Using myths, fairy tales, and zodiacal signs, renowned astrologer and Jungian analyst Liz Greene takes readers on a journey exploring the role of fate in the psychological processes of personal self-realization.

Why has the concept of fate become so offensive to the modern Western reader? Why does it imply for us a lack of free will, a loss of control, a sense of powerlessness, humiliation and impotence? Why has the meaning of fate become so disconnected from its sister concept, karma?

In this masterwork, Liz Greene confronts and questions the issue of fate head-on and its relationship to astrology, and renders a broader perception of just what fate is: an unfoldment of natural processes rather than predestined or preordained events in the individual's life. Greene argues that we have lost touch with nature and natural law, and that understanding our fate is understanding our relationship to the natural laws of the universe.

Whenever there is a concern with fate, there is also a concern with astrology, for the concept of fate evolves from a vision of an orderly interconnected cosmos. Through the use of myth, legend, dreams, fairy tale, and literature, Greene amplifies the meaning of fate and of astrological transits and natural configurations. She explores the Zodiacal signs as portraying a mythical journey, the hero journey, wherein the mythic meanings are connected to the individual's fate.

This Weiser Classics edition replaces the previously published edition (9780877286363).