Living your Destiny and Remembering your Purpose

You knew your destiny when you were five years old.

Take your mind back now to when you were a child. To the day or moment when you told your parents or guardians, ‘I am going to be a firefighter/astronaut/dolphin ‘.

What did you want to be?

Can you remember the dreams and aspirations of your youngest self? The self that hadn’t yet chosen limitations and conditions, or felt the heavy burden of societal and familial expectations.

Now fast forward to your teens and 20s, when you were expected to know what career path you wanted and the exact job you would spend the next 40 years working at.

Had the childhood dream changed by then? Maybe it was a bit less than, tuned down, already more ‘sensible’. Maybe it had even taken a pivot to something completely different.

Perhaps now into adulthood, you are still consciously or subconsciously trying to create the image your youngest self saw for the future, but with no idea how to make it work and no example or guidance on how to actually manifest dreams in a world that considers them great for movies, but not in reality.

Sometimes our true desires for how our life will look and feel can even become the dirty secret in the closet. We put on the suit and walk to the office job, when inside our heart, there is a vibrant and hilariously funny clown who knows that blowing up balloons and telling jokes would actually be the most satisfying and soul-enriching way for us to live.

The thing is that at some point someone told you to stop dreaming, or you got scared that you weren’t good enough. Perhaps you compare yourself to others and try to fit into a mould. Maybe you even fear letting down someone else; the expectations placed upon you feel both limiting and absolute. Something closes up inside us when we are told to stop dreaming, to stop believing in ourselves, and that thing that we know we just have to do or be, well, we write it off as childish, silly or unrealistic.

I am here to remind you that you are more wonderful and capable than you could ever imagine.

There is a reason why you are here, as you, on this planet, at this time; with your unique body, personality and mind and all your desires and dreams.

Your child self that wanted to be a firefighter or a dolphin knew that you have a sacred blueprint, written in the stars and your fingerprint.

One that no one else can fulfil.

Your purpose is solely to BE you.

You do not need to achieve anything to be valid in your humanness.

Your destiny is to embody, live and choose that unique frequency.

To dance, to breathe, to rally, to spark your dreams awake.

I am Rachel. I am a belly dancing author, writer and empowerment coach. I help people to remember their destiny, to embrace their authenticity and feel powerful and courageous in being themselves. I am passionate about living a life on purpose. I chase my dreams ferociously, and I am devoted to the service encoded in my divine blueprint. However, it hasn’t always been this way. I have also sometimes been worried and scared, felt small and incapable and even got a little lost on the way.

I remember as a young child that I had two definites for myself and my life path. Firstly, that I would live in the forest with the fairies and make rose water forever, secondly, that I wanted to be a journalist. Travel, see, experience, write – that was the big dream. I wanted to travel the world, learn new things, immerse myself in ancient wisdom and places and share what I learnt in a motivational and inspiring way. I loved and love to experience or learn something and then tell the story of it to bring joy, revelation, insight and laughter to others.

First, I became a dance teacher, then I found myself selling pottery and getting passionate about teapots, and I was even once a castle tour guide. At one time, however, I gave up my career and dancing to offer myself 100% support to a partner. Also, one time I sold shoes instead of travelling, because it was more sensible. I searched in each job or role for some meaning, purpose and fulfilment. Each definitely provided me with experience, and some were in closer alignment with the childhood dream, but others were less so.

Then I found Lupa.

I found Lupa at the same time that I was made redundant from the ten-year-long career path I had diligently carved out for myself. She came to me when I felt the most lost, confused and uncertain of a direction forward than I had ever been.

She emerged from the depths of the forest and taught me about the Cave of Destiny.

Goddess Lupa is the divine she-wolf that plays a pivotal role in the ancient foundation story of the city of Rome, where two princes, Romulus and Remus, are thrown into the river Tiber as babies because they threaten the power of their uncle. However, they are found by Lupa at the river’s edge. She nurses them, protects them and keeps them in her care until they are safe and grown. After leaving her care, they later became the founders and rulers of Rome. In her myth, she is a protector, guardian and teacher of these children of destiny, not just feeding them with her milk but with her ferociousness, courage and instinct.

In my book Lupa, you will find my retelling of her ancient myth. In it, Lupa takes the two vulnerable boys into her wolf cave, both literal and metaphorical, which acts as the cocoon that allows them to remember what and who they truly are and ignites and fosters what they can be. They slept, they healed, they dreamt, and they remembered. They enter the cave as lost children of a king, yet when they leave her cave, they are ready to be kings.

During my own time with Lupa, in my cave of destiny; that period of indecision, pause and alignment, I learnt that it wasn’t necessarily a specific job or career that was my destiny but actually that destiny is an unfolding of our unique gifts and traits, and a continuous deepening of our understanding of the way they do, and can, manifest. From turning in, being in the cave of the deep within, I could see that no matter the experience or job, it had always been reminding me of who I was, at my very core; the me free of judgements, limitations, conditions or expectations. Each step upon the path of destiny was an attempt to align with the 5-year-old me that knew, hoped and dreamed.

I could see that there was a golden thread running through all that I had done and strived for, which was that I had always been trying to tap into my unique frequency in a way that would bring true satisfaction and fulfilment. It was the joy of learning and the excitement of finding things out, and the pleasure of sharing them that were my golden threads. The signposts of destiny were there throughout, indicated by that which always truly lit me up.

Did you know that 37% of all children, when asked ‘what do you want to be when you are older’ will actually say they want to be a superhero!

Isn’t that amazing?

They don’t question whether they can be, whether they should be, or whether it’s realistic. They just want to be a superhero!

There is a part within all of us that knows we have a superpower.

Your inner child still longs to use it because it knows you are more than the conditions and limitations you have placed upon yourself. It wants to use it because it brings it joy, excitement and pleasure.

Your inner child knows that your destiny and superpower is to be you.

You need to be you so that you can live a life fulfilled and satisfied, and the world needs you to be you. It needs you to be a superhero who honours and respects the true self so that you can courageously share that self. It needs you to show self-honour and respect through aligned and purposeful action because love in action creates a powerful ripple around the whole world. It needs you to trust and believe in yourself for you and for the benefit of humankind and the cosmos.

You can live your destiny, just by being fully, unapologetically and fearlessly you and by claiming your story as medicine, your path as important and your dreams as valid.

Ask yourself now, what truly matters to your child self?

What if you were, like the Mother Wolf Lupa, to devote and commit yourself to the aspirations of your child self? To choose to not believe that they are silly or unrealistic, but that those dreams are priceless signposts and insights to your unique destiny.

What if your dreams show you who you actually are and who you are meant to be?

What if anything was truly possible?

What then?

For more details: https://www.collectiveinkbooks.com/moon-books/authors/rachel-walker

Rachel is the author of Lupa, Wolf, Pantheon.The Romans and Flora, as well as the creatrix of Wolf Woman Rising, a wisdom school where she empowers you to embody your unique wisdom, reclaim your wild and create a life lived on purpose. Through online community, courses and training, as well as in-person retreats she offers easy and enjoyable access to ancient symbology and mythology, nature alchemy & divine connection.
Her desire has always been to create a bridge between history and spirituality, mythology and well-being, transmuting mythology into embodied wisdom, so that it becomes a tool of healing, empowerment and awakening for all.

Rachel read History with Religious Studies at University and then went on to complete post-graduate qualifications in History and Heritage Management. She has also worked in the heritage sector for over a decade, primarily working with children and interpretation and she can claim to have worked in 5 different castles!

Running parallel to her love of history she is a sacred dance teacher, storyteller, priestess and empowerment and flower essence coach
and is also the founder and principal teacher of Under the Dancing Tree School of Sacred Dance and Healing. She teaches sacred dances including Belly Dance, Polynesian dance, movement meditation and archetypal dance.

Using her own journey and over 18 years’ experience of teaching and training she empowers and inspires students to deeply understand and practice courage, trust and authenticity; the three pillars of her wisdom school.