The Ancient Might behind Gods and Faiths. What Destiny actually is

Now, what exactly is Destiny? Precisely my question when I was young. I heard the D-word flung about so often that a lifelong interest took firm root, resulted in The Destiny Book, and hence here we are. And I bet it has been less than a few hours since an expression of Destiny popped up near you, that something happened due to it, that Destiny had her hand in an outcome, that a couple’s love was written in the stars, or that someone followed their destined path.

The concepts of Destiny are all around us, fortifying our imagination and awareness with an invisible backbone, a pivot of inspiration and becoming. The term Destiny awaits wherever we go. Politicians utilize it, mostly badly. Astrology peddles it. Religions are still trying to monopolize it. Literature, the arts, screens, and the music business cannot do without it. And when it comes to love…well, we’re looking at a perma-baked-in trope to feature in many of our romantic ideations.

Let’s get up close with a few essentials then.

Our noun Destiny developed from the Latin destinare, meaning “to establish, determine, or to affirm.” Another definition of the Latin destino is “that which is woven or fixed with cords and threads.” Looking at its etymology, Destiny is commonly used to describe what is ordained or decided, designed to occur. But simply relying on etymology is a bit too boring and barren, isn’t it?

The reason why so many of us mortals are magnetically drawn to the pillars of Destiny lies in our primal urge to find significance and certainty in the world around us. We are hooked on conceptualizing and engineering spiritual phenomena that promise us meaning and visibility. Because many, if not most of us refuse to accept that we could just be here without a unique purpose. We simply cannot accept feeling degraded by the chance of being a mere product of randomness. And so we seek solace and attention in the idea of an intricate, mysterious design for the universe and our own lives. And in supernatural entities, such as God(s). That’s called metaphysical need.

Are we perhaps deluding ourselves?

Maybe, but we human beings simply need to create attractive and logical narratives to better explain what our place in the universe might, or rather ought to be. Like using helpful tools, which is acceptable. And we can’t help it anyway; our minds are wired that way.

The mystical force of Destiny reached us millennia ago bearing the gifts of providence and order to counterbalance our confusing existence. As a bonus, the idea of higher justice got included in the deal, as well as an early form of hope. Because if the forces of Destiny bothered to lay out a plan for each of us, we might just be important enough to be well looked after on the journey along its eternal thread. And so we’ve firmly installed Destiny, even if it could be stern as well as fair, and have never walked without it since.

Did we invite this power or did it manifest out of nothing and we asked it to stay? Or did we simply invent it? My take: Destiny was neither created by God(s) nor by any of our engineered religions. But how about all of the above? Because we have been at it for a very long time. And we know from early accounts is that those primordial supra-forces of Destiny and necessity emerged from cosmic chaos in the early days of humanity, offering structure and pace. Perhaps they served as ancient antidotes to the vast voids of realizing how pointless the human race’s roaming of this planet might be without such formative, such necessary guidance.

Or, they were just there in time to catch and protect us from disorder and hopelessness?

My take: Destiny is the original cosmic order, hosting and vesting Gods as agents in her starry mantle of power for many millennia, until she merged first with the Egyptian Aten and later with the Abrahamic God(s). A force residing in her own category, first above and later among all deities. Until further notice. Events pending.

Gods, Threads, and Tablets

Destiny ran the show in all ancient realms and religions, often personified by fine Goddesses and Gods: Egypt thrived under the harmonizing principle Ma'at and the gender-fluid deity Shai. Mesopotamia had the Anunnaki, seven divine judges presiding over the Destiny of humankind, and the fabled Tablets of Destiny that granted knowledge of all futures ever to come. The Greeks revered divine female personifications: Ananke, the faceless emanation of Necessity who self-formed from chaos as the resolute, supreme ruler over everything. She’s my favourite. As per Plato's Myth of Er, there also were her three daughters, the Moirai, who spun, measured, and snipped the thread of every life.

The Romans went and adopted the Greek pantheon of Destiny as well as all other deities to great effect and brought us fatum, the forerunner of the term fate, a curated version of the dynamic concept of Destiny. In Hinduism, the impersonal Rita(Rta) reigns as the ancient moral paradigm of natural order, out of which the laws of karma and dharma influeneced almost all Asian philosophies. A bit like Ananke.

But the abstract idea of a majestic essence alone is rarely enough for homo sapiens. We insist on humanifying that which we struggle to grasp easily. And so we commissioned our best creatives to come up with a plethora of more or less interested but certainly interesting Gods that reflected human beings and our traits like a psychological mirror. Because if they are like us, we can’t be too shabby, right?

Book-Religious Emulations

The sacred texts of all three Abrahamic religions understood Destiny's allure and power only too well, so they adopted, remixed, and ran with it, rebranding Destiny in the form of God's foreknowledge and decree over anything and anyone. A God who is said to have sculpted us after his own image. That alone makes us super special, right?

RIGHT?

Judaism entrusts free choice in the hands of its followers while all happens per Hashem’s will, and all Jews are connected through a preordained and shared eternal Destiny, Goral. Then, as per their Good Book, Christianity’s omniscient God has prescribed humanity free volition under the premise of moral accountability while still claiming full charge over Christian Destiny. In Islam, Allah’s divine design, al-qadr, encompasses all that was, is, and will be. These great faiths champion human autonomy, yet the trajectory of humankind remains kind of in line with self-fulfilling divine prophecy.

Because the world can appear so much simpler if there's someone designing and deciding your path and steps, no? And that’s quite alright by me. After all, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, imitation is the highest compliment. Copying and pasting was almost normal when it came to religious craft. Even the Romans “borrowed” ancient Greek religion to jump-start their own faith system. No one ever said that the world has to make sense.

How about a few provocative points?

Let’s assume that Destiny would truly be a “thing,” no matter the form or attribution, no matter whether God(s) or cosmos-driven.

Does really every human person have their very own version?

And do only people with affirmed destinies command free will?

Or do those with free will lack destinies?

And how is it with those who only have a Destiny or free will?

Then, what about those without Destiny or free will?

Do God(s) have destinies and/or free will?

Both, and? As well as?

And what if only Destiny is the thing, and nothing and nobody else? The eternal cosmic brand.

Read that again, look around you and ponder.

Don't forget that I'm here to ask necessary questions. And so are you. So stay skeptical and watch this space. But consider: where would we be without an ideal of something higher, fairer, and even fiercer though? Without an unseen power or entity to believe in? To be grateful and, to shift responsibility to?

Everywhere man blames nature and fate, yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passions, his mistakes and weaknesses. Democritus, Greek philosopher (ca. 460-370 BCE)

Recap: Destiny is an ancient, universal, multicultural, seminal force, concept, and phenomenon. Religion-independent by nature. A teleological principle of cosmological order shared with all sentient beings. History’s and spirituality’s most constant, imperishable force. The original invisible hand. Undeniable. Inevitable. Global. And it isn’t static or absolutely unalterable but creative and flowing harmoniously with the agent’s purpose and design. But it offers a reassuring permanence, a sense of surety, and self-enforcement.

Destiny's thread-work of world and life design showed up first. In Mesopotamia, you'd run the show if you held the Tablets of Destiny. In ancient Greece, Chaos and Necessity hailed comfortably from way before the Olympians arrived. The Vedic Rita/Rta looked after the universe before the arrival of deities, who drew their power from it rather than the other way around. And up north, the Norns held court at the Well of Urd. The Aesir Gods looked to them for actual rulings.

In contrast came the Abrahamic move: one personified divine will absorbed our original, much older order of world decree. You're welcome, I'm sure.

Fun fact: I've not invented my perspective of Destiny - the Mother of Spirituality. Notable scholars like Geo Widengren, Walter Burkert and Francesca Rochberg identified these exact layers of power throughout many ancient traditions. I'm just recognizing the pattern. And I'm connecting some dots on a reality that was hiding in plain sight all along.

Here we have it for today. Next time, we’ll look at what knowing all this stuff actually does for you in the modern world: how understanding the notion of Destiny and its entwined phenomenal powers serve your relationships, your decisions, and the way you sense life's opportunities for yourself and the ones you care about. And why am I uniquely qualified to recommend this? Because I did it and it worked for me. Still does.

By Helena Lind┃Independent thinker and author of The Destiny Book : Rediscovering the Mother of Spirituality (History and Mystery of the All-Connecting Cosmic Thread), Identity Publications, 2024. My work draws on decades of comparative study across mythological, philosophical, and theological traditions, informed by lifelong personal experience and bilingual research into Destiny's cross-cultural presence.

For the full backstory, mythology, and philosophy of Destiny, please see The Destiny Book: Rediscovering the Mother of Spirituality (History and Mystery of the All-Connecting Cosmic Thread) by Helena Lind invites readers on a journey across Destiny's mythical beginnings to today’s enduring significance as a major guiding force. The Destiny Book offers an engaging history of humanity’s relationship with the wellspring of international spirituality.

This article is part of the Destinosophy Features by Helena Lind.