Have you ever noticed that people are terrified of missing their destiny? As an astrologer, I find that many of my clients are afraid that they are wasting their time here on Earth, and not fulfilling their “true destiny.” They seem to view destiny as a one shot opportunity as if destiny was a bus that arrives at 5:10 pm on Oak Street and if you were late and missed that bus, that’s it, you missed your fate. FOREVER.
But if you study astrology for a while, you will come to the conclusion that it is impossible to miss your destiny. Why? Because there are a gazillion ways to fulfill your destiny, thanks to free will.
How are Destinies Fulfilled?
From an astrological perspective, destinies are defined rather broadly. They tend to fall into categories relating to a theme, rather than to specific events. These categories cover major life issues such as work or relationships or family life or creative self-expression or education or health and more. And the ways to go about expressing these particular destinies are fluid and dynamic, not rigid and static. For example, if your destiny is to learn something about the nature of work, then you can fulfill your destiny by working in a job you like, OR a job you hate. In either case, you are learning a great deal about work, career, ambition and productivity. Similarly, if your destiny is to learn something about love relationships, you can fulfill this by getting married, OR by getting a divorce. If your destiny is to learn something about the nature of Truth, you can fulfill it by going to university, OR by dropping out of school altogether. Get it? Destinies have broad scopes and numerous paths within those scopes. So this makes them hard to miss as targets. Although actual astrology chart readings of your personal destiny are a little more specific, complicated and detailed than the examples I have given here, the point is that free will offers us many different paths to fulfilling our destinies.
Moreover, it is impossible to escape your destiny. Your soul chose your destiny before you were born. And, according to astrology, at the moment you first gasped air as a newborn and gave your first cry, your destiny was locked in. So simply by virtue of being born, your destiny gets set. That way, it becomes impossible to NOT fulfill your destiny. If you are alive and breathing, you are, in effect, living out your destiny. So, in a way, you are destined to fulfill your destiny. (ha…)
Free Will and Destiny: The Cosmic Dance Partners
So as we have seen above, destiny and free will were meant to operate in tandem like two partners engaged in an endless and beautiful cosmic dance. However, in our society, destiny gets a bad rap, because most folks are in love with the concept of free will. In fact, some people completely reject the concept of destiny altogether, and attempt to do the cosmic dance alone, just with their free will.
Let’s face it – free will is just awesome. Here in the third dimension, we are given extensive freedom to participate in the creation of our futures. We can choose how we wish to think about things, and are given choice in how to react to circumstances in our lives. Free will sets you loose on planet earth and says:
“Go! Create! Do! Be!”
Free will means we get enormous amounts of choice in our lives and therefore we can shape our lives in ways that are positive. However, the problem is that in Western society we have mistakenly come to view free will as being synonymous with control. As I have said in another article, contemporary Western culture has created a society of control freaks. We have made free will into a kind of god because we love to believe the notion that we are in control of our lives and our futures. And even when our lives give us direct evidence that this is a slightly misguided notion; that we are actually not in control of our lives, (that sometimes loss, illness, death of loved ones and other chaotic misfortunes happen), we still cling to the erroneous notion that we are in complete control of our lives. Armed with positive affirmations and the Law of Attraction, we are hell bent on making stuff happen, instead of letting stuff happen to us.
Perhaps we do this because to admit the reality of the human condition– that humans are vulnerable and that we do not always have control over our lives—is just too scary to face. As a result, some people on earth run around acting like there is no such thing as destiny and that free will is the only law in the Universe. And guess what? They are actually kind of hindering their destinies. They are not missing their destinies (because that is impossible). But they are delaying the gratification that comes from fully living out your destiny in a positive way. Let me elaborate…
Destiny: Your Life’s own Personal GPS Tracker
“Destiny sees things as they are, not as we would wish them to be…” Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Overture
People who ar
e hung up on the notion of free will hate to be bossed around. They don’t like to think that there is a deity or a force or a universal law out there that is controlling them. Western society teaches us to idealize individualism, freedom and independence. We see the individual as god, instead of being subject to god. Big mistake. Why? Because essentially, you can use your free will to charge in the exact opposite direction of your destiny. In which case, life will not feel too fulfilling and you will inevitably land hard on your butt and be forced to start from scratch again to build a life that matches your destiny and actually feels good.
However, in case you are the super stubborn type and have decided to use your free will to march in the exact opposite direction of your destiny, don’t worry, destiny will keep an eye on you. And if you wander too far away, she will help you get back on track. You see, destiny gives us a long leash. She doesn’t like to dictate. She’d rather you come to her of your own choosing so she can lavish her extensive gifts on you. So she won’t yell and scream if you turn your back on her…
That is, she won’t yell and scream, but she will sulk. And you will feel it. Man, will you feel it. If you wander too far away from destiny, you will know it. Because something just won’t feel right. You will start to feel slightly depressed. Or alienated. Or vaguely unfulfilled. Wander far enough away and things can get seriously troubled – your relationships bomb. Or you lose your job. Or your physical body gets severely imbalanced and you become ill. Any of which would make you feel the need to backtrack, and use your free will to choose a different path as you search once again for balance, wholeness and fulfillment. So don’t worry – the universe has got you covered. Destiny operates in your life like a built in GPS, guiding your way. So not only is it impossible to miss your destiny, the universe will shove you back on path should you decide to deliberately wander off of it.
Astrology and Destiny
After using your free will exclusively, and having been forced to backtrack a hundred different paths and still feeling kind of lost and unfulfilled, wouldn’t it have been easier and faster if you knew which direction you needed to go in the first place? Wouldn’t it be better if you had listened to destiny? Even better—wouldn’t it have been better if you had a map right from the outset that told you what your destiny was all about? Well, you do have a map to your destiny– it is your astrology birth chart. It shows you what your destiny is all about, and what your soul is trying to accomplish in this lifetime. It also tells you a lot about your previous lifetimes as well, and that Is important to know, in order to understand your current destiny.
If you are a devotee of free will and free will alone, you will probably spend a lot of time trying to reinvent the wheel as you stumble along in search of joy and satisfaction, whereas if you give up a little of your need to control everything, and accept the notion of destiny, then you could end up feeling happy and fulfilled a lot faster. Because in the end, that is what destiny wants – she wants you to feel happy and fulfilled. And between destiny and free will, your soul is richly served.
Curious about your own personal destiny? For a personal consultation you can click here to book Danielle.
KISMET 