because it had taken me so many years to learn this but delighted because now I had the key to relationship success.
My pursuit of learning Human Design also led me to meet my soul mate, Chetan, when I traveled to San Francisco to attend his class! As if orchestrated from a realm beyond our everyday awareness, our lives came together, not only into the soul-mate relationship I had long desired but also into a working partnership that has spanned almost two decades as we have cocreated a method to bring Human Design, and now the 192 Life Themes, to the world in an easy-to-understand way and help readers pursue a more enlightened and fulfilling life.
This book is written for you, our readers, and it is my heart-filled wish that you hear the song of your soul as you read about your Life Theme in the pages that follow. — CAROLA EASTWOOD
The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.
— FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY, The Brothers Karamazov
HAVE YOU EVER ASKED YOURSELF what is your life purpose? Have you considered what you are doing here and whether you are on the right track to being fulfilled?
Some believe that there’s no real purpose to our lives. We are simply part of a random process, a relentless spawning of groups of cells continuously reproducing themselves only to march to their inevitable doom.
Others believe we were created by a God whose only interest is discovering if we can be “good enough” to be accepted into his kingdom and who will cast us into everlasting, heinous torture if we fail to make the grade. And we only get one lifetime to get it right.
In either of these two viewpoints, the goal of life is not fulfillment. In the former, there is no purpose, and in the latter, one must die before hoping to find fulfillment.
Then, others believe we have thousands of lifetimes to slowly evolve through many layers of consciousness, with no way of expediting this journey. Through eons, we create karma that has to be cleared, and we can be stuck in an endless progression of lifetimes in which we are helpless because it is all “in the hands of God.” In this perspective, perhaps fulfillment can be reached, but we are powerless to ensure it. And it is going to take a very, very long time.
Yet social and biological science have shown that the one consistent driving force of all beings is toward “more life.” For us, that means more experiences and more pleasure, all leading toward a greater sense of fulfillment.
I am reminded of a time when I had recently concluded driving an exhausting overland bus trip from London, England, to Kathmandu, Nepal.
On an evening under a powerful full moon, I was having dinner with a Swiss couple in Kathmandu when we noticed an orange-robed sadhu standing in the doorway. In India, Nepal, and some other countries, there is an ancient tradition of spiritual seekers who let go of all earthly possessions and travel, mostly on foot, throughout the lands, gaining spiritual knowledge and experience. They are called sadhus, and they often travel dressed in orange robes and carrying a begging bowl and a walking stick. This sadhu was friends with my dinner companions, and he was immediately invited to join us for a cup of tea.
It quickly became clear to me that this sadhu had studied life in depth. He had great levels of insight and wisdom as he engaged in discussion with my Swiss friends, telling them all sorts of things about themselves and their lives. For ages, he talked with them, completely ignoring my presence.
It was fascinating, but in my impatience, I interrupted him and asked if he would say something about me. Turning my way, and looking briefly at me, he announced, “Full Moon Birthday!” Then he turned back to my friends and carried on where he’d left off.
He was right, of course. I had been born under a full moon.
Another age seemed to pass while he continued describing all sorts of wonders and mysteries to my friends about their past, present, and future lives, and again, I felt completely left out of the picture.
Finally, in exasperation, I interrupted the sadhu again and insisted he tell me something else about me, and again, he turned to me, looked me squarely in my eyes, and announced: “There are many lifetimes, Baba. This lifetime is the most important!”
I have to say that this single statement reawakened my inner quest and the realization that time ticks by and it is up to me to be clear, present, and responsible for my life. Even if the “No Purpose” and “Judgment Day God” schools of thought have it all wrong, it is still up to us to honor this life experience by living it to the fullest.
YOUR PERSONAL DESTINY
What if life is not a problem to be solved but is actually a mystery to be lived? And within this mystery, we are afforded some very particular clues as to our individual path through life. It is evident that there are no duplications in this Universe. No two grains of sand are the same, just as no two people are the same, nor do they live the same life. We have the imperative to live in accordance with our own nature. If, as recent discoveries in modern physics have shown, everything that appears to happen in our world is a pure reflection of our inner state of being, then it follows that if we are not being true to ourselves, it is like viewing life through a distorted lens or trying to play music on an instrument that is out of tune.
The purpose of this book is to help you discover your own unique path so you can attune to your destiny and learn to live creatively through all the challenges life brings, finding fulfillment in knowing you are living in accordance with your truth. This book presents an essential aspect of the Human Design system, describing each of the 192 Life Themes, and it is a companion to Human Design: Discover the Person You Were Born to Be. The specific time and place of your birth establishes certain attributes about you, one of which is your Life Theme, which is like the intended storyline of your life. We each have one of these themes guiding us from our first breath to our last, and understanding and embracing your Life Theme will give you some powerful clues for how to align yourself in your journey. However, because you are born into very particular surroundings — involving parents, community, and environment — it is almost guaranteed that you will take on the beliefs, attitudes, and conditions playing out around you in your formative years. You will naturally be exposed to and absorb the influences and patterns of the culture you were born into. You might be encouraged to follow exactly in the footsteps or dictates of parents, grandparents, teachers, siblings, and society, disregarding altogether the natural inclinations you have within you. In this way, you end up living a discordant version of someone else’s life.
Hospice volunteer Bronnie Ware wrote a blog and then a book, entitled The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing, on her experiences of people on their death beds who knew that their time was up. What Bronnie found to be the leading regret can be summed up in a single statement she heard over and over again:
“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”
The Book of Destinies has been created to help you discover the life you were born to live.
What if, as the mystic Osho says, “With man, the natural automatic process of evolution ends. Man is the last product of unconscious evolution. With man, conscious evolution begins....”
Perhaps that awareness would shed new light on the statement by Jesus, referring to miracles he performed: “These works that
