To the pure in heart, everything is pure.
—Kaulavali Nirnaya Tantra

As Ishvari raced past the jagged boulder against which she had tried to crack her skull open as a child, a flashing vision of the Wild God in all his awesome glory rose up from her third eye. So Rudra’s prophetic words had come to pass! Scourged by his divine whip, that anguished girl had gradually evolved into a woman of transcendent light.

Serpent fire streaked up her spine, fueling her flight, and soon she entered the moist darkness of deeper jungle. Pausing to rest against a gnarled banyan trunk, she gave thanks for the protection of Amrita’s tiger skin garment even as she absorbed the eerie, nocturnal sounds of the jungle. “What now?” she humbly asked Mahadevi, i...

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