4 6 S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 5 - 1 S p r i n g 2 0 1 9 5 Conclusion Is the Goddess depicted on the first illustration of the present article really “Kālī Clad in Space”? Wouldn’t she rather be Shodashī, the experience of the Soma flow? Why is Dhūmāvatī, the grandmother (Staggering Dhūmāvatī) displaying one breast in agreement to her nature, while the other breast is like a young woman’s? In some representations, the Mahāvidyā can look alike and adopt some marks or an appearance similar to one of her companions. The idea I wished to translate, in visual language, is that all the Vidyā are the manifestations of Mahādevī, the Great Goddess. Mahādevī also lives in a young woman, calledVenus of the Plastics, whose picture taken by photographer Channi Anand, in an industrial waste dump in North India was shared worldwide. Proud, dignified and covered with jewels, as the Goddess Matangī, the young woman rises not from the food crumbs of divine couples (as told by the myth), but from a sea of plastic bags. Her hands and arms are covered with a toxic white insecticide powder. The noble pose of the Rag lady strongly opposes with the dirty and polluted environment. The often-expressed idea of the tantric texts finds here a beautiful illustration. We should consider not only the Ten Mahāvidyās but every woman as the manifestation of Mahādevī. Every woman carries herself a teaching and reveals to us the “Great knowledge of the subtle things”. During the work on the representations of Kālī, Shodashī and Dhūmāvatī, at times, I had the impression of being just “a channel”, “a tool” through which the energy of the Goddess was expressing itself. I felt this energy flow in me, through my own body, through my own nervous system. I felt this energy living in me. Creating images has become a form of Yoga practice. An experience of the bond woven with the Divinity. The subtle link, spiritual, but also material, is experienced in the body. At present, after all this journey, I feel that I have more and more things to discover, new ideas about the Goddesses are coming to me and the desire to explore them does not dry up. I feel that the door to the Vidyā is only ajar. References Frawley, David. 1996. Tantric Yoga and the Wisdom Goddesses. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Harshananda. 1986. Les Divinités Hindoues et Leurs Demeures. Dervy-Livres. Kingsley, David. 1997. Tantric Visions of the Divine Feminine: The Ten Mahavidyas. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Kempton, Sally. 2013. Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga. Boulder, CO: Sounds True. Ronnberg, Ami, and Kathleen Martin. 2011. The Book of Symbols Reflections on Archetypal Images. Köln: Tashen. Suryanarayanamurti. 1975. Shri Lalita Sahasranama. Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. Acknowledgement The essay was kindly translated by Catherine Laugée from the French original entitledDhumavatî, Kalî, Shodashî: à la recherche des trois visages du féminin sacré.
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