Kali comes from the Sanskrit root word Kal which means time. There is nothing that escapes the all-consuming march of time. Mother Kali is the most misunderstood of the Hindu goddesses. The Encyclopedia Britannica is grossly mistaken in the following quote, "Major Hindu goddess whose iconography, cult, and mythology commonly associate her with death, sexuality, violence, and, paradoxically in some of her later historical appearances, motherly love.
It is partly correct to say Kali is a goddess of death but she brings the death of the ego as the illusory self-centered view of reality. Nowhere in the Hindu stories is she seen killing anything but demons nor is she associated specifically with the process of human dying like the Hindu god Yama (who really is the god of death).
It is true that both Kali and Shiva are said to inhabit cremation grounds and devotees often go to these places to meditate. Ma Kali wears a garland of skulls and a skirt of dismembered arms because the ego arises out of identification with the body. In truth we are beings of spirit and not flesh. So liberation can only proceed when our attachment to the body ends. She holds a sword and a freshly severed head dripping blood.
A person who is attached to his or her ego will not be receptive to Mother Kali and she will appear in a fearsome form. A mature soul who engages in spiritual practice to remove the illusion of the ego sees Mother Kali as very sweet, affectionate, and overflowing with incomprehensible love for her children.
