The act of naming the goddesses was based on their roles and connections to seasons and harvest cycles. As the goddesses came into the psyche of cultures, people tried to name them based on their connections to time - moon cycles, day and night.
In India, time which is eternal (Mahakala)was supplemented in his role by the movement of time/ flux that is Mahakali, the Dark Goddess, the eternal night. When the darkness thickened, it transformed into light and became Lalitha or Tripura Sundari, the goddess of eternal light. Goddesses of darkness and light were essentially the same - the emanations of Shakthi- Shiva or Mahakala's consort.
The Dark goddess in the Greek culture was called Hecate, the goddess of the underworld. Yet another avatar of the Dark goddess can be seen the Dark Madonna of Western Europe. All these goddesses have been associated with the creation, fertility and dissolution of creation. The Dark goddess thus symbolizes chaos and creativity, creation and destruction, the energy flow behind death and rebirth. Every culture in the world has its own name for its dark goddess and despite the appellations they carried, the dark goddesses were the source of mystical power and inspired the people to think beyond their bodies -while they were within their bodies.
