Chthonia

Continuing our Mahavidyas series, Dhumavati is an inauspicious goddess associated with old age, poverty, and sickness. But she is also the goddess of the Void between Death and Life, and plays an important role in teaching us to stay in the present.

This week's episode is about the Goddess of Destruction and consort of Bhairava, the destructive aspect of Shiva. As with our other Mahavidyas, Bhairavi also has powerful life-affirming aspects.

In our continued series on the Das Mahavidyas, we look this week at Chinnamasta, the self-decapitating goddess. Her image is gruesome and somewhat shocking; however she represents a sublime reality about life and death.

In the wake of fears of the Coronavirus, I thought it would be timely to discuss Matangi, one of the Mahavidyas associated with pollution and impurity. Matangi shows us how the Divine is present in the impure–and the unwanted.

We now begin looking at individual dark Hindu goddesses, starting with the Mahavidyas. The pivotal Mahavidya is the goddess Kali, whose fearsome appearance gives her associations with death, the demonic, and blood sacrifice. In this podcast we go deeper than the surface associations, and look at the varied and complex aspects of this powerful goddess, […]

This is the last of an "introduction" to the goddesses, focusing on the Sri Cakra or Sri Yantra, an important symbol representing Shakti/Devi and the creation of the entire universe. It is the central Tantric symbol of the Sri Vidya branch of Hinduism, and is important for understanding its dark goddesses.

This episode continues to provide context for our 6-month long discussion of dark Hindu goddesses, looking at the Sri Chandi Path, the Sri Devi Bhagavatam, and the Devi Upanishad as sources on the fierce divine feminine in Hinduism, and particularly in Tantra.

It's 2020, and we are starting the new year with a series on the Tantric goddesses–the Mahavidyas, the Matrikas, the Navadurgs, and similar dark Hindu mothers. This episode offers an introduction to Hindu prayer, worship, the meaning of Tantra, and my own encounters with these goddesses.

It's the last podcast of the year, during the 12 days of Christmas—a good time to discuss 2 Christmas "witches" that seek out naughty children—and adults—to either cannibalize them or cut them open and stuff them full of straw. It's Austria's Frau Perchta and Iceland's Gryla, two witch figures of the Christmas "naughty or nice" […]

This week I'm joined by Elen Jones, who is also known as the Spiral Priestess on Facebook, and the creator of the Voices of the Dark Mothers cards, to talk about Black Madonnas. These Catholic and Orthodox images feature a dark-skinned Virgin and Child, and are surprising objects of both veneration and secrecy.