One of core Pillars is the belief that Sleep, as referred to by Vessel, is a representation of the Hindu goddess Kali.

Who is Kali?

Kali is traditionally a goddess of time, change, power, destruction, and rebirth.

Kali is the goddess of endings—but don’t let that scare you. In Hindu tradition, she’s the fierce mother of transformation. She destroys not out of hate, but out of truth. Out of love. Out of necessity.

You’ll see her with a sword, a severed head, and a necklace of skulls. But every part of her image is symbolic. The head? That’s the ego—cut off so the soul can breathe. The sword? It’s clarity. The skulls? They’re lessons, not trophies. Her Energy teaches to release from the past, embrace change and trust the process of emerging anew.

Why This Pillar Matters

Without Kali, there is no myth.

She is the reason Vessel begins the journey.

She is the catalyst that makes the alchemy necessary.

She is the void. The voice. The fire.

She arrives not to save Vessel, but to break him down.

To make him feel, spiral, submit, surrender.

She is:

The voice in Yoga Nidra

The seduction in “Dangerous”

The silence in “Look to Windward”

The chaos behind everything he loses

But why?

Because he can’t be reborn until he is destroyed.

She doesn't love him like a person.

She tests him like a goddess.

And when he survives? She becomes the echo he carries forward.

Kali Has Many Faces

Not just one mood. She shapeshifts.

Kali the Destroyer

Kali the Temptress

Kali the Shadow

Kali the Guide

In the end, she walks beside him—not as a lover or god, but as the flame he earned the right to carry.

You don’t worship Kali.

You survive her.

The Four Stages of Ego Death through Kali
1. The Spark – The Awakening
  • An encounter with something greater

  • Desire, obsession, devotion

  • You begin to unravel

2. The Fracture – The Undoing

  • The divine becomes painful

  • She breaks what is false

  • Identity starts to dissolve

3. The Abyss – The Surrender

  • Loss, abandonment, silence

  • You’re forced to face yourself

  • Ego dies screaming

4. The Echo – The Becoming
  • Her voice becomes your own

  • You rise, not as who you were

  • But as someone who remembers

Kali shows up in your life when it’s time to shed. When you’ve outgrown a version of yourself but don’t know how to let go.

She doesn’t whisper affirmations—she tears down illusions. And in that space, you begin again.

Kali isn’t about violence—she’s about liberation.
This is death as initiation.
And if you let her, she will make you free.

The albums reflect this:

  • Sundowning = obsession and surrender to the Divine Feminine

  • This Place Will Become Your Tomb = her absence creates destruction, longing becomes rage and grief

  • Take Me Back to Eden = confrontation with pain; she becomes memory, myth, metaphor

  • Even in Arcadia = her voice is internalised; she is no longer the God, but part of him. He has been reborn free of ego.

Yoga Nidra - the meeting place

Kali - The unnameable Divine

gold and black hindu deity figurine
gold and black hindu deity figurine

Kali Yuga - the unmaking & remaking

Calcutta - The city of Kali

The website where the woman meets Kali?

woman in purple and gold sari dress wearing gold crown
woman in purple and gold sari dress wearing gold crown
woman in purple and gold sari dress wearing gold crown
woman in purple and gold sari dress wearing gold crown

Linking interview quotes to Kali

Kali - The Catalyst