We’ve all heard of destiny, but what is it? Is it some guiding force within the universe looking after us, or is it a total fantasy? As often happens, ideas on the subject fall into one camp or the other. But maybe most sense lies in the middle ground.
If we were to adopt this position, then we’d have to accept that a ‘force’ DOES have an effect upon our lives, but rather than being some omnipotent supernatural influence, it could be grounded in things we have a fair idea about.
We already have names for its influence.
On the one hand we have Sod’s Law, or the Cosmic Joker. This is for when destiny is cruel. Or alternatively, a fortuitous run at gambling is its opposite influence.
Divination attempts to capture the ‘reality’ of our destiny. From Astrology to the Tarot, it is thought that what we are and what we do is somehow tied up within the fabric of universal influences upon which we have no control.
There are problems with this idea.
Most obviously, free will. The philosophical argument is simple. If our destiny is pre-set, then deviation is impossible. So what is the point of our ability to make decisions? It becomes, in effect, a pointless, unrequired ability.
Divination does, however, make more sense if we reverse it. Thus, instead of laying out a ‘future’, it actually has an effect on the mind, answering questions we are undecided about, and offering answers that confirm where we think we want to go. In this sense, divination is more a system of counseling than predictive.
Society also has an effect on our future.
Through stereotyping and other social and cultural pressures, we all find that we slot into a ‘type’. In this way, society allows us to advance, or come upon a brick wall that inhibits us. Often, the individual has little control over this process.
Coincidences can also appear to confirm destiny. Jung noted that some coincidences are full of meaning for the person. He applied the term ‘synchronicity’ to them, and they appear significantly more than simple random events. Is this some miraculous ‘outer’ force, deciding our destiny?
Well, there are certainly ‘inner’ processes that could apply.
For instance, we each have a specific mentality. We can have either an optimistic or pessimistic mind-set. If you’re lucky you will have a correct balance of the two. But for most this is not the case. And this could be vital to the idea of destiny.
A pessimistic person will always see problems, whereas the optimist will see these as challenges. However, what we seem to experience will always be clouded by the particular mentality. Utilising a form of ‘selective attention’, the pessimist will remember the bad times, the optimist, the good.
It also seems that the optimist has an advantage in life. Selective attention will give him the feeling that he can fly through life. His confidence increased, he may well do so through his own delusion of his abilities. Indeed, such a person is often classed as ‘lucky’. And lucky people, it seems, are better than most at calculating odds.
Thus, when a future path opens up, the lucky optimist is more prepared to negotiate it without problem, whereas the pessimist will trip over every banana skin along the way. It is easy to see this as destined, as, indeed, it is. By the person’s own mentality.
© Anthony North, June 2008
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