Kali’s Golden Turtleneck Dream

While in Kolkata years ago I had a dream of Kali after visiting the Kalighat Kali Temple, one of the few temples that really affected me upon spending an day doing pujas and speaking with the temple priests.   In the dream Mahkali came to me and gave me a golden turtleneck sweater that would protect me when visualized and keep me on my destiny path . When I awoke I did a watercolor of it, and only recently decided to make a more accurate depiction of the golden turtleneck as an altar piece. I will post a another painting I did of the Savitri Temple in Pushcar, another trans-formative experience.

> Mahakali (Sanskrit: Mahākālī, Devanagari: महाकाली), literally translated as Great Kali, is the Hindu Goddess of time and death, considered to be the consort of Mahakala the God of consciousness, the basis of Reality and existence.

> The Kalighat temple is regarded as one of the 52 Shakti Peethas of India, where the various parts of Sati‘s body are said to have fallen, in the course of Shiva’s Rudra Tandava. Kalighat represents the site where the toes of the right foot of Dakshayani or Sati fell. Legend has it that a devotee discovered a luminant ray of light coming from the Bhāgirathi river bed, and upon investigating its source came upon a piece of stone carved in the form of a human toe. He also found a Svayambhu Lingam of Nakuleshwar Bhairav nearby, and started worshiping Kaali in the midst of a thick jungle.    (read more Wikipedia)