Kali! I Wanna Be Inspired

“I love my car. I miss my car.” — Sandra Bullock as Annie Porter in Speed

I miss my blog. I am way sick of all the demands on my time, but the ones I’d give up aren’t optional. Damn. So how are you?

I can’t remember if I mentioned this book or not, but in lieu of a full length review (which may yet show up in Rending the Veil), I want to gush a little bit about Encyclopedia of Spirits by Judika Illes. I encountered this tome in my local library, which is nothing short of miraculous given the religious climate hereabouts. It’s a 133.x book, i.e. a book on the occult. It was not only in my local small-town-outside-a-big-city library, but it was also in the new nonfiction books section, right up front. I don’t really believe in coincidence – coincidence went from being a term created to describe an event to being a term used to dismiss synchronicitous events that people find difficult to consider. In fact, I think Ms. Illes may even venture this opinion… I know I’ve seen it somewhere else, recently, than inside my own head.

Anyway, I was breezing past the new book shelf without a glance when I spotted “Spirits” on the cover and did a double take, and when I looked back I figured it’d be a bartending book or a book from a Christian point of view. Nope, pure occultism, and at its finest. As an encyclopedia, which have been churning out of Llewellyn regularly on various topics for the last several years, I expected something fluffy and/or droll. But this book is actually published by HarperOne (an imprint of HarperCollins), so right away that was a point in its favor. Then I started to read. And was, quite frankly, blown away.

I know there isn’t exactly a plethora of books available on spirits, and of the few available, I’ve read even less. (I do seek to change that.) While most books have their strengths and weaknesses, I can’t find anything to fault yet with this book. I even ordered a copy rather than wait to see if I could obtain a review copy, and I buy precious few books anymore. Ms. Illes, whom I’ve friended on Facebook and who’s returned the favor on MySpace, knows her stuff. She covers much needed information that I’ve never seen anywhere else except my own manuscript, heh, but I feel no sense of competition. I’m pleased to recommend this volume to anyone who takes spirit encounters or spirit work seriously, and that includes any work with pantheons, fae, or any other type of spirit being.

Her encyclopedic entries are equally impressive, based on the ones I’ve read. Her entry on Kali Ma sent chills down my spine. Tangent alert! Kali is my matron goddess, a spirit I fell in love with in the 80s when I first encountered her name – it was like a sudden memory jolt when I read her name in a fantasy fiction trilogy of books by John Varley called, respectively, Titan, Wizard, and Demon. The series is about a group of humans who find themselves in a world that exists inside a wheel shaped “planet.” On each spoke there rules a titan from what we know as Ancient Greece. I can’t remember who is what and so on, but the goddess of the whole place is Gaia, who is a psychotic bitch. Through the course of the novels, we meet up with just about any god or goddess you can imagine, and Kali appears as a caricature of herself that is still utterly charming (to me, at any rate). It was love at first sight.

I limped along for 15 years with this quiet admiration for her, never considering worshiping or venerating her even when I was in search of a goddess back in my eclectic days. Yet every time I saw mention of her, my heart just ignited. In 1999, before Meridjet returned from his three year trek into the Abyss, she called to me rather hard and initiated me, though at the time I wasn’t sure what was going on. She walked me through quitting smoking after 25 years, removing my fear of failure through her inspiration, and I never took a single drag after quitting, not once. I very rarely have ever had anything even approaching a craving, and that is a miracle. Trust me on this.

During the initiation that immediately followed, I spent three solid months crying and processing some of the worst ordeals I’d ever faced up to that point, and still never smoked. (It would have been disrespectful, but I’m not sure that’s even why.) She dragged my sniveling, whiny ass to hell, through hell, and back from hell, and when it was over, Meridjet returned. Like the very next day. And since that day almost exactly ten years ago, I’ve been continuing my silent admiration without pursuing the relationship with Kali to any great extent. So imagine my surprise when I read the entry in the Encyclopedia to find it describes the essence of all my spiritual work – with Meridjet and alone – to a T, and that everything else listed clicks, too, right down to the four favorite colors: Black, red, midnight blue, and purple. Black and midnight blue are Meridjet’s two colors. I vacillate between red and purple, depending on mood, but also love black. (I also like green, but that is comparatively recent.)

I read this today sitting in a waiting room, and it made my heart yearn. I want to develop a closer relationship with her. She inspires true spiritual passion in me like no other deity, and if ever I was to fall to my knees (not something I tend to do, generally speaking), it would be at her feet. I’m almost giddy at the idea of taking this to the next level. After all my years of work and study, to think that only now do I consider giving myself willingly is rather astounding. I’m sorta terrified at the commitment, honestly. But thrilled, too. I’m not sure how I’m going to undertake it, yet.

Even if you don’t find anything equally inspiring in Encyclopedia of Spirits, I strongly recommend this book for just its general spirit information in the beginning chapters. Definitely 5 stars out of 5.

If you want to order any of these books, please consider using my retrieved-from-the-dead affiliate account. No pressure. Thanks.

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