The woman who reads tarot cards

Chapter 3: Encounter with the Shepherd

I walked bare through the enchanted forest that held a familiar moon. My skin cells smelled the lavender shrubs, and my nimble feet followed the thorny path. I ended up at a shallow lake that reflected the actions of the brilliant stars, with a bonfire flaming fiercely near it. The flowing water generated a movement that ended up raising bubbles like violent waves of the sea when the bleak sky rained blood drops and the sound of a crying baby stoke the high notes that my eardrums were about to rupture.

I forcibly opened my eyes, out of breath, my pulse at its highest. The sun's direct rays perplexed me, and the pupils of my eyeballs recovered from the nightmare slowly. I looked through the window, and there were people from the neighbourhood doing their morning routine works. Women were making kolam (decorative patterns made with connecting dots in various ways with rice flour) at their house entrance, and men were feeding their cattle and taking care of firewoods.

I heard a gentle knock at the door, "Are you up? It's 7 am already!" Yu Jie exclaimed in his faintest voice.

I tied up my flowing hair into a bun and rose. "Come in. What time did you say it is?"

"7 am. I will aid you with breakfast since you are ill."

"7 am? People feeding cattle and kids playing around at 7 am?" No wonder our ancestors were healthy, even without the remarkable discoveries of pharma.

"You are late already. Just go down and get ready. We need to attend the annual ritual at the temple at 10 am."

"A ritual? For what?" I naturally wondered.

"The king offers food, gems, and jewels to the Goddess Kali every year in December to make her happy and get her blessing, for the health and prosperity of the people of the kingdom." He took a scarlet silk cloth out of the wardrobe as he continued to explain. "There is a group of people invited as his majesty's guests. They are to stand in the first row during the ritual. We got invited this year, so dress up well."

I bathed and wore the beautiful scarlet tops and skirt that flared like an umbrella; adorned my eyes with pitch-black kohl and lips with a soft red tint. The sandalwood extract blossomed into the entire room with its mystic fragrance. I fastened my hair into a topknot with a lotus clip down it.

"You look lovely," Yu Jie smiled with his eyes shrank.

"Let's go to the temple." I held his hand and walked out of the house.

A carriage waited outside, as we were the king's guests. The path to the temple was narrow and beautiful. The road was rough, the branches of the trees waved to the tune of the favorable wind, and fragrant flowers dropped its petals to make a welcome path. I got intoxicated with the nature view that I did not realize that it took nearly an hour to reach the temple.

The principal entrance of the temple was grand, with a big gopura (tower) with beautifully engraved pillars, each surrounded by four composite pillars. After entering the temple, I could see the head of the goddess Kali. The pavement to the Karu (the room meant for keeping the sculptures of gods and goddesses in temples) was nearly half a kilometer. As I walked farther and farther, the form of the goddess became visible. The Karu was lower from the ground level that one has to 100 steps staircase to reach it. The goddess Kali stood there like a beautiful beast, surrounded by many Diya (small oil lamps made with clay), like a glorious nightmare that provides answers to your problems in a terrifying way.

"She is magnificent!" I murmured to my brother.

"She is Goddess kali, she who is black. She is the goddess who destroys the evil and holds the heads of the demons and dresses up with their body parts. When demon Daruka in human form destroyed the balance of the world, she raged to destroy him and all his soldiers on the battlefield. Upon her victory, she danced amidst the corpses when Lord Shiva, her significant other, rested in her path to cease her from destroying everything on her way. When she stomped on her husband, she realized her mistake in a split second, put her tongue out as a sign of making a mistake. She then calmed down, and her anger diminished." He pointed towards a man idol under the goddess Kali's feet.

The goddess statue of twenty-foot altitude had a vigorous face with her tongue out. She possessed four hands, two on either side, and she wore a skirt made of human arms. A necklace made of human skeletons covered her bare chest. In her left arms, she clutched a severed human head with blood dripping and a bowl collecting befalling blood. In her right arms, she held a sword and a trident to destroy the evil.

There were hundreds of people sitting down 10 feet from the idol, and a group of his majesty's guests was standing very near to it. I stood with Yu Jie in front, along with other people who covered their upper body with a piece of cloth to show respect to the goddess. I did the same with the loose end of my half saree (an Indian attire for unmarried women).

"Please rise to welcome our kind and brave king, his highness, Vaibhav Nayak," announced the royal court announcer with his powerful voice. Everyone, including the elderly people, stood up shouting, "Praise his highness!" and "Long live his majesty," as the King entered the hall with pride. He wore an emerald green long blouse with a closed collar, decorated with gems and stones. His golden shoes were glowing in the low light hall.

"Greetings to my people! I thank everyone for your valuable presence to witness the Kali pooja (Ritual offered to goddess kali). Let's pray for the health and prosperity of our people and the peace of our kingdom." His hand signaled the mass to settle down, and they obeyed with respect. "Let the pooja start." His voice echoed the entire hall.

After greeting the king, the three priests standing close to the goddess started chanting mantras, and people on either side hit Chenda melam (traditional percussions). They murmured the slogans louder and louder, pounding the large bell at the corner. People who were praying made noise, calling out to the goddess Kali. The atmosphere in the hall became overwhelming to handle that I stood there physically, but inwardly I was passing out to a different world.

The cheering crowd disappeared, and it was only me standing in front of the goddess statue. I went closer to the goddess and noticed a glittering stone in her anklet: a clover-shaped stone reflecting the mellow sunlight from the narrow opening at the ceiling. I gently touched the glistening stone and felt something wet on my forehead; I wiped and looked. It was blood, and I naturally raised my head to identify the source. The blood was dripping from the bowl held by the goddess. The grand hall darkened, and I lost vision of what was in front of me. At a certain point, it went bleak. I got lost, and an anonymous voice scrambled me from the surface of this perceptual illusion and echoed through my skull: "Will you trust me to lead you through this nightmare?"