Haindl Tarot - Mother of Wands in the East

Again, from Rachel Pollack’s book.

Kali Ma. The Black Mother, Mother Night. Kali Mahadeva. The Great Mother Goddess. The modern sage Sri Ramakrishna prayed for a vision before her statue. The temple, the floor, the walls, all disappeared. He knew nothing but the Mother. Later, he wrote, “Maha-Kali, the Great Power, was one with Maha-Kala, the Absolute.”

For followers of Tantra, Kali is Creator, Preserver and Destroyer. These are commonly the titles for Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, but Tantric texts declare that even this supreme Trimurti was born out of Kali's infinite being. (For the Kabbalists out there, I will note this reminds me of the concept of the Ein Sof.) In Tantra, one of the keys to accepting life is the knowledge that the Goddess who creates the universe is also the Goddess who destroys it. Kali’s color is black, for the Nothing beyond creation. But she also appears in red, as the Mother who gives birth, and in white, as the Virgin. Maiden, Mother, Crone.

In the Haindl Tarot she wears a Moon crown, which is borrowed from the traditional Tarot’s High Priestess because she represents the Absolute in its female form.

“The Terrible Mother,” “Kali the Merciless,” drinker of blood. Before the British ended human sacrifice in India (Joseph Campbell is being quoted here), priests beheaded a male child in front of Kali’s statue in the city of Tanjore. Blood is thought to appease her anger, and without the blood sacrifice she will become uncontrollable and destroy the universe. Fire is her element, destructive as well as creative. Do we sense a theme? (Aside: Rachel suggests that Campbell’s account of blood sacrifice may be apocryphal, deriving only from British propaganda.)

For all the terror of her countenance, the Hindus do not shun Kali. Homes display shrines to her, because she protects her own from disaster. In one story, a great demon threatened the Gods. Even Shiva found himself powerless against the monster, and so Parvati (his mate) knitted her brow and Kali, taking shape out of her limitless being, sprang from Parvati’s forehead. She killed the demon and then went wild, dancing in her ecstasy. But her ecstasy was so powerful it became dangerous, breaking down the order of the universe. As she threatened existence itself with her dance, Shiva appraoched her. He pled for moderation, and in her wildness she cast him down. About to trample him, she paused, and some remnant of awareness forced her to see Shiva lying beneath her. She forced an end to her ecstatic dance, but refused to vanish back inside Parvati. Once we experience ecstasy, we cannot pretend it has not marked us.

Further notes, these about the specific images painted on the card:

Kali is the dark mirror of Shakti (the goddess of compassion, I think.) In Haindl’s Empress, Shiva is a stone statue, inanimate until the female energy of Shakti awakens his spirit. Yes, my dears, she awakens his spirit in the time-honored tantric tradition. (Hint, it’s not G-rated!) In this card, the Mother of Wands in the East, Kali copulates with the dead Shiva. He is upside down, reversed like the Hanged Man. We are to understand that she has not killed him; rather he has sacrificed himself, giving himself up to her.

We see her as black, with the stars behind her and the Moon above her Third Eye. When she takes the universe (Shiva) inside her, nothing will exist but the Great Night, the Deep. She wears a red cloak to symbolize fire, and her red tongue represents life and strength. The three line symbol drawn in places on her body signifies the Triple Goddess (they also, for the believers in overkill, form the I Ching trigram “Creative,” and their doubled form, the trigram “Receptive.” But I’m not going there, I think we have enough on our plate already.)

Kali has six limbs, and six is the number of the Lovers. One theme Haindl develops in the Major Arcana is that spiritual ecstasy and sexual ecstasy arise from the same energy. Here we see the danger of that energy, even the reason people suppress it, because it can overwhelm consciousness.

Kali’s two upper arms hold objects of her power, a three-pronged trident and a sickle. The red mound she cradles before her belly is copied from traditional pictures and not identified by Haindl or Rachel.

Her feet touch the Earth and her body looms huge against the sky.

Kali-Ma

I find it interesting that the two objects she holds, the trident and the sickle, are both found in the story of the birth of Aphrodite, another version of the Black Mother in the oldest tales.

Kali's colors, red, white, and black, are the colors of blood (life and death), milk (nurturance) and earth (death, the darkness from which we come and to which we return) and are found even in Grimm's fairy tales. (Her skin was white as snow, her hair black as a raven, her lips red as blood....) I was told that whenever you find these three colors together in a fairytale, you know it is really an ancient Goddess story.

I have always liked the Queen of Wands - the passionate one who lives in the erotic fire. Even her anger is sometimes a sacred gift, letting us know when we must fight our own oppression.

This image of Kali and Shiva reminds me that without the erotic connection there is no life -- if we live entirely in our minds, and emotions, without connection to the vital fire, then we are lifeless. I don't mean here, that you have to be sexually active, that is only one form of the erotic. But I do think you have to engage passionately with life. I really love this image and finally the court cards are making sense to me in a very direct and useful way.
What a surprise!

I've heard yoga teachers describe Kali as a transformer, too. Whether transforming through death and destruction or sex/gestation/birth, she brings forth something new from the old. As Queen of wands, she is the passionate active user of power to change things.

Go, Kali!

I just got a bumpersticker for my car: What Would Kali Do?

RedMaple, I think it's so neat that discussing the Court Cards is adding to your feel for them. It's funny, because you said originally it would be too confusing, and I said, naaaaah. But now I think I'm MORE confused, and you are less! Tarot has such a sense of humor, doesn't it?

I do like Pollack's writeup for Kali, but I find the goddess herself quite frightening. I went to an exhibit of Hindu art from around 800-400 years years ago, down in Washington last November, and it was a very odd experience. The first statues and wallhangings were very beautiful, lots of sexy young things all covered in gold and making happy love. But the further into the exhibit we got, the more bizarre the images became. More beheadings, more skulls, definitely gruesome. What was strange to me was the mixture, within individual pieces, of celebration and death. Reminds me a lot of this card, of course, and of Kali generally. I'm not sure how I feel about that combination. The culture that produces this juxtaposition feels very alien to me.

Now the milder side of tantra, sexual energy and spiritual energy linking, that I like quite a bit! I feel it during a good yoga practice, sometimes, an increase in both kinds of energy. I agree with RedMaple's comment that "sexual energy" doesn't mean the same as "sexual activity." It's a sense of feeling passion, of embracing life, of the chi running through your body. Of course, during lovemaking is good too...

But accepting that the cycle includes destruction, even sacrifice? I am resistant to these ideas. I think further exploration of the Wands, and maybe Hinduism generally, is in order.

I just got a new book, Jung on Kundalini Yoga. Has anyone read this?

hi guys first study group post ever hope to stay with you and join in a couple others as well. im glad this was started for ive used this deck for a long time and just love it and am so interested in all your views

anyway on with my interpretation i guess thats what i do--

the mother of wands i absolutly dont like this card, she has just never sat well with me. she definatley gives you the feeling of a very strong, powerful, confident and domineering woman - which yes is great - but i feel like she uses that for bad things. which is why she probably gives me a bad vibe.

in my experience everytime shes shown up in a reading she has represented a woman who is using her energy in a negative way. im not getting the words together to explain that very well. but the woman is always being mean, vendictive out for her own glory while stepping on anything in the process. in personal experience she represented a woman who was trying to make a play on my husband. i hope that says it better.

now i do have to admit that redmaples interpertation of her was a great new view and i like it, definatly makes you take a different look at her but there are 2 sides of the coin yes. and being blocked by her negativety i didnt see that. i also think that she can represent your own sexuality and that it may be time to explore new things, spice up your life a little dive into the unknown of your sensual side. so i admit she growing on me in a new positive way

Surprisingly enough, I think Kali sits well with Crowley's Queen of Wands interpretation.

Yes, this mama is powerful. I have met a couple of women who are like this, and strangely enough, they have used their great power for ill instead of good. I think it comes with the territory, Sprite, and that your unease is justified.

The trick comes with balance however. The Watery aspect of Fire. Reconciling the two diametric elements.

I keep getting the famous 'Spiderman' quote that Peter Parker always used to keep him in check: "with great power comes great responsibility!"
When you have great power, that power can feed the dark side of ourselves, and the great work involved is to keep that power down, controlled, chilled out. Look at the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader myth from Lucas' movies - the poor kid had so much power - and was completely aware of it - that he allowed it to feed his ego and his shadow, and it inevitably destroyed him and ate him up. That scene in Episode III where he is burning from the lava and Obi Wan just walks away from him after saying how much he loved him, like a brother, that he was the chosen one; and Anakin is burning, dying, screaming 'I hate you!' That was powerful stuff, man! His duty was to control the excessive power and use it to serve others, not to flaunt it and use it for personal gain.

I can see this is the parallel of the creation-sustainance-destruction cycle of Hindu Cosmology. It is the ebb and flow, and Kali must destroy the Universe so that Brahma may create it anew.

Its funny too, when I was doing my Tarot course, this was one Court card that all the women (95% of the class) really didn't like. They couldn't handle her - yet here I am, the only male in the class, and I know a lot of women who are like this and I am enticed and intrigued by these women and the power they hold. But she wsn't popular amongst the ladies in the class, in fact it was like they felt threatened by her sexuality/sensuality. They said that this woman wasn't accepted in a Patriarchal world because she was a threat to traditional masculine authority - yet I think this woman is desired by all men in some way. Perhaps she is the devouring woman, like so many of those in the natural world that consume the mate after copulation. I see her as a BDSM Mistress, a Sex-worker, a woman who uses her sexualness to get her own way, and are not used by men or pawns to them in any way.

Actually, I find her quite refreshing, given that so many women here where I live are so submissive, and allow men to treat them like crap, physically and emotionally. But because they are so powerful, perhaps that is why they are always kept in the background, denigrated as whores, witches, etc....
...perhaps that is why they end up being tied to a burning stake so often in history..?????

what do you think?

Kali - Water of Fire

I'm interested to hear how women here who like this Tarot feel about this card. (So, jump in, women!) The Queen of Swords and Queen of Wands, in my experience, aren't well liked by a lot of women. Perhaps because they represent feminized versions of essentially masculine energies.

Even in the Smith-Waite deck, the Queen of Wands is on her throne with her legs in a very unlady-like pose. That energy that seems so (okay, I'm going to reveal something about myself here... let those with ears hear!) butch in the King of Wands comes out downright slutty in the Queen. And isn't that the historical doublestandard women face?

According to the Vedic scriptures, we are in the age of Kali now, when the universe begins to give in to entropy and decline. Finally, like some giant devotee of recycling, Kali will burn away what remains, the decayed remains of a once glorious creation, so that it may be renewed. It is the god-level version of open heart surgery, I guess. It hurts, it may even kill you, but without it, you don't stand a chance.

It occurs to me that a little bit of water in a great deal of fire usually results in steam. And steam is the source of vast amounts of energy. So this card is one of those that carries a strong, almost overwhelming, sense with it. It has a sort of vitality that many other cards (Knight of Pentacles, anyone?) don't have.

one woman's opinion

OK, I am new to this deck (at least, to owning it - I've known it on the net for some years), so bear with me. It is quite synchronous that Kali/Mother of Wands has come up in this study group, because I got her in (internet) readings a fair bit for myself - and about how he saw me - about the time I was meeting and getting together with my new love (about a month or so ago). You can imagine I sat up and took notice!

To be honest, I find her incredibly exciting, but then I am someone who has thrived on intensity much of my life, in my career and other choices. It is lack of intensity I find a challenge. I love her sexuality, her strength. I am wary of her destructive power, even as I know it has to be taken on board if I am to integrate the other parts of her. She is like a shadow of me - though the best of her, the wild sexuality, is not a shadow. Why a shadow? Because although I am (promise!) a gentle person at heart, a humanitarian and peacenik, there is also a violent, wild woman inside me, who occasionally emerges. I know that if I repress the wildness too much, she will turn against me or become destructive against my loved ones. So I must respect her. I find that sex is a very good conduit for her, but writing is as well, and sport. If you were to read some of my stories, you would find her there.

I am reminded of the need to respect one's wild self, that Clarissa Pinkola Estes talks about - if we don't the wild self will become feral and destructive.

Now some interesting things happened during the past month. Though she came up quite a bit in the early days of my new relationship, she has now given way - or is coming alongside - more emotional and loving cards; and more civilised cards. It started when she came along with The Lovers. I have had to work with Strength too, quite a bit - and I find that in doing that, in accepting my sexuality and intensity fully and in trusting it within this relationship (including his desire for it, and his seeing me in that light) has allowed me to "pacify" Kali. Nowadays, with my bf abroad (we are due to meet up in a few days), Kali has given way to gentler female influences!

Now for the destructiveness of Kali. Deep breath. Well - and to be plain and personal here - yes, I've seen her too. In getting together with this man (we fell very much in love), I contributed in the destruction of another relationship. It was violent and painful for the person concerned - someone close to me - and though I am not proud of that, I know, too, I could have done no different. I have found out this desructiveness is directly linked to the sexual allure and ecstasy of Kali (quick note: the other RL was not long-standing or deep - to paraphrase a post above, I was not "making a play" for anyone's husband or long-term lover - but it was still my actions that destroyed it). What is more, I knew at the time that would be the consequence - and chose to go with Kali anyway. Yet I know if I hadn't, she would have got her own back, in one way or another. Kali is wild and dangerous and must be propitiated. Am I trying to excuse myself? I hope not. I am paying now for this destructiveness, and I take responsibility for my part in it.

There are other things I like about her. She is black, which not only suggests the unconscious and matter, but also is a skin colour I find beautiful. She is crowned with a crescent moon, reminding us she is female and subject to feminine cycles. She has a well-developed third eye. The image of her having intercourse - on top - with another god (Shiva?), with that green serpent entwined about him I find powerfully erotic. The snake, here as in the Strength card, reminds me of the green mamba, a snake whose bite kills you within seconds. It is an image of orgasm, as well: the little death. Actually, to me, it looks like Kali is both f%ç&*#§ him and giving birth to him! I like the fact her middle arms are covering her belly - a protective female gesture.

So there - a very personal view of this frightening goddess. I must add that in all the years I have seen the Haindl on the net - and now I have it physically in my hand - I have always been attracted to Kali/Mother of Wands. She excites the hell out of me


edited to add: I see her negative side too. To be honest, I think the positive and the negative live together. In repressing the positive, the negative will emerge. That's when you get women using their sexual allure to gain advantage and trample over other people (other women, weak men). They haven't integrated their wild sexual nature, or their power. They are living in fear in a world of dog-eat-dog, and they use their power to overcome that fear. Scarlett O'Hara is a Mother of Wands who is partly repressed (only Rhett Butler manages to free her, and only for a while) - so in her the negative side of Kali is the most apparent.

From Joseph Campbell

This is quoted from J. Campbell's "Masks of God Vol. II: Oriental Mythology", chapter 1, pp. 5 - 6, penguin books, 1976.

...In India, in the 16th Century AD, kings were observed ceremoniously slicing themselves to bits, and in the temples of the Black Goddess Kali, the terrible one of many names, "difficult of approach" (durga), whose stomach is a void and so can never be filled and whose womb is giving birth forever to all things, a river of blood has been pouring continuously for millenniums, from beheaded offerings, through channels carved to return it, still living, to its divine source.
To this day seven or eight hundred goats are slaughtered in 3 days in the Kalighat, the principal temple of the goddess in Calcutta, during her autumn festival, the Durga Puja. The heads are piled before the image, and the bodies go to the devotees, to be consumed in contemplative communion. Water buffalo, sheep, pigs, and fowl likewise are immolated lavishly in her worship, and before the prohibition of human sacrifice in 1835, she received from every part of the land even richer fare. In the towering Shiva temple of Tanjore a male child waas beheaded before the altar of the goddess every Friday at the holy hour of twilight. In the year 1830, a petty monarch of Bastar, desiring her grace, offered on one occasion 25 men at her altar in Danteshvari and in the 16th century a king of Cooch Behar immolated 150 in that place.

In the Jainta hills of Assam it was the custom of a certain royal house to offer one human victim at the Durga Puja every year. After having bathed and purified himself, the sacrifice was dressed in new attire, daubed with red sandalwood and vermilion, arrayed with garlands, and, thus bedecked, installed upon a raised dais before the image, where he spent some time in meditation, repeating sacred sounds, and, when ready, made a sign with his finger. The executioner, likewise pronouncing sacred syllables, having elevated the sword, thereupon struck off the man's head, which was immediately presented to the goddess on a golden plate. The lungs, being cooked, were consumed by yogis, and the royal family partook of a small quantity of rice steeped in the sacrificial blood. Those offered in this sacrifice were normally volunteers. However, when such were lacking, victims were kidnapped from outside the little state; and so it chanced, in 1832, that 4 men disappeared from the British domain, of whom one escaped to tell his tale, and the following year the kingdom was annexed - without its custom.

"By 1 human sacrifice with proper rites, the goddess remains gratified for 1000 years," we read in the Kalika Purana, a Hindu scripture of about the 10th century AD; "and by the sacrifice of 3 men, 100,000. Shiva, in his terrific aspect, as the consort of the goddess, is appeased for 3000 years by an offering of human flesh. For blood, if immediately consecrated, becomes ambrosia, and since the head and body are extremely gratifying, these should be presented in the worship of the goddess. The wise would do well to add such flesh, free from hair, to their offerings of food."