Calendar of the Moon 25 Muin
Diwali - Kali's Day
Colours: Black and red Element: Earth Altar: Set out a black cloth. Decorate gaudily with red flowers, bowls of vegetable-dyed rice and couscous, strings of red beads, sterile needles, and the figure of Kali. Offerings: A drop of blood, wiped onto the base of Kali's statue. Daily Meal: Indian food.
Invocation to Kali
Black Mother of Death Who drives us around and around The wheel of birth and endings, From whose dark womb we are born And who eats us again at the end, Lady who tramples the proud Shiva Under her ruthless feet Mounts him for her own pleasure And tears out his guts. Lady, let us learn the message Of death in life, of birth in death; Let us praise the eternal return, The blade and the blood, the life That you demand from us, And that we have no choice But to return to you at the end. Chant: Kali Kali Kali Our flesh is yours Our soul is yours Unto your hands Unto your womb May we be reborn again Kali Kali Kali (All approach the altar and kneel. One who has been chosen to do the work of the ritual takes a sterilized needle and pricks the finger of each member present. If they request, a small cut can be made with a sterilized razor, but the worker must be skilled. The blood is wiped onto the statue of Kali and the upper altar cloth, which is never washed. All file out unspeaking; bandaging will be done in another room.)
[source:paganbookofhours.org]