Accepting Providence: Fate, Trust, and the Thread of Causes
The Thread of Causes
Marcus Aurelius writes in Meditations 5.8:
“Whatever happens to you was prepared for you from all eternity, and the thread of causes was spun from the beginning.”
It’s a staggering image. Marcus sees life as a tapestry already woven: what we face today is not an accident but a strand in an immense design. To the Stoic, this design is governed by logos — the rational order of the universe. Things do not simply happen; they unfold, linked by necessity.