There’s a lot of this ‘discourse’ going on on Twitter Dot Com atm. It’s not a recent thing – ever since Musk took over The Algorithm, it’s been bubbling up hard. But here’s the thing …

This Goddess is not, in fact, “foreign” to The West. She was there at its foundation – She is broader than The West, Indo-European, and the Expression of Her that is depicted here is Indian … but you shall quite readily find Her Facings also amidst the European mythoi of your forebears. If you care to look.

In the Hellenic world – we have Demeter Erinys/Melaina as the most prominent of these. Amidst the Gaelic Celts, we find the Cailleach (a potential linguistic cognate for Kālī, no less; it is the Cailleach Bhéarra / Buí to Whom we most readily refer here). Norse ? Skaði .

I have detailed the essential elements to the theological typology at length elsewhere (and, no doubt, am going to find myself called upon to do so again at some repetition in the near future); but suffice to say this is the Wife of the Sky Father, in fittingly Wrathful and Furious Visage – Thesmophoros, would be one apt way to phrase the function, ‘Law-Bringing’ … although Law’s Upholding is more the (forceful) Order Of The (Night) on show herein.

This is partially why I say “There at Its Foundation” – with reference to the very foundational acts which brought forth Indo-European Civilization.

To continue to utilize the Hellenic sphere as our ‘entry-point’ … an archaic Classical myth (prominent also amidst the Romans, as we can attest via its inclusion amidst the letters of Cassiodorus – VII 18 2 in particular) featured Phoroneus being the First King (“qui primus mortalium dicitur regnasse” [Hyginus, Fabulae – 143 1]), precisely because he Brought Law (“exordium regnandi tradidit Phoroneo” [143 3]). He was Approved by the Gods (Jupiter / Zeus, specifically) to Rule in consequence.

How so?

Well – “ob id beneficium quod Iunoni sacra primus fecit.”

As I had put it at the time – Worship the Devi, and Law Comes.

I also rather like it, so we are going to indulge in the aforesaid Cassiodorus excerpt:

This was a Christian man – the Magister Offociom to Theodoric the Great and his son Athalaric. In one of his letters [VII 18], we hear :

“hoc primum Phoroneus Iunoni dicitur obtulisse, ut inventum suum numinis, ut putabant, auspicio consecraret.
haec in bello necessaria, in pace decora sunt: haec denique imbecilles fragilesque mortales cunctis beluis efficiunt fortiores.”

Which, to quote the Bjornlie translation –

“Phoroneus is said to have first offered this craft to Juno, so that, as the ancients supposed, he had dedicated his invention to divine majesty at the very beginning.
Such weapons are necessary in war and comely in peace; furthermore, they make fragile and weak mortals stronger than any beast.”

Now, there is another reason why I have quoted that rendition herein (and I would personally prefer the Hodgkin rendition, although it is abridged: “Good arms are of the utmost importance to a community. By means of them man, the frailest of creatures, is made stronger than monstrous beasts. Phoroneus is said to have first invented them, and brought them to Juno to consecrate them by her divinity.”).

(And I should, perhaps, emphasize that the Christian iteration mentioned above has taken one strand of the pre-Christian understanding … wherein it was very much the case that Weaponry and Piety were fundamentally, foundationally entertwined as One (and we still very much have this understanding in the Vedic Rites – but more upon this, of course, at all other times).

The forging of the first ‘Armaments of Juno’, as Hyginus [274 7] has it – “Arma Iunoni primus fecit” – is intimately the same act as the first offerings made to Juno detailed elsewhere in the same text.

The (Sword-)Point may be further explored via both the etymology, which (per de Vaan) has ‘Arma’ as flowing from the same root as our well-renowned Rta (which is helpfully rendered by de Vaan as “‘truthful; agreement, (world-)order; oath'”), this being PIE *h₂er => *h₂(e)r-mo- (for the adjective) / *h₂(e)r-mn-to- (for the noun), which he has as ‘fitting’.

The ‘Sword-Point’ bit is also an intentional reference – viz. the ‘First Sword’ which represents the embodied Force of Law, as the instrument to its Divine Upholding, passed down through the lineage of the Sons of Manu per the Mahabharata.)

When we look upon Kālī we can very much see a figure that is absolutely terrific – and that is as it should be.

For it is only Absolute Terror which is capable of giving meaningful pause to those force and those foes who had hitherto imagined themselves to be immune from not only fear but fearful consequence to their despoiling and anarchic actions.

As the Bjornlie rendition for Cassiodorus’ words had had it –

“Necessary in War and Comely in Peace”

Just as the Divine Law should be.

One might equally further this iteration to a more overt resonance with the ‘Dual Facings’ to the Mother Goddess in this manner – ferocious, furious, and forcefully protective, upon the one hand; nurturing, instructive, and empowering, upon the other.

The difference? Are you Family or Foe.

I am tempted to quote another line of Cassiodorus, from the same letter, via way of further illustrious explication:

“Opus quod mortem generat et salutem, interitus peccantium, custodia bonorum, contra improbos necessarium semper auxilium.”

Which, again, per Bjornlie’s translation:

“This work begets death and salvation, the destruction of those sinning, the protection of the good, and always necessary assistance against the wicked.”

He was referring there to the work of the weaponsmiths, of course – but I think that it applies most definitely also to the serious business of our religion.

And I am quoting it, of course, because they are the words of a pious Christian commentator. Who has drawn from the mythos which well preceded his own religion within The West in order to make his point.

We are therefore doing the opposite – drawing from the Catholic / Christian textual canon in order to make our point … about what this tweeter has sought to convey as a foreign figure and a newcomer (perhaps upon the surface not unlike, in that regard, the faith of Cassiodorus to both Rome and the Germanic sphere of the Goths for whom he worked), and yet Who upon closer inspection holds a much more archaic Magisterium ‘midst Man.

And Who requires no twitter account’s ‘permission’ to be in ‘the West’ – as without Her, there should prove no West to be ‘in’ in the first place.

It seems little wonder that those who would seek to co-opt ‘The West’ as far as possible from its foundations should live in terror of a resurgence of its ancient vitality.

Even if, due to their prior successes, such a thing must prove accomplished via the aid of our co-religious (Indo-European) cousins to the East.

For Us, you see, It Is Tuesday.

Jai Mata Di.