Version 2:
Hydrocal w/Milk Glaze

Kali is the dark mother, a Hindu goddess of death and rebirth. She has gotten a bad reputation in the west, which has focused solely on her most frightening & deadly aspects; I believe this is largely because of the way western traditions have ignored or feared death and demonized or perverted nearly everything to do with it.

Kali is very important in Hindu spirituality, for she actually fights fire with fire; in one of the core tales about her she has a horrendous battle with terribly prolific demons and only by beheading them and then licking up the blood that spills does she ultimately prevail, thus saving the world. As in much of Hindu mythology, she is the feminine part of a duality; in her case Shiva the destroyer is her other half (she is an avatar of Parvati, Shiva’s consort). Both she and Shiva dance the destruction and the rebirth of the world, and they balance one another. I see her as the fierce mother who protects her offspring by whatever means are necessary, who flinches at nothing in her single-minded devotion.