This is part of a Wednesday series on Goddess spirituality and political activism.
Even now, when the opponents of the Iraq War have been depressingly and thoroughly vindicated, after we point out that we predicted all those things that "no one could have predicted"....even now, we keep hearing that Afghanistan is different. Necessary. Supporting the war in Afghanistan is required in order to be a Serious Person.
But when we unleash a war, we unleash Kali , and she’s not interested in how good your arguments are on paper.
Kali is the Hindu Goddess of Time, the destroyer. She is terrifying in appearance , often shown wearing a garland of severed heads and a skirt of human arms. She sometimes gets caricatured by non-Hindus as evil (see, for instance, "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom"). But she is not demonic; rather, she is the slayer of demons. It is said that she gives birth to children and then devours them – which sounds evil, until you notice that Time does that to each of us.
Kali came into being with the Gods and Goddesses were locked in a battle against the demons. The demons had a special power when they were attacked: every drop of blood that hit the ground would cause a new demon to spring up. They kept multiplying, and soon the demons would overrun the world. Even the Gods and Goddesses were overwhelmed by terror.
The warrior Goddess Durga (or in some versions, Parvati) knit her brows in concentration, and a ball of fire burst forth, blinding with its white-hot radiance. From the center of the fire came Kali, a Goddess as black as the deepest night. She had four arms, each bearing a deadly weapon, and sharp fangs pulled into a hideous grin.
Kali walked onto the battlefield as if she was entering a party. She seized the first demon in her path and bit off its head. Then she held its body aloft and drank the blood as it poured out. Another demon attacked, but she casually killed it and drank its blood the same way.
Soon Kali laid waste to the whole battlefield. The ground was littered with the bodies of demons, all drained of their lifeblood, and the few survivors had fled. Kali felt the demon flesh crushed underneath her feet, and she laughed a wild and dangerous laugh.
Then she began to dance.
She danced her victory on the corpses and the battlefield. With every step, the ground shook harder. The other deities shouted a warning, but Kali heard only the music of her pulsing heart. She danced faster and faster, harder and harder, as the earth around her began to crack.
In a few more moments, the earth would break apart, and all on it would be destroyed.
Shiva, the God of destruction, threw himself beneath Kali’s feet. For a moment, Kali continued her triumphant dance. Then she looked down and saw Shiva below her, the whole of the universe reflected in his eyes, and she saw that she was dancing him to death.
Kali stopped and bent to embrace Shiva. But in the wild depths of her heart, she longs to continue her dance. And someday, Kali and Shiva will dance the end of the world.
That’s a close as I can get to an explanation of why I opposed the war. I heard all about how it was going to save us: we were going to get Bin Laden, overthrow the Taliban, and establish a US-friendly democracy. Eight years and thousands of lives later, Bin Laden is still at large, the Taliban is still around, and we’ve installed a "President" of Afghanistan who might as well be called the Mayor of Kabul.
This is a country that no one has ever successfully invaded. And, as with so many other things, Americans decided it would be different with us.
We spent years demanding an exit strategy for Iraq. We need one for Afghanistan, and the sooner the better. Once Kali is unleashed, all we can hear is her dangerous dance – and the sound of voices crying, "No one could have predicted..."
Yes, we could.