The 3 Horizontals
I went in for an afternoon slumber to rid myself of the annoying headache. In that came another vivid dream. I will just put it here with a shabby drawing of what I saw. (You will enjoy ridiculing my drawing skills more than article for sure.)
So here’s the drawing of what I saw front up. The depth scale is on the right.
I first up saw this top view of the Horizontals. There were three sections. The first was a demon who I think was Mahishasura. The last section was that of a God, which I didn’t grasp initially but later found out to be that of Ayappa. The section in the middle was more abstract. (May be dedicated for normal humans?) These horizontals were huge, around 50ft in their length and was laid 150ft below from the ground level. On the far end of the horizontals, a sprawling forest could be seen.
People queued up to enter the Horizontals via the spiral stairs. These spiral stairs started from the entrance platform and went 120ft down! Each section had its own spiral stairs. And people were seen making their way down with their offerings to the Gods and demons.
The entrance platform was the second highest observation level to see the Horizontals. It was at a depth of 30ft. Men and women were seen standing in the queue to enter the spiral stairs.
The highest observation platform was where people initially arrived. Hordes of people were seen observing the horizontals from the top, in awe. The Footsteps connected the observation platform to the entrance platform.
The Footsteps was a set of descending stairs that had three sections, which were mini displays of the horizontals. The Footsteps were covered in a shingled roof typical to temples of Kerala. To give you a better idea of what I am saying, this is a cross sectional view of Footsteps with the sections.
Each section had a mini idol of the Horizontals. The first had the idol of the demon mahishasura. The second was a plain mirror and the third was a mini idol of Ayyappa. (The human is a bit of demon and god? Hmm..)
A personal ordeal
So in this setting, I entered the Footsteps when it was already dark and deserted. I had planned to visit the sections of the Footsteps and make it back. I had no plan to visit the Horizontals at this dark hour.
I made my way slowly into the dimly lit Footsteps. First into the Mahishasura section, then to middle section which contained a mirror and then to Ayyappa. A sense of fear set in, as I was on my way back out. I sprinted back. But, at the top of stairs I found my uncle (whom I was always scared of) waiting for me. He ordered me to turn the lights off and come back.
So I went in again, and tried to turn the lights off starting in Ayappa’s section. But they didn’t turn off! I was already panicking by then. I closed the door to the section in the hope that it will hide the light from my uncle. I did the same for other sections, but their lights went off. I made my way up and told my uncle, “Lets go!”. However, he noticed the light. He gave me a stern stare and went down the Footsteps himself to turn the lights off.. Meanwhile, I ran away from the place as fast as I can. 😅
