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Week 15 Reading A: "Seven Secrets of the Goddess:" "Kali's Secret"


  • Kali
    • Many goddesses before Kali shared her name or attributes associated with her
    • Associated with unbridled sexuality and female power
      • represented in art as naked, with an outstretched tongue, and unbound hair, often sitting or standing on the dominated Shiva
    • Proto-Kali (origins of modern Kali)
      • Dirgha-Jihvi
        • see as a threat by Indra
          • sends a young man named Sumitra to overpower her
          • she rejects him because he only has one manhood and she has "many vulvas seeking satisfaction"
          • Indra, in turn, gives the young multiple manhoods
            • this satisfies Dirgha-Jihvi
          • the two "make love"
            • while Dirgha Jihvi is pinned down during sex Sumitra uses the opportunity to kill her
      • identified as a proto-kali because of representations depicting an outstretched tongue and unbridled sexuality
        • "male anxiety before female sexual and reproductive prowess"
    • by 1000 BCE Kali emerges out of the collective
      • starts being seen as an independent goddess
      • "the perfect most primal representation of the Goddess"
      • some address this Kali as Maha-Kali to separate her from other Kalis
  • Storytelling Notes: I kind of want to do something with the Dirgha-Jihvi and Sumitra story. Like most of the goddesses represented in these videos so far this goddess is destroyed because a male feels threatened by her female power. The fact that Sumitra strikes down Dirgha-Jihvi during a sex act just kind of pissed me off, honestly. If I chose to rewrite this story believe that some changes to this will be made.
  • Bibliography: Seven Secrets of the Goddess by Devdutt Pattanaik (2016). Video. 
(Kali from Skydoms Wiki)

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