The Question of Free Will vs Fate

We posit that no one is entirely free nor are they entirely fated. The reason that we are not completely free is due to the fact that no one exists in a vacuum and that Karma is the principle of limitation. Once again Karma is not purely individual due to there being an interpenetration between people on a horizontal level as well as on a vertical level (this specifically in relationship to the greater whole of which they are a functional part of).

A birth chart is a set of potentials which can be actualized along many different lines (in other words these abstract potentials found in the chart can manifest in many different ways externally). Thus one is only free to become what one inherently is. Compare this with an example in the plant kingdom. An acorn is only free to become an oak; it cannot become a cat, even if it so desired. The whole oak is contained as an archetypal potential for physical manifestation within the acorn. If conditions are not right the acorn can fail to take root or the tree can be cut down prematurely. Simultaneously we must also note that each oak tree is unique and that while we know that the acorn can only become an oak we have really no way of knowing for certain exactly what type of oak it will be once it is fully grown.

The same is true of an individual. The chart gives us certain guidelines and indications in regards to every aspect of life. We can make certain predictions because many people can be expected to follow certain lines of development based upon the culture they live in and the trends of that culture. Yet predictions cease to be accurate once an individual begins to reach beyond the confines of his culture and thus of convention. When a person begins to tread the conscious way, their birth chart starts to demand a new type of interpretation, yet it is much better to be humble and not assume that we are so high as to be above the testimony of the events and circumstances promised by our birth chart.