Destiny, Karma, and Purpose
Today I want to look at destiny, karma, and purpose. What does astrology say about these? And how can we embrace the reality of these concepts in our lives. I think a lot of people worry about their destiny. I think they don’t really understand the concept of karma…and quite often their purpose eludes them.
But it doesn’t have to be that confusing and astrology actually has a lot to say about all of these concepts and life qualities.
First I want to give a shout out to our Aquarians in the listening universe. Happy Birthday Aquarians. It’s a wonderful time of the year. The days are getting longer and the promise of Spring is closer than ever!
Aquarius is the middle sign of winter, so it’s most like winter, kind of cold and definitely still dark, but as the time of the year that represents introspection, we are in it; looking at our lives and where we want to go and what we want to do with this still very new year.
I think that’s why I’m drawn to discussing destiny and what that means. So, destiny is not like you’re destined to win the lotto or destined to have children or live in a specific place. Destiny is not that narrow because it’s not dependent on a particular circumstance. Destiny is what you have agreed to accomplish in this life. So, it’s your destiny that you will encounter what you have agreed to accomplish along the way. It will show up; magically in fact, as if you need do nothing to make it happen. But! There’s a Chinese saying that goes like this: “A person will encounter their destiny in life many times on the path they take to avoid it!” Which is strange, right? Why would we try to avoid our destiny? And the answer is because our destiny is often to move into an area of experience that is unfamiliar to us. Our destiny is to grow. And we grow by expanding our level of experience in life. So, we avoid it, because we’re often afraid of it. But we don’t need to be afraid. In the Tarot, the experience of our destiny is a lot like the 8 of swords…we chose it…but we don’t really want to look at it to closely. In astrology, destiny is strongly represented by our Moon’s North Node. This is a calculated point in our astrology chart also called the Dragon’s Head. In Hindu astrology it’s called Rahu. It’s all the same point calculated in the same way.
The Moon’s North Node in our chart has the meaning of what we have agreed to learn or move towards. It’s the closest symbol of destiny in the chart because our life is drawn to the North Node. We don’t have to do much to bring it into our lives. It sees us. And seeks us out. So, if you Moon’s North Node is in Aries then you have a destiny to be more of an individual. To work on independence and force of personal will. Many times, people with Moon’s North Node in Aries are very relationship dependent, which is the opposite of the Nodes meaning. That’s because they are more comfortable in the place that opposes their Node. Yet, we are thrust into situations where we must experience and live the path of the North Node. It comes upon us, whether we like it or not. If you’d like to find out the position of your Moon’s North Node, you can go to Café Astrology, they are an easy table to find your Node’s position. Or I’m going to put that table in the blog post on the SoS Blog on my website. So, you can find your Node position and learn a lot about your destiny by finding out the sign that it’s in. This list goes from 1940 to 2009:
Jan 1/40 – May 24/41
Libra
Dec 24/62 -Aug 25/64
Cancer
May 25/41 -Nov 21/42
Virgo
Aug 26/64 -Feb 19/66
Gemini
Nov 22/42 – May 11/44
Leo
Feb 20/66 -Aug 19/67
Taurus
May 12/44 – Dec 3/45
Cancer
Aug 20/67 -Apr 19/69
Aries
Dec 4/45 – Aug 2/47
Gemini
Apr 20/69 – Nov 2/70
Pisces
Aug 3/47 – Jan 26/49
Taurus
Nov 3/70 – Apr 27/72
Aquarius
Jan 27/49 – Jul 26/50
Aries
Apr 28/72 – Oct 27/73
Capricorn
Jul 27/50 – Mar 28/52
Pisces
Oct 28/73 – Jul 9/75
Sagittarius
Mar 29/52 – Oct 9/53
Aquarius
Jul 10/75 – Jan 7/77
Scorpio
Oct 10/53 – Apr 2/55
Capricorn
Jan 8/77 – Jul 5/78
Libra
Apr 3/55 – Oct 4/56
Sagittarius
Jul 6/78 – Jan 5/80
Virgo
Oct 5/56 – Jun 16/58
Scorpio
Jan 6/80 – Sep 24/81
Leo
Jun 17/58 – Dec 15/59
Libra
Sep 25/81 – Mar 16/83
Canc
Dec 16/59 – Jun 10/61
Virgo
Mar 17/83 – Sep 11/84
Gem
Jun 11/61 – Dec 23/62
Leo
Sep 12/84 – Apr 6/86
Taur
Apr 7/86 – Dec 2/87
Aries
Dec 3/87 – May 22/89
Pisces
May 23/89 – Nov 18/90
Aquarius
Nov 19/90 – Aug 1/92
Capricorn
Aug 2/92 – Feb 1/94
Sagittarius
Feb 2/94 – Jul 31/95
Scorpio
Aug 1/95 – Jan 25/97
Libra
Jan 26/97 – Oct 20/98
Virgo
Oct 21/98 – Apr 9/00
Leo
Apr 10/00 – Oct 13/01
Cancer
Oct 14/01 – Apr 14/03
Gemini
Apr 15/03 – Dec 26/04
Taurus
Dec 27/04 – Jun 22/06
Aries
Jun 23/06 – Dec 18/07
Pisces
Dec 19/07 – Aug 21/09
Aquarius
Now, karma is different from destiny. Destiny we agree to experience as life lesson and learning point. But karma is “as you sow, so shall you reap.” Karma is a certain energy or lesson that you must experience because of an accumulation of energy from past lives. You karma comes from your actions in this and previous lives. We live a certain karma based on the law of: what comes around goes around; what you put out into the universe comes back to you. And karma is best expressed in the chart by Saturn. In fact, Saturn rules karma and represents our karmic lessons in this life.
If the same person from before has Saturn in Aries, not the North Node in Aries, then it’s their karma that they will experience independence and personal strength with some difficulty. Saturn often makes us feel constricted or confined. Perhaps the person with Saturn in Aries takes their independence so seriously that they have a hard time seeing outside of it. They may feel lonely as a result. Karma is something we live so that we may learn the lessons of that energy by being confined by it. It’s a must; our karma. And Saturn stands for the place in our chart where we feel oppressed somehow, but where we need to discipline ourselves in that energy and we know it. Destiny is unfamiliar. Karma is way too familiar.
And finally, our purpose is to fulfill our karma and our destiny. So, our purpose is to align with the unfamiliar experiences that maybe scare us a little but we know we need to do them, that’s destiny. And surrender to the experiences that feel heavy and way too responsible and align ourselves with the discipline it takes to embrace them, that’s karma. Purpose is simply to be our fearless and responsible self. All of us. So, we all have different destinies and karmas but we all have the same purpose; to grow into who we are and be the best possible expression of that self.