Adam of Macedonia At the beginning there was the Earth. And it turned into clay. Then it shaped into a figurine, the hands which created it – divinized it, and gave it a name – Adam. A small ceramic figurine of a male torso, in a seated position, has created a real turmoil in the scientific community since a couple of years ago. This figurine was excavated at the turn of the millennium, from the archeological site of Govrlevo (Skopje, Macedonia). This figurine is dated to be some 6000 years old, and represents one of the most unique archeological finds in the world. It has received the epithet of a millennial find. According to Milos Bilbija, the archeologist who excavated this miraculous figurine: “the maker’s inventiveness is strongly suggestive to that extent that the modern observer can easily recognize a 6000-year-old message in it”. At times it reminds of the famous Rodin’s sculpture - The Thinker, however, Adam of Macedonia offers an unusually artistic craft in shaping this male torso in a seated position, with an accentuated anatomy, deeply redrawn belly, as if the figurine was trying to point at some kind of a diaphragmatic breathing1, the belly-button is clearly stressed, as in some presentations of the Buddha2, the muscles are well-defined, as in the Renaissance art, the spine is visible, and there is even a broken phallus3. When you take a look at this figurine, you simply cannot remain indifferent to its contextual message. The incompletely preserved expression of a human male, caught in the moment of either
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Diaphragmatic breathing is one of the most important foundation practices for meditation. When the diaphragm muscle contracts, it pulls the bottom of the lungs downward, causing them to fill, while the ribs flare outward to the sides. The chest and abdominal muscles are not used in diaphragmatic breathing. Conscious diaphragmatic breathing is extremely relaxing to the autonomic nervous system and is essential preparation for deep meditation. 2
Towering over Rangoon, the capital city of Ancient Burma, is a great temple called The Shwedagon Pagoda. The Pagoda is covered with over two tons of gold and over 6,000 jewels, including a giant 73carat diamond at the top of its tower. It also has thousands of bells, tiny tinkling ones and one that weighs 23 tons. The legend says that inside the Pagoda, where the giant statue of Buddha sits, there was once a large jade belly button. In 1824, the British stormed the Pagoda, and the English soldiers made off with The Belly Button of Buddha and The Great Bell. The bell sank in the river as they tried to float it away. The Burmese later lifted it out of the river, but The Belly Button of Buddha vanished completely... 3
In Tantric Shaivism a symbolic marker, the lingam (phallus) is used for worship of the Hindu God Shiva. In related art the linga or lingam is the depiction of Shiva for example: mukhalinga or cosmic pillar. This pillar is the worship focus of the Hindu temple, and is often situated within a yoni, indicating a balance between male and female creative energies. Fertility is not the limit of reference derived from these sculptures, more generally they may refer to abstract principles of creation. The Ancient Egyptians related the cult of phallus with Osiris. When Osiris' body was cut in 13 pieces, Seth scattered them all over Egypt and his wife Isis retrieved all of them except one, his penis, which was swallowed by a fish.
physical or spiritual activity, or maybe both, does not leave even the greatest skeptic unattained. Is it possible that at the time when the Great Mother’s cult was in full bloom in Macedonia, a unique and admirable object of such importance for our understanding of spirituality can be produced by the hands of those who apparently have marked the most curious epoch of human existence, that of the matriarchate. This in itself is a very untypical discovery for the time, since it is strange to see that the Great Mother Goddess, who could hear all the prayers of the people and could provide soothing to their troubles, would allow a precise depiction of the male spirituality to appear in the figurine of Adam, thus juxtaposing the representative elements of the culture as a whole. Could it be that there was a balance of sexes in Macedonia, way before one of them claimed dominance over the other? At only a hand-distance from civilization, on the other side of the Vodno peak, down the silent slopes from behind Skopje, where only the symbols speak their taciturn tales, Adam of Govrlevo is trying to communicate a message, as old as time itself.
In the history of Arts almost all figurines from the prehistory are symbolic in nature and convey a kind of philosophical viewpoint of the culture that produced them. In other words, the prehistoric cultures such as the one developed in Macedonia some 6000YA, lived in archetypical reality and presented their core believes in a most symbolic manner, as if the shapes were gaining more comprehensive image in the minds of these people, so that they recognized the similarities, sealed themselves in groups against the differences, on the grounds of shared reasons, and produced a culture on a rather different concept, than that of the Babylonians, or Sumerians for that matter.
Since the very beginnings of the Sumero-Babylonian mythology, it was War4, not Peace or any other concept of divinity found within the human nature that motivated the Israelites to proclaim their Testament with the Lord. Which lord is the question? As the Sumerian tablets confirm, the Bible seems to have fabricated the contents of an earlier polytheistic view, that has been preserved in oral tradition for a long while, before it got recorded much later than what we would expect. The concept of conflict has always prevailed, and has reflected into the civilizational developments of the nations. The cultures of the old world were confounded by this idea of self-affirmation through violence and aggression - they were the cultures of the Shadow. The Sun cultures5 on the other hand were those that created positive developments in human evolution. Nevertheless, they were weaker in the defense from the aggressor’s differences, since they relied their common existence on shared reasons, which were based on totally opposite concepts of reality, from those in the Bible of the Israelites. Therefore, they succumbed to most of it, and allowed their shared reasons to entangle with those of the aggressors. Not all of them, though! Something was preserved, after all. Mother Earth is now opening her womb, to reveal her Truth to everyone. Adam of Macedonia was created in an epoch were the words, as we know them, would have no meaning. Everyone would agree that the explanation for Adam’s existence is at hand; however, his enigma still remains intangible to many. For the time being, we have several conflicted viewpoints of professionals in the field of archeology. If we assume that with the accentuation of the anatomy, the prehistoric inhabitants of Macedonia would leave a more significant message through Time, then we may need to reconsider the spiritual dimension of human existence. Have you ever tried to make a human-like figurine, which would depict your complete viewpoint and your personal experience of the world as such? You would probably notice that you need a lot of love, care and attention, as well as skills to perform such a miracle, 4
God demands War, a script found in the Old Testament, encodes the belief that a divine will works through organized aggression and violence. Needless to say, this is a most volatile script, whose enactment is now evident globally on a daily basis. In the departure from Sacred Nature, humanity tends to look to an abstract deity for a sense of purpose — at least such has been the trend of Judeo-Christian-Moslem monotheistic religions.
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Since the earliest records of Egyptian history we recognize two models of organization in the society: Ma’at (order) and Isfet (chaos). Ma'at as a principle was at least partially codified into a set of laws, and expressed a ubiquitous concept of correct from wrong characterized by concepts of truth and a respect for, and adherence to, this divine order believed to be set forth by her at the time of the world's creation. This divine order was primarily conceived of as being modeled in various environmental, agricultural, and social relationships. The reverence of the Sun, and the peaceful developments of social life were the most distinguished features of the Sun Kingdom of Egypt. Around 1650 BC, as the power of the Middle Kingdom pharaohs weakened, Asiatic immigrants living in the Eastern Delta town of Avaris seized control of the region and forced the central government to retreat to Thebes, where the pharaoh was treated as a vassal and expected to pay tribute. The Hyksos ("foreign rulers") imitated Egyptian models of government and portrayed themselves as pharaohs, thus integrating Egyptian elements into their Middle Bronze Age culture. This system of government was known as Isfet (chaos) to the indigenous Egyptians. It represented the Shadow culture of the hoards, which invaded the peaceful Sun cultures and imposed their War codex as a means to attaining divinity.
as creating a figurine of yourself. Sometimes, even a tiny figurine, such as that of Adam of Macedonia, can make a huge difference in the understanding of Creation, in general. This finding is of priceless value, and it has already been registered as a monumental master-piece with an explicitly realistic art form, and it can be seen at the Museum of the City of Skopje. This is the point where science stops and speculations begin. The little figurine which is obviously a spiritual object clearly represents the core of the knowledge these people possessed. Could they have been aware of the diaphragmatic breathing and knew the true ways of meditation, or could they have known of the belly-button, as the Hidden Temple of Buddha, the womb from which we have all come forth. Moreover, the muscular depiction is very humanistic, and it lacks constraints of any kind. To add to this list of coincidences, the figurine reveals a phallic element in the symbolism it depicts. Its connection to Osiris and the Temple of Man is again astonishing. Macedonia’s great treasures can be found on rocks and inside caves, where the first activities of human consciousness had taken place. Another such miracle is the megalithic observatory in Kokino6, known as Tatichev Kamen (Father’s Stone). The site is magnificent to visit, and to me, it has another spiritual dimension to it - that I am going to refer in a very short presentation.
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Kokino (Macedonian: Кокино) is an important archaeological site and a megalithic observatory discovered in 2001 by archeologist Jovica Stankovski in the northeastern Republic of Macedonia, approximately 30 km from the town of Kumanovo, near the village of Staro Nagorichane. It is situated 1013 m above sea level and covers an area of a 100-meter radius. The site is approximately 3800 years old. The oldest archaeological finds date from the Early Bronze Age. Finds from the Middle Bronze Age are the most numerous (mainly ceramic vessels, stone-mills and a few molds). An agglomeration from the Iron Age has also been discovered. The archaeo-astronomical research was carried out by the Bulgarian astrophysicians A. Stoev and M. Mulgova and continued in 2002 by G. Cenev from the Republic of Macedonia. Kokino consists of two parts. It includes special stone markers used to track the movement of Sun and Moon on the eastern horizon. The observatory used the method of stationary observation, marking positions of the Sun at the winter and summer solstice, as well as the equinox. The importance of the site was confirmed by the U.S. space agency NASA, which placed it on its list of ancient observatories
Apparently the megalithic observatory is a huge, monumental construction, and it clearly shows signs of active use at least until the Late Bronze age. Now let us imagine, these people who probably cohabitated with the indigenous Pelasgians, or their predecessors for that matter, and had developed this culture of stargazers, along with the spirituality they developed, as confirmed from earlier finds, such as that of Adam, must have lived their lives in harmony with both Nature and the Cosmos, since their irrevocable reverence of these concepts can be clearly documented in the cultural heritage they have left behind. Hence, if Adam points at a symbolical understanding of the basic concepts of meditation, which by the way is a very sophisticated practice of spirituality, through its redrawn belly, as if diaphragmatic breathing had been a common practice to the maker of this figurine, and if it also implies understanding of the philosophy of the Hidden Temple7, as with the accentuated belly-button, the omphalos8 of the world, along with the symbolism 7
The Hidden Temple is usually associated with the womb of the world, the primeval birthplace of life. In the Mayan tradition, there was a place of great mystery, which is represented by a Hidden Temple (Ak’abal) in an over grown jungle. This temple has a dark mystical interior filled with all things hidden, good and bad, positive and negative. Ak’abal is a holder/keeper of Truth and it has a strong implication to the revelations that follow darkness, which suggests that Truth shall emerge from the womb of the Earth. The Maya believed that each day of the Tzol’kin had a character that influenced events. The Maya had a shaman-priest, whose name meant day keeper that read the Tzol’kin to predict the future. When a child was born, the day keeper would interpret the Tzol’kin cycle to predict the baby’s destiny. For example, a child born on the day of Ak’abal was thought to be feminine, wealthy, verbally skillful, or the opposite - a liar, cheat or complainer. The birthday of Ak’abal was also thought to give the child the ability to communicate with the supernatural world, so he or she might become a priest shaman. In the Maya highlands, babies were even named after the day they were born on. 8
An omphalos is an ancient religious stone artifact, or baetylus. In Hellenic, the word omphalos means "navel". According to the ancient sources, Zeus sent out two eagles to fly across the world to meet at its
of the phallus, which has been the most revered object of divination ever since antiquity, and which implies the harmony between the opposite sexes, then what conclusions can we, as modern observers of this mythical pantomime, draw in order to attain the logic of our fancy. Could it be that our Adam of Macedonia was an androgynous figurine, representing both the Sacred Feminine and Masculine forces of Creation? Is it possible that the ancient Macedonian stargazers who produced such symbolic craftwork as this little figurine, knew these practices really well to have combined them in such an implicit way as to
center, the "navel" of the world. Omphalos stones used to denote this point, were erected in several areas surrounding the Mediterranean Sea; the most famous of those was at the oracle in Delphi. Similar symbolism appears in Herodotus accounts, regarding the oracle in Dodona. However, instead of eagles it was doves that seem to have marked the navel of the world there. Homer referred to the great and ancient oracle of Zeus at Dodona in Epirus as 'Pelasgian', an epithet that was used for it by later writers. Herodotos' picture of the Pelasgians seems similar to that given by Thucydides a generation later. According to both, Pelasgians formed the bulk, though not the whole, of the early population of Greece and the Aegean and most of them were gradually assimilated by the Hellenes. As Martin Bernal points out in Black Athena, the references to Pelasgians on Mainland Greece fit the Ancient Model reasonably well. According to it, 'Pelasgian' was simply a name given to unassimilated native inhabitants of Greece. Similar images were also depicted on Egyptian papyri of omphalos stones with two doves perched on top. These two doves are the standard glyph meaning 'to lay out parallels and meridians'. It is also interesting to note, by way of relation with the ark of Noah, the ark of Ziusudra (or Utnapishtim), the ark of Deukalion, and the Argo - all of whom sent forth birds over the water (like those birds from Thebes as well) - that the standard Egyptian hieroglyph for the act of laying out the parallels and meridians is two pigeons facing each other. The Pelasgian ark seems to have landed at Dodona, while the Hebrew ark landed at Ararat. According to the Argonautica which is an epic poem written by Apollonius Rhodius in the 3rd century BCE, the ship Argo is built and a crew of around fifty heroes is assembled in response to an oracle received by King Pelias. Led by Jason, the heroes include Heracles and his companion Hylas, Castor and Pollux (the Dioscuri: sons of Tyndareus and brothers of Helen and Clytemnestra), Orpheus, Meleager, Zetes and Calais (sons of Boreas), Peleus (father of Achilles), Laertes (supposed father of Odysseus), Telamon (father of Ajax), and the ship's builder, Argos. Their goal is to travel to Colchis and to obtain the Golden Fleece. Apollonius’ poem seems to describe the mythical epoch before the Pelasgians were invaded by the Danaos, the Achaeans and the Dorians. The latter seem to have acquired the mythology of the indigenous Pelasgians, which must have fused with their Semitic and Egyptian mythologies to form the Hellenistic. The Argonautica differs in some respects from traditional or Homeric Greek epic, though Apollonius certainly used Homer as a model. The Argonautica is much shorter than Homer’s epics, with four books totaling less than 6,000 lines, while the Iliad runs to more than 15,000. Argonautica is often placed in a literary tradition that leads to the Hellenistic novel. It is also unlike the archaic Epic tradition in its many discursions into local custom, aetiology, and other popular subjects of Hellenistic poetry. The gods are relatively distant and inactive throughout much of the epic, following the Hellenistic trend to allegorize and rationalize religion. Heterosexual loves such as Jason’s are more emphasized than homosexual loves such as that of Heracles and Hylas, another trend in Hellenistic literature, as heterosexual love gained prestige.
suggest the mythical unity of opposites, or is it more suggestive to say that these are all simply coincidences? If we should assume that no exact conclusions can be drawn from a single figurine, then we must take into consideration its proximity, both geographical and historical, with the megalithic observatory of Kokino, along with the mores it sustained. There are numerous finds of rock art9 engravings and artifacts, which derive from the same cultural context as that of Adam.
The image above is of yet another megalithic monument that is located in the vicinity of Kratovo, to the north-east of the Republic of Macedonia. Its name in the local tradition has remained Cocev Kamen (Tzotze’s Rock). The very structure of this huge monument reveals a megalithic character. It clearly indicates signs of active use for ritualistic purposes, with its numerous compartments, as well as the system of pathways that connect them. There is an entrance to the main courtroom, which is neatly paved, there are pathways to the other compartments, through concave holes that lead up the rocks, 9
It is estimated that the Republic of Macedonia has more rock art samples than the entire region of Europe. Dr. Aleksovski believes that all elements were present and the conditions were right for a prehistoric civilization to have flourished in this region. According to the latest dating methods, some of the art on the rock samples is over thirty thousand years old. Dr. Aleksovski's discoveries have attracted a lot of attention in the rock art world; enough to call the Republic of Macedonia the Rock Art center of the world, to hold a Rock Art World Congress in 2002 in the Republic of Macedonia, to form a Rock Art Academy and to elect Dr. Aleksovski its first president. Among the participants in the Rock Art Congress were France, Switzerland, USA, Japan, China, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Italy, Greece, Great Britain, Australia, Russia and, of course, the Republic of Macedonia. Since he first started in 1988, until now, Dr. Aleksovski has found and recorded more than one million samples in Macedonia alone.
and there are indented holes, probably for a wooden construction to be attached in order to set a platform to sustain a bigger number of people. There is a basin above the main compartment, which is clearly used for containing a larger amount of liquid, most probably wine for ritualistic bathing, since vine trees can still be seen growing between the rocks. The basin is moulded on the external side, probably for a wooden dam to be placed that would keep the liquid contained within the basin, which must have been removed to release the liquid right on top of the main courtroom, where the rituals were most likely performed. There are even rock engravings in the cavernous compartments, which can be associated to some representations of the Great Mother Goddess.
The image to the left is one of the many that can be seen on the walls of the caverns in Tzotze’s Rock. It clearly represents a feminine figure in a ritualistic dance. There are other finds of similar kind on the surrounding rocks, such as the other image to the right. There are even megalithic rocks that seem to be naturally placed, however considering their astronomical application, it might as well have been used as a marker for celestial observations, or simply as an omphalos stone, to mark the navel of the world, similar to the one in Delphi, which is obviously constructed much later, probably as an imitation for enhancing the spiritual credence among the newcomers to the south.
The natural megalithic stone near Tzotze’s Rock
The Omphalos stone from Delphi
All things considered, risking to be perceived as if I am cranking it off, it seems that the mythology of the Sumero-Babylonians, which appears to be an integral part of the JudeoChristian viewpoint, has an implicit connection to the events that have shaped the still incomplete but recognizable mosaic of prehistoric Macedon. There was obviously an active cultural life that had developed in serene circumstances, which had produced a society of equilibrium, where the dominance of the sexes was an unfamiliar category, and where art flourished in abundance without any restraints of social character, to that extent that even androgyny was cherished to its fullest as an integral part of the spirituality that shaped the lives of the earliest population of Macedonia - something that is still unacceptable to the spiritual viewpoints of some religions, while revered in some ancient cultures as the most divine form of spirituality, that of unity of sexes. How did this culture develop? What made it so secluded to the developments in the old world, at least in our modern viewpoints? What caused its decline? Why does it seem that the indigenous people of Macedon, or the Balkans for that matter, were more in harmony with Nature than those of the Sumero-Babylonian enclave? Which elements distinguished these people as harmonious and orderly, in relation to their discordant and warlike counterparts, at least when it comes to the development of civilization in general? Was this a culture of Ma’at, known to the Egyptians as the Sun Culture, a matriarchal society that sustained its secluded existence longer than Egypt, however later succumbed to the intrusion of the Isfet cultures from the south, those that imitated the elements of the indigenous cultures and introduced the patriarchate? Was the matriarchate the natural form of social organization known to the earliest people? And considering the various myths that have shaped the fancy of many before us, could this culture contain the heritage of yet another mythical culture, as that of Atlantis10?
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The legends of Mu and Atlantis take a lot of interpreting and analysis in comparison with the known artifacts. It all derives from the ancient trend of determining the royal bloodlines, which can be traced back to the Macedonian conquest. In the early 3rd century BC, a great compilation of ancient Jewish history was brought to Egypt under the first Ptolemies, and translated into Koine as the Septuagint. This early version of the Old Testament traced the history of the Israelites back to the very beginning of Earth itself. And here at Alexandria, probably for the first time, the priestly scholars from Greece, Egypt, and Mesopotamia were confronted with detailed evidence for the antiquity of the Jewish people. Other nations conquered by the Macedonians then felt compelled to compete in the antiquity stakes. In this regard, Plato was a front man who made the story of Atlantis to suit his elite family and the needs of the ruling classes who were Hellenizing all knowledge. Now, I do not wish to imply any aliens as our forbearers, or Atlantis for that matter. To my own surprise, those who often claim that the Atlantis theory is that of a crank - have founded their history upon the same myths. That, and a growing hierarchy that put some men above others and all men over women in their class. It is not a His-story I enjoy or promote the continuance of, but I do have to face the facts that it is what most people believe.
Therefore, I will pose the following hypothesis: Time seems to have been of more profound significance to these people, since they did not record it as the Israelites would do much later. Although they understood symbols and used them on rocks with a spiritual connotation, they did not write their genealogies, thus we cannot know who they were, or what their names were, since they knew it by heart, and passed it on from generation to another. They simply lived through cycles of life and death, experiencing their own Dreamtime, gazing the stars, revering both the Feminine and Masculine forces of Nature, cherishing the gods that brought them into existence, all until the hoards came, and introduced warfare as a means to attain divinity, forced men to take arms against each other, imposed the linear concept of time and persuaded the indigenous population of Macedon to succumb to the fate they had composed for them. The history of Abraham seems to have replaced the oral tradition of Ma11, and has imposed the reign of the Ego Plato was the descendant of the wise Solon and I suspect his Danaos forbears are related to the Semitic Sargon the Great. In his era Ptolemy certainly drew his family tree back to the Danaos or Danaan great by the name of Herakles or Hercules. In the case of Ptolemy, who was put in charge of Egypt by the Macedonian conqueror Alexander, he encouraged Manetho to write a Kings List which drew his lineage to Hercules. This is evidence of the founders of Egypt being Danaan or de Danaan in the line of Isis and Osiris. That Kings List forms the basis of the Bible Narrative and Egyptology today. The Royal Bloodlines are just as complex and important to examine. You will not find a solution in Cahills book on the Jews. In The Gifts of the Jews Thomas Cahill takes us on another enchanting journey into history, once again recreating a time when the actions of a small band of people had repercussions that are still felt today. The Gifts of the Jews reveals the critical change that made western civilization possible. Within the matrix of ancient religions and philosophies, life was seen as part of an endless cycle of birth and death; time was like a wheel, spinning ceaselessly. This viewpoint contradicts that of the Mayan culture, or the Macedonian prehistoric mores for that matter. It seems that time to these people was more significant than what this book suggests. Yet somehow, the ancient Jews began to see time differently. For them, time had a beginning and an end. This linear concept of time is considered as a drawback by Quantum physics today, since its epistemological implications create a paradox in understanding our relation, as observers, with either the past or the future. However, in his book Cahills points out that it was a narrative that emerged from this new approach to time as linear, a recording of events through time, which triumphant conclusion would come in the future. From this insight came a new conception of men and women as individuals with unique destinies - a conception that would inform the Declaration of Independence, as a final stupendous feat of the segregation of the sexes, which though hope-fostering, still fails to submit to the basic drives of a free society, such as the world had known prior to the Jewish intervention. 11
Ref. to Ma'at, Goddess of Truth, Balance, Order‌ Egypt was seen to be nothing without Ma'at. Ma'at was reality, the solid grounding of reality that made the Sun rise, the stars shine, the river flood and mankind think. The universe itself, all the world around them, was sacred in the ancient view. "Ethics" is an issue of human will and human permission. It is a function of the human world of duality. What is "ethical" for one group is sin for another. But Ma'at, the reality that made all groups what they are is transcendent of ethics, just as a rock or a flower is amoral, a-ethical, without "truth or falsehood." How can a flower be "false" or "ethical." It just is. How can the universe be "ethical or moral, right or wrong"? It simply is. That is Ma'at.
Ref. to Goddess Kali Ma, accounted for as the liberator of Souls - destroyer of Negativity. The Goddess Kali Ma is the supreme feminine manifestation of compassion as she frees us from the prison of our own ego. The name Kali derives from the Sanskrit root word Kal meaning time. Nothing escapes from time. Her Tibetan Buddhism counterpart is named Kala, a male figure. Of the Hindu goddesses, Goddess Kali Ma is the most misunderstood. The Encyclopedia Britannica is very mistaken in this quote, "Major Hindu
by sealing the Soul of the Great Mother in the human minds full of devious deceitfulness with the power of the written word. It was this moment that turned Prehistory into History, or matriarchate into patriarchate, for that matter. But let us take a step further and see what the culture of the Great Mother Goddess looked like in the land of Macedon.
goddess whose iconography, cult, and mythology commonly associate her with death, sexuality, violence, and, paradoxically in some of her later historical appearances, motherly love." It is partially accurate to say the Goddess Kali Ma is a goddess of death. However, she brings the death of the ego as the delusional selfcentered view of reality. Nowhere in the scriptures is she seen killing anything but demons nor is she associated exclusively with the process of human dying like Yama the Hindu god of death. Both Goddess Kali Ma and Shiva are said to inhabit cremation grounds and devotees often go to these places to meditate. The purpose is not to glorify death but to overcome the I-am-the-body idea. The cremation grounds reinforce the idea that the body is temporary. Kali and Shiva are said to dwell in these places because it is our attachment to the body that gives rise to the ego. Kali and Shiva give liberation by dissolving the illusion of the ego. Thus we are the ever-existing I AM and not the impermanent body.