Krama — The Sequential Path of the Goddess
Krama is a distinctive school of Kashmir Shaivism centered on the goddess Kali, emphasizing the sequential stages of awareness through which consciousness moves from contraction to full expansion in the cycle of time.
The Krama school is one of the most distinctive and esoteric branches of Kashmir Shaivism, centered on the worship and understanding of Mahakali — consciousness in its aspect of time and dissolution. Krama (sequence, order) refers to the systematic unfolding of awareness through four stages: Jagrat (waking), Svapna (dreaming), Sushupti (deep sleep), and Turya (the fourth state — pure awareness). The Krama path works with these stages of consciousness, particularly emphasizing the transitions between them as moments of heightened spiritual potential. The goddess Kali represents consciousness in its dynamic, time-bound mode — constantly creating, sustaining, and dissolving all phenomena. The Krama tradition's unique contribution is its insistence on working with all twelve aspects of Kali (the Kali cycle) as the complete expression of consciousness in time.
The twelve Kalis are the twelve aspects of consciousness in its dance through time — knowing them, one is free.
Philosopher J.M.E. McTaggart's famous analysis of the A-series and B-series of time — the phenomenological 'now' versus objective temporal order — touches the Krama tradition's concern with how consciousness experiences and transcends temporal sequence.
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