Do we REALLY have free will over ANYTHING? Is everything that happens to us simply fated to be? Could we have more control over our lives than we think we do? The question of fate or free will in astrology is one that comes up A LOT in my line of work – both with clients and practitioners asking questions about this subject…and it’s also a question that I spend more time thinking about than I’d like to admit 🤣. The question is usually asked something like this:
“Since we are born with our charts a certain way, is fate or free will at play in our lives?“
A very similar sort of question about fate or free will was asked in the Let’s Fuck with Astrology subreddit the other day. This was how I responded to the original question posed:
“Opinions are like assholes 🤣 so take this with a grain of salt – From all the time that I’ve studied astrology (and had my astrology practice), it seems to me that there are CERTAIN lessons that are “unavoidable”. It’s not necessarily a particular event itself that is set in stone (such as getting married, divorced, etc.), but it’s the opportunity for the lesson to come about (in WHATEVER way it comes about) that is “unavoidable.” I don’t think there is ONLY one way for this lesson to come about, and it’s also possible that multiple events come about to teach something about certain lesson (or add on to what you have already learned).
Say, in this lifetime, you wanted to learn some kind of lesson surrounding jealousy and how to not be as jealous. Different events, or a major life event, might come up in your life to teach you that lesson. It doesn’t really matter how that lesson manifests into an event (an unfaithful spouse, issues with siblings, etc.), but just that the lesson having to do with jealousy comes up.
These different events (or a singular event) that trigger the lessons can be seen through transits, solar arcs, secondary progressions, etc. to the person’s astrology chart. Even synastry between two people can trigger something. The lessons themselves (what lessons the person wanted to learn this time around) are seen through the person’s individual astrology chart.
As far as free will goes, I DO think we have it for the most part. Going with the above train of thought, there ARE certain lessons that we wanted to learn in this lifetime, but we have the free will as to how we RESPOND TO and ACT BECAUSE OF these lessons. We might have a “factory settings” way of functioning from our individual astrology chart, but we can function our chart from a “higher vibrational” place, a “lower vibrational” place, or even a “middle of the road” vibrational place, but we have the free will to go whatever direction we want with the expression of this.
Not at all claiming to be correct with the above but this is an interesting question and one that I’ve done A LOT of thinking about. Thanks for bringing it here to the sub 💜”
My answer: A little bit of both
Humans tend to be SO black and white (not universally, but oftentimes they are), thinking things can only be ONE way and ONLY that one particular way. Maybe, like in the answer I gave above to the question posted on reddit, there is a sense of FATE regarding the lesson (or lessons) a person wants to learn in each lifetime, but there is FREE WILL regarding how a person responds to those lessons and the actions that a person takes because of the lessons that cross their path?
HOW a person may respond to (or not respond to) the different people, places, things, situations, etc. that cross their path can be seen in their astrology chart. I say “how a person MAY respond” because they can respond to something in any fucking way they want using their chart (in sum & in parts) in higher vibrational, lower vibrational, and middle of the road vibrational ways. There are things in the astrology chart that can cue a reader into what lessons the chart holder wants to learn this time around. Stuff involving the Nodal Axis and Pluto & the Pluto Polarity Point, along with repeating themes in a chart, come to mind first when looking at this kind of thing. The Lot of Fortune by sign, house, rulership, etc. can show things that could “befall” a person (bad things, good things, weird things, etc.). Those that take a more fatalistic view of this would say that a person has no control over what befalls a person…and leave it at that. Who knows if what befalls us is “fated” to befall us – maybe it is and maybe it isn’t. Does it really matter? The most important thing that the fatalists tend to leave out is that WE HAVE THE CHOICE TO RESPOND (or not) AND ACT (or not) ON THE THINGS THAT BEFALL US.
DO NOT treat this part as any kind of gospel because it’s my own idea of HOW this all works….and I’m not at all saying I’m correct (these are JUST ideas). Personally, I’m not sure that we actually choose our astrology chart. I bring this up because it’s something I see thought and talked about (and hell, I think I have probably thought it was possible at different times, perhaps even wrote about it, too). What feels most correct to me (in the present day) is that instead of choosing our astrology charts before we incarnate (ex: “I want to be a Taurus Sun, with the Moon in Cancer, etc.”), we instead choose the lessons that we want to learn and work on throughout our life during each incarnation. Sometimes (perhaps often, who knows) we also choose to come around (or meet up) again with certain souls we’ve shared time with in previous lifetimes (or on other timelines) for the purposes of learning and growth. The chart that we come through with happens to line up with some (or all) of those lessons, and happens to line up with some (or all) of those souls also being on Earth at the same time.
The “fate” thing comes into the equation for me like this – I do think it’s possible that there are certain “benchmarks” and/or “goalposts” that a person wanted to reach in their lifetime. HOW they reach those is entirely up to them (along with when they reach them, etc.). It’s a hunch of mine that IF this were to be the case (and I’m not at all saying that it IS the case), these “goalposts” and/or “benchmarks” are pretty few and far between. It’s also a hunch that these “benchmarks” and “goalposts” aren’t necessarily the major life events that we would think they would be.
….the above is literally just some mental jerking off that I engage in from time to time 🤣 feel free to ignore it
A person’s astrology chart is a roadmap of POSSIBILITIES, not certainties. Just because you have a certain planet in a certain sign and house doesn’t mean there is only ONE way for that planet to express itself. Because there is a higher vibrational way, lower vibrational way, and something like a middle of the road vibrational way for a planet or a sign to express itself, it IS up to the chart holder to decide (the free will part) HOW to express (the sign) WHAT energy is wanting to be expressed (the planet). Since I have seen people work their planets in the houses they fall and the signs they are in (along with the aspects they make in the chart) in a myriad of different ways throughout their life (consciously or unconsciously), I don’t think it’s as simple as saying “because you have X planet in Y sign in Z house and it’s making whatever aspects, you’re fated to be blessed” (or “you’re fated to be fucked”).
….The above is a VERY simplified version of how fate can creep into an astrology reading, but you get the idea.
Our own mental framework colors everything we do, we perceive, etc. in our lives. In saying that, the above (on fate or free will) is part of the mental framework that’s running in the background of my mind when I look at your astrology chart (…and you can get an astrology reading from me here 😺).
Argument for Fate?
Sometimes the argument is made that if a person believes in astrology, they must then believe in fate (and, essentially, only believe in fate). The reason for that argument is that if a person is born at a certain time, in a certain place, and on a certain date (and born into the family/situation/etc. they were born into), then fate MUST be in play for all of these factors to come together to create the chart holder. While I DO understand the thought process for this argument, I don’t necessarily think the fate and free will debate can be closed on this basis alone.
…or maybe I take this stance because, for me, astrology isn’t something to believe in. It’s a LANGUAGE (and a way to keep time) – a very unique language, but a language all the same. Would you sit there and say that you believe (or don’t believe) in the Spanish language? Lol, I wouldn’t.
Through my 30-years of astrological study and almost 8-years of my astrology practice, and just the way I’ve seen my own life and the lives of others play out, astrology isn’t something that I simply believe in but is a (timekeeping) language that has PROVEN itself to be correct time and time again. Now, I realize my version of proof and someone else’s might be different things (and I’m okay with that). I look at the cycles of time on individual and collective levels, noticing patterns and trends that cycle through time and time again. Finding the common threads between things and seeing where they come together and where they come apart. This is how I get my proof.
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