The Creative Power Of Divine Consciousness By Which the universe becomes manifest Is Symbolised By The Garland of skulls That Maa ChinnaMasta Is Depicted Wearing.
The skulls are used in iconography to represent letters or sounds, connected to The Head And Mouth as the source of language or sound.
Such a garland is called varnamala, a garland of letters, for each skull represents a sound of the sanskrit alphabet. Far from being a symbol of death, The Garland of skulls is in truth A Symbol Of Divine Creativity. The skulls also symbolise “seeds” of creation.
Skulls are also power objects containing special qualities, particularly for ritual purposes and they represent “the forbidden” that is not ordinarily a part of the society.
The skulls are “out of place” liminal objects, without the bodies to which they belonged. They are “out of bounds”, which is where the devotee can transform themselves, unhampered by limits and constraints.
