Chinnamasta-the Mahvidya Goddess
Image taken from Wikipedia Navratri or the festival of nine nights has just gone by and Halloween comes up at the end of this month. It is the perfect time to write about Chinnamasta devi, the fifth or sixth Mahvdiya ( a group of 10 goddesses in the Hindu esoteric tradition of tantra/black magic). She is considered the goddess of sexual well-being and a protector. Both a life-giver and a life-taker, the devi appears in nude form adorned in skulls, jewellery and long hair, holding her decapitated head and feeding her two attendants Jaya and Vijaya. In other depictions, Dakini and Varnini are the two attendants gouging on the blood spurts of Chinnamasta Devi's body. She appears over the top of a copulating couple Rati and Kama (the god of sexual desire) signifying sexual well-being and control over her own sexual desire. The legend behind the Chinnamasta The legend goes that one day, the Hindu goddess Parvati, Lord Shiva's consort, was taking a bath in the river. Her 2 attendan
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