“Oh children come to me, your most ardent desire.
Enter into my soft black certainty
And become Nothing.”

Ash-colored Dhumavati is the divine energy of ultimate destruction. She reduces the world to ashes and everything in the universe then lies inert, unused and “dead.” As a powerful force contra to ego-centered consciousness, her outward manifestations in the world are frightening: despair, dread, poverty, hunger, and misfortune. To the aware, these are all boons. And to her devotees and for those who find themselves alone she is kind and compassionate. Her home is the cremation ground and her mount, the crow.