by Dr. Alberto Villoldo: Although the two terms are often used interchangeably, there’s a marked difference between fate (which is known as karma among Eastern traditions) and destiny (also known as dharma)…
Fate is a course that’s been predetermined by our family, our history, our genes, and our emotional wounds – it is the prearranged and seemingly inevitable series of events that happen to us. We speak about the fate of nations with a sense of inevitability. We sometimes hear of two individuals meeting, or of a relationship breaking apart, and say that it was “fated to happen.” Fate appears unavoidable and stalks us at every turn in our lives. For example, we leave one spouse only to end up in the same relationship with another person.
Fate is also deadly; in fact, it has the same origin as the word fatality.
Destiny, on the other hand, is the purpose and calling of a life, and it can be discovered and realized. Early Greeks believed that fate was spun from a certain thread, and that once it was woven into a cloth it was irreversible; they saw destiny, on the other hand, as a force or agency that could intervene to reweave the cloth of fate.
Destiny allows you to transcend fate and live free of negative emotional and genetic programming. By stepping into your destiny, you can free yourself from an inheritance of breast cancer or heart disease, or from an emotional history that causes you to continually remarry an updated version of an unsuitable spouse. Destiny allows you to navigate life instead of stumble through it. When you step into your destiny, you can participate consciously in your own growth. I believe that destiny can also happen without divine intervention – but it requires that you become conscious of your past wounds and respond to the calling you were born with. Then you can steer the course of your own life.
Biologists and the Laika have different understandings of evolution. Biologists think that it happens only between generations – that is, our children may be smarter and healthier than we are, but it’s too late for the current generation to change. But the Laika understand that evolution happens within generations, so you can actually uncoil the layers of your genetic code to reinform your DNA and change your genetic fate.
Science believes that our genes can’t be altered, and we’re all bound to inherit certain traits and tendencies from previous generations. So if a genetic predisposition runs in your family, your children’s fate has been sealed: The breast cancer you inherited from your mother is just waiting to express itself, and the heart condition passed down from your father will spring up like a jack-in-the-box down the road.
Like the Laika, I believe that we can change our destiny so that our children will inherit the healed traits we develop in our lifetime, as we uncoil the genetic code another strand. Through journeying, we can track a destiny in which we heal and age differently, one in which we avoid manifesting the ailments of our ancestors or reliving our childhood traumas. Journeying can guide us to grow new bodies informed not only by who we’ve been in the past, but by who we’ll be 10,000 years from now.
You can learn more about transforming fate into destiny through my book, Mending the Past and Healing the Future with Soul Retrieval. The Four Winds Light Body School offers an Advanced Soul Retrieval class, where students learn to influence the past and heal the future.
