Durga

When you need a swift goddess to whip your out-of-whack life into focus, then call on Durga. This explosive force has many features – beautiful, yet fierce; graceful yet uncompromising. Durga slays demons, so if laziness, bad habits, or manipulation have been plaguing you or someone you know, bring Durga to the situation.

Story has it that a great demon had accrued so much power that no male force could overcome him.

So, the male deities convened at the Ganga river and asked for a female force to do their bidding. Ganga bore Durga – the collective force of unmediated goddess energy. Known as Mother Durga (Maa Durga), this fierce mother image rides into town on a tiger’s or lion’s back wielding in several of her ten arms various bladed weapons to behead your darkest demons – all in the name of active compassion.

So, the male deities convened at the Ganga river and asked for a female force to do their bidding. Ganga bore Durga – the collective force of unmediated goddess energy. Known as Mother Durga (Maa Durga), this fierce mother image rides into town on a tiger’s or lion’s back wielding in several of her ten arms various bladed weapons to behead your darkest demons – all in the name of active compassion.

Durga’s celebration – the Durga Puja – is the largest such celebration in Bengali held in October. Meaning “one who is difficult to access,” Durga also goes by other names such as Bhavaputri (one beloved by the universe) and “Kali,” described below.

If someone you know needs some help cleaning up some bad habits or needs a fierce charge to live life to its fullest and most upright, then extending a Durga card or item might be the right gesture.

And when major intervention is needed, when reality needs to be turned inside-out and upside-down in order for personal transformation to happen, call on Kali. More than a demon-buster, Kali is the reality of time and change itself. Her nude, dark (“Kali” means “the dark one”) body absorbs all forms and shapes and colors. With wild disheveled hair,, her terrifying face, and a belt made of men’s arms and heads, Kali can strike fear or courage or awe in you.

Known to slay whole armies representing forms of the human ego, Kali can become riled, ecstatic, and drunk on demons’ blood only to be quelled by her sometimes-consort Shiva, the only force who can match Kali’s wildness.

Kali helps you face impermanence, mortality, change, and reality’s utter unpredictability. Do you think you’re in control? Kali gives you a reality check. Do you think you’re going to live forever in this form? Think again. Do you think the things that bring you happiness will always bring you happiness and should always bring you happiness because, well, you deserve it? Kali will surely help you get over such delusions.

With acceptance of reality, by facing Kali’s terror, an ultimate calm and equanimity can ensue. You become less reactive, less disappointed, and more content with all things as they are. In such a state, liberation (moksha) is not far away.

Both Durga and Kali cards and items might be hung or located in places of a house that also need cleansing of undesirable energy or memories.

Biography provided by Jeff Davis: Author of The Journey from the Center to the Page: Yoga Philosophies and Practices as Muse for Authentic Writing

His essays, articles, short stories, and poems have appeared in publications around the country and in London. He is a former senior yoga teacher at Bliss Yoga Center in Woodstock, NY and founder of WEN Barn & Gardens in Accord, NY. He resides near Woodstock, NY, between the Catskill Mountains and the Shawangunk Mountains with wife Hillary.