Like Ammon, from Egypt, the Indian Ganesh is strangely faced and inscrutable, here portrayed dancing.   Extraordinary.  Jupiter, the Greek Zeus, was always the ‘Friend of Strangers’ and these portraits highlight the virtues of strangeness.  Sagittarius, Jupiter’s Sign at Mercy, is the traveller’s Sign.   Familiar with strange sights.   

We tend to reject strange appearances, strange people and yet they represent the rich variety of life which offers us an opportunity to exercise the wealth of our spiritual strength, compassion and understanding, which gives us our true humanity, which makes us feel truly human, which makes us feel great.   Imagining ourselves in the same situation, which one day will happen, in one way or another, in this life or our next.  If we have a spirit which has rejected this superficial discrimination to reach out to the person within, we will ourselves be stronger to reject being sidelined.  Or we will not need to learn this lesson.

If we can learn to respect the profound and ancient and deeply committed Hindu faith, we will again feel the strength of our humanity, of our own spirit and faith, all the stronger.  Not threatened but invincible... and the opportunities and rewards the stranger brings are legendary.

The awful prejudice suffered by 'the elephant man,' Joseph Merrick, who developed severe facial deformities, is only typical of the loneliness and acute alienation suffered by so many who are the strange face no one wants to know.


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