When I sit over cards with a querent, I take care to point out that knowing the direction our fortunes are likely to take gives us a degree of control over the unfolding of fate. If I tell you that you are likely to have an accident on a trip you plan to take you might stay home, thereby avoiding the accident. But if foretelling misfortune prevents it from materializing, then that misfortune shouldn’t be “out there” ahead of us to be foretold. It might be tempting to speculate about alternate timelines, retro causality and their relationship with questions of free will vs. determinism. Yet I think there is something at once simpler yet stranger happening here.
Consider the instruments in a modern aircraft. Altimeters, compasses, gyroscopes and radar make it possible for a pilot to fly a plane (more or less) safely through darkness and obscuring clouds, over open water and mountainous terrane. These instruments simply make the invisible visible. They do not alter the hazards. The pilot must develop the skills to “fly by instruments”. Chief among these is the “skill” of trusting these instruments to reveal what cannot be seen. Divination is the navigation of fate “by instruments”.
As I write this, Mercury and Mars are forming a “square”. Mercury, at 11° 9’ in the sign of Tarus is within a few degrees of a perfect 90° of separation from Mars at 13° 10’ of Leo. Such a configuration indicates, among other things, the possibility of arguments. Mercury relates to thought and analysis. Taurus is The Fixed Earth sign which indicates inertia and immobility (giving Taurus its reputation for stubbornness). Being a Venus ruled sign, Taurus likes its comforts and for things to be settled. Together, Mercury in Taurus indicates slow deliberation that leads one to comfortable conclusions that will not be easily changed. Mars is about assertiveness, action and conflict. Mars also has to do with cutting (analysis) which it has in common with Mercury. Both planets are also related to competition and strategy. Leo likes to be seen and recognized. When Mars is there, he might be inclined to “flex” a bit, showing his muscles and chops. When planets are configured in “square” to one another (close to 90° apart, they tend to work at “cross purposes”, they might not even realize that what one wants to do might undermine what the other is trying to do. This is the reason square aspects relate to conflict. We can see the possibility for conflict here between deliberation and action, between brain and brawn, staying home (Taurus) or “painting the town red” (Leo is the fixed fire sign). None of this predicts and argument any more than having a blow torch and a can of gasoline in the garage predicts a fire. It simply says that the conditions could favor a fire given the right (or wrong) actions.
When we think about fate, we tend to think of specific events, meeting the love of our life, winning the lottery, suffering an accident. But this is not how fate seems to work (at least not as I have observed it through divination). Fate has a kind of topography based on the relation of different powers (read Gods) one to the other. In the example of the Mercury/Mars square sited above the conditions are favorable for an argument, but they also favor analytical breakthroughs, with Mars providing strength, motivation and bright light (Leo is ruled by The Sun) to Mercury’s natural curiosity supported by the endurance of Taurus. Together these qualities could lead to a beautiful (Venus) outcome that could bring pleasure and comfort. This outcome becomes much more likely when we understand that the square can make the two powers oblivious to the interference, they cause one another. An astrologer, seeing this, might point out the need to watch one’s sharp tongue (Mars is associated with cutting, Mercury with words), to cool one’s fiery temper and pride (Leo), and seek peace and harmony (Taurus is a Venus ruled sign that favors peace and comfort).
Returning to the pilot’s instruments, knowing that there is a mountain ahead can keep you from crashing into it in the dark. But that same mountain that could be a deadly hazard could also be a refuge, a nice place to go camping or hiking or a place of buried treasure. The information given to us by cards, stars or by whatever other means we seek the shape of fate is not about what WILL happen, it is about what might be MORE LIKLEY to happen. Knowing the shape of fate (the lay of the land and position of the stars) allows us to know our direction. We are accustomed to believing that freedom consists in the power to bring about conditions we like and fending off those we do not. But not even The Gods have this power. Everything is where it is at any given moment and can be nowhere beside. Wherever we go next, we can only leave from where we are, and this alone determines the direction we must take to get there. By knowing WHERE we are, what and who is nearby, we can move toward what we favor and away from what we do not. What we learn from divination is that freedom is not the converse of bondage, but rather that of ignorance.