Please wait while we load your article...

Home > Destiny

Learn more about "Destiny"

Destiny

Destiny refers to a predetermined course of events. It may be conceived as a Predeterminism|predetermined future, whether in general or of an individual. It is a concept based on the belief that there is a fixed natural order to the universe.

Different concepts of destiny and fate

Destiny may be envisaged as fore-ordained by the Divine (for example, the Protestant concept of predestination) or by human will (for example, the American concept of Manifest Destiny). A sense of destiny in its oldest human sense is in the soldier's fatalism|fatalistic image of the "bullet that has your name on it" or the moment when your number "comes up," or a romance that was "meant to be." The human sense that there must be a hidden purpose in the random lottery governs the selection of Theseus to be among the youths to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Destiny may be seen either as a fixed sequence of events that is inevitable and unchangeable (for example, "determinism"), or that individuals choose their own destiny by making choices throughout their lives. To a determinist, however, such "choices" are illusory.

Divination of destiny

Some believe that one's destiny may be ascertained by divination. In the belief systems of many cultures, one's destiny can only be learned about through a shaman, babalawo, prophet, sibyl, saint or seer. In the Shang dynasty in China, turtle bones were thrown ages before the ''I Ching'' was codified. Arrows were tossed to read destiny, from Thrace to pagan Mecca. In Yoruba mythology|Yoruba traditional religion, the Ifá oracle is consulted via a string of sixteen cowries or oil-palm nuts whose pattern when thrown on to a wooden tray represents the 256 possible combinations whose named "chapters" are recited and verses interpreted for the client by the babalawo. The Ifá|Ifa Divination system was added in 2005 to the UNESCO list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. On a trivial level, there have been multifarious methods for European maidens to detect in advance the husband for whom they were fated.

Destiny versus fate

Although the words are used interchangeably in many cases, wiktionary:fate|fate and destiny can be distinguished. Modern usage defines fate as a power or agency that predetermines and orders the course of events. Fate defines events as ordered or "inevitable". Fate is used in regard to the finality of events as they have worked themselves out; and that same sense of finality, projected into the future to become the inevitability of events as they will work themselves out, is Destiny. In classical and European mythology, there are three goddesses dispensing fate, The "Fates" known as Moirae in Greek mythology, as Parcae in Roman mythology, and Norns in Norse mythology; they determine the events of the world through the Weaving (mythology)|mystic spinning of threads that represent individual human destinies. One word derivative of "fate" is "fatality", another "fatalism". Fate implies no choice, and ends fatally, with a death. Fate is an outcome determined by an outside agency acting upon a person or entity; but with destiny the entity is participating in achieving an outcome that is directly related to itself. Participation (decision making)|Participation happens willfully. Used in the past tense, "destiny" and "fate" are both more interchangeable, both imply "one's lot" or fortunes, and include the sum of events leading up to a currently achieved outcome (e.g. "it was her destiny to be leader" and "it was her fate to be leader"). Fate can involve things which are bound within and subject to larger networks. A set of mathematical functions arranged in a grid and interacting in defined ways is Fatelike. Likewise the individual statues in a larger work of counterpoint art are aesthetically Fated within the work. In each case Fate is external to every individual component, but integral to the network. Every component acts as Fate for every other component. The entire world can be seen as existing within such a network, a kind of mythical spiderweb controlled by unseen forces. Fortune and Destiny (Gad (deity)|Gad and Meni) appear as gods in .See Strong's H01408 and Strong's H04507

Destiny and "Fortune"

In Hellenistic civilization, the chaotic and unforeseeable turns of chance gave increasing prominence to a previously less notable goddess, Tyche, who embodied the good fortune of a city and all whose lives depended on its security and prosperity, two good qualities of life that appeared to be out of human reach. The Roman image of Fortuna, with the wheel she blindly turned was retained by Christian writers, revived strongly in the Renaissance and survives in some forms today. "The Wheel of Fortune" remains an emblem of the chance element in fate.

Destiny and Kismet

Main article Predestination in Islam The word ''wiktionary:kismet|kismet'' (alt., rarely, ''kismat'') derives from the Arabic word ''qismah'', and entered the English language via the Turkish word ''kısmet'', meaning either "the will of Allah" or "portion, lot or fate". In English, the word is synonymous with ''fate'' or ''destiny''.

References

- Cornelius, Geoffrey, C. (1994). "The Moment of Astrology: Origins in Divination", Penguin Group, part of Arkana Contemporary Astrology series.

External links

- Destiny and Free Will
- ''Dictionary of the History of Ideas'': "Fortune, Fate & Chance"
- Destiny re-defined -- Edge Life Magazine
- What is Destiny
- Destiny and Its Correction
Category:Philosophical terminology Category:History of ideas Category:Mythology Category:Synchronicity Category:Deities in the Hebrew Bible

Related Images

Sources: StartLearningNow, Wikipedia | Usage license: GNU FDL

Welcome to Start Learning Now. Explore to your heart's content, and we hope you enjoy reading the material we have assembled for you here!

Related News

Further Resources


	home lucky pick

Related Resources