On Wednesday, April, 19th, 2023, at or around 8:30am in Alwar, Rajasthan, a pensioner, previously employed as a railway electrician, relieved himself on the tracks of the high speed, electric Vande Bharat railway.
Unbeknownst to the man, identified as Shivdayal Sharma, a cow was hit by the train not 30 meters away. The impact sent the cow careening through the air where it struck Mr. Sharma, killing him instantly. We do not use this tragedy to make light of his death, nor do we believe all material phenomenon may be reduced to an astrological explanation. But this story is useful in that it may illustrate the complex themes the planets in their signs present to us.
Uranus represents, amongst other things, sudden changes, unforeseen events, electricity, breakthroughs in technology, and lightening speed.
Note that Uranus’ discovery coincided with the first steam engine trains and the discovery of electricity. Note also, that in March of 2019, only days after the first service of the high-speed, electric Vande Bahrat train, Uranus entered the Venus-ruled sign of Taurus.
Taurus is a fixed, feminine, earth sign and represents, on a mundane astrological level, earthly topics related to money, land, and food. As it is a fixed sign, Taurus is a sign resistant to disruptions to the status quo, preferring instead a slow, steady, and deliberate pace. The symbol for Taurus is the bull.
In addition, Uranus in Taurus is also in a sign-based square with Pluto in the Saturn-ruled sign of Aquarius. Pluto represents death and rebirth, destruction and regeneration, and what the astrologer Richard Tarnas calls the “purgative discharge of pent-up energies.”
We thus have an unpredictable and electric Uranus, manifested here in a former railway electrician killed in an unforeseen manner, ostensibly by a high speed electric train, which began service around the time of Uranus’ ingress into Taurus in 2019. Though the train is the ultimate culprit, the man’s death came at the hands of a flying cow or bull, the symbol of Taurus.
Additionally, the square from Pluto may have intensified an already erratic Uranus, bringing forth underworld themes of death, mortality, and a very morbid gallows humor. Finally, the man’s death came just days before the solar eclipse, which promises beginnings, and endings also.