Mother Kali
The Devourer of Time
Kali is the goddess of destruction of the ego. Her name means dark. She is ferocious yet protective. She tends to hang out in cremation grounds. She represents life and death, the unending cycle of creation and destruction. She is the devourer of time.
Shakti
Mother Parvati turned into Durga who turned into Kali to fight the Buffalo Demon, and thus she represents the vicious aspect of Shakti, the energy of Shiva. She is commonly shown dancing on the corpse of her husband, Shiva who represents consciousness. She is the power behind consciousness.
Scary Appearance
She wears a necklace of human skulls and a skirt of severed arms. Her long tongue hanging down. Her purple lips are often covered in blood. In her hands are numerous weapons.
Goddess of Tantrics
Kali is connected to the tantric path. Tantrics
try to transcend the dualities of life and death, pain and pleasure, etc.
Through the dissolving of all opposites they seek liberation from the cycle of
repeated birth and death.