Fate is The Game and Free Will is How We Choose to Play

Fate, Free Will, and the Human Tension

There is a tension that exists in every single human being.

That tension, of course, is dependent on the person. The degree to which it creates friction will depend on many different factors. But this friction, this tension, this push and pull, is between the dynamics of fate and free will.

This exploration of where these two forces intersect has been a central theme in the human search for spiritual truth for time immemorial. It is something we have always been interested in whenever we are truly trying to understand our place in the universe.

If everything is fated and predetermined, then what is the point of being here? What is choice in that context? Why are we even playing this game that we call life?

On the other hand, if choice is everything, then overall we are in a universe with absolutely no order whatsoever. There is no reason for anything. It is all just random chaos, and the only thing that matters is what we choose.

To me personally, both of these circumstances are terrifying.

If everything is mechanical, machine-like, and moving in a predetermined order, then we have no say in what happens. There is no place to express an individual sense of choice.

And if everything is choice, then what is the point of any choice at all if it is not aligned with anything beyond your tiny vantage point in the context of this enormous universe?

Ancestral Perspectives on Fate and Free Will

When we explore this question from the vantage point of ancestral traditions, the spiritual inheritances that have come into the modern world, a theme begins to emerge across many cultures.

African traditions.
South American traditions.
North American traditions.
Western European traditions.

Across these systems, our experience is understood as a mix of fate and free will, interacting with each other in different ways.

Some cultures are very fate-oriented. They are interested in understanding the greater dynamic at play in an individual life and in aligning more deeply with that.

Other cultures, particularly modern Western culture, are very free will–oriented. The ability to choose one’s direction in life is heralded as the most important factor in how we live.

Western culture is not the only culture to do this, but it is a dominant theme many of us inherit today.

Before going deeper into the core message of this podcast, I want to lay a groundwork, a framework, for what we are discussing.

What Is Fate?

Fate, as I have discussed it before, consists of the circumstances we do not directly choose.

By “not directly choose,” I mean the ego, the personality, the human being living on this blue rock floating in space. The person you know yourself as, the thread of awareness that has continued since your earliest memory.

That individual encounters circumstances it did not choose.

The family you were born into.
The time and place.
The culture.
The body.
The gender.

But beyond this, fate also extends beyond the individual life and into a deeper cosmic order.

When we encounter the mythological weavers of fate, we find forces that direct even the fate of the gods themselves.

Primordial forces weaving the rope, the threads, of reality.

This is order.
The laws of the universe.
The way things work.
The boundaries we encounter as we live.

A simple example is baking.

If you want to bake bread, there are rules you cannot change. You must mix ingredients in certain ways. You must apply heat at a certain temperature for a certain amount of time.

There is a formula.
There is a way things work.

If you jump off a building and hit the ground, you will probably die. Your intentions do not matter. Your beliefs do not matter. Your feelings do not matter.

That is fate.
That is how the universe functions.

Fate as the Ground of Life

Each individual life is woven into this universe by the fates themselves.

We are born into fated circumstances, and we must accept many aspects of reality we do not choose.

What this points us toward is an understanding that your life is part of a cosmic order.

It is not just about you.
It is not just about what you want.

Something larger is happening.

And yet, not everything is ordered and predetermined.

There is also a spontaneous process. A co-creative unfolding. A relationship between the individual and the forces of fate.

This is where free will enters.

Free Will as the Wild Card

Free will is the wild card.

We do not know what free will will do at every juncture.

And yet, free will always operates inside the context of fate.

If free will is the wild card, fate is the game itself.

Fate is the rules.
Fate is the structure.
Fate determines who you are playing with.

Free will is how you play the hand.

But even choosing how to play occurs within an order.

Destiny as Alignment

This podcast revolves around destiny.

Destiny emerges when free will comes into deep resonance with fate.

When personal will and divine will align.

That alignment allows destiny to blossom and flourish.

We can think of fate and order as the soil and the seed at the core of the soul’s purpose.

Free will is the mechanism that allows that seed to sprout.

For this to happen, there must be alignment and resonance.

Free will can choose not to engage.
It can reject the rules.
It can cheat.
It can leave the table.

When that happens, the outcome is unpredictable.

Sometimes this leads to another game altogether.

Whether that realigns us with the fates is a mystery.

Gladly Choosing the Path

When free will understands the deeper thread weaving reality, and understands how it came into this world and what it came here to do, and freely chooses to engage with that out of love and curiosity, something changes.

Resistance dissolves.
Conscious participation emerges.

Life becomes connected to a greater whole.

We begin to receive feedback.

Things work.

Returning to the baking example, you can ignore the rules and experiment endlessly, or you can align with the forces at play and then express freedom within the form.

You can sweeten the cake.
You can decorate it.
You can make it yours.

But you understand the structure.

Jung and the Paradox of Free Will

There is a quote from Carl Jung that fits well here:

Free will is the ability to gladly choose what it is we must do.

I am not generally fond of words like must, should, or have to when they represent imposed values.

But Jung was not speaking about social pressure.

He was speaking about a deeper order beyond the human world.

When he says gladly choose, he is speaking about love.

Loving what you came here to do.

On a practical level, this means understanding how life has shaped you.

What archetypal identities are inherent in you.
Teacher.
Artist.
Guide.
Builder.
Intellect.

How have challenges forged you?
What have they shaped you into?

When you can see and love these underlying influences, you arrive at a place where you can gladly choose what it is you must do.

And of course, you can choose otherwise.

But then, into the unknown you go.

And sometimes, mysteriously, you find yourself playing a game you did not choose at all.