Destiny vs. Free Will and Astrology

The topic of Destiny versus Free Will is a topic that consumed my mind for many years, and I believe is a big part of what caused my obsession with astrology. Wanting to know what the future holds, and whether or not “I” have a choice about that future. Or is every moment already scripted, as some forms of spiritual knowledge indicate?

The belief in Predestination or Free Will also determines the way an astrologer reads a chart. In most Western cultures, as well as Western-based forms of astrology, we tend to believe that we have a choice, we have free-will. That is just a given. Of course we have free-will - it would be ridiculous for most people from the West, who are focused on the individual, to even consider that that life could be unfolding in any other way than based on our personal choices.

However, in India, who has a long-standing tradition with the use of astrology - called Jyotish (which means Light in Sanskrit) - it is used is with the understanding that life is mostly (or even completely) unfolding due to our karma. The level of belief in total predestination or a mixture of free-will and predestination varies to some degree within the Indian culture. Because of the karma (which literally means action) we have chosen or created in past lives, our life will bring to use most of what we experience, as we are destined to have what we have chosen or acted out in the past come back to us in the preceding lifetimes. So, when you have a reading with a Jyotishi or Vedic Astrologer, they will tend to read your chart mainly making firm predictions about your future. How the Vedic astrologer thinks will certainly affect how they read. Some obviously have some sense of free-will, while others talk as though you have no choice about your future, and so you better just accept what you’re going to get, like it or not. The general approach with Vedic Astrology, particularly the traditional way of reading in India (rather than the way Western people practice Vedic astrology), can be a very good/bad, right/wrong, auspicious/inauspicious or black/white way.

It can be scary to get a reading when this is the approach - unless other people’s vision of your future has no affect on you, in which case you are very well integrated and probably have no need to get predictions about your future. Luckily, after many years of having readings by many different and varied types of Vedic astrologers, in my personal experience, they haven’t been very accurate.

But, people going for a reading are often more vulnerable than usual, perhaps going through a difficult period of their life, so this, to me, is a very dangerous practice. Let me just tell you one thing: astrologers of this type, who often predict extremes, from doom and gloom to extremely positive, will believe their own hype and think they are very accurate. They will not admit to getting it wrong. So, just be careful who you trust with your mental and emotional well-being.

The more modern, psychological forms of astrology - you can put them under the category of Western Astrology - are based mostly on understanding oneself. And if one can understand oneself, then surely one can change or heal the wounds that cause negative behaviors, and in so believing, surely we have free will, if we can change our behaviors.

This topic of Fate vs. Free Will, is one that polarizes many people that consider themselves “seekers”- seekers of the Truth, spiritual seekers, philosophers - but perhaps this is not really a question that most people think about. Either they don’t care or they’ve already made their mind up about it and don’t feel any need to ponder further. For me, however, I felt it was an incredibly important question, and not one that I felt sure I knew the answer to. Both arguments had valid points to make in my mind.

It is very interesting to see how various astrologers talk about astrology, because it reveals quite a lot about how they think, regarding our place in the Universe, and how much power we have as creators of our reality, or puppets of a Creator that we are subject to, or victims of our actions of the long since passed - aka Karma - or powerful creators who are choosing all our experiences, in every moment, through our vibration - as exampled in the understanding of the Law of Attraction. Is that just Ego based thinking, or is there something more to it?

There are so many approaches with astrology - quite superficial views and ways of using astrology, and then evolutionary views in which we look at the astrological chart as a map that helps us to use this lifetime to grow as a soul to the greatest degree possible, in the context of many lifetimes as a continuum.

So, does the Universe operate by Free-Will or Predestination? I hesitate to give my answer, because this is something that I feel all humans, when the time is right, need to mull over themselves until they are able to conclude for themselves - in a very indirect and meandering way. This is a very satisfying question to finally complete. Even if the completion is simply not needing to think about it anymore, because you no longer feel the need to have an answer.

When the energy has worn itself out and there is no where else to go with it. There is a sense of understanding that allows the mind to slow down and even come to a level of Stillness around this question. Because the question is so vast, and our whole lives are built on what this question is asking. Do I have any choice in my life? Or is every moment already planned? Can I not even think an original thought of my own? Spontaneity is not even a real thing, nothing can be spontaneous if ALL is like a movie, already recorded and playing over the Still consciousness of the un-manifest Reality that has Intelligence beyond imagination.

Rather than giving my opinion, I’ll let you ponder for yourself. This question can’t be satisfied any other way.