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Tuesday, April 8, 2008

More on Bagalamucki


My on-line friend, Monsier Stank, asked to hear more about Bagala. Monsieur Stank is a fellow goddess worshipper, a devotee of the venerable Nelly, a gastric goddess who resides in his microwave. If you read what I've exerpted below, you'll understand more about Bagala and what she represents. You'll have to read the Stank Nasty to learn more about Nelly.

I was introduced to Bagala quite some time ago. It was a friend who introduced me to a tantric hindu, an older man who very graciously did people's vedic charts and, very passionately, considered Bagala his ishta devi, i.e., the goddess of his heart, much like Amma or Sri Karunamayi Ma is to me. He has long since fallen off my radar. This goddess coming however indirectly from the friend I used to have is personally significant. She brought Bagala to my attention indirectly and since then I have had to call upon Bagala many times to keep my tongue in check. However, also significant to note is that while Sri Karunamayi Ma is considered the incarnation of Saraswati Devi, who presides over all speech and creativity, so is Bagala (see below), although she feels particularly intense about nasty speech and so drives a peg into the tongue of those can't keep insults and nastiness to themselves, no matter what the excuse and most emphatically including myself. So in a way, they are one in the same, which to me, is highly significant. Also, she is called "The Crane Headed One", and the crane or more specifically, the Great Blue Heron, is a spiritual animal marker of mine. It is important that when reading and digesting this information (Nelly should like that), one thinks in terms of symbolism and metaphor.

Exerpted from www.shivashakti.com ...

She is the goddess of black magic, of poisons. She rules over the subtle perception which make us feel at a distance the death or misery of those we know. She incites men to torture one another. She revels in suffering - Hindu Polytheism, Alain Danielou

This is the first publication, in English, of The Hymn of Bagalamukhi. In the colophon of the work it is stated that it is from the Rudra Yamala, a large and authoritative Tantra considered to be of considerable antiquity, although the original seems to have disappeared.

Bagala or Bagalamukhi is the eighth Mahavidya in the famous series of the 10 Mahavidyas
Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Chinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Bagala, Matangi and Kamala. She is identified with the second night of courage, according to Alain Danielou in his Hindu Polytheism, and is the power or Shakti of cruelty.

Bagalamukhi means "The Crane-Headed One". This bird is thought of as the essence of deceit. As can be seen from the hymn, she rules magic for the suppression of an enemy's gossip. These enemies also have an inner meaning, and the peg she puts through the tongue may be construed as a peg or paralysis of our own prattling talk. She rules deceit which is at the heart of most speech. She can in this sense be considered as a terrible or Bhairavi form of Matrika Devi, the mother of all speech.


1 comment:

Dan Kelly said...

Bagalamucki is hardcore! I'll make sure not to fuck with her. The name sounds like a shoe line.

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