The Demon Who Could Not Die
The demon Raktabija had a terrible power: each drop of his blood that touched the ground would sprout into another demon of equal power. The battlefield was filling with Raktabija's copies. The more he was wounded, the more of him there were.
Durga called forth Kali from her own forehead — dark, terrifying, with a lolling red tongue, a garland of skulls, a skirt of severed arms.
Kali stretched her mouth wide and swallowed every drop of Raktabija's blood before it could touch the ground, then drank the demon dry.
The Unending Fury
But the battle madness did not stop with Raktabija's death.
Kali danced on, destroying whatever came before her — demons, then other beings, her eyes wild, her tongue still out, her weapons still swinging.
The gods were terrified. They asked Shiva to intervene.
Shiva lay down in the path of Kali's dance.
She stepped on him without seeing him. Then — the moment her foot touched her husband's body — she looked down and came to herself.
The Moment of Recognition
The image is famous: Kali standing on the prone body of Shiva, her tongue out in the gesture of *hrî* — embarrassment, of having been caught doing something inappropriate, of sudden self-awareness.
She stopped. The fury subsided.
This image — Kali standing on Shiva — is one of the most theologically rich in all of Tantra. It represents Shakti (energy in motion) recognizing Shiva (the still consciousness on which she dances). The dance of the cosmos rests on the stillness of consciousness. Neither can function without the other.