Destiny is often used as a synonym for fate, with the implication that our life is laid out beforehand. Destiny is what becomes of a person or thing in the end. What will happen in spite of all efforts to change or prevent it.
Jung is clear that fate is paradoxical and two-faced: a charisma and curse, with positive and negative qualities.
On the negative side, fate can be a violent and destructive, vengeful, full of unknown dangers, and giving rise to fear and an intolerable burden.
If, however, we can summon the strength to submit, i.e., to relinquish our ego will to the higher will of the Self, we can avoid being delivered over to fate, and relax in being borne along on the stream of time, with a feeling ofdeep-seated security.
Fate then becomes a spiritual blessing - something to be lived in order that we may experience other aspects of ourselves.
Jung claimed that we get the fate we deserve. Fate is the outcome of our psychological tendencies, and if we work to become more conscious of these tendencies, we can expand the range of our personal freedom.
It is quite certain that if one increases the reach of one's consciousness, one will naturally have a much greater area in which to apply freedom of will, so to that extent one can also influence one's condition.
If the process of the development of consciousness continues, one understands more and more that it doesn't help to avoid oneself; one is forced through oneself to accept even one's contrast and the lack of freedom.
When a part of formerly unconscious life is drawn into the sphere of consciousness, is it at all subject to your choice. If that is not the case, well, then it will be chosen for you: something will decide for you, and then you are of course not free.
Things still happen to you; you have a certain fate which is not welcome, which disturbs you or situations arise where you assume that somebody has worked against you.
How Fate Shows Up in Life
There are many ways we might experience fate. Because our human nature inclines us to spot unpleasant things more quickly than agreeable things, we are more likely to spot fate when we are fighting it: attempting to avoid the demands of one's own development and destiny.
When we endure tempests and restraints, and it seems that nothing is going our way. Things aren't working out. We seem to experience constant interference by something which is not our own will.
When we face a constant round of banal demands and life seems to be a continual struggle against the unseen powers, we might suspect that we are fighting against out fate.
Just as individuals have a fate and destiny, so do nations, and on both the personal and collective levels, and Jung suggests ---we get the fate we deserve.
It seems some here have the destiny of being eternal sparring partners when it comes to the issue of God, the Bible and the Truth and everything else!
