Mahishasura, the buffalo demon, holds a boon: no man and no god may kill him. Secure in the one omission he never thought to fear, he drives Indra and all the gods out of heaven and takes the throne of the cosmos. The gods, defeated and homeless, gather in their rage.

From the combined fury of all of them, a light pours out, Vishnu's and Shiva's and every god's together, and takes form as a woman with many arms. She is not their servant or their creation but their power made whole, and she is greater than any of them alone.

Each god gives her his own weapon: Vishnu's discus, Shiva's trident, Indra's thunderbolt, the bow of the wind, the arrows of the sun. She takes them all in her many hands, and the mountain god gives her a lion to ride.

She fills the sky. Her laughter shakes the worlds and tells the demons what is coming. This is not a goddess who needs rescuing or a bride to be won; she is a general armed by an entire pantheon, and she is riding to war.

When it is over, the gods praise her, and she tells them the truth the Devi Mahatmya was written to declare: she is not one goddess among many but the single power that appears as Lakshmi's fortune, Saraswati's wisdom, Parvati's love, and Kali's fury. Whenever the world needs her, she will take form again.

In the Shakta vision she is not behind the gods as a servant stands behind a throne, but behind them as the strength is behind the arm. The gods act; she is the acting. She fades back into the formless, promising to return.