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There are many ways to enter the House of Destiny, though fewer than there once were. There just aren’t as many dark woods, abandoned wells, or rabbit holes to entice children through.
Still, the House has its ways. Those who need to find it always do.
A wrong turn on the road.
A train that comes when there should be none.
The taxi you didn’t quite pay enough attention to, lost in thought as the driver you can’t tell anything distinct about takes a road you’ve never seen before.
A path that opens between places that should meet. A light in the darkness for the lost to follow. The House calls to seekers, and seekers always find it.
There are many that may say there is only one way to find destiny, or destiny is a singular and determined path.
This is untrue.
The House is overseen by the High Priestess, after all, and she favors the secrets one finds within oneself above all. Still, even the most self-aware of souls sometimes needs a little guidance, a push down the right road. That’s what everyone comes to the house for, and why those that dwell there stay. She makes sure to greet each guest the House draws to them. She’ll answer no questions, but she might point the way.
Ask any of the others who dwell at the House and you’d hear a different answer to the question of what, exactly, Destiny is, and how you find it. That’s the way of things after all.
Ask Justice and she will tell you Destiny is found in choice, and in seeing that there is a choice, even when it doesn’t appear so. There’s always a choice. She bids those who ask her to choose wisely, for all actions have an equal reaction.
And then she’ll spend the next hour talking of karma, so let’s move on, shall we?
Ask the Fool, and they will tell you Destiny is found when you aren’t looking for it. It’s in the patchwork of small moments and little joys, like the patchwork on their coat, stitched together by each person from many parts, for no one is just one thing or serves a singular purpose in the world. Ask quickly, before they get distracted by a butterfly.
Chase the butterfly yourself, if you like, maybe it will lead you somewhere new.
Ask the Hanged One, and they will tell you Destiny is found when one finds a new way to look at things–yourself or the world. Sometimes the barriers that hold you back are only overcome by changing your perspective enough to look around them in a different way, or in surrendering to the current circumstances long enough to take a breath and look anew, spotting a path you missed before.
Ask Temperance and she will tell you Destiny is found in enlightenment and harmony, in being at peace, in choosing a path with deliberation and forethought. She tells those who ask her to test the waters, and to remember that journeys don’t have to go only in one direction. You can always correct a course back to an even keel.
Ask the Star and she will tell you Destiny is found in following a path of hope, in seeing the place one has among the infinite. She bids those who ask her to open their eyes to the broader universe and all that comes with it.
Ask the Devil, and they will tell you Destiny is found in embracing contradictions, in passing through the fears that hold one back from potential.
Go on. Kiss your shadows. You know you want to. What is life without its pleasures? Close your eyes and have a taste. Savor the delight. Enjoy the gentle caress. Give in a little, the path ahead will be clearer for it.
Ask the Moon and she’ll tell you that Destiny is never what it seems. She’ll advise that you shouldn’t discount what seems like an impossible path. You may find it’s more possible than you think. Some barriers look like mountains until you come close enough to see they are mere hills. Some oceans are vast but shallow. Keep walking, even when it looks like you might fall.
Some seek more order to their answers. If you follow a different door, the Hierophant sits in the library, when he’s not endlessly organizing the books. Ask him where Destiny is found and he’ll tell you to first learn wisdom, to trust in expertise and knowledge.
Find the door to the kitchens, and the Empress might be there–otherwise she’s in the gardens–and she might tell you that Destiny is found in helping others find their own path.
Stay awhile. Learn a new recipe, and help with the dishes. Destiny may find you instead.
Climb up to the tower and you’ll find the Hermit in quiet meditation, their robes of stardust and midnight spread out around them. If you ask them about Destiny, they’ll invite you to meditate too. Perhaps the answers you seek can be found in silence and stillness.
There are a thousand ways through the House. Some visit nearly every room, restless in their discontent, unsatisfied with the answers they find.
Some take the hand of the first guide they find and find their way out again right away. There is no set path to destiny. Perhaps there is no right answer, even, to what Destiny is. Perhaps your answer is the one you find and take with you. The High Priestess would approve of that answer, perhaps, though she would never tell you that.
Few ever seek Death out to ask about their Destiny. Death finds them nevertheless. Death finds everyone in the end, one way or another, but she visits many before their end, and she’s always the one to guide visitors to their final stop in the House before they exit back to the wide world.
Sometimes, you just need to put your old self away behind you and remake all you are anew. That too is a way forward.