Mahaa Kaalee is the Shakti in embodied form. Shiv and Shakti are known as one Power. She is known as the fiercest goddess ever. She is Paarvatee herself. She is seen with four hand carrying a Khadga (sword) in her upper left hand, a head of a demon in her upper right hand, a trident in her lower left hand and a vessel of blood which she drinks, in her lower right hand. In another manifestation she is seen with ten arms holding various weapons. She wears a garland of heads and a petticoat of arms.

She has killed may demons and she was so angry with those demons that her body turned black and her eyes turned red. No god or goddess could do anything to calm down her. Even Brahmaa and Vishnu were terrified with her this Roop. So they went to Shiv. Shiv thought for a solution and he lay down on the ground where the war was taking place and Kaalee was slaying the demons. Kaalee mistook Shiv as a demon and kept her foot on his body. At the same time she looked below and seeing Shiv below her foot cried "Oh, My Lord?" She immediately moved her foot from the body of Shiv and then Shiv calmed her down.

Another Version
Devee Mahaatmya says that during the war between Devtaa and Asur, Devee took many Avataar. She took one Avataar to kill Mahishaasur also.

We all know that Mahishaasur was a saint by the name Varamuni and was a strong Brahmchaaree. Due to his ego, once he neglected Agastya Maharshi and got his curse. Then he became Mahish-Asur. When Mahishaasur was roaming around throughout all the seven worlds he troubled all Saadhu. Once he swallowed a Saadhu alive who had a Sphatik Lingam on his palms (This Saadhu was holding the Sphatik Lingam on his right hand and was doing Tapasyaa for years without keeping the Lingam on the earth).

When Mahishaasur had swallowed the Saadhu alive that Sphatik Lingam remained in the throat of Mahishaasur. When Devee took Avataar of Mahaa Kaalee and killed Mahishaasur, she put him under her leg and separated his head with her Trishool. During the act Devee had to put her left leg on Mahishaasur's neck to kill him. but unfortunately her feet touched the Sphatik Ling which was still in Mahishaasur's throat. Due to this Maataa had to perform Parihaar for keeping her leg on Shiv Lingam..

This text is mentioned in Arunaachal Sthal Puraan (Thiruvannamalai Puraan). If we go to Thiruvannamalai on the path of Girivalam (ring road for doing Parikramaa of holy Thirvannamalai mountain), we can see a temple for Devee Van Durgaa. Devee performed Tapasyaa at Thiruvannamalai and got cleared from the sin. (Read about Arunaachal Temple)

The word Kaali comes from the word Kaal or Time. So, Kaalee is the power of time which is all destroying, all devouring. (See Geetaa 11.32). Kaalee's background is a cremation ground showing dead bodies. She stands in a challenging posture on a dead body which is her own spouse, Shiv. If Shiv is pure white, she is deep blue bordering on blackness. She is naked with an apron of human hands. She wears a garland of 50 human heads. Her hair is disheveled. She has three eyes and four hands. The face is red and tongue protrudes from her mouth.

Each of these can be explained for their significance. She is the supreme energy responsible for the destruction of the created universe and so her appearance is awful and creates fear. But she is also a mother and so, there is an Abhaya (fearless) and Varad (bestowing blessings) Mudraa (postures) also. Coming to why she is trampling Shiv under her feet, attention is drawn to a mythological story wherein Kaalee destroys all the demons in a battle and then starts dancing out of the joy of victory. The world began to tremble and it was about to give way under the impact.

At the request of the Gods, Shiva asked her to stop it, but was too intoxicated to hear to him. Hence, Shiva himself lays down like a corpse and when the moment she stepped on him, she suddenly realised her mistake and put her tongue out in shame.

Shiv Mahaadev is Brahm, the absolute, and Kaalee represents his Shakti or energy. The energy cannot exist away from its source or act independently. It can manifest itself and act only when it is based firmly on the source. It is this that is meant while showing Kaalee standing on the chest of Shiv.
[Shivashankara Rao]

Kaalee is the goddess of dissolution and destruction. Kaalee is known for destroying ignorance, and she helps those who strive for knowledge of God. Her name Kaalee means "The Black One" and the city of Calcutta (originally named as Kaaleekat) is named in her honor. The Goddess Kaalee is fearsome in appearance. She has wild eyes, a protruding tongue, and she wields a bloody sword. Kaalee also holds the severed head of a demon, and she wears a belt of severed heads.

Once there was an Asur who became very powerful because of the boon that "if even a drop of his blood would fall on the ground, it will increase his power thousand times - this boon named him Raktbeej. This made Devtaa kill him somewhat impossible, because whenever any drop of his blood touched the ground his power will increase thousand times. Within a few minutes of attacking this Asur with their weapons, the gods would find the entire battlefield covered with millions of demon clones.

In despair, Devtaa turned to Vishnu and Vishnu went to Shiv and asked him for Paarvatee to help Devtaa. Although Shiv hesitated, but Paarvatee immediately set out to do battle with this dreaded Asur in the form of Kaalee. She rode into the battleground on her lion, and Raktbeej experienced fear for the first time in his demonic heart. Kaalee ordered Dvtaa to attack Raktbeej. Kaalee then spread her tongue to cover the battlefield preventing even a single drop of Raktbeej's blood from falling on the group. Thus preventing Raktbeej from reproducing himself or being more powerful.

Drunk on Raktbeej's blood, Kaalee ran across the cosmos killing anyone who dared cross her path. She adorned herself with the heads, limbs and entrails of her victims. She coul not be pacified by anybody then Shiv had to throw himself under her feet. This stopped Paarvatee. She calmed down, embraced her husband, and shed her ferocious form. Kaalee is considered to be a malevolent form of Paarvatee. It is Believed that humans lived forever before she was created. Kaalee's name is also a form of the Sanskrit work "Kaal" which means "Time".

When Raam wanted to kill Raavan, He prayed this Devee. Arjun also pleased her before going to war in Kurukshetra for victory.

[From  Om Namah Shivaya Group, written by Dave M on April 3, 2011]

Who is Kaalee?
Kaalee is the fearful and ferocious form of the mother goddess. She assumed the form of a powerful goddess and became popular with the composition of the Devee Mahaatmya, a text of the 5th - 6th century AD. Here she is depicted as having born from the eye brow of Durgaa during one of her battles with the evil forces. As the legend goes, in the battle, Kaalee was so much involved in the killing spree that she got carried away and began destroying everything in sight. To stop her, Shiv had to throw himself under her feet. Shocked at this sight, Ksalee stuck out her tongue in astonishment, and put an end to her homicidal rampage. Hence the common image of Kaalee shows her in her terrible mood, standing with one foot on Shiv's chest, with her enormous tongue stuck out.

The Fearful Symmetry
Kaalee is represented with perhaps the fiercest features amongst all the world's deities. She has four arms, with a sword in one hand and the head of a demon in another. The other two hands bless her worshippers, and say, "fear not". She has two dead heads for her earrings, a string of skulls as necklace, and a girdle made of human hands as her clothing. Her tongue protrudes from her mouth, her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are sullied with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the chest of her husband, Shiv.

Awesome Symbols
Kaalee's fierce form is strewed with awesome symbols. Her black complexion symbolizes her all-embracing and transcendental nature. Says the Mahaa Nirvaan Tantra : "Just as all colors disappear in black, so all names and forms disappear in her". Her nudity is primeval, fundamental, and transparent like Nature - the earth, sea, and sky. Kaalee is free from the illusory covering, for she is beyond all Maayaa or "false consciousness". Kaalee's garland of fifty human heads that stands for the fifty letters in the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes infinite knowledge.

Her girdle of severed human hands signifies work and liberation from the cycle of Karm. Her white teeth show her inner purity, and her red lolling tongue indicates her omnivorous nature "her indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's flavors". Her sword is the destroyer of false consciousness and the eight bonds that bind us.

Her three eyes represent past, present, and future - the three modes of time, an attribute that lies in the very name Kaalee (in Sanskrit Kaal means Time). The eminent translator of Taantrik texts, Sir John Woodroffe in his "Garland of Letters", writes, "Kaalee is so called because She devours Kaal (Time) and then resumes her own dark formlessness."

Kaalee's proximity to cremation grounds where the five elements or "Panch Mahaa Bhoot" come together, and all worldly attachments are absolved, again point to the cycle of birth and death. The reclined Shiv lying prostrate under the feet of Kali suggests that without the power of Kaalee (Shakti), Shiv is inert.

When Kundalinee has just awakened and you are not able to handle it, it is called Kaalee. When you can handle it and are able to use it for beneficial purposes and you become powerful on account of it, it is called Durgaa.

Kaalee is a female deity, naked, black or smoky in color, wearing a Maalaa of 108 human skulls, representing the memories of different births. Kaalee's lolling tongue of blood red color signifies the Rajo Gun whose circular movement gives impetus to all creative activities. By this specific gesture, she is exhorting the Saadhak to control their Rajo Gun. The sacrificial sword and the severed head held by the left hand are the symbols of dissolution. Darkness and death are by no means the mere absence of light and life, rather, they are their origin. The Saadhak worships the cosmic power in its female form, for she represents the kinetic aspect, the masculine being the static which is activated only through her power.

In Hindu mythology, the awakening of Kaalee has been described in great detail. When Kaalee rises in red anger, all the gods and demons are stunned and everybody keeps quiet. They do not know what she is going to do next. They ask Lord Shiv to pacify her, but Kaalee roars ferociously, throwing him down and standing on his chest with her mouth wide open, thirsty for flesh and blood. When the Devtaa hold prayers to pacify her, then only she becomes calm and quiet.

According to Yog philosophy, Kaalee, the first manifestation of the unconscious Kundalinee is a terrible power; it completely subdues the individual soul, represented by her standing on Lord Shiv. It sometimes happens that by mental instability some people get in contact with their unconscious body and see inauspicious, ferocious elements - ghosts, monsters, etc. When Kaalee, the unconscious power of man, is awakened she goes up to meet the further manifestation, being Durgaa, the super-conscious, bestowing glory and beauty.