Each of us lives out a story, a dynamic narrative whose only consistency is that we somehow show up in each of the scenes. While the plots line may be unknown to us, there is one. Creating a Life. James Hollis
We know ourselves and others through the stories we tell. We create meaning and gain an understanding of the events and experiences of our lives by creating a narrative. And isn’t that quote so true? Doesn’t it sometimes seem as if the only constant in our life story is that we show up in each of the scenes. All of life, the world we live in and experience, is woven into these stories, which always, in some way, contain ourselves.
But what about this idea of a plot? Because doesn’t it happen to all of us that from time to time we lost the plot? In fact, don’t many people never seem to have a grasp of the plot? Well, an interesting factor in the creation of the plot comes from thinking about Fate.
What is fate?
The narrower the frame of consciousness, the greater the personal chronicle plays out as fate…what is denied inwardly, will come to us as Fate. Creating a Life. James Hollis
Of course, we have the hand we are dealt too, as part of Fate. Sir Harry Burns, the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland, in discussing the problems of ill health in Scotland points the discovery that a grandfather’s experience can alter his genes and so pass on influences that way through his children and even their children too. We can’t understand a person, or their plot, without seeing who they are within more than their own personal lifetime. We have to consider their genetic, familial, cultural and societal contexts and influences, most of which may shape the unconscious more than they shape the conscious. Living a zombie life, on automatic pilot, will be experienced as a life dominated by Fate, but waking up, becoming conscious, examining our own lives, gives us the chance to become the heroes of our own personal stories.
Plot is partly unearthed, and partly created.
Heroes Not Zombies 
This is GREAT! 🙂 I would say as an astrologer that it is clear we can pick patterns ahead of time that could seem like fate when the time comes. So what we often believe is fate is simply the consequences of free will that was exercised prior – even if that past is before incarnation. I completely agree that when our awareness opens up, we make better decisions and may even be able to modify or mitigate the consequences of prior decisions to whatever degree that we can. It seems we live a combination of fate and free will, and knowing the difference between these, as well as learning the ability to change outcomes through awareness, is a worthy goal! 🙂
Hi, This is Cynthia from Fort Collins, Colorado, USA. I have started following your blog and love your thought-provoking posts. I write a WP blog on journaling and have been working toward creating a National Diary Archive in the states. (Britain already has one.) Just wrote a blog on National Diary Archive on the journal as “novel.” Journaling is a way to, as you say, “…create meaning and gain understanding of the events and experiences of our lives…” Looking back in my journals (50 years) Is always entertaining, and sometimes educational.
Your choices do influence your life and can alter Fate, but Fate is a heavy player. This is an interesting and complex subject. Often you have no choice in the hand that is dealt you but how you react to it. The more you expand your consciousness to include how your choices affect your future the less you will feel like you are in a canoe floating down the river without a paddle. But I often wonder. I do not believe we have the power to make everything happen to us. We are not totally in control. We do not always “want” our Fate. Do we want cancer? Did the Jews want the Holocaust? Should we feel guilty for choosing the wrong marriage partner?
Journaling is a perfect way to find the message and meaning in our experiences, even cancer.