Chinnamasta

I was looking up something completely unrelated when I came across this interesting excerpt from a book called 'Visions of the Divine Feminine' By David R. Kinsley.
In it he describes a Hindu goddess that sounds possibly Vampiric and I thought I would share it and see if anyone else had heard of her and what you all thought.

QUOTE

Chinnamasta however is not usually described as a warrior goddess, and what rivets the viewer's attention is her self-decapitation. Although in her thousand name hymns Chinnamasta is said to like blood and at her few shrines and temples she recieves blood sacrifices, the emphasis with Chinnamasta unlike Korravai is not so much on her demanding and receiving blood as on her giving her own blood to her devotees.
There are, in fact, many goddesses and spirits in the Hindu tradition who haunt battlefields are nude, fierce and bloodthirsty, or have a strong association with fertility, all of which relate to aspects of the goddess Chinnamasta. Chinnamasta, however, seems to be the only goddess who decapitates herself in order to nourish her devotees.

The story goes that she is begged by two followers to provide them with sustenance, so she removes her head with her own finger nails. After she decapitates herself three fountains of blood spray from her neck. One to the left and one to the right which are drunk by the devotees who pleaded to be fed, and the third, center one, which she drinks herself.
She appears to be quite sexually oriented too, so possibly there is a succubus connection here aswell, though of course many Vampires do feed on the energy produced during this type of activity and so that does not discount them as a possibility.

So thoughts, comments?

I have never heard of her Dea, what a fascinating idea though.
To reward your followers with your own blood is something the movies have laid at the door of Dracula many times. To find that this theory has some basis in actual historical religious worship is way beyond interesting to me.
I have found that many of the Hindu gods and goddesses do have more than a passing link to sex in some way, but then it isn't something that all cultures are brought up to find distasteful or taboo, and the Hindu's seem to be one of the more broad minded, at least where their gods/goddesses are concerned.

that is quite interesting thank for sharing.

I didn't know that Vampires shared their blood with others, I thought they kept it all for themselves and only took blood from other people.

Thanks Dea.

I had a look for some images of chinnamasta and found this one which to be honest is one of the tamer ones.
user posted image

but I wonder how many of you recognise this image.
Because while Channamasta herself is kept reasonably quiet the yantra here is extremely well known and a common sight in many shops that sell incense and sariis etc
user posted image

In some areas Chinnamasta is associated with and may even be a form of Kali who could be described as the eater of souls or spirit collector.
below is the Kali yantra (see any similarities

)

Kali is often said to consume the souls of the dead in much the same way as the Spirit Eagle collects the souls of the dead in Toltec religion.

I love finding connections.

Zygo