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Do the Stars Control Our Destiny? · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Someone has their astrological chart done, and by that they are
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  able to determine the location of the various planets and the
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  sun and moon and the constellations in relation to
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  their birth. They will learn about the
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  hardships they will face, the major life events they can
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  expect, and the opportunities that lie in front of them.
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  Some people reject the entire concept of astrology, while
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  others treat it as a true relation of their future and
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  take the information they receive from their chart to
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  heart. What is rarely, if ever, taken
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  into account is any role for the individual to make choices that
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  may change the destiny laid out in their chart.
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  The unspoken assumption is that the destiny is fixed and already
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  written, and thus it will occur that way.
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  There is, however, a clear distinction between coincidence
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  and actual causality. The astrological chart may,
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  assuming it properly captures actual astrological influences
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  active in an individual's life, let the individual know what
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  forces are active in his life and what influences will tend to
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  play upon his future destiny. This is more or less like a map
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  which is A2 dimensional representation of a
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  three-dimensional reality in the world.
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  We may be able to chart a route across a map, but when we
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  actually get on the ground to go somewhere, we find that
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  innumerable things that were not actually clear on the map
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  determined changes in the route or the issues to be faced, or
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  the time it takes to accomplish the route we have chosen.
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  Astrology is more of a potential map than an actual causal force
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  in anyone's life. Those who choose to accept
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  determinism as the sole force of development in the life will see
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  astrology as the instrument for describing that predetermined
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  reality. Those who believe in the
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  exercise of free will will tend to reject the importance of
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  astrology and deny its ability to predict their future.
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  Once we acknowledge that there is a truth and a place for both
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  determinism and free will, we will see that while large
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  patterns are laid down through the will of the divine and the
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  creation which impact everyone and everything, and thereby show
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  us the correspondences that astrology reveals, there are
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  also all the details that provide an individual the
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  freedom to modify, adjust, change, or outright reject
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  certain influences, forces, or choices.
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  Shriorobindo writes quote. I just, however, guard against
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  the idea that the signs and planets determine a man's
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  character or fate. They do not.
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  They only indicate it because they are the sensational
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  celestial and astral influences, or nervous force in nature,
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  which becomes the instruments of our karma.
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  That is why the European Mystics gave the name of astral planes
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  to the plane of sensational or nervous existence, and astral
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  fluid to the magnetic power or current of nervous vital force
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  In a man. It is the same vital force which
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  pours upon us from all parts of the solar system and of this
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  physical universe. But man is mightier than his
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  sensations or vitality or the sensational or vital forces of
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  the universe. Our fate and our temperament
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  have been built by our own wills, and our own wills can
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  alter them. End Quote Reference Shriorobindo
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  and the Mother, The Hidden Forces of Life, Chapter One,
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  Life Through the Eyes of the Yogin, pages 14 to 15.