What is Kālī in Tāntrik Śaivism?

Who or What is Kali?

According to Abhinava Gupta , Kālī is: 

क्षेपो ज्ञानं च संख्यां गतिनाद इति क्रमात्। 

कल्लनां कुर्वती काली कर्षिणीत्यभिधीयते। 

She who projects, She who knows, She who delimits, She who vibrates, She who is resonance and She who is process She who imagines, She who acts, She who devours (i.e reabsorbs)....this is verily Kālī 

In other words, Kālī is that resonant, dynamic One from Whom the world is projected outward, articulated and known and into Whom it is reabsorbed in a constant simultaneity of unfolding! 

But what does that mean? And what does Kālī have to do with Śakti and what is Śakti to Śiva? Is there such a thing as a Śākta (worshipper of Devī) distinct from Śaivism? 

In trying to approach some of these questions, we discuss one of my favorite topics: yoginīs, mātrikās & cremation ground deities! 

As our śrāvana festivities and practices intensify with the passing weeks, there is a rising fervor and I am feeling rather inspired to explore the cremation ground roots of our Śaiva heritage, to make a few historical points about Ati Margins and about Kāpālikās and about what they discovered, understanding it all within the wider philosophical context of Somānanda's presentation of Śiva as primordial dynamic Consciousness, inseparable from Śakti, the pentadof powers! (cit, ānanda, icchā, jñāna, kriyā etc.) 

This union of Śiva + Powers (i.e puissance or latency or agency or dyanmism) is what we call Kālī and this is what I hope to explore with you a little bit today in class!

According to Shiti Kanttha in Mahānāya Prakāśa: 

एवं आधौ एव शक्तिः स्पन्दनशीला 

बहिर्विषयोन्मुखी व्यापिनीभावेन सृष्ट्युपदेशभाजनम्...। 

एकैव चिन्नीलाधवाभासरूपा 

अस्थिरहठगवती कुलैव पश्चात्प्रतिसंहतस्वभावा 

अग्राग्रागमिप्रसरत्सहजरूपा लक्ष्यते, 

सोऽयं निरुपाधौ चित्स्फायादुपाधिकृतो भेदः। 

Verily is She is the Primordial Pulsation, inclined towards externality, the all-pervasive receptacle of emission and wisdom. She alone is the Pure Awareness in which shines experiences like the colour blue etc. Dyanmic and forcefully flowing into externality, She is verily "Kula" (the embodied universe) and yet afterwards, she withdraws it back into her nature. Her spotaneous nature is found at the very edge of arising experience. Duality arises in Her when there are limiting adjuncts but in truth She shines non-differently!

Shiva = Kali, as in Shiti Kanttha:

शिवस्वभावैव शक्तिः न वस्त्वन्तरम्,

इत्येकम् एव शिवव्यपदेश्यं शक्तिव्यपदेश्यं 

च वस्तुतत्त्वं नापूर्वं किञ्चित्। 

The essential nature of Shiva is Shakti; they are is no seperate reality! That which is called "Shiva" and that which is called "Shakti" is the same thing! And this essential reality is wholly ordinary and not something bizzare! 

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