• Kali Ma
• The Dark Goddess
• Dark Mother
• Kalika
• The Black Goddess
• Kali the Destroyer
• Consort of Shiva
• Dancing Lady of Death

     Kali's Name means "black" and is also derived from the Hindu word 
for "time".She has also sometimes been identified with Durga.Her very 
appearance is meant to terrify the entities, demons, and devils of the 
sinister force and the "dweller on the threshold".She has at times been 
depicted as black and wearing a necklace of skulls or severed heads 
representing slain human egos that have sought to usurp the Divine Mind.
     Kali is not always thought of as dark, but also as a loving mother, 
and is revered by millions of Hindus especially in that aspect.
     Kali is the deity in her aspect as withdrawing time into itself. 
"Kali is so called because She devours Kala (Time) and then resumes Her 
own dark formlessness. 
     She is the Hindu goddess of multiple possibilities.She transforms
life into a dance of death.

     The mistress with her black face holds weapons in her hands and
necklace and earrings of dismembered bodies.The Mother of Death is the
force of Time leading to destruction.And even after all is destroyed
New beginnings will awaken from the timeless sleep she represents.
  
     Kali was first manifested when the goddess Parvati knitted her
brows in fury (when the demon,Daruka,threatened teh gos).The 3-eyed
Kali sprang from her fully armed.She immediately put an end to the
demon.Thus she is considered an aspect of Paravati.

    It was told that Kali fought and killed two demons and celebrated
her victory by draining their bodies of blood,then drunk with slaughter
She began to dance.Thrilling in the feel of the lifeless flesh beneath
her feet,Kali danced more and more wildly until she realized that Shiva
himself was underneath her and that she was dancing him to death.This 
slowed Kali's wildness,but only for a time,eventually she will continue
Her dance that ends the world.

   Once faced and understood,Kali,frees her worshippers of all fear and
becomes the most comforting of all Mothers.

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Reference The Book of Goddesses and Heroines by Patricia Monaghan
(Llewellyn,1990)