skies-of-honey:

These 17th century Hindu paintings strongly resemble 20th century modernist paintings! I find this so interesting.

castingcircles:

Kali’s Symbolism

Hair:

Kali’s hair is always loose and disheveled. She is never depicted with it bound or braided.  Kali’s unbound hair stands for her disdain for convention. Kali is free from convention, wild and uncontrolled in nature, not bound to or limited by a male consort. It also suggests the end of social and cosmic order.

Tongue:

Kali’s lolling tongue denotes the act of tasting, consuming and enjoying what society regards as forbidden, foul, or polluted, her indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world’s “flavors.”

Eyes:

Her three eyes represent the Sun, Moon, and Fire with which she is able to observe the three modes of time: Past, Present, and Future.

Adornments:

Her Girdle of Severed Arms represents the destruction of her devotees’ karma. They symbolize deeds, actions, karma. The binding effects of this karma have been overcome, severed as it were by devotion and service to Kali. She blesses her devotees by cutting them free from this karma.

Her Garland of Severed Heads represent the sounds of the alphabet, the underlying essence of reality as manifest in sound. From the various sound seeds, all creation proceeds and Kali is the underlying power.

The Bloodied Sword and Severed Head symbolize the destruction of ignorance and the dawning of knowledge. The sword of knowledge cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false consciousness, represented by the severed head. Kali opens the gates of freedom with her sword.