Choices

One ship drives east and another west,
With the self-same winds that blow;
'Tis the set of the sails and not the gales
That determines where they go.
Like the winds of the sea are the ways of fate,
As we voyage along through life;
'Tis the set of a soul that decides its goal--
And not the calm or the strife.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Good morning everyone.  Winter is really giving a fight this year.  The weekend provided us with a taste of Spring, and yesterday I stepped out into a world of ice which covered cars and grass.  The wind howled and the temperature was at the freezing mark.  When Spring Fever hit, I packed most of my winter clothing away. Luckily I did leave out a few pullovers and my winter coats.  My scarfs and gloves are someplace in the closet, but I was able to get by without them.  

I'm having a good time sitting at different tables for lunch.  Yesterday I was seated at still another table and again, the conversation was pleasant.  Lunch wasn't one of my favorites though.  Chili.  I only like it when I make it because I use my own special seasonings and melt some cheddar on top.  Yummy.

I just love  the above poem which speaks to me of fate versus free will.  For some reason it reminded me of an old acquaintance, an astrologer, whose entire life is dominated by the positions of the planets.  They rule her life, but this is because she ALLOWS them to rule her life. If Saturn, or Neptune, or even the Sun are in a difficult aspect with her natal planets, she is automatically doomed to suffer some kind of negative consequences in whatever area of her life the planet aspects--health, work, relationship, etc.  I feel sorry for her because she leads a truly unhappy life.  Life is not fated. 

 

I love astrology.  I learned how to set up a chart a long time ago through the Rosicrucian Fellowship in the days before computerized charts.  I learned to set up a chart the hard way with mathematical calculations.   I am well aware that we will all face difficult aspects during the course of our life as the planets transit those in our natal chart, but I believe the 'stars impel', they do not 'compel'. For example, I may have been 'destined' to MEET my husband, but I was not 'fated' to make him my forever partner.  I had a choice.

The chart is a map of life.  The placement of our planets and aspects they make with each other shows the difficulties we may expect to face and how to attain success. In other words, although the planets may produce conditions and influences in our lives, they do not force us to follow these influences. Our horoscope is a roadmap of our life, but that is all it is...a roadmap that helps us to navigate our way on this journey called life.  It shows us all the possible routes we may take so that we may choose our own path based on our own 'free will'.

I guess what I am trying to say is we have choices in our life.  If we are unhappy, we can change our course. It is, as the poem says, the soul that decides its goal.  It is not the  energies in our chart that count; it is how we apply this energy that counts. We all have the 'free will' to change the 'setting of our sails'.

That the stars guide us, but do not compel us. It is our free will that determines the outcome of all things. God does impose his will on us, rather he makes it known and allows us to choose if we will follow it.

  Kathleen McGowan, The Poet Prince