There is a long way to go in the West to understand Kali. Understanding Kali needs one to transcend the wrathful creator monotheistic creator. Hindu thought eq

There is a long way to go in the West to understand Kali. Understanding Kali needs one to transcend the wrathful creator monotheistic creator. Hindu thought equates the creative force of the world to be Shiva-Shakti, the male-feminine divine. It understands that there are individuals who will pursue different paths - some worship male deities, some worship female deities and some go beyond that dualism. Even in that landscape, there are those whose temperament need a serene feminine divine (the Goddess Saraswati) and those who temperament seeks the wrathful Kali and then there are those who go beyond. Kali represents the most fierce and transcending of the divine Shaktis. The Western is still not beyond the concept of the god-singularity - the monotheistic creator who observes all instead of the the self-identifying deity (Yidam) who guides you and can be different for various individuals. Hegel's 18th century misconceptions where he called Hindu thought a "Religion of Phantasy" (sic) has driven Western thought about Hinduism. Subsequent philosophers from Marx to Churchill perpetuated it. Churchill famously called Hindus "a beastly people with a beastly religion".