Do we choose or is life predestined?
My work centers on the idea of choice, and yet, it can be strange when I share that I also believe life is predestined.
“God has a plan.”
My grandmother repeated this phrase constantly growing up. I used to cringe when it hit my ears. The idea that some great all-powerful man in the sky created me to follow his orders was confusing. The idea that my life was planned and my choices didn’t matter was annoying. The idea that this all-powerful loving father created a plan with torture, slavery, wars, and horrendous disease was ridiculous.
If he is the father, then as the daughter I remark, “Are you even paying attention? Your plan sucks, and I’m going to do my own thing.”
Then as I got older, I found metaphysics, studied more world religions and astrology. Concepts like karma and dharma appeared. Through my own spiritual awakening, concepts like energetic signatures, divine timing, divine law, interference, non-duality and the evolution of consciousness clarified.
Things started to make more sense…
The plan.
The God.
The choice.
Determinism versus free will is a major battle in most subject matters: physics, philosophy, psychology, biology, and genetics. It’s certainly a central tension in spiritual belief systems.
Nature or nurture. Genes or conditions. Fate or choice. God or man.
Does choice matter?
It’s like the Gwyneth Paltrow movie “Sliding Doors.” In one timeline, she makes the train. In the other timeline, she misses it. Ten years of her life are dramatically different BUT when the audience sees through the grander lens of time, ultimately the same characters, the same choices to make, the same destiny.
Is it possible that it’s not one or the other? Can this be another spiritual paradox?
Maybe fate and choice complement each other.
Maybe God’s plan had more sense than I thought.
We focus so much on fate or choice, and maybe not enough time contemplating what exactly would be fated and what exactly could be chosen?
This is one of the reasons I enjoy evolutionary astrology.
It spirals.
It has dimensions.
It’s a map and philosophy where choice meets fate.
Today, I want to focus on choice because I believe we are approaching a fated choice point in humanity’s evolution and therefore, in each of our own individual evolutionary arcs.
From my perspective, it has less to do with what you choose and more to do with why you choose it.
Do we choose from love or fear? Can we discern the difference? Do we care enough to discern the difference?
Choices are birthed from one of two energetic directions.
I’m sure you’ve heard this one before… we choose from love or we choose from fear.
Seems simple enough, right?
We all know what love means!
…Or do we?
If it was simple, we’d be in a very different human collective experience.
Discerning the difference between love and fear is the most challenging part of spiritual awakening. I don’t mean a little hard. I mean REALLY challenging. Our pain body rationalizes fear as love constantly to protect itself. This a multidimensional game meaning the loving choice is different depending on our awareness and unique soul journey. It is not as simple as being nice or being mean. And to make matters even more challenging, we have active forces on the planet who knowingly and unknowingly attempt to confuse this discernment.
For me, the Lion’s Gate portal is always an invitation to remember that courage is the first vibration of love.
Why?
Because true love begins with the courage to admit fear and face it.
Love and fear are not dualistic or mutually exclusive. They have a deep relationship. Before we can align to love, we must first cultivate the courage to unravel the fear that constricts it.
Love is an act of truth that emerges when we have reckoned deeply with all the feelings, not just the good ones.
Love is the leap of faith that emerges from honest coherence – once all the fears have been seen.
We cannot act from love if we do not understand the depths of our fears.
And so, in a strange way, fear is the guide to love.
Fear is love’s teacher.
Fear will illuminate what needs love and what is out of alignment.
Fear will show us where insecurities are driving our behavior.
Fear will challenge us to evolve into a more loving version of ourselves.
I work with fear daily.
Sometimes I miss it in the moment. Sometimes I catch it.
Either way, I always go deeper within it until all the lights are on.
And soon…
Through the tension and disappointment…
Through the frustration and helplessness…
Through the grief and life’s fragility…
Love waits to be recognized and chosen.
