Kali is known to be the goddess of death and destruction and though some may think of her as a single deity, she is actually a manifestation of Devi, who in other forms appears as peaceful and benevolent. Kali is commonly associated with death, violence, sexuality.
Kali made her most famous appearance in the Devi-mahatmya, where she joined the goddess Durga in fighting the demon Raktabija – he had the ability to reproduce himself with each drop of spilled blood; thus Durga found herself being overwhelmed by Raktabija clones.
Kali rescued Durga by vampirizing Raktabija and eating the duplicates. Kali came to be seen by some as Durga’s wrathful aspect.
Kali first appeared in Indian writings around the sixth-century A.D. in invocations calling for her assistance in war. Her image is none the less confusing: on one hand she destroyed demons and thus brought order. However, she also served as a representation of forces that threatened social order and stability by her blood drunkenness and subsequent frenzied activity.
Kali is most often depicted with four arms, wielding weapons and severed limbs, and with black skin. She wears a necklace constructed of human skulls. A skirt of human limbs from those she has destroyed, hangs around her waist. Her long black tongue hangs out of her mouth, dripping with blood. She’s usually carrying a severed head in one of her four hands in icons of the goddess.
She is often shown standing or dancing on her husband, Shiva as depicting her dominant position.
In essence she remains a vampire that feeds on sacrifices [mainly of blood, and her cult includes animal sacrifice] for the Hindu understand that without death there can be no rebirth.
She is veneered as destructive force and you will find sources that associate her with a black whole that [as a vampire] feeds on live energy.
In Tantra, the way of salvation was through the sensual delights of the world-those things usually forbidden to a devout Hindu-such as alcohol and sex. Kali represented the ultimate forbidden realities, and was thus to be taken into the self and overcome in what amounted to a ritual of salvation. She taught that life fed on death, that death was inevitable for all beings, and that in the acceptance of these truths-by confronting Kali in the cremation grounds and thus demonstrating courage equal to her terrible nature-there was liberation. Kali, like many vampire-deities, symbolized the disorder that continually appeared amid all attempts to create order. Life was ultimately untamable and unpredictable.
Kali survived among the Gypsies who had migrated from India to Europe in the Middle Ages, as Sara, the Black Goddess. However, her vampiric aspects were much mediated by the mixture of Kali with an interesting French Christian myth. According to the story, the three Marys of the New Testament traveled to France where they were met by Sara, a Gypsy who assisted them in their landing. They baptized Sara and preached the gospel to her people. The Gypsies hold a celebration on May 24-25 each year at Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, the small French village where the events are believed to have occurred. A statue to Sara was placed in the crypt of the church where the Gypsies have kept their annual vigil.
๑۞๑ Related: ๑۞๑
† Vampires in Ancient Cultures
