Kali: Radical Honesty, Radical Freedom

When something really matters to us, we are gifted with the courage to abandon everything that does not align with that. When our house is on fire we suddenly don’t care about our phone or our wallet, our instincts kick in and we just run. But what about the instincts that guide us to make decisions that are less governed by our will to survive, decisions about how we can thrive and expand - how can we develop the same sharpness of intuition to know what we need and what we don’t for our soul growth?

Where were you at the last full moon? What has fallen away, what has remained?

The cycle of the moon can offer an entry point to realise that there are some persistent issues in our life that we encounter moon after moon, year after year. And eventually, whether it be a relationship, a conflict, a habit, a goal not yet met, we come to the point where we realise we must let go of some part of our old self. But how do we cut the ties?

Faith in the good grace of this universe offers us the option of asking for support. When we are really ready, we can give it to Kali - goddess of death and destruction. Without her, nothing new can arise.

Kali gets around with a weapon in each of her many hands, slashing away at BS and anything that doesn't have complete integrity. She is the original master of giving no fucks. She exerts boundaries fearlessly, holds all to account and seeks to destroy everything that would be better off transformed into something else. She has no sentimental attachment to the way things were, no trouble letting go. Paradoxically (as always in yoga), the goddess of destruction is really the one paving the way for future, growth, new ways, new life.

The goddess Kali offers us a way of freeing ourselves from karmic and egoic attachments that we have outgrown. When Kali comes to us, certain things don’t matter anymore. She sharpens our intuitive sense of boundaries, priorities and how we want to live. There is a voice within that is tired of our old ways, tired of our old ways collectively.

This full moon I got clear on my key intentions for the cycle to come. I placed them on my alter and lit a candle to invoke the energy of Kali. I asked:

"Kali, if these intentions serve the world

let all barriers to their realisation fall away,

strip away all within me that holds me in the past,

I am ready to let go,

I release all resistance,

I give all my fears over to you,

transform my life,

transform this world."

Perhaps not everything will change all at once. Giving it to Kali means surrounding all attachment to how we think it 'should' go. Plus, we can never know how pure our heart and our desires are. It may not be in our highest good or the highest good of all for certain things to change or transform at this time. For all things there is a season.

Kali is about radical freedom and radical honesty - when we are truly honest with ourselves about who we are, what we want, and our willingness to sever the chains that bind us to the past, Kali is the aspect of the divine that sets us free - grace, in its most wild and freeing form.

So whatever desires and seeds of hope this full moon has brought to the surface, I encourage you to offer yourself and your hopes up to Kali - allow her razor sharp sword to cut away whatever is keeping us from releasing our potential.

Without death there is no possibility of rebirth.

Give it to Kali.