Fate and Destiny - how we can influence it now and for the future - Spiritual Values - holistic knowledge to achieve spirituality

Fate and Destiny - how we can improve it for the future

Fate - Destiny

A Dice Game of Chance – or absolutely fair Cosmic Wisdom?

How we can improve Fate step by step through honest, good Will and Intentions

Few concepts are so deeply associated with arbitrariness and unpredictability as fate. Like a bolt from the blue, it often appears to strike blindly, throwing our lives off course without any apparent reason. For many, this seeming arbitrariness gives rise to doubts about the existence of Higher Justice.

But is this perspective accurate? Or should we rather be asking ourselves some very different questions:

Must we resign ourselves to being helpless pawns in a game of uncontrollable forces?

Do the workings of fate override all cosmic order?

Or is it actually possible to recognize logic and fairness in the effects of destiny?

Are there causes behind what we call misfortune?

Can destiny be understood within the framework of the five great Laws of Creation?

Is it even possible to influence or help shape our destiny?

And if so, do we hold the course of our life in our own hands?

The Origin and Operation of Fate and Destiny

The English language is more nuanced on this subject than the German language, as it has two words, ‘Fate’ and ‘Destiny’.

‘Fate’ has the connotation of an unavoidable, often tragic force that determines life. It often sounds gloomy or fatalistic, almost like a threatening force against which little can be done.

‘Destiny’, on the other hand, sounds more hopeful, more meaningful, as if there is a greater meaning behind the events. It is used more in the sense of a goal or vocation and thus offers greater room for manoeuvre and the ability to shape one's own destiny.

This possibility of differentiation is very valuable and describes the decisive goal: is it possible to turn ‘Fate’ into ‘Destiny’?

But let's start again from the beginning:

For many—indeed, perhaps for most—the word “fate” carries an ominous tone, as if it were something inherently threatening. People generally expect nothing good from it. Yet in truth, our ability to influence our own fate for the better is far greater than most would ever imagine—though not without a corresponding effort on our part.

This leads to the next question: What does fate have the right to expect from us?

Unfortunately, most people begin to reflect on matters of fate only when they are faced with difficult or even tragic events. Like death, fate is a subject often pushed far into the background, avoided for as long as possible. But in doing so, we forfeit a valuable opportunity: the chance to understand how fate works—and how we might make use of that understanding.

In reality, fate is honest and fair. And we must not overlook the fact that there is such a thing as good fate, provided the right conditions are met.
Once we come to know the Laws of Creation that govern fate, we gradually gain the power to turn our lives toward the good.

As with all things in a world governed by Higher Order, the issue of justice naturally arises when we consider fate. If we were truly innocent or uninvolved in the events that affect us, and if we were entirely powerless to change them, then yes—fate would be unjust.

But sadly, we have lost the key to understanding justice. As a result, questions like the following dominate many people's thoughts and lead them to doubt the wisdom and goodness of any higher order:

Why is this happening to me—or to my loved ones?

How can a loving God allow so much suffering?

Why is there so much evil in the world?

Why are children born with severe illnesses, or taken away so early?

I’ve done nothing wrong—so why am I being struck by fate?

Even philosophy and theology struggle with this issue—the age-old problem of theodicy: how can a just and loving God allow suffering? And yet, fate too is fully embedded within the five fundamental Laws of Creation. It follows a logic of its own—we simply lack the key to recognize it. To unlock this key, two things are required of us: First, we have to expand our sense of time to include centuries, even millennia. Second, we must find the courage to look beyond our carefully cultivated self-image and examine our inner being—to uncover the true causes of our experiences. This is not only possible; it is intended - we are meant to learn and understand the Creation and its Laws!

The Laws Behind Fate

In truth, only two key factors are required for a deeper understanding of fate:

The first concerns the Law of Reciprocal Action. According to this law, nothing can affect us that we did not, at some point, set into motion ourselves. In other words, we must have once sown something that now returns to us as a consequence.

If an outcome feels unjust to us, there are generally two possible reasons: either we do not know the cause because it lies too far back in the past and we have therefore forgotten it, or we live in a false assessment of our attitudes and/or behaviour by not wanting to recognise something truly destructive and harmful as such.

Another possibility for unpleasant karmic effects can also occur when harmless people, who hardly ever do anything bad to anyone, become so immersed in earthly trivialities and necessities that they completely forget their spiritual development. Here, fate intervenes lovingly through inner and/or outer shocks in an attempt to wake these people from their spiritual slumber. For they are violating the unavoidable universal Law of Constant Motion. "Motion" here refers to the spiritual, not only to the earthly. So people with university educations and "experts" can in reality be earthly active and successful, but spiritually sluggish, spiritually dormant!

Furthermore, the nature of our attitudes, which are reflected in our thoughts, also plays a major role in destiny, even if no visible actions result from them. If, for example, we harbour thoughts of hatred or envy, this will have a strong impact on our well-being and our destiny in the medium and long term. For thoughts are not actually ‘duty-free’, but highly effective, energetic structures that operate on a finer level that is invisible and immeasurable to us. This is a fact that we cannot easily recognise in other people and which therefore occasionally puzzles us or makes us doubt higher justice. For ourselves, the challenge is to pay attention to the quality of our thoughts without embellishment!

If we still cannot find the cause, it may lie in a previous life. The very fact that we do not live only once, but have lived several times, is one of the most important keys to understanding fate. The reason we do not remember this is that our brain, and thus our daily consciousness, does not usually go back far enough to see into previous lives, and this is intentional. For if we knew exactly what we had done in the past, it would be impossible for us to live this present life freely, uninfluenced, spontaneously, impartially and unburdened – the burdens of the past would hold us back!

Can fate also bring us sunny paths? What is the prerequisite for this?

If we manage to gradually develop certainty and trust in the Order of Creation, that nothing can happen without a cause, that there can be no effect without a cause, then we will gradually come to understand why things on this earth, both big and small, have to happen exactly as they do! Achieving this insight is, of course, a process that usually takes many years, but it is worth the effort. Holding the key to meaning and justice in your hand is one of the most beautiful and valuable experiences of your entire life!

Science has already proven beyond doubt that nothing can happen without a cause in the earthly realm. We only need to transfer this fact to the finer levels, including our speech and thoughts, with the inner certainty that there are no exceptions there either.

From what has been said, the extremely important conclusion follows that in the long term, we are completely in control of our own destiny and can also achieve considerable mitigation in the short term as soon as we show the good will to do so!

Fate – and the Free Will of the Human Being destiny - fate - woman and zodiac - ai-generated

The Meaning of the Repercussions or Impacts of Fate

Despite all that has been said so far, many people will surely ask: "Why do the blows of fate strike so hard and painfully? Could it not be gentler?" To answer this question, it is necessary to closely relate three things to the workings of fate:

1. The Free Will of the Human Being

2. Reincarnation

3. The increasing Intensity of Repercussions

1. Free Will

The will of the human being is, in its origin, truly free! At every moment of our lives, we have the power to decide which direction our choices will take us.

Of course, we are subject to countless constraints—practical necessities, personal circumstances, social and professional obligations—that seem to leave us with little or no choice in many matters. Yet all of these are already the consequences of the personal and collective paths we have chosen thus far. Within the great law of cause, effect, and reaction, we must always bear in mind that we must accept the harvest of what we have sown, whether we wish to or not! If we have sown thistles instead of wheat, we must reap thistles. If we have sown envy and discord, then that is precisely what we shall harvest.

Even happiness that we have once sown must return to us—against which likely not a single person would object. But we always resist the consequences that bring us discomfort or suffering; and yet, according to the law of nature, we must have laid the foundation for them in one way or another—because there is no other possibility!

Thus, our free will no longer applies to the consequences of our past actions. This is essential to understand! We must live through those consequences, whether we want to or not. They come to assist us on our path of development, for they provide opportunities for recognition—and thus for correcting our former attitudes and actions. Once we have understood this lesson and integrated it into our lives, fate often turns for the better in a relatively short time.

Even better, however, is if we manage to recognize the need for course correction of our own accord—before fate must compel us to do so through its repercussions. In such cases, necessary releases and impulses that would otherwise have struck us in the form of suffering may pass with little or no pain—depending on the extent of our prior improvement! This presents a tremendous opportunity to spare ourselves much suffering and pain!

2. Reincarnation

If we wish to understand the differing paths of development and unequal starting conditions among human beings, it becomes apparent that every one of us—every newborn child—is not a "blank slate" but has already travelled a path of development spanning many thousands of years. We are not born once and die once only to then enter heaven or hell, but our development requires several lifetimes on Earth.

We are, therefore, reborn!

This idea may puzzle many readers, who assume that we would naturally have to remember our past lives. The lack of memory is often taken as proof that former earthly lives could not have existed. However, this reasoning is not sound. As already explained in the contribution on reincarnation, we tend to define ourselves by our waking consciousness, which depends on the brain. Yet our current brain, which we have received anew with our present body, cannot necessarily recall previous earthly lives.

A direct remembrance of past lives is therefore generally not possible—and this is to our benefit! We are meant to live this life spontaneously and without preconceptions, free in our decisions. Just imagine: if we knew exactly when and where we had previously encountered those around us, it would be dreadful! We would know how we wronged one another in the past, we might suffer under grievous offenses or even crimes we once committed. We would know who was our friend or our foe, with whom we were married and how that marriage went, who our siblings, parents, or superiors once were—and who, in this life, might now be our children.

Considering all of this, it becomes immediately clear that even a relatively unprejudiced life would no longer be possible!

Nonetheless, we do carry within us our spirit—our spiritual core—that knows all of this and has experienced it. It permeates our entire body and brain and "feeds" it with preferences, aversions, and all that constitutes our inner character. In exceptional cases, memories of past lives can break through to consciousness. Reincarnation research has already uncovered astonishing examples of this. But generally, as mentioned, such memories remain hidden from us for our own protection.

Thus, many causes that we set in motion in previous lives remain with us and manifest in this present life. If we lack knowledge of reincarnation and categorically reject it, then it is understandable that we fail to grasp why certain things befall us. Only when we come to the conviction that every effect must have a cause can we deal constructively with the repercussions of our fate.

3. Increasing Repercussions

Let us picture loving parents raising their children. Naturally, every healthy child will try out many things and, in doing so, will make mistakes and cause harm to varying degrees. Loving and wise parents will of course show leniency the first time, explain the misconduct to the child, hope for understanding, and impose only a very mild consequence—barely perceptible—which serves in some way to balance the wrongdoing. Ideally, this will cause the child to be more mindful and avoid repeating the mistake.

However, if the child is defiant and unrepentant, continuing to cause harm, even the most loving parents will be compelled to impose stricter and more tangible consequences—ones that affect the child noticeably—so that it finally refrains from such behavior.

If we are now willing to transfer this concept and see all of humanity—including ourselves—as children of creation who, through boundless devastation, have laid waste to the Earth, causing immense suffering to fellow humans, animals, and nature for millennia—and if we consider that, despite repeated admonitions from prophets and from the Son of God, Jesus, we have refused to change—then it should not surprise us that we are currently subject to “educational measures,” i.e., repercussions of fate of unprecedented severity. For we persist in our erroneous ways, even against better knowledge, and cannot, of course, expect any reward for this. Hence, the repercussions are now so extreme—so that all those still capable of insight may be awakened and continue their path of development!

Summary

Fate and destiny are the reaction according to the Law of Reciprocal Action.

It is never possible for a consequence of fate to arise without a cause. Thus, it is just and fair.

The cause may very well lie in a previous life on Earth and therefore not be immediately apparent to us.

Despite all its severity, fate is loving and wise, for it seeks only to keep us from false—and thus deeply harmful—paths or to prompt us to leave them behind.

If a fellow human being wrongs us, then karma begins to take effect for them, which they must in turn resolve. Nonetheless, we should earnestly and honestly consider whether we, through our own faults or lack of vigilance, have provided the opportunity—or whether we perhaps share a strong inner affinity with that person and their deed.

Fate only intervenes where it is truly necessary. If we improve voluntarily, the repercussions of fate are mitigated accordingly—up to the point where they become unnoticeable and painless, expressing themselves only symbolically!

In the Lecture of the same name, "Fate", the Grail Message explains essential interrelationships. It is published here in its entirety.

"MEN SPEAK OF deserved and undeserved fate, of reward and punishment, retribution and karma.

All these are only part-designations of a Law resting in Creation: The Law of Reciprocal Action!

A Law which lies in the entire Creation from its earliest beginning, which has been inseparably interwoven with the great, never-ceasing evolution as an essential part of creating itself, and of development. Like a gigantic system of the finest nerve-strands, it supports and animates the mighty Universe, and promotes continual movement, an eternal giving and taking!

  Plainly and simply, and yet so aptly, Jesus Christ has already expressed it: “What a man sows that shall he reap!”

  These few words render the picture of the activity and life in the entire Creation so excellently that it can hardly be expressed differently. The meaning of the words is inflexibly interwoven with life. Immovable, inviolable, incorruptible in its continual operation.

  You can see it if you want to see! Begin by observing the surroundings now visible to you. What you call Laws of Nature are, of course, the Divine Laws, are the Creator’s Will. You will quickly recognise how unswerving they are in constant activity; for if you sow wheat you will not reap rye, and if you scatter rye it cannot bring you rice!

  This is so obvious to every man that he simply never reflects on the actual process. Therefore he does not become at all conscious of the strict and great Law resting in it. And yet here he faces the answer to a riddle, which need be no riddle to him.

  Now the same Law which you are able to observe here takes effect with equal certainty and force also in the most delicate things, which you are only able to discern through magnifying glasses, and, going still further, in the ethereal part of the whole Creation, which is by far the larger part. It lies immutably in every happening, also in the most delicate development of your thoughts, which also still have a certain element of material substance.

How could you imagine that it should be different just where you would like to have it so? Your doubts are in reality nothing more than the expression of your inner wishes!

In all existence, visible and invisible to you, it is no different, but each kind produces its own kind, no matter what the substance. Just as continual are the growing and developing, the bearing of fruit and reproducing of the same kind. This process runs uniformly through everything, it makes no distinctions, leaves no gap, it does not stop at some other part of Creation, but carries the effects through like an unbreakable thread, without interruption or cessation.

Even though the greater part of mankind, in their limitation and conceit, have isolated themselves from the Universe, the Divine or Natural Laws have not ceased on that account to regard them as belonging to it, and to go on working without change, calmly and evenly.

But the Law of Reciprocal Action also stipulates that whatever a man sows, thus where he causes an effect or consequence, he must also reap!

Only at the beginning of every matter is man free to resolve, free to decide where the Omnipotent Power flowing through him is to be guided, in what direction. He must then bear the consequences arising from the Power that was set in motion in the direction willed by him. In spite of this, many persist in asserting that even so man has no free will if he is subject to fate!

This foolishness is only meant to serve as a narcotic, or to be a grudging submission to something inevitable, a discontented resignation, but mainly a self-excuse; for each of these consequences falling back on him had a beginning, and at this beginning the cause of the subsequent effect lay in a previous free decision by man.

This free decision has at some time or other preceded every reciprocal action, thus every fate! With a first volition man has each time produced or created something in which he himself has to live afterwards, sooner or later. When this will happen, however, varies greatly. It can still be in the same earth-life in which his first volition made the beginning for it, but it can equally well happen in the Ethereal World, when the gross material body has been laid aside, or later still in yet another gross material earth-life.

The variations are not important here, they do not free man from the consequences. He carries the connecting threads with him continually, until he is redeemed from them, that is to say, “detached” through the final effect that ensues through the Law of Reciprocal Action.

The one who forms is bound to his own work, even if he has intended it for others!

If therefore a man today decides to do another an ill turn, either in thought, word or deed, he has thereby “put something into the world”, quite irrespective of whether this is generally visible or not, thus whether gross material or ethereal; it has within it power and therefore life, which continues to develop and work on in the desired direction.

How it will affect the person for whom it is intended depends entirely on the psychic condition of the one concerned, to whom it may thereby bring either much or little harm, perhaps also different from what was intended, or even none whatever; for again the psychic state of the one concerned is solely decisive for himself. Hence no one is exposed to such things unprotected.

It is different with him who through his decision and his volition has given rise to this movement, that is to say, who was its producer. His product remains unconditionally bound to him, and after a short or long journeying in the Universe returns to him reinforced, laden like a bee, through the attraction of similar species.

Here the Law of Reciprocal Action takes effect in that every single product in its movement through the Universe attracts, or is itself attracted by, various similar species, through whose union a source of power then comes into being, which sends back as from a power station reinforced power of the same kind to all those who through their products are connected as if by cords with the assembly-point of similar species.

Through this reinforcement an ever greater density also occurs until there finally arises from it a gross material precipitation, in which the one-time producer must now live and experience to the full what he once willed, in order at last to be freed from it.

That is the origin and development of the so dreaded and misunderstood fate! It is just, down to the minutest and finest shading, because through the attraction of only similar species it can never bring in the returning radiation anything other than what was actually willed personally in the beginning.

Whether for a particular individual or in general makes no difference here; for it is naturally also the self-same process when man does not specifically direct his volition to one or several persons, but lives generally in some kind of volition.
The kind of volition which he decides upon determines the fruits he must eventually reap. Thus countless ethereal threads cling to man, or he to them, all of which let whatever he once willed flow back to him. These currents result in a mixture that constantly has a strong influence on the forming of his character.

Thus in the mighty machinery of the Universe there are many things which contribute to how man “fares”, but there is nothing to which man has not himself first given cause.

He furnishes the threads out of which in the untiring loom of life the cloak he has to wear is made.

Christ plainly and distinctly expressed the same when He said: “What a man sows, that shall he reap”. He did not say, “can” he reap, but he “shall”. That is the same as saying: he must reap what he sows.

How often does one hear otherwise very sensible people say: “It is incomprehensible to me that God should allow such a thing!”

But it is incomprehensible that men can speak thus! How small they imagine God to be with this remark. They prove thereby that they think of Him as an “arbitrarily acting God”.

But God does not at all directly intervene in all these small and great cares of men, such as wars, misery and other earthly matters! From the very beginning He has woven into Creation His perfect Laws, which automatically carry out their incorruptible work so that all is accurately fulfilled, forever taking effect uniformly, thus preventing any preference as well as any prejudice, an injustice being impossible.

Hence God has no need to trouble Himself especially about this, His Work is without flaws. But one of the principal mistakes so many people make is that they only judge according to gross matter, regarding themselves as the centre therein, and taking into consideration one earth-life, whereas in reality they already have several earth-lives behind them.

These, as well as the intervening times in the Ethereal World, are equal to one uniform existence, through which the threads are tightly stretched without breaking, so that in the effects of a particular earthly existence only a small part of these threads therefore becomes visible.

Hence it is a great mistake to believe that at birth an absolutely new life begins, that a child is thus “innocent”,* and that all happenings can be accounted for in only the short life on earth. If this were true, then the existing Justice would naturally require the combined causes, effects and reactions to occur during the span of one earth-life.
* Lecture II–10: “The mystery of birth”

Turn away from this error. You will then soon discover in everything that happens the logic and justice which are now so often missed!

Many are alarmed at this and afraid of what they still have to expect from the past through the reaction in accordance with these Laws.

But such are unnecessary worries for those who are in earnest about the good volition; for in the self-acting Laws also lies at the same time the certain guarantee of mercy and forgiveness!

Quite apart from the fact that, with the firm beginning of the good volition, a limit is immediately set for the point where the chain of evil reactions must come to an end, yet another process of immense importance comes into force:

Through the continuing good volition in every thought and deed, a constant reinforcement also flows retroactively from thehomogeneous source of power, so that the good becomes more and more firmly established in man himself, emerges from him, and first of all forms accordingly the ethereal surrounding that envelops him like a protective covering in much the same way as the atmospheric layer round the earth affords it protection.

Now when evil reactions from the past return to this man to be redeemed, they slide off the purity of his surrounding or covering, and are thus deflected from him.

But should they nevertheless penetrate this covering, the evil radiations are either immediately disintegrated or at least appreciably weakened so that the harmful effect cannot manifest at all, or only to a very minor extent.

In addition, through the resulting transformation, the actual inner man to whom the returning radiations are adjusted has also become much more refined and lighter through the continuous striving for the good volition, so that he no longer has any homogeneous affinity with the greater density of evil or base currents. Similar to wireless telegraphy, when the receiver is not tuned in to the energy of the transmitter.

The natural consequence of this is that the denser currents, because they are of a different species, cannot take hold of anything, and thus pass harmlessly through without evil effect, redeemed by some unconscious symbolic action, the various kinds of which I will speak about at some later time.

Therefore set to work without delay! The Creator has placed everything in Creation into your hands. Make use of the time! Every moment holds disaster or gain for you!"

(Grail Message, Vol. II, Lecture 2)

This website is under construction – but here’s a preview of the topics you’ll find:

New: The Power of Thoughts - Effects Beyond the Mind - The immense Benefit or Harm our Thoughts can inflict

New: Fate - Destiny - how we can improve them step by step through honest, good intentions

Why Faith must unite with clear Spiritual Knowledge - Why true Faith is not what is commonly understood by Christians.

Jesus of Nazareth - How his clear and pure teachings have been significantly distorted over the past 2,000 years.

The Laws of Creation - God's will and the perfect driving forces behind all events.

The Grail Message – In the Light of Truth - An introduction to the first lectures of the great explanation of Creation. What does it say?

Reincarnation - The Enigma of Rebirth - and its Solution. The Gate to Meaning and Justice.

Life after Death - What happens next according to Natural Laws, and why viewing death more naturally can be deeply liberating.

Suicide - Why the desired End of our Existence cannot happen according to Natural Laws.

The Last Judgement - why it is unavoidable for the protection and spiritual ascension of good-hearted people

Enigma Coronavirus - Is the coronavirus a random mutation, a "punishment from God," or something entirely different?

Translated from the original German site 'spirituelle-werte.de' with the help of AI. For inaccuracies or stylistic weaknesses I ask for your sympathy.
The original website spirituelle-werte.de contains many other topics, which will follow gradually here, such as Atheism, Free Will, Forgiveness of Sins, the big problems of our false Monetary System and many more. For translation, I recommend the premium app deepl.com.