From, Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess: Lightning Dance of the Supreme Shakti, by Shambhavi Chopra. The book was released in August 2007 by Wisdom Tree, www.wisdomtreeindia.com.

What is here, is elsewhere. What is not here, is nowhere.
Visva-Sara Tantra

Rakta Kali, the red tinged vibrant form of Kali, carries the flow of the eternal Soma in its transformative energy, blood red to my naked eye, permeating the unfathomable reaches of my very life-force. The darkness of Kali is merely symbolic of a cavernous profound depth. Almost impenetrably mysterious are her Devi energies to the unawakened soul. Truly, what we cannot fathom disturbs our psyche. And what becomes agitated creates a characteristic sensation of perturbed emotions.

Her Nila form of blue ambiguouity is incomprehensible if not unknown to us lesser mortals. The abstruse nature of our experience guides us to label the Devi as the ‘Dark Goddess’! The absence of an intelligible ‘Light’ in our minds creates this seeming fearful darkness. The Mother’s majestic form emits tall shadows of deep blue hues, highlighting the vague echoes of our superficial lives. The dark blue is the matrix of all colours resting in the womb.

I was afraid of the dark most of my growing years. The obscurity, the shadowy play, the mystery of the dark night and dimness of my own higher mind brought down this veil of darkness upon me. My emotive self was sometimes clouded, my reasoning questionable, my imperfections drew me into inertness. These were my fallacies, my erroneous beliefs, or rather the limitation of my existential maya jaal, the illusory web of my outer existence.

Ma Kali ever so much is an awesome power to contend with. Her Shakti energy of the deepest level permeates our inner and outer universe. Kali loves to stir up a cataclysm in our being, as Ma did in so many instances of my life. Yet her tremendous push is crucial, keeping everything in motion towards our inner blossoming. At times, She would throw me off balance, leaving me floundering for answers to her imposing secrets and revelations.

Several times through the years of my sadhana, I have experienced my very head falling under Ma Kali’s Khadaka the short dagger of reality. Her powerful vibrations disturbed my being. Sometimes her energies became too intense for me to withstand. Yet every time I decided to withdraw from my sadhana, She would approach me with gentleness, coercing me back into her fold. There was little else that sustained my life style or captivated my interests.

For Shakti sadhana or Devi spiritual practices one needs to cultivate the quality of a Vira the heroic, valiant and fearless approach. Only the courageous soul can perform the internal and external puja or worship of the Devis, the Goddesses of supreme power. Life plays out the sacrificial Yajna or ritual with every simple act of worship in every conscious living moment.