The Hand of Fate
We go out in the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
Roll the bones
The rock band Rush is perhaps my all time favorite band. The lyrics of drummer Neil Peart (RIP) are incredible, especially Clockwork Angels. But I digress. The lyrics above are from the song “Roll the Bones.” Many have characterized the meaning of the song as “we don’t know why things happen, but we shouldn’t worry just Roll the Bones and move on.” As easy to understand and accept as that might be, I believe it’s not so simple. In this post I hope to bring some light to fate, destiny and our free will.
Fate
Fate is the roadmap for one’s life. It is determined before we are born. In fact, we participate in the forming of our life prior to our birth. The following is a quote from another post of mine.
The life in the second heaven is an exceedingly active one, varied in many different ways. The Ego assimilates the fruits of the last earth life and prepares the environment for a new physical existence. It is not enough to say that the new conditions will be determined by conduct and action in the life just closed. It is required that the fruits of the past be worked into the World which is to be the next scene of activity while the Ego is gaining fresh physical experiences and gathering further fruit. Therefore all the denizens of the Heaven World work upon the models of the Earth, all of which are in the Region of Concrete Thought. They alter the physical features of the Earth, and bring about the gradual changes which vary its appearance, so that on each return to physical life a different environment has been prepared, wherein new experiences may be gained. Climate, flora, and fauna are altered by man under the direction of higher Beings, to be described later. Thus the world is just what we ourselves, individually and collectively, have made it; and it will be what we make it.
Thus we see that man learns to build his vehicles in the Heaven World, and to use them in the Physical World. Nature provides all phases of experience in such a marvelous manner and with such consummate wisdom that as we learn to see deeper and deeper into her secrets we are more and more impressed with our own insignificance and with an ever-growing reverence for God, whose visible symbol nature is. The more we learn of her wonders, the more we realize that this world system is not the vast perpetual motion machine unthinking people would have us believe. It would be quite as logical to think that if we toss a box of loose type into the air the characters will have arranged themselves into the words of a beautiful poem by the time they reach the ground. The greater the complexity of the plan the greater the argumental weight in favor of the theory of an intelligent Divine Author.
So we are born with a roadmap, a concrete plan of and for our current physical life. The Greeks taught what I believe is a sort of allegory for the above. We derive the English word “fate” from the Greek word “Morai”, the Fates. The Fates were three deities that mapped out one’s life. They are most often depicted as three sisters.
- Clotho spins the web of the human life.
- Lachesis measures out the length of the human life.
- Atropos determines the end of the human life.
It’s an interesting allegory, especially since it shared in other mythologies such as Norse mythology where the three are known as the Norn. But like Roll the Bones, the reality plays out a bit more, well, complex. You see, this allegory paints a picture whereby we have little say about the events in our life, from birth to death. But that isn’t the case.
Free Will
We are born into an incarnation with the sole purpose to learn, thus to grow. We are children of God, made in His image. We are meant to grow more and more into His likeness. To do so, we must be schooled. Physical life is that school. And each subsequent life is a “step” or a “grade” might be a better illustration to some. If we fail within a lifetime to grow as intended, we risk having to “repeat” the “grade.” This, of course, is terribly simplified and maybe too much so. But hopefully the point gets across.
So, you might ask, if our life is mapped out before we are even born, then what say do we have in it and how then can we learn? This is the purpose of free will. In another Rush song, one line states we are “tricked by circumstances.” However circumstances i.e. what has been mapped out, are not there to “trick” us, but rather to provide the opportunity to exercise free will. Perhaps an example would help.
A person is born into a particular family where, let’s say, the parenting they receive is not so good. This results in a troubled childhood under difficult circumstances. The individual grows into adulthood where the trend toward failure and hardship perpetuates. If the person were to exercise his or her free will, they could break free from the chains of childhood and take better, albeit full, control of their life. They might then be better equipped to look inward for courage and motivation to face circumstances rather than looking backward and allowing the past to dictate their future.
Destiny
You see, when you apply your free will to the roadmap of your life, to your fate, you then create your own destiny. That’s huge. Free will provides us the power to shape our fate into a destiny of our own authoring. We do not need to be forever bound by the circumstances fate lays in our path, such things as:
- Parents, culture and the society in which we are born
- Struggles like illnesses, loss and accidents
- Even the unexpected “ups” of life like success in business or career can harbor undue hardship
- The people we meet along the path of life, or even the prospect of the end of life
We possess the free will to determine – inwardly – how we will handle such challenges. We don’t have to follow the trails laid down by others. Free will allows us the ability to carve out our own path. It is a sublime and awesome Divine gift. The potential to awaken this gift already exists within you. It is an inward journey to freedom.
I hope all this makes sense. Better yet, I hope it helps anyone reading better understand just how much potential lies within you.