Parabola’s new cover depicts a woman gazing into a crystal ball. Presumably she is trying to divine the future.

Are the days and years to come foreseeable? If so, then what of free will, our apparent ability to make choices  and to influence the course of events? If our futures are determined, what does that mean for our spiritual search? How is liberation possible?

We may have a destiny to fulfill, or a fate, perhaps self-created, that’s best avoided. Is the course of our life changeable—and how can we change it?

These are some of the questions a distinguished group of authors, poets, and illustrators explore in this Winter 2015-2016 issue of Parabola. Jungian writer James Hollis begins, with guidance on how to accept our fate no matter what its form. He is joined by Sufi master Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, who speaks of his own astonishing journey to destiny, and by Parabola editor-at-large Lillian Firestone, who offers ancient teachings on how we might influence for good not only the future, but the present and the past.

What part does karma play in our lives? Advice on working with the consequences of our actions is given by Tibetan Buddhist scholar Traleg Kyabgon, while overcoming tragedy, finding one’s true path, and creating a personal mythology are other aspects of free will and destiny explored here.

There are further rewards in this issue as well, including rare leaves from the notebooks and chapbooks of Zen pioneer Paul Reps; a heartening report by Roger Lipsey on a new kind of monastery; and a reconsideration of Sleeping Beauty from a young English novelist.

We hope that you will enjoy and benefit from this new issue of Parabola. May your will be free, and your destiny blessed.

—Jeff Zaleski

Cover Description: John William Waterhouse (1849–1917), The Crystal Ball, oil on canvas, 1902