The Tantric Kali

Chandra Alexandre presented on the Hindu Goddess Kali:
In India, Goddess Kali is both feared and revered by Hindus. For Shakta Tantricks, believers in the primacy of the female force, She is the Ultimate, an expression of the Divine that is both formless and at the same time a part of every component of Creation. She is at once the terrifying power of nature unbounded, a force with which to be reckoned, and our merciful, ever-compassionate mother. In the developed nations of the global north, Kali has taken a place at the crossroads between Paganism and Hinduism, between Wicca and the Tantrick practices of South Asia —all of which have been steadily gaining momentum in an increasingly goddess- and Gaia-conscious world. In this presentation, I argue that new forms of Devi (Goddess) worship focused in particular on Kali are arising in the developed west that honor rather than appropriate Hindu deities, rituals, and spiritual practices. What these new traditions are, how they are carried out (and by whom), how they differ and are similar to the Hindu orthodoxy and heterodoxy, will be discussed.