Category: Tantra

2025 Day 8: Kali in Cali

2025-0108W-0708 Radio East, Austin, TX

I called one of my Cali friends last night and she told me that there were fires LA. I checked in with another Cali friend who lives in Santa Monica and she had evacuated to Orange County. I am still waiting to hear from my brother who is also in LA to SF area now. Sending gratitude to the firefighters in CA and prayers to them and others for their safety during this time.

I’m reminding of Kali (or Kalika), the Hindu goddess of the paradoxical union of destruction and creation. The name ‘Kali’ is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘kāla’, which means time. Kali is often connected with time, death or destruction, transformation, and liberation. She is also one of the Mahavidyas (“Great Wisdoms”), ten powerful goddesses who represent different aspects of the Divine Feminine. Kali guides devotees to ultimate freedom through wisdom and destruction of the ego. She symbolizes the eternal void and the cyclical nature of life and death.

Image of Kali generated using AI (ChatGPT, 2025-01-08)

Diving Deeper: Here are the ten Mahavidyas, with their aspects of the divine feminine and their symbolism. Which are you feeling most connected with today? In reading through these, I wonder if Bhairavi is perhaps more associated with the Cali fires. In Sanskrit, fiery energy is “tejas”, the inner spiritual fire that drives transformation and enlightenment. Bhairavi represents the impermanence of life. She is a fierce protector of the cosmic order (dharma). She guides us back to spiritual truth when we stray.

  • 1. Kali (Time, destruction, liberation) – Destroys ego and ignorance, represents the eternal cycle of life and death.
  • 2. Tara (Compassion, guidance, protection) – Savior goddess, guiding through distress and symbolizing ultimate knowledge.
  • 3. Tripura Sundari (Beauty, grace, ultimate truth) – Unifies material and spiritual realms, embodies supreme bliss.
  • 4. Bhuvaneshwari (The cosmos, space) – Universal womb, goddess of creation and the material world.
  • 5. Chinnamasta (Self-sacrifice, courage, transcendence) – Cuts ego and attachment, symbolizes divine bliss and transformation.
  • 6. Bhairavi (Wrath, destruction, purification) – Burns away ignorance, represents fiery energy and penance.
  • 7. Dhumavati (Widowhood, detachment) – Embodies the void, teaching detachment from material desires.
  • 8. Bagalamukhi (Control, stillness, focus) – Paralyzes negativity, silences enemies, and brings mental clarity.
  • 9. Matangi (Speech, learning, music) – Represents thought and communication, associated with unconventional paths.
  • 10. Kamala (Prosperity, fertility, abundance) – Tantric form of Lakshmi, symbolizes wealth and worldly blessings.

20200503u Day 124: Tantra Yoga and Dance

Chiang Mai Flower Festival Parade – Feb. 2, 2019

This morning I listened to a tantra lecture on polarity. Mahasiddha Yoga is offering free classes during the COVID-19 pandemic. My partner and I attended three of their workshops offered last year in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We were there during the Chiang Mai Flower Festival and I remember walking outside during a class break and taking the pictures of the festival parade.

One of the polarity exercises I remember from the year-ago class involved the polarity of masculine and feminine energy. Those representing masculine energy paired up, faced each other, and held a solid stance while looking each other in the eyes and maintaining a fixed, unemotional expression. Then, those representing feminine energy came into the room and dance around, trying to attract the gaze and attention of the masculine. If any of the masculine energy holders lost focus, then their partner would quickly reach out and slap/tap their shoulder to bring them back into focus. The goal of the exercise was to feel the difference between the masculine, grounding, mass-like energy, and the feminine, dynamic, wave-like energy.

After the tantra lecture, I participated in a 4 hour online dance workshop, Dance Alive, by Mariane Karou. It was recommended by one of my housemates and three of us in the house did it together. I had a lot of resistance going into it and I wanted to leave after about 10 minutes into it. I then lied down on the floor and took a short nap. When I awoke, Mariane was talking about Resistance, and how Resistance makes us Stronger. I noticed that many of her words resonated with me and I saw an alignment with Universe Surfing. One of these involved focus – focusing your mind and your body on your goals. When you encounter resistance, then push yourself through it. When your mind gets distracted, then focus your mind on encouragement. Another was about the power of fluidity. As we moved our bodies in a fluid manner, she motivated the idea that by being fluid and flexible, we can more easily adjust and respond to changes in our environment.  I imagined how a surfer focuses their attention on riding a wave and develops a fluid muscle response to changes in the waves and their position on the waves in order to continue riding a wave.

During the movement exercise, I imagined a technique for surfing through the universe. The idea is to imagine a sequence of parallel universes between the universe in which you feel yourself and the universe in which you want to be. For me, I imagined how I have a very undeveloped set of planning and organizing skills. I want to be in a universe in which I can make a task list, prioritize it, and check things off. I did my imagining while I was dancing, and then I froze my movement. As I froze my movement, I imagined myself continuing to move but in parallel universe space, not physical space. I focused my attention on the changes going on inside my body as it stayed frozen. I held that position for almost a minute as I imagined myself moving to my desired universe. When I felt myself mentally in that new universe, I began dancing again and was ready to think of something new that I wanted to change in my reality.