Robert Ohotto is a renowned writer, teacher, professional intuitive consultant and astrologer. He is also the author of the newly released book Transforming Fate Into Destiny. Ohotto spent his collegiate years immersed in the study of Mythology, Christian mysticism, Kabbalah, Jungian psychology, Buddhism, Eastern philosophy and Western Hermetic teachings. It was also during college that Ohotto discovered and began an intensive study of astrology, which has been an ongoing passion for nearly 16 years. Ohotto has founded his own Ananke-Apollo Institute of intuitive, archetypal and astrological studies.

Robert Ohotto: Hello! How are you?

We are doing fabulous today. How are you?

I’m doing great.

This is wonderful. What a wonderful book this is.

Thanks a lot. I appreciate that.

It’s very unique. It has a dialogue between your ego self and your higher self, if we could call it that.

Right.

And it’s very cleverly written.

Thank you! It was a labor of love.

Is this your first book?

Yes. This is my first book.

Well it won’t be your last. We predict that! It’s really good. What is an intuitive, archetypal astrologer?

Well, the best way to think about this is, say I were looking at a birth chart of somebody who’s 10-years-old. That same chart could also be the chart of a dog. The reality is that there’s something that animates and in the birth chart for astrology, that structure is your soul. An intuitive astrologer is going to be somebody like myself who is going go beyond the chart into the coordinates of your soul and begin to get information that really melds the soul’s consciousness with that architecture of the chart. The difference of that is you’re really getting into and tapping into, many other layers of someone’s psyche, which are their archetypes, the different patterns and energies that motivate them toward their purpose in this lifetime, the urges and drives. It also opens up the doors to explore things like what kind of energy you’re bringing into this life with you, what experiences in the soul reside and are actually wanting to come up as creative allies in this life, to participate in the creative journey you’re on. So it’s more an intuitive tone function that allows me to access more data than what the birth chart would provide as information.

That’s fascinating! So this is more than what’s in the birth chart itself?

Exactly. Because the birth chart could be the chart of a bug. You’re born at a certain time and place on this planet, as are many other things and it’s more specific to what’s your soul is here for, as it fuses with the chart. What’s its intention? What’s your consciousness? We each come in with different consciousness. For example, I’ve done work with twins and found that, with each twin, there’s a different soul animating the chart, even though it’s the same chart. And then they each take that structure and do something different with it. The structure, the state of the chart, is the same. But the destiny is different. It’s very interesting.

Gerri is an identical twin. They have their opposites. Sometimes they get along and sometimes not. Where do you see this in the chart?

No, for me, it’s the impressions I intuitively receive when I read for twins. I get different energies on each person even though it’s the same chart. In the same cycles, you would both have similar cycles but your response to that would be different, because you’re different consciousness.

So it’s really about the consciousness engaging with the archetypes within the chart, the patterns and the structure of the chart and that’s what’s fascinating, that we do, each of us, have a unique inscription in our soul, a unique code that we’re living out here, an amalgamation or combination of past lives and other experiences. Where we’re at in our evolutionary process. We take that with us in this life and then we create differently with it each time, I feel. That’s what destiny is. How are you going to do it this time? How are you going to create and affirm your life force in this lifetime?

Do you feel that you come back if you haven’t finished your thing with your twin? Do you come back and there they are again?

I don’t believe in that and I’ll tell you why. Because I think that, first of all, that almost brings the idea that life is about being punished, you know? And I think life’s about being creative. Maybe we come back to create in different ways. We don’t want to create the same way we already did, so you come back to create in a different way with your twin perhaps, try to create in a way that has more harmony and really honors the truth that we’re all connected and that we have to honor that supreme spiritual law, in some form or another, through the choices we make and the way we embody those choices and the way that we forge our values in life.

I don’t think this is the only planet we come to, either. I feel for some souls, this is their first time on earth school. They’ve been other places and God only knows where they are. I feel that about people sometimes, like this is their first time on this planet. And it’s a rough go because it’s a very dense and heavy energy here that makes us believe that this is all there is or that we’re separate from each other. I see karma and reincarnation in a different perspective because I think that it’s all about being creative. The soul creates an experience which is not necessarily fair or unfair or did I get that lesson right? But I think it’s learning how to create in different ways.

Robert, what is the difference between fate and destiny?

Well fate is a very complex force. On one level it is the agreement your soul makes to be fused into your body. You have a body you’re born into, the family you’re born into, the culture you’re born into. If I could define fate, things that you really can’t change on one level, you must accept, that were chosen by the soul as useful tools or useful containers for the purpose of the soul here in this life. The body or the culture you’re from, the gender you are, all these things start to become fated parameters of your soul’s purpose and there’s something useful guiding what’s in that, about why you’re here. The family you come from, for example. Destiny becomes, what do you choose to do with all those things? Through the power of choice, through harnessing the virtues of the soul, your compassion, your grace and your intuition and how do you move through life and play out that hand that fate has dealt you. Because you can’t change that hand. The cards are dealt.

Then there’s another part of fate where, once we’re here, when we ignore the calling of the soul, the fate we were inscripted with before we came here. Then we fate ourselves. If we try to be something we’re not intended to be or we’re not supposed to be, then we create what I call self-fate, a form of fate which is about blocking yourself and the universe. I’m sure we can all relate to this. The universe through those divine interventions – what we call synchronicity – but it’s the ones we don’t like so much, like accidents or health issues or things to wake us up and say, “Hey, you’re not living destiny here. You’re not living the purpose that you were born to live.” And that is born out of the fate that you chose from the soul. Once you get here, your ego goes, “What was I thinking? Why did I choose this family? Why did I choose this culture?” And then we fall prey to victim consciousness. That’s a really big issue in this culture. The entitlement of our ego thinks about whether or not we deserve something or whether or not this is fair or unfair and when you’re in that state of victim consciousness, you’re really denying fate. I call this a very fate phobic culture. We don’t want to look at the fact that sometimes things just happen. There’s no one to blame. It’s just part of your life’s journey and you have to absorb it and move on.

Do you feel we’re here to learn lessons and that’s why these things happen to us?

I think we are, but I would say lessons in what? What is the soul – this immortal, omniscient, multi-dimensional consciousness that is in us really going to learn? We’re learning how to create. I see this as a participatory expansion of the cosmos itself and we’re creating within it. We’re co-creating within it. And that’s what we’re learning. How can we create energy and life? That’s what we’re doing. And I don’t think we’re learning lessons so we can finally stop reincarnating. I think once we get to the point where you want to reincarnate, you probably don’t need to anymore.

How does the Law of Attraction fit into all of this?

That’s a great question. It’s really buzzing, isn’t it?

Totally.

It’s a good question because, if we’re going to talk about this idea that the soul forged this agreement within life that is immutable and unchangeable, what we can call fate, then what is the Law of Attraction going to do within that? Another way of thinking about this is to say, “Hey, can we really use the Law of Attraction to get everything we want and make everything happen?” Absolutely not. I even have a story in the book about somebody who was trying to use the Law of Attraction to cure her soon-to-be-born son of Down’s Syndrome. When I read her intuitively I picked up right away that this soul wants to come in with that because it’s meant to teach them something about living, what’s real and how to have compassion and it’s going to mirror an issue back to the father and it wasn’t going to change no matter what she did. As I predicted, that’s exactly what happened.

So the Law of Attraction, the way I look at it, it definitely is a real law. We all experience it when we wake up in a really good mood and have really good positive energy, this is why good things keep happening. We find that parking spot. We have an opportunity come up. But can it make the sun rise in the west and set in the east? No. There are certain laws in our universe, in this earth school, that are just the way they are. And it’s a good thing, because otherwise I think planes would be falling out of the sky from people having fearful thoughts and focusing on their fear while they’re flying. It is a real law, but it has its limits.

There are other laws in the universe, fate, there’s a law of destiny, there’s a law of action, different types of energies, that also contain us and help us on our path. And the Law of Attraction comes down to having an attitude of gratitude and always making sure in every circumstance that we embrace the fullest potential of it as a blessing, as something that is going to be an agent of our destiny. And I think that’s where it comes in. People making vision boards and so on, positive focus is fantastic. But it’s also about giving yourself a chance to, in the vision board process, allow the soul to speak to you about why you’re here and that’s what should be flowing through your channel to your vision board. A lot of people do this. They think they’re attracting something to them when they’re really channeling it through and putting it up in an artistic kind of way, on their vision board.

The other thing is, we’ve got to look at the soul and the ego here. The ego probably wants a lot of money and a lot of security in earthly life. And that makes sense. It’s here to help us survive. But sometimes the soul says, “I need you to have a hard experience because that’s what’s going to crack open your heart. That’s what’s going to make you see the world with compassion. That’s what’s going to help you understand your inner connectedness with other people. And maybe having a lot of money just isn’t in your path this lifetime.” We’ve interpreted this beautiful law through capitalist and consumerist eyes and that’s something we need to look at in our culture.

Beautifully put! So when someone comes to you and wants a reading, I presume you do a natal chart as part of it, but how do you do that? Do you tune in and meditate or how does that process work?

What works for me is just the way I was born into this world. When I started astrology, I was good with birth charts right away, without knowing a lot about the mechanics of astrology and how it all worked. Then as I began to become more fluent with the language of astrology, I started speaking volumes about people and their families. Information started to come that I knew wasn’t in their birth charts. I would just know stuff about people, I would get a real sense of their soul’s purpose, so when I do a reading on somebody, I do cast the natal birth chart most of the time and then from there, what I start to get right away is a lot of fast information coming. I write little reference notes. It’s sort of like downloading, if you will. A lot of information, that’s how it feels. Then I start coordinating that in my mind and when I talk with them on the phone – because I do it all before I even talk to them – I go through it all and it just deepens, because I get more information when I talk to them, getting more intuitive impressions as I go. So it’s a mix of intuition coming in and informing me about the person’s soul purpose. I also feel I’m not the only one running the show. I think I’m tapping in to their spirit guides and energies around them, that are there to help me make sense of the information I’m receiving and also them so that they can reconnect with their own intuition. I feel like I’m really a midwife to their own intuition. Because a lot of time people will say, “Why are you confirming so much of what I already know?” And I’m like, “But you’ve got to trust that now.” We all have intuition.

It’s a birthright to know your soul’s purpose. It’s a matter of being willing to listen. The other thing that will keep you from it is being under a cultural spell. Culture meaning even though you have the design to become an apple tree, we want you to be an orange tree because that’s what will help you buy our products or this is how we’re going to condition you to get value for your life. And the soul knows its intrinsic worth, knows it’s got soul esteem, I call it, the esteem that’s intrinsic and inviolable. You can’t diminish it unless you allow somebody. So I think that when we’re looking at our life’s purpose, it’s easy to flow into if you’re conscious about what you’re allowing yourself to believe that your culture and others tell you, that may not be congruent with why you’re here. You’ll see all the time that this kind of war gets waged within ourselves, between what the soul’s here to grow into and its destiny and what culture wants you to be per its authority and per what it feels is appropriate. If you look at the past, look at what religions have done and what governments have done to people in taking away their self and not allowing them to go into that deeper core and discover. “I’m meant to be an apple tree! Isn’t that wonderful!” We should want people to discover that unique code, that unique plan, because then we have a lot of fruit on the planet. People bearing all sorts of different types of things, gifts, that we can all get some and use in our own lives. Because destiny, at the end of the day, it’s not just self-actualization so you feel really great about who you are and happy, it’s about the service you want to give other people because that’s how you honor the truth that all is one. It’s through service and through an inner connection with your fellow human beings.

Excellent! You are truly intuitive because my next question was about cultural spells and you went right into it before I could even ask. If people would like to find out more about you and your work, do you have a website?

I do. It’s www.ohotto.com. They can check me out there and get more information. There’s more information there about the book. Why I wrote the book and why it was important at this time in this really big change we’re going through in the world. It’s kind of crazy to be alive right now. Imagine what we’re going through as we globalize and we shift our focus away from the old corporate, capitalist structure that has been the source of our livelihood as a nation and as a world and having to reshape paradigms. It’s really coming up and I think we all feel it really deep inside. It’s kind of terrifying and perilous, but also exciting. We get to participate in ushering a new era of how to be on the planet as a human being. I think a lot of peoples’ consciousness is really quickening thanks to God, when we really need it, the enlightened ones step up and we begin to integrate what we all know, in a metaphysical sense as being true, but really practically bring that down to this planet. It’s got to have practical use. It can’t just be about vision boards, it also has to be about action and how we’re really going to change things. That’s why I felt inspired to write this book. I had a lot of synchronicities in my own life that guided me to write this book first.

Sounds like there’s a second book coming.

I wrote three books at one time and Hay House said it would give people time to absorb what’s going on. There are a couple more in the hopper.

Ohotto’s website is www.ohotto.com.