On the surface this sounds very patriarchal as patriarchal men like to "break in" virgins. Until you realize that in the ancient past a virgin was an independent woman who was not in any way dependent on a man.
To sum it all up, in Tantra, men were encouraged to have sex only with independent women, and to hold back their orgasm in favour of the woman. Also in Tantra, sexual positions are mostly shown with the woman on top, unlike patriarchal religions, which prefer the man on top and in control. So in Tantra the woman is taking the dominant position, and using the man for her pleasure. Suggesting that it was once a very matriarchal religion.
Tantra also teaches the concept of the left-hand and right-hand path of spiritual enlightenment. The right-hand is traditional Hindu orthodoxy, but the left-hand path is a complete rejection of this. On this path the seeker has to go beyond all the customs and taboos of society to achieve spiritual enlightenment. This makes it a very anti-establishment doctrine and it is greatly criticized by traditional Hindus. Christians and many people in the occult tend to regard the concept of the left-hand path as the path of evil. This is because of the very successful propaganda campaign that the Church mounted against the Witches during the Middle Ages. It was so successful that many people even today associate Witchcraft with evil. As are Freemasons who since the 19th century have also been accused of Devil worship. The result is that modern Witches in Britain when faced by the media, unless they are attention seekers, have to claim that they are "white Witches". This is as daft as a Christian calling himself a white or black Christian. In fact the charge of Black Christianity would be make more sense, because it was the Christians who did all the torturing, burning and robbing of the Witches. The Christians in the Middle Ages behaved in exactly the same way as the Nazis did when persecuting the Jews. First of all they put forward a propaganda campaign to claim how evil the Jews were and blamed many of the problems in Germany at the time on to them. When they had popular support against the Jews they then began to put them in concentration camps. The Nazis took a lot of interest in the history of the Witch-hunts in Germany. It sounds like they were impressed by the very successful propaganda campaign that the Church mounted against the Witches, and copied it.
The Hindus never went that far in condemning the fringe elements within their religion. Probably because even though many anti-establishment sects existed in Hinduism there is no record of them overturning the establishment. In the end the patriarchal rulers came out on top. So it seems that the image of Kali conquering patriarchy is not an event that occurred in the recorded past. As far as we know it never happened at all. So it can only be an event that existed so far in the past that it has been forgotten or it is a future event that the people hoped would come to pass in the future. In Ancient Israel, when the Jews were conquered by other nations like Babylon and Rome, their prophets predicted that one day a Messiah would appear and lead them in overthrowing their oppressors. That never happened in those days, but after the Jews were forced out of their homeland they hoped for a Messiah to lead them back. In this century this prophecy has become partly true. Although a Messiah did not appear, the Jews did return to Israel. So was Kali a type of Messiah to the native Indian people? The image of her dancing on a white man could have been the symbol of the dark, matriarchal native people finally overcoming and defeating the white patriarchal rulers. Perhaps this might have been the original meaning, but over thousands of years, in spite of the caste system, the Indians have more or less become one race. So the original meaning of Kali would have been lost. However, the images are still used and have come to mean something else.
In some of the older pictures of Kali, she is seen dancing on a man who naturally looks to be in pain because of it. But the later images show the man relaxed and he seems to be enjoying the experience! Walking or dancing over someone is a sign of conquest. In the old images the man resisted being conquered by Kali but in the later ones he doesn't and passively allows her to "walk all over him". This is surprising because she is shown carrying a bloodstained sword and has around her a chain of skulls or men's heads. In some of the images she does kill him. The chain-of-heads symbolizes that this man is not the first man she has conquered and is proudly showing how many men she has overcome.
Siva is traditionally the victim and seems to like Kali walking all over him because in many images he has an erection. Sometimes Kali is shown sitting on it. Does this means that this is sexual conquest? As the person on top in sexual intercourse is the one in control of what is going on. In some images Kali is the one with her head chopped off. Perhaps this is what happened to her when the rebellions of the native Indians were suppressed in Ancient India. But she is also shown holding her head in her hand and still alive, which implies she is immortal. So this suggests she was once a sacrificial Goddess like Inanna who died but then later returned. She might have been defeated in the past but now she has returned to conquer Siva, successfully this time. The image also shows the method of conquest. She is not conquering by war, as she is not attempting to kill Siva and he is voluntary surrendering to her. So why would a privileged ruler surrender to a low caste woman? It could only be that as Siva seems to enjoy being walked on he must be a masochist. This does suggest that the ancient Indians had an understanding of male masochism, which is reappearing today in western countries.
In recent years a new type of prostitute has appeared called the Dominatrix. These women own torture chambers in which male clients are willing to pay to be tortured and humiliated. The Dominatrix also dresses in black leather, rubber or PVC and acts in a very aggressive way to her clients. So is this an unconscious attempt to mimic the shining black skin of Kali and her aggressive nature? All this suggests that Kali is a very powerful archetypal image, re-emerging into our consciousness. It has been assumed that the Dominatrix sells only kinky sex, but she rarely has any sexual contact with her clients. So if the clients are not getting sexual satisfaction from her what do they get out of it? Her clients worship the Dominatrix as a Goddess, which is what Kali is, and worship is a very important aspect of religion. Most religions today separate religion from sex and some religions declare that sex is evil even though we couldn't reproduce without it. But in the past, sex and religion were closely linked. The priestesses of the ancient Goddess religions of the past, were referred to as Temple prostitutes. By the later patriarchal religions to disparage and misrepresent what was happening in these Temples. In a Goddess Temple we have to assume that men were worshipping Goddesses. They may have been worshipping the Priestess as well, as representative of the Goddess.
This is something that is happening today in Kali Temples in India. In the nineteenth century, the famous Hindu saint Sri Ramakrishna, a devotee of Kali let it be known that he worshipped his wife. There is a tradition of the worship of young girls as Goddess in India that survives even today. It is of interest that when these girls become too old to play the role of Goddess they became prostitutes. So the roles of priestess and prostitutes are still linked in the minds of Hindus. If men are getting really turned on through worshipping Goddesses, it would encourage men to believe women are all Goddesses. They might begin to treat women with respect and to be dominated by them. If this is so, no wonder the patriarchal religions hated and feared sex, because they saw it as a threat to their power. This is probably why they would only allow sex in marriage where the wife had to swear to obey her husband, have sex in the "missionary position". The husband was also encouraged to be a "real" man and beat-up his wife if she disobeyed him.
So these images are telling us that Kali will return to conquer Siva (the male ruling class) and that she will do so through sexual conquest. We can see today as a increasing number of prostitutes are becoming Dominatrices, and there is a growing number of women Domination sex-magazines for sale. Women's magazines, which used to concentrate on cooking, sewing and romance now have stories and articles on sex. Some even have nude males in them. It is also now acceptable for women to watch male strip-tease performances. So women are increasingly able to see men as sex objects to be used for their own pleasure. This is probably only the tip of an iceberg, reflecting the changes in men and women's sexual fantasies. Modern western women are demanding sexual satisfaction from men, while men are learning how to give it to them.
[In the above picture we see a headless Devi mating with Siva. The official explanation is that this is a comic cycle of the new replacing the old. So why has Devil no head? What this picture shows is that she seems to be putting her head back on! The meaning is that the Goddess can never die. The Goddess representing all women were once defeated by patriarchy, symbolised by Devi having her head chopped off. But she has returned and put back her head and is now dominating men, symbolised by her sitting on top of Siva, in the dominant sexual position. From book Kali, The Feminine Force, by Ajit Mookerjee.]
Some of the more recent images show a white Kali on top of a black or white Siva, so the images are moving away from black versus white to the more direct male versus female image. It is possible to see Kali in a woman like Margaret Thatcher, as she showed so much aggression, determination and domination. Had she not become a politician she would have made a great Dominatrix. So much so, that it becomes very easy to imagine all the men in her cabinet grovelling to her. Ex-ministers have appeared on TV and with a chuckle and a smile, described the appalling and outrageous way she treated the members of her cabinet and civil servants. It is noticeable that she never allowed another woman in her cabinet; perhaps another woman would have spoilt the fun!
Young men today are seen pushing babies in prams, something a generation ago that would be unthinkable. In schooling, young women no longer dream of marrying a man and having children, but want careers. The result is that in the 21st century girls are now out-performing boys at school and higher education. It is claimed that because women are now better educated women will get all the important jobs in the future. The more that powerful women appear in our society, the more they will be sexually attractive to men, encouraging them to worship women and allowing them to take power.
So Kali is the "the once and future Goddess" who ruled society in the ancient past and will do so in the future. This is shown in the many stories of Kali.
There are many stories about Kali in Hinduism which all seem to be different versions of the same story, suggesting that they came from a single source in the distant past. It appears that over thousands of years, the story was altered to fit in with the changing beliefs and ideas of different generations, with each version retaining a similar theme. Some of the stories seem to be heavily influenced by the patriarchal bias of the Hindu religion; others have somehow kept this to a minimum. it is one of these latter stories, translated into English by Ajit Moorkeriee in his book "Kali, The Feminine Force", that I would like to retell, to show how it can explain what is happening to our society today.
In this tale. –
The Great Goddess Durga or Devi was created by the united energies of the Gods when they became impotent after a long battle with Demonic Forces.
The Demons are also called anti-Gods, and would be called Devils in western religions. When a new religion takes over a country the old Gods which existed before are usually turned into Devils. We can see this with Pan, who later became the Christian Devil, or Set, who was once a benevolent God, but when religion changed, became an evil God and was later the Satan of Judaism and Christianity. So the Demons were possibly the previous Gods of the Hindus.
One problem with our story is that in patriarchal religions, Gods are supposed to be all-powerful, and creators of the world. Most people have accepted that until quite recently that a male deity created the world. So to patriarchal people, God is all-powerful because he is the creator of the universe. To have Demons in this story who after a long war are more powerful than the Gods, points to it describing a time when the patriarchal age is in decline.
Who are the Demons? The biggest threat to patriarchal religion in recent years has been science. In the seventeenth century, Newton showed that planetary bodies move because of scientific laws and not by the hand of God. In the nineteenth century, Darwin put forward the theory that people and animals were created through evolution and not by God. Then in the 20th century, scientists postulated the "Big Bang" theory, which showed that the Universe exploded from a singularity and was not created. Today, the Gods are no longer all-powerful, and in the western world many people do not believe in a God, or have serious doubts about his existence. So the story so far is a correct prophecy of now, the patriarchal Gods are finding themselves impotent in the face of the anti-Gods: science and atheism.
To win popular support, Christianity in the West is starting to rid itself of many patriarchal attitudes. Many believers are rejecting the angry and judgmental God of the Old Testament, and returning to the more loving and caring Father God of the New Testament. They are also preaching the more matriarchal teachings of Jesus, which is tolerance, and understanding of others, and using less and less, the strongly patriarchal teachings of the Old Testament, which emphasize intolerance and bigotry. Some are even going so far as to accept the concept of a genderless God and many sects are allowing women priests. In allowing the possibility that God could be both male and female, they are beginning to recreate a Goddess, as the Gods had to do in the Kali story in order to fight the Demons.
Because the power of the Church has been broken by science and rationality in our society, modern people in the West are free to worship a Goddess if they want to, thus the rise of the power of science is allowing the Goddess to return to us.
Devi then has a long battle with the Great Demon and eventually destroys him. However, this victory was not the end of the episode. Two other Demons appeared with the intention of rendering the Gods impotent, so again they prayed for help from Devi.
This part of the story is very similar to the later part of the story and seems to be two different versions of the same story joined together. There is a possibility that the stories of Kali are about the very ancient past as well as the future. If what is happening today has occurred in the distant past, it points to the possibility of a continuing cycle. In Hinduism as well as other ancient religions, the concept of great cycles or ages lasting hundreds of thousands of years exists. We live today in the Kali-Yuga age (Age of Iron), which started about 5,000 years ago and will go on for another 400,000 years. It could be suggesting that in our world we have ages where the Demons rule the Earth, and have to be defeated by The Great Goddess later on in the age. So Kali defeated the Demons in the Last great-age and will defeat them again during this age. 5,000 years ago is at the beginning of the Kali-Yuga age was also the time the recent patriarchal age started. So it does suggest that these ages start with patriarchy or demon rule and then Kali defeats the demons or patriarchy and matriarchy comes into being until the end of the age, then a new age begins starting again with patriarchy.
Devi then came to Earth again, in disguise. There she is met by one of the Demons who try to persuade her to see the Demon King. But she very politely declines the offer.
In the nineteenth century many women began to realize that men used them as slaves. In the USA some women campaigned against slavery, only to realize that the slaves had the same rights in society as they had. They complained about this to men who tried to persuade them it was "natural" for women to be men's slaves and devote their lives to children and husbands.
So women in the 19th century began to question the status quo and politely declined the "reasonable" arguments by men that they should accept their position in society. Women beginning to demand equal rights didn't have any confidence in themselves. Men, who told them that women were not as clever as men because they had smaller brains, easily intimidated them. Or that women were too emotional to make sensible decisions about affairs of state. In the writings of the period, women show an undercurrent of anger about their situation of powerlessness. But they rarely showed this anger to men and used the 'feminine' ways of persuasion and patience to get their way. Women were disguising their feelings by being very polite to men, even though they felt great anger towards them. At the same time they didn't accept men's reasons for why they should remain dominated and go back to being submissive wives.
The Demon King became enraged that Devi would not come to see him, and ordered a Demon Chief with an army to bring her to him by force. When they attempted to do this, Devi reduced the Demon Chief to ashes with the vibration of a hum she made. The army was destroyed by Devi's pet lion.
The hum is used in Hinduism to create a harmonious vibration, which helps meditation. In this century, women began to protest they were being unfairly treated by men and demanded equality. Harmony is created by equality because inequality creates resentment and conflict. So it was through the very sensible and reasonable argument for equality, put forward by women, that they gained their first victory over patriarchy. First by the Suffragette movement that campaigned for women to have the vote in western countries and then the women's Liberation Movement that campaigned for true equality. By being able to articulate the different ways men and women were being treated within society, they shamed many men into allowing women more equal treatment.
In very ancient religions, Gods were associated with animals; for example, Pan was half man and half goat and Horis was depicted as a bird-of-prey. A lion that can destroy an army has to have Godlike powers. If Devi is manifesting herself on this Earth through the women's movement, then it means the lion represents the men who have helped women to gain equality. Although men have not taken to the streets to campaign alongside women, women could not have achieved much in this century without the help of sympathetic men. These men were willing to vote for women's emancipation in male dominated legislative chambers, allow them into universities and employ them in male-dominated professional jobs. It was this type of men that countered the power of other men, who were greatly opposed to women gaining any form of power in our society.
[In this picture we see a Goddess who represents the whole of womenkind lying asleep in an Egyptian crypt. We also see a Mason priest awaking her, suggesting that it will be the work of the Freemasons that will re-awaken the Goddess. But it could have another meaning because this is portrayed as an Egyptian scene and the Egyptian Sun Goddess is Sekhmet whom is also a lioness. The story of Sekhmet is very similar to the story of Kali, because like Kali she not only destroys the evil god but also nearly destroys mankind as well. So if the lion is a representation of Sekhmet then it suggests that it is powerful women like Kali and Sekhmet that is needed to reawaken women.
This scene is also similar to the re-awaking of Inanna where the God Enki saves her.]
We can see a big difference in men as well as women from what was acceptable in the past and what is acceptable now. A Suffragist or women's liberation movement 400 years earlier would have resulted in a Witch-hunt, where men tortured and burned alive millions of women, who it seems at the time "didn't know their place". The fact that this didn't happen in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries shows that there had to be large numbers of men who were sympathetic to the women's movement and allowed it to progress without too much violent opposition. So the Suffragettes and later on the women's Liberation movement created, in theory, a more harmonious society where men and women are given the same opportunities in society.
When the Demon King learnt that his Chief and army had been destroyed he ordered two other Demons and a larger army to bring her to him by force. On seeing this great army approaching her, Devi grew terrible with rage; her face turned black. Then from her frowning forehead jumped Kali, armed with a sword and noose.
Kali is portrayed in the story as a hag, symbolizing the fact that she is a very ancient Goddess, far older than Devi. Needless to say, mounted on her lion, she totally destroys, in the most horrendous way, the two Demons and their army. We are now on more uncertain ground, as this seems to be talking about something that will happen in the future. But there are signs that
Kali is appearing in our society. The Dominatrix was mostly created by men's sexual fantasies, but today in the 21st century there are now many women who are also being turned on by the Kali archetype. They are not content with the idea of equality with men and want to dominate them. Since the nineteen eighties there has been a backlash against the women's Movement by religious fundamentalists and right-wing politicians, who have attempted to reverse all the gains made by the feminist movements. They encourage women to fulfil their traditional roles again, bring back antiabortion legislation and blame higher crime rates onto single mothers. This has already created anger in the women's movement. As the fundamentalist movement gains in strength, women will be forced to abandon their "we only want equality" stance, and realize that they are caught in a power-game where "the winner takes it all". Equality is not yet possible.
This will allow the women's movement to be led by women who will not be interest in equality but in winning. It is they who will inflict a defeat on the two demons of fundamentalism and right-wing politics. They will be helped by many men, symbolized by the pet lion Devi rides, who are greatly attracted to dominant women, and more than willing to worship them and be their servants, as well as to fight on the behalf of female power.
The Demon King, hearing of this defeat, sets out with his brother and an even Larger army against Devi, who separates different aspects of herself into many of the Hindu Goddesses and with the help of the loyal lion, destroys his army. When Kali fights the Demon King's brother, every wound she inflicts produces thousands of smaller demons. In the end she can only defeat him by swallowing him whole.
The women's Movement has never been completely united even though they claim that The Sisterhood Is Powerful’. What seems to be suggested is that the Feminists who will continue to claim they only want equality with men, and will try to distance itself from women who only want to dominate men. But the male backlash against women will polarize society so much that they will be forced to fight alongside them. In the twentieth century most of women's gains were achieved by a small number of activists, while the vast majority of men and women were indifferent to the argument about women's rights. Equality between the sexes has not created widespread conflict in our society. But with rise of fundamentalists who want to put women back in their place, and women who will want to dominate society, this will polarise society. Very few people will be neutral about these demands, and many will fight with great passion, either for or against it.
[From book Kali, The Feminine Force, by Ajit Mookerjee.]Probably the first countries to become matriarchal will be in the West, since it was in Northern Europe that patriarchy started. Today, Scandinavian countries have moved further towards matriarchy than any others, so it seems that matriarchy will begin there. With the West becoming matriarchal there will be problems in Eastern countries. Patriarchal rulers, seeing what has happened in the West, will try and prevent change, inevitably creating another war. The rulers will mount a propaganda campaign against women, out of their fear, making the women in these countries angry. With the support of matriarchal women from the West, patriarchy will be resisted and overthrown. One of the best weapons against matriarchy by patriarchy has been to make patriarchal women breed continuously, so that the patriarchal races outnumber the matriarchal. This is still true today, because in countries where women have gained some degree of equality the birth rate has dropped, while in societies which are still very patriarchal the birth rate is still increasing. So this is the demon that keeps on creating more demons, no matter how many times he is wounded. There is no point in trying to fight this demon; Kali could only defeat it by swallowing it whole. This means Patriarchy will have to be swallowed whole by matriarchy. The answer is not fighting, but an internal revolution in which countries and religions will become matriarchal because the majority of the people want to be matriarchal. In Greek mythology, there is a similar story. Hercules is sent to kill the many-headed Hydra. He attempts to do this by chopping off its heads, but each time he removes one, several grow in its place.
He puts down his sword and drags the Hydra from its swamp into sunlight where it withers and dies. So it means enlightenment about the ills of patriarchy and the benefits of a female-ruled society will eliminate the demons of male domination.
Many people will think it impossible that a religion Like Islam could become matriarchal in the future, but not all Moslems are fundamental extremists. The only reason we have extremists today in Islam is because it is changing to a more moderate religion, and the extremists want to get back to how Islam was in the past. Women are still oppressed in Islam but they do not accept their Lot so easily as their mothers did, so the men are finding it more difficult "to keep them in their place". Islam today recognizes the threat to it from atheistic science and from its people becoming westernised. The leaders of Islam know how important it is to keep popular support, and like Christianity will change to keep it. They have seen the demise of Christianity because it didn't change fast enough and quickly became out of step with the beliefs of most people. The teachings of Mohammed like Jesus are open to many different interpretations. So if popular opinion begins to change towards feminism they will have no choice but to follow.
This change is already happening in Roman Catholic countries like Italy and Southern Ireland. Although in these countries birth control is still banned, the birth rates are not higher than any other European country and Italy has the lowest birth rate in Europe. Which means that most of the people are no longer following the Churches' doctrine of not using contraception. This gives the Church an uncomfortable choice, either to continue with its old laws or become completely out of step with the majority of the people, which will mean in time that they will become a minority religion. Or change and reflect the increasing power women have within society and eventually become a matriarchal religion.
In the end only the Demon King was left, he started to taunt Devi, to encourage her to fight him on her own. She did not fall into this trap and brought together all the different aspects of herself including Kali. Then mounted on her faithful Lion destroyed the Demon King.
As women start to overcome patriarchy, men will attempt to exploit the differences within the women's movement. So this is a warning to matriarchal women, not to allow internal differences to divert them from the main aim of defeating patriarchy. This realization will force women to forget their differences and join together as one, to bring about Patriarchy's final defeat.
This also gives a suggestion on how patriarchy will be defeated by Matriarchy. The last matriarchal age seemed to have ended through the violence of men, where the aggression of men seemed to be an advantage over women. But aggression can be also a great disadvantage as shown when the Romans conquered Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. The Romans were successful not because of their aggression, but because of the passivity of their troops who were willing to obey the orders of their generals without question. It was soon discovered on the battlefield that a fighting force that fought together as one unit could easily defeat a much larger force that wasn't so united. The same thing happened in the English civil war in the seventeen century. The Royalists under Prince Rupert were mostly noblemen who even then were still a warrior class who learnt about warfare from an early age, as well as using mercenaries who were professional soldiers. With this advantage, Prince Rupert carried all before him early on in the war. His opponent Cromwell only had an army of farm-boys, who had no experience of war. But being on the bottom of the pecking order were used to doing as they were told, Cromwell trained them into a force known as the Iron-Sides. When they took to the field of battle they fought as one and proved to be invincible, Rupert never won another battle and lost the war.
In business, and politics as well as war a number of people who are united can easily defeat a far larger number of people who are not united. This is men's disadvantage because their aggression makes it harder for them to unite with others, as they are more likely to argue with each other than women are. During the whole patriarchal age the only way men could become united was by having a strong leader, who achieved obedience though intimidation and promise of reward. So a man who is working for a company is threatened with the sack if he doesn't do his job properly or receives reward in promotion if he is seen to do well. Women on the other hand have a far more responsible attitude to others and the community as a whole. They do not need rewards or threats to work for the good of others, and it has been only in this century that women have ever received money for what they do. Even today women are still working for nothing, looking after houses and husbands and bringing up children for no financial reward. This tack of ambition has been a disadvantage in a patriarchal society only whilst women have been kept separated by marriage. With marriage breaking down there is now an opportunity for women to come together and be united.
It has been noticeable that the feminist movement has achieved a lot without any leaders. All that was needed was for women to be informed of what was needed and they were able to organize themselves to benefit the cause. It is women's lack of aggression that makes it far easier for them to work together. Women fail to realize how much they have achieved in the twentieth century, changing from a situation of near slavery at the beginning of the century to near equality
with men at the end. Which in historic terms is a very short space of time, something that it took men thousands of years to achieve at the end of the last matriarchal age. When women decide that they want to dominate and control society, men will be far too disorganized to prevent them. Even if all the fundamentalist forces join together to fight the women's movement, men will still be arguing and fighting among themselves and so will be too disorganized to resist the female Supremacists.
After this The Great Goddess Durga departed, promising the Gods that she will nourish the world with vegetation growth.
As this story is told in patriarchal times it would be unacceptable to say that The Great Goddess will remain to rule the world. So we have to see that as something that was added to make it acceptable, or it would never have been allowed to be told. This is confirmed because Kali is called by her followers in India as both "The Savior of the World" and "Female World Ruler", as we do not have a Female World Ruler, it has to be prophecy for the future.
The promise of the nourishment of the Earth is very interesting. Today with all our great forests being cut down and deserts Like the Sahara growing larger every year. Women will need to do a large amount of replanting to counter the Greenhouse effect and bring life back to many barren parts of our Globe. It is also of interest that the old Goddess Religion held trees to be sacred, and were reluctant to cut them down. The later patriarchal religions had no such inhibitions, and cleared the land to create man-made deserts. So it seems women in the future will reverse this trend and bring life back to the devastated parts of the world.
[Again we have a headless Goddess on top of a defeated God. Note the naked women with swords, showing us it is strong Amazon women who will defeat patriarchy. From book Kali, The Feminine Force, by Ajit Mookerjee]
In other stories of Kali when she is defeating the armies of Demons, she gets drunk on drinking blood and cannot stop herself from killing. So much so, that the Gods fear that she will destroy all men on the Earth. In an attempt to save man, the God Siva come to the Earth and Lays on the ground in front of Kali. She walks all over him, and her anger evaporates. By doing this Siva in effect was totally surrendering himself to Kali. Which symbolizes, that women will in the future keep on fighting until they receive complete and unconditional surrender from men. The gory images that come from Kali are completely unlike women, after all it is men who have started and fought wars. Men commit most crimes of violence so in this way Kali doesn't fit into the image we have of women. In spite of this, men have always suspected there is a tiger lurking within all women. Somehow the image of Kali becoming drunk with drinking blood doesn't become a surprise to us.
Rudyard Kipling wrote a very famous and popular poem call "The female of the species", which goes on to say "is much deadlier than the male", in a time when women were seen by society as very much the weaker sex. So it does indicate that we have an unconscious knowledge that women to can be extremely aggressive.
Feminists have been firm in claiming they only want equality with men. But within feminist writings there is a real anger against men. Which is not surprising with the thousands of years of abuse women have had to put up with from men. Women have a real fear of men and do think that if they ask for too much it will create a backlash and men will once again dominate women through the use of physical violence. So for this reason women prefer a quite revolution so as not to antagonise men too much by asking for too much, too quickly.
Women probably underestimate themselves. If women want power then they have to make the Feminist slogan, ‘The Sisterhood Is Powerful’, work. Women are only at a disadvantage while they try to play the patriarchal game and compete with men individuality. This is where most men have the advantage because they are not only stronger and bigger than women but more aggressive as well. This is why marriage is a patriarchal invention because it gives men all the advantages. For women to gain real power requires them to work together. This is where women have an advantage; men tend to compete with each other and can only successfully work together under a strong leader. Recently scientific studies show that women don’t need a strong leader for them to work together. Whether it is fighting patriarchy on the battlefield, in the boardroom or in politics, women will have the advantage if they create a powerful sisterhood.
In the end what will decide the issue is whether, the majority of people in society will want to live under patriarchal or matriarchal rule. As we can see around the world today, women have more power in some countries than in others. Sooner or later we will have in a few countries with genuine matriarchal rule. If women can demonstrate that they are better able to rule society than men, in these countries, it will create a worldwide revolution. Not that they will have to prove a lot, a look in history of how our world is run today. Demonstrates that women would have to try very hard, to do a worse job of running the world than what men do.
[The Goddess Durga riding on her pet tiger defeats the army of Demons or anti-gods. From book Kali, The Feminine Force, by Ajit Mookerjee]
