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Continuing my review of Professor Madhu Khanna’s new edited volume of essays, Studies on Tantra in Bengal and Eastern India (Springer 2022). The first part of the review is here.
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Kālī Magic brings together Mike Magee’s decades of experience in translating and elucidating tantrik texts. The first section—Sadhana—explores the ritual worship of Kālī through mantra, her various aspects, and her yantras. The second section—Tantras—includes new English translations of the Mātṛkābheda, Toḍala, and Yoni tantras, plus two Kālī Upaniṣads and abstracts of ten tantras related to the worship of the goddess. With a comprehensive bibliography and glossary of key terms, Kālī Magic will be of great value to devotees and scholars of the goddess alike.
322 pages, illustrated by Jan Bailey, Foreword by Phil Hine.
“An exceedingly valuable resource for those brave enough to plumb the liturgical details of Kali worship. Thematically organized while consisting substantially of translations from Sanskrit scriptures, this is less a how-to guide than a survey of major tantric ritual components as presented in medieval sources. Three newly translated tantras and summaries of ten more round out the book, alongside copious illustrations and a lightly but helpfully annotated bibliography. Dive in!”
Joel Bordeaux (International Institute for Asian Studies/Leiden University)
Kālī Magic is available from Amazon.
“Will the Bengalee worshipper of Shakti shrink from the shedding of blood? … The worship of the goddess will not be consummated if you sacrifice your lives at the shrine of Independence without shedding blood.”
Jugantar
“Mother, incomparably arrayed, Hair flying, stripped down, You battle-dance on Siva's heart, A garland of heads that bounce off Your heavy hips, chopped-off hands For a belt, the bodies of infants For earrings, and the lips, The teeth like jasmine, the face A lotus blossomed, the laugh, And the dark body billowing up and out Like a storm cloud, and those feet Whose beauty is only deepened by blood. So Prasād cries: My mind is dancing! Can I take much more? Can I bear An impossible beauty?” Ramprasād Sen
As Mike Magee’s new book – Kālī Magic – for my Twisted Trunk imprint nears completion, I thought I’d do a brief essay on the goddess Kali and her key characteristics – the most enduring of which is her fury.
Continue reading »Indian goddess traditions are of enduring and fascinated attention to scholars and esoteric practitioners alike, yet many of them are virtually unknown beyond the boundaries of regional traditions or have been ignored. An attempt to redress this lacuna is this new anthology, edited by Michael Slouber – A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses: Tales of the Feminine Divine from India and Beyond (University of California Press 2020, 374 pages, Illustrated). Featuring primary translations of the narratives pertaining to twelve relatively unstudied Hindu goddesses. In what sense are these goddesses “forgotten” though? It is certainly not that they are insignificant, but that they are rarely given space in surveys of Hindu goddesses, or that their local, regional character has been lost as the goddess has become identified with more popular forms. Moreover, the scriptural sources which are the basis of these goddesses’ stories have, for the most part, received little attention. These range from some of the less well-known Purāṇas, the early Tantras, and contemporary oral lore and performance.
Continue reading »Madhu Khanna should need no introduction from me. She was one of the first contemporary scholars to produce a comprehensive examination of Srikula with her Ph.D dissertation – The Concept and Liturgy of the Śricakra Based on Śivānanda’s Trilogy (Oxford University, 1986) – and her publications include: Yantra: The Tantric Symbol of Cosmic Unity (1994), Rta, The Cosmic Order (2004), and Asian Perspectives on the World’s Religions After September 11 edited with Arvind Sharma, (2013). She is currently the director of the Tantra Foundation. Continue reading »
It seemed that I was enfolded through the sky
Becoming a net; gauze; silken
Bathed in feathers. Continue reading »
Following a Kali ritual at this year’s Queer Pagan Camp, a few people asked me to recommend books about Kali, so here’s a quick round-up of some books that I’ve found useful in one way or another, particularly in helping me to get to grips with this complex goddess. This is a subject very dear to me, as it was a recurring dream of Kali, experienced back in 1982, which first led to my becoming interested in Tantra – so my devotion to Kali is very much at the heart of my tantra practice. Continue reading »
“Oh Kali full of Brahman!
I’ve searched them all
Vedas, Agamas, Puranas
and found You:
Mahakali
Krisna, Siva, Rama
they’re all You
My Wild-Haired One.”
Ramprasad Sen
Kali has been occupying my thoughts a great deal of late, so to take this series of posts forward, I thought I’d take a look at how Kali is represented in the Mahabhavagata Purana, a late medieval text which for the most part, is given over to narratives about the Great Goddess. Continue reading »