Can we really escape our destiny?
Are we truly capable of seeing the events that are meant to occur in our lives and, even if we could, can we genuinely rewrite our story?
Behind this seemingly cliché question lie centuries upon centuries of human reflection, debate, deep questioning, and at times, experiments (or attempts at experiments) to scientifically explore the limits of our personal freedom.
Personally, I don’t have an answer to that question. And yet, I get asked it all the time — by students, clients, and even just loved ones curious about the subject. But I don’t have an answer. I have a point of view, an opinion — but that’s not proof. And since working with Uranian Astrology, this conviction has only grown stronger.
A few days ago, like many others, I learned of the death of Naya Rivera, a television star best known for her role in the American series Glee, which brought her fame. Sadly, she was found drowned at the bottom of a lake, apparently due to an accident.
My partner then asked me:
“If you had known her while she was alive — if you had been close to her and had cast her birth chart before the accident — would you have seen the drowning coming? And if so, what would you have told her? Could she have avoided it?”
To the first question, here’s what I can say:
Yes, it can be seen — and very clearly, very easily. Here’s what we find:
First, in her natal chart, there is an important midpoint: Neptune U/b Hades, which indicates illnesses or accidents related to water. This falls directly on the Midheaven </NSun midpoint — which, in Uranian language, represents the individual and their physical experience. So we could say that, from birth, her chart already showed a risk of dying by drowning.
Now, precisely at the time of her death, her Ascendant > (which represents relationship to place) was activated by solar arc direction. So we see the place (>) bringing misfortune through water (Neptune U/b Hades). And at the same time, transiting Neptune U was retrograding right over that exact point. So Neptune U appeared twice as a major impact on her natal chart — Neptune U, the planet of water, on the drowning midpoint… well…
Another part of her chart also supports this reading. The fatal midpoint Mars Q/S Saturn, which very often relates to death, is conjunct in her natal chart with the Node W/b Hades midpoint — which suggests negative connections or links with misfortune. Here we have a double, extremely negative midpoint just waiting for an activation to deliver the final blow.
At the moment of her death, directed Neptune U activated exactly those midpoints. Again! Neptune U on Node W/b Hades broadly means the same as the previous midpoint: death by drowning. Both configurations refer to dying in water, or to destruction caused by water. And finally, in the same area we find both Uranus T (planet of accidents, unpredictability, and sudden events) Admetos f (planet of interruption, blockage, isolation — such as being trapped underwater — as well as the halting of activity, like the heart stopping, the body no longer struggling… in other words, death) and even Poseidon h (planet of the large mass of water like lake, sea, ocean…). And of course, the Sun Nof the day, illuminating a new part of the chart day after day like a spotlight.
So to the question “Could it be seen?” — yes, absolutely. It was right there, clearly visible.
But — when analyzing a chart, even when making predictions — it’s rare that we’re actively looking, among thousands of possible midpoints, specifically for drowning, or car crashes, or a toaster explosion!
Just because something can be seen doesn’t mean we’ll actually see it.
As for the next two questions:
“Would you have told her?” and “Could she have avoided it?”
…That’s a thorny one.
Because even if I had told her, there’s no guarantee that it would have prevented it. Sometimes worse: what ensures that the very act of trying to avoid a fate doesn’t bring it about — in a tragic Oedipal twist — precisely because we tried to escape it?
There’s no guarantee that something can be avoided, nor that our attempts to escape fate won’t create the conditions that fulfill it.
Our lives are full of mysteries.
Let us stay informed — but perhaps, sometimes, the wisest thing is to let go… and allow ourselves to be carried without always trying to understand everything.
