A pair
of slippers. What could be more banal, more harmless? Well, think again. If
you're a resident of Janaura village in the district of Lalitpur in
Bundelkhand, deep inside the innards of Uttar Pradesh, a pair of slippers is
not just a pair of slippers. They acquire insidious meaning and come to embody
the problematic politics of the region. Lalitpur, known, rather notorious, for
being one of the most regressive districts in Bundelkhand – where governments
seldom exert presence, let alone governance – is a fecund place for ancient
feudal norms to survive and thrive. One such practice, stemming from
caste-based prejudice has been prevalent in the village of Janaura; it dictates
that people from the Ahirwar (so-called lower caste) sects must remove their
slippers and carry them in their hands, when they walk past upper-caste villages
or homes…….And just like that, a ritual carefully put into place by the
powerful on the powerless, one that had magnified over the decades, instilling
hate, fear, anger and entrenching it all deep inside the hearts of everyone in
Janaura, had been disbanded. Jan.3 https://goo.gl/XCeVng
Ancient traditions and practices die hard. But when there is
a Full Moon like the one on Jan.2 (also a SuperMoon), the pressure to change
can be very high. At Lalitpur, the Full Moon chart has Pluto in Capricorn on
the Ascendant square Uranus in Aries.
Pluto, the planet of
transformation is now traveling through Capricorn, the sign of structure. Since
it takes Pluto 248 years to orbit the Sun and since there are twelve signs,
Pluto spends roughly twenty years in each sign. When Pluto transits through
Capricorn, it tends to destroy and resurrect social structures. It breaks down
old traditions, smashes the status quo and creates a new tradition. https://cosmicnavigator.com/blog/gahl-sasson/astrology/pluto-in-capricorn
Uranus (24ar) which stationed to go direct on the very same
day (Jan.2) as the Full Moon, is placed among the stars of King Cepheus, his
chained daughter Andromeda and Acamar, a star often pictured as a dam in the
celestial river Eridanus. Diana Rosenberg writes that the challenge in this
area is to overcome ancient hatreds and prejudices and the acceptance of new
ideas vs rigid adherence to tradition.
Going further, we see that the Full Moon [11cn] is conjunct the
TNP Kronos [10cn] (laws) and the TNP Hades [6cn] (humiliating) so that it is
rightly focusing on laws that have demeaned or humiliated a section of people.
Hades also refers to the past as well as the lower class so these are ancient
tribal laws that affected the lower caste.
Finally, we notice that the Full Moon is conjunct stars
Tejat and nu Geminorum in Castor’s left foot and Alzirr , xi Geminorum in
Pollux’s right foot! Is it a coincidence that the ancient tradition that has been overturned is
about slippers!!
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