Ghatasthani

This is one of the many names of the goddess Kali. She was a tantrik goddess adopted by the Hindus. Her name means "pot breasted" but let this not fool u. She is said to be one of the most fearsome avatars of kali who is also called Maya meaning "deception or illusion".

She has huge breasts, a garland of human skulls and stains of human blood on her lips. She is naked except for a skirt made up of severed human arms. She is the goddess of death and destruction.

She is otherwise known as Smasana Kali, Smasana meaning cremation ground. I have not been able to deduce the central idea behind this avatar of hers, but she is supposed to be a personification of the raw power that fuels this universe. And yeah, her seat is the corpse of her dead consort whom many say is actually the god Shiva.

Now it is known that Shiva loves his partner or wife if u may dearly. This whole thing about the corpse is meant to symbolize the ultimate sacrifice for the sake of love I think.

Kali has been viewed as a mother and some have even called her a lover. There is one I know of who calls himself her consort. She requires sacrifices. But most of all, more than sacrifices she needs u to have the spirit of sacrifice. Those who did consider themselves her consorts sacrificed their bodies to her and killed themselves. But this one I talk of sacrificed his soul to her and waits for her to come accept his sacrifice.

Ghatasthani is not common among the normal folk. It is used by the aghori. Aghoris are the practitioners of aghora which is a more severe form of Tantra.

Tantra is mistaken as plainly sex, but it is a system of meditation which involves everyday activities as its constituent rituals, sex is just one of them.

The aghori perform various rituals either using human remains or sometimes even human corpses to appease this goddess. Just because her name suggests that she has a large bosom doesn’t mean that her fury is gentler. She is supposed to be very scary and hideous in appearance, but to her true devotee she is the personification of beauty. Those who have claimed to have been granted a boon of being able to see her have said that at first they were alarmed by her ugliness, but later she transformed the personification of beauty.

A lot about kali and the tantrik traditions can be gleaned from the site

SHIVASHAKTI- A GOOD RESOURCE FOR TANTRIK LITERATURE

this is a site that contains a lot about the tantrik ways, but just like any other resource about kali, it suffers the inherent flaw of being incomplete. For the amount of literature compiled about kali is too large to be consolidated into any one resource.

Actually the fearsome image of kali is so that the common folk who are at times very fickle should not forget to pay their respect to the raw power of the heavens. For that’s what kali represents, the power that feeds the universe.

There is actually a verse in Tantra literature that says that a person can see kali in any form he/she wishes as long as he is able to respect that form of hers.