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"I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem."

- The Song of Songs

<img src=http://thefifthbody.homestead.com/clancy_KaliAtPlay.jpg>

Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion?
She appears black because She is viewed from a distance;
but when intimately known She is no longer so.
The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it close by
and you will find that it has no colour.
The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance,
but when you go near and take it in your hand,
you find that it is colourless."

... Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86)</center><blockquote><blockquote>Kali's four arms represent the complete circle of creation and destruction, which is contained within her. She represents the inherent creative and destructive rhythms of the cosmos. Her right hands, making the mudras of "fear not" and conferring boons, represent the creative aspect of Kali, while the left hands, holding a bloodied sword and a severed head represent her destructive aspect. The bloodied sword and severed head symbolize the destruction of ignorance and the dawning of knowledge. The sword is the sword of knowledge, that cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false consciousness (the severed head). Kali opens the gates of freedom with this sword, having cut the eight bonds that bind human beings. Finally her three eyes represent the sun, moon, and fire, with which she is able to observe the three modes of time: past, present and future. This attribute is also the origin of the name Kali, which is the feminine form of 'Kala', the Sanskrit term for Time.

Source: Kali - The Divine Mother</blockquote>

Kali is a metaphor for the place where time melts. Other cultures likely have other symbols and metaphors, but that's the one that resonates for me. Beyond Kali's slashing sword is perfect stillness. Time does not exist there. That's the place of Emptiness. From this place of Nothingness, Everything is born. That's the Luminosity.

In the Kaballah, they call her Binah. Sufis call her Layla. To the Egyptians she is Isis. Within a framework of Christianty she is The Black Madonna. In Tibetan scripture she is Black Tara. To the Gnostics and philosophers, she is Sophia.

See also:[*] Dancing in the Flames: The Dark Goddess in the Transformation of Consciousness[*] The Unmanifest Absolute[*] The Tao[*] The Black Light[*] The Black Latifa[*] Night Enfolds Her Cloak of Holes[*] The Abyss[*] Space, Time and Medicine[*] The Therapeutic Psychology of the Tibetan Book of the Dead