The Dance Between Fate and Destiny

By Trish Briggs

When I think about the energy of “fate,” I immediately see the image of the three witches gathered around the boiling cauldron in Shakespeare’s Macbeth. (One of my daughter Leila's, favorite plays, by the way!)

Traditionally, fate is defined as the inevitable, predetermined outcome driven by outside forces - or in Macbeth’s case, the three witches. Destiny, on the other hand, is not predetermined. It is shaped by personal choices and actions. Macbeth’s ambition, ego, and impatience shaped his destiny.

Despite fate occurring and destiny being created, the two have traditionally been understood to fit together like a hand in glove.

When the Glove No Longer Fits

But we are now in a new place - a time of rapid change and energetic shifts - and perhaps tradition no longer applies. What happens if fate and destiny no longer align? What if my hand no longer fits the glove I was given at birth? What would cause this to happen? And where would that leave us?

Imagine someone who dedicates themselves to extensive internal and external healing work, including the resolution of ancestral baggage. As awareness expands, their destiny clearly changes.

But can those changes be great enough to defy a previously given fate?

The Healing Work That Alters the Path

I believe they can. And I have seen evidence of this within our healing community. I have also felt this clash within my own life, when the version of myself I was becoming could no longer coexist with who I had once been.

At a certain point, one’s original fate can no longer exist alongside the new version of who they have become.

When this happens, the two energies inevitably clash as they attempt to coexist. Will those outside forces - Macbeth’s witches - shift, acknowledge the newly created destiny, and establish a new fate?

Change is afoot.

From a personal perspective, we experience this clash as the old version of self struggling against the new version. As someone who has spent decades healing myself, I know this is one battle we must all attend to officially and finally release who we once were. It can feel like a battle to the death of what no longer serves.

Consciously Interfering with Fate

Now consider someone who completes one life purpose and consciously chooses to take up another. Or someone who works diligently to alter what they once believed to be their “death point.”

In both examples, there has been a conscious interference in fate through intentional destiny work, rather than it simply unfolding. Destiny, in this view, is not passively happening - it is actively reshaping fate. And on a personal level, the newer version of self gradually replaces the old.

Participating in the Dance of Fate and Destiny

What if fate is not fixed, but waiting for us to grow into something larger? What if destiny is the very force that gives us permission to rewrite what we once believed was inevitable?

Perhaps the real work is not choosing between fate and destiny, but becoming conscious enough to participate in the dance between them.