All Names and Forms Disappear in Her - Mystique and Kali

The Hindu Goddess Kali

The mythological Hindu goddess, Kali, is a manifestation of the supreme Goddess Mahadevi (or sometimes simply Devi). Ajit Mookerjee writes that in reality there is only one Devi who ‘assumes various forms to fulfil various purposes, sometimes she assumes a frightening form and sometimes a benevolent form’
(1988:61). In the Devi-Mahatmya Kali sprang from the forehead of the goddess Durga and is considered Durga’s forceful form. Even though described as separate entities, Kali is Durga (and essentially Devi) in another form. She is referred to as the terrible mother due to her penchant for nurturing and/or devouring her offspring. The terrible mother is ‘an image that represents fear of ambivalence and androgyny in female sexuality’ (Otero, 1996: 273). Her motherhood is ‘ceaseless creation’; she ‘gives birth to the cosmos parthenogenetically, as she contains the male principle within herself’; and ‘is Nature, stripped of “clothes”’ (Moorkerjee, 1988:62).

Four-armed,
 two-headed Mystique

Kali and Mystique offer interesting parallels such as superheroes continue a lineage which can be to mythological beings. Kali as an emanation of the Goddess who is one, can be ‘conceived of in innumerable forms’ (Moorkerjee, 1988:63). Mystique, like Kali, wears accoutrements consisting of skulls and generally appears naked, with long dishevelled hair, thus exhibiting polyphallic symbolism. At least once Mystique has assumed a four-armed form similar to Kali’s representation.

Kali also has three eyes, and while Mystique only has two real eyes, I would like to theorise the skull on her forehead which is a constant part of her accoutrements, operates as a non functioning symbolic third eye. Though drawn in various hues of blue, Kali is most commonly associated as being black, or at least dark in colour: ‘just as all colours disappear in black, so all names and forms disappear in her’ (Moorkerjee, 1988:62) a description which recalls Mystique’s shapechanging ability and the possibility that she has forgotten her own name. Further Mystique’s real name of Raven Darkhölme reveals a certain slippage of terms. Darkhölme with the “m” removed becomes "Darkhole", while Raven, when associated with colour, is that of lustrous black. Her name could be interpreted as “Black Dark-hole”, signifying in psychoanalytic terms the black, dark, hole of the vagina, or even Freud’s Dark Continent – woman herself.

Shaggy-haired and
skull-wearing Mystique

To take this interpretation of her name further, Raven is also a root part of ravenous which as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary means: ‘Given to seizing in order to devour; voracious, gluttonous. Hence of appetite, hunger, etc.’ (‘Ravenous’, 1989), which again plays into the idea of the devouring black hole of the vagina, and recalls Kali, as all names and forms disappear in her. If all names and forms disappear in Kali, and with Mystique’s shapeshifting, this would constitute a kind of death through disappearance and brings to mind the idea of the little death of the male orgasm. The male form (seed) is devoured and disappears in the black, dark, hole of the woman. While labelled with classically “evil” characteristics, definitions and labels disappear in Mystique, like names and identities, as fast as they’re applied.


Reference

Moorkerjee, A. (1988) Kali: A Feminine Force, London: Thames and Hudson.

Otero, S. (1996) ‘Fearing our Mothers: An Overview of the Psychoanalytic Theories Concerning the Vagina Dentata Motif’, American Journal of Psychoanalysis 56, 3, pp. 269-89.

‘Ravenous’, (1989 2nd edition) Oxford English Dictionary Online, http://dictionary.oed.com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/cgi/entry/50198040?single=1&
query_type=word&queryword=ravenous&first=1&max_to_show=10, (Accessed 6 Nov. 2010).