What would Kali do? Resistance to the MAGA-verse.
The fierce Hindu goddess Kali takes no prisoners and roots out evil at its source. Can we do the same?
Yesterday I talked to my mom on the phone. She informed me that Trump had reopened Route 40 in Asheville. A claim that was so absurd I could not answer. Somewhere in the MAGA-verse, someone must have said it.
My partner Lisa and I moved to Asheville in August, six weeks before Hurricane Helene wreaked havoc and chaos all around us. The bottom of our street washed away, along with a bridge and a house that were near the idyllic little creek we had been swimming in days before.
“I have heard there are no helicopters,” she told me, as helicopters flew over my head.
Zooming out, entire towns were flooded, trees and power lines were down everywhere, and Asheville’s beautiful River Arts District was completely destroyed. We waited a week for our power to come back on, and when it did it felt like a miracle. There were so many people all around us suffering without power and water for weeks and months.
I talked to my mother regularly during those early weeks of recovery, and while Lisa and I felt the speed with which FEMA and other rescue services were being deployed was impressive, my mom was under the impression that Biden’s administration was leaving us all to die.
“I have heard there are no helicopters,” she told me, as helicopters flew over my head.
I love my mom, and I know there is no clever use of logic that will change her beliefs. Beliefs are entwined with emotion. She is a Christian from Kansas, and the seeds were planted long before I came around. So I try to seek common ground and steer the conversations away from the present president.
In Hindu mythology, like Christianity, there is an ongoing battle between good and evil. Hinduism is a bit more nuanced and playful than the western religions. Where Christians have the good versus evil dichotomy of angels and demons, Hinduism has devas and asuras.
In general, devas are beings who do good in the world, and asuras are beings who do harm. They each have supernatural powers, and are constantly battling for control of the universe. Their existence embodies the dualistic nature of creation, where opposing forces are necessary parts of the cosmic whole.
However, devas are not all good, and asuras are not all bad. They are shades of grey. Asuras are generally power-seeking, materialistic, and sometimes malevolent. The devas are generally benevolent, righteous, and followers of dharma (cosmic order).
In Hindu mythology, both Devas and Asuras are considered descendants of the great sage Kashyapa, born to different wives. The Devas are the children of Aditi, known as the mother of the gods, and they represent the forces of good, light, and virtue. In contrast, the Asuras are the offspring of Diti, who represents darkness and ignorance, often associated with negative traits. ~Mythlok
As you might have figured out, the devas and asuras are a lot like us. In fact, they can even be seen as aspects of our own psyches. Within our minds and hearts is an ongoing battle to choose a spiritual path over a materialistic one, compassion over anger, love over bitterness.
It’s my opinion that the western Bible has things backwards. God did not create us in “his” image, we create the myths of god in our own image. If there is a god, or gods, then their ultimate nature is unknowable to our human mind. Perhaps the divine is a little easier to know in our hearts. Whatever glimpses of divinity we are granted, the only way to express them is through metaphor, myth, and story making.
Myths aren’t concerned with historical accuracy or past events. Instead, they delve into hidden realities—the unseen truths that shape human experience across time. They speak to what happens within us, right now and always. ~Dr. Michael Simmons
In the MAGA-verse that my mother inhabits, this must seem like a golden age. The chosen one has inherited the throne and been given a mandate to clear the way for the coming of Christ. God is returning soon. Her beliefs are being reinforced and molded by the algorithms in the online spaces she is connected to. The myths she holds close are not allegorical to her. She believes them to be factual. There is a bridge between us that has been washed away by a flood of calculated misinformation. Evangelical Christianity, in its dogmatic clinging to the veracity of every word in the Bible, has made it easier for all kinds of false narratives to be believed. FOX News and the right wing media propaganda machine amplifies the confusion.
And so it is that I turn to a myth from my tradition, one that I hold dear.
Kali versus the blood demon
As the devas and asuras battle throughout time, there are leaders who rise and fall. By performing acts of reverence and penance to gods like Brahma (creator), Vishnu (sustainer), and Shiva (destroyer), the devas and asuras can be granted boons. Boons are special powers, and for asuras they often have to do with invincibility.
One such asura that gained a boon is called Raktabija. Rakta means blood, and bija means seed. Raktabija’s boon was that every time his blood would spill, more Raktabijas would be created (multiplying like Agent Smith in the Matrix trilogy). In some tellings of the story, he gets this boon from Shiva, and in other tellings, from Brahma.
Raktabija created havoc on the Earth, hunting and killing devas, humans, and animals to feed his insatiable hunger.
The goddess Durga comes to their defence. Durga was created from the combined efforts of male deities who could not defeat an asura demon called Mahishasura, whose boon was that he could not be killed by god or man. In his arrogance, he did not believe that a woman could kill him.
After battling Mahishasura for centuries, the male gods understood what they were up against. Each of the male gods gave Durga their own special power, and she became an amalgamation of their awesomeness.
Durga emerged as a beautiful woman with ten arms, each holding a divine weapon, riding a lion. Every time Durga would come close to defeating Mahishasura, he would change form and escape. Finally, as he transformed from a buffalo to a human, Durga pinned him down with her trident and cut his head off with her discus. Fierce!
But not fierce enough to defeat Raktabija. The blood demon’s replications confounded Durga as she continually killed them and they multiplied. Finally she turned her fury inward, concentrating her brow and clenching her entire body. Kali emerged from Durga’s third eye, her skin black, her body emaciated, her tongue lolling. She wears a garland of 108 skulls and a belt with human arms hanging from it like a Hawaiian grass skirt. The roar of her birth alone destroys hundreds of asuras, as she comes out swinging with her ten arms each holding a weapon.
Kali is wise to the boon of Raktabija, and her tongue grows to cover the entire battlefield. She absorbs the blood of every slain asura into her being, all the while growing more powerful. Finally she is alone with the OG Raktabija. She slashes his throat open with the trident in one arm as she raises him above her head with another, and drains his body of blood, catching every drop in her mouth. She throws his hollow corpse on the ground.
O king, the mighty Asura Raktabija, drained of all blood, lay lifeless on the ground. Then, the gods attained immeasurable joy. ~ from the Devi Mahatmya
Kali then begins a wild victory dance, enraptured in her own power. The blood of Raktabija is potent, and she needs to process it through her system. Her entranced dance shakes the earth and creats vibrations throughout the heavens, threatening all life. The gods, once again, are worried. The go to Mount Kailash to find Shiva, who is deep in meditation.
Waking him from his concentration, they tell him about Kali’s wild dance. Shiva is a dancer himself, so he is not too concerned. He makes his way to the battlefield and calls out to Kali, but she has her cosmic earbuds in, playing psy-trance, and can not hear him. Her eyes are closed and she can not see him, either.
Shiva lays himself down at her feet, and she begins dancing on top of him, pulverizing his body into the earth. He smiles. Kali at last feels the familiar landscape of Shiva’s torso beneath her naked feet, and slows her dance. She realizes she is standing on her beloved, and her tongue falls out in shock and embarrassment. A relieved sigh from the gods cools the Earth, the birds begin to sing, and the animals come out of hiding. Balance is restored.
Of myth and allegory, MAGA and madness
It is wise to remember that none of us are perfect. In the Hindu myths, even the gods make questionable decisions. It is part of the lila, the divine play of creation. If everything was perfect, life would be boring and we would never evolve.
In contemplating the modern world, I see lots of asuras. The cruelty and malevolence of our president and his replicants creates great anxiety. At times, it is easy to feel the inevitability of their rise to power. The return of Nazi salutes is terrifying and unbelievable. It almost seems like the plot of a comic book.
Like Raktabija, the new regime uses self-replication to confound us. Every day there are so many attacks on decency and compassion that it seems impossible to fathom. The ecosystems of modern media helps spread the bad ideas and haunting realities. There are too many fires to put out, and too few of us are fire fighters.
Where is the Raktabija we need to defeat?
Looking for the source of our problems, it is easy to point to our lead narcissist, the master of chaos and lies. But even if the bullets at his rally had taken him out, there is an underlying core of rot that has eaten away at our democracy that he did not create. He just figured out how to use it to his advantage.
The Democrat versus Republican narrative has grown tired. We have to stop seeing the world as black and white. There are asuras on both sides, lusting after money and power, actively undermining the moral arc of the universe in it’s bend towards justice. War has been a constant with either party in power. The rich have grown richer, while the corporations that enrich them are often above the law.
No political party, company, or individual person is entirely good or evil. We are shades of grey.
In the philosophy of yoga the Sanskrit word samskara refers to mental impressions, recollections, or psychological imprints that are formed by our past actions and experiences. These impressions are stored in the subconscious mind and influence our current behavior, thoughts, and perceptions. Cultures, societies, and governments similarly become entrenched in their behaviors. Thoughts and systems get reinforced by repetition, and once established are hard to overcome.
The true battle is the inner one. We have devas and asuras in our psyches. If we give in to the hatred, or the greed, or in thinking too highly of ourselves, then we contribute to the problems of the world. Conversely, choosing kindness, compassion, and service in our daily lives leads to a better world. Our inner and outer worlds mirror one another.
Compassion takes courage. It does not mean being a pushover. As our country slides towards authoritarianism, we need to stand up and fight. Not with violence, not with hearts full of hatred and malice, but as spiritual warriors. We have to overcome the samskaras that keep us frozen in fear, complaining about the latest news stories, feeling hopeless. We also have to find empathy for the people who have been swayed by MAGA propaganda, with their flags and bumper stickers that make us feel ill. People who give away their power to abusers are unknowing victims, and becoming indoctrinated into cults is human.
The current dismantling of the US government is a calculated attack, which benefits the asura king and his billionaire sidekick. They want to take away our democracy by breaking it into pieces and then claiming it doesn’t work, to replace it with an authoritarian regime. No amount of money or power is enough for them, and no suffering created in their wake will slow them down.
However, chaos is hard to control. Parts of our government needed to be re-imagined. There is an opportunity within this moment to reform the system. Creating the new does not begin without dismantling the old. The terrorist DOGE cabal has awoken our inner Kali. We were in a state of comfortable inertia before this, and now we are forced to rise up.
United we stand, divided we fall
It is in the origin story of Durga that we get an idea for how to battle the multiplying MAGAts. Remember how the male gods all got together to create the feminine warrior? It might seem a bit patriarchal on its surface, but it is also the story of a culture moving towards balance.
In the early Vedic period (roughly 1500-1000 BCE), worship centered around elemental deities like Indra (thunder/rain), Agni (fire), Varuna (cosmic order), Surya (sun), and others. As Hinduism evolved, the Shaiva (Shiva-focused) and Vaishnava (Vishnu-focused) traditions developed somewhat independently. Shakta traditions (focusing on the Divine Mother) also have ancient roots, but gained particular prominence around the 6th century CE
The story of Durga being formed from the gods was told in the Devi Mahatmya, which was written around that time. In one sense, it was a way of reconciling the old with the new. Similar to the way that Christianity wove stories from the Old Testament into the New Testament, Hinduism honors the past gods by integrating them into the modern pantheon. The story has greater teachings.
Remember, myths are not facts. They are blueprints and archetypes. To defeat a megalomaniac and the cult formed around him, we truly do need to create great networks and communities. We need to create something greater than our individual selves.
Throughout history, we have seen the democratic party change. There have been glimmers of hope that it will truly represent the people it serves, but money always gets in the way. The idea that we just need to wait until the next election for action is short-sighted. We need to build coalitions outside of the two-party system that will be unstoppable. They should be diverse and rooted in compassion and empathy.
Our neighbors in Mexico and Canada are being attacked, Europe is being isolated, and people living under authoritarian regimes are being forgotten. We have this unique moment in history where we are all connected through the Internet. It is a tool that can be used to create connections, within and across borders. It could easily be taken from us, but in this moment we have it.
The Internet can be an organizing tool, but we also need to get out into the real world and take non-violent actions. Helping one-another in small ways, checking in on neighbors, sharing resources. Gathering in protest, boycotting corporations, creating group art. Reaching out to those who are hurting, even if they are wearing the red hat and shouting nonsense. We can’t win without them.
This is not a time for sitting back and seeing what happens next. It is a time for decisive action. It is time to furrow our brows, clench our fists, and to release our inner Kali out into the world. She is benevolent. She may drink the blood of her enemies, but she doesn’t devour feculence. And neither should you.