Alumni Events

The Sophia Centre Alumni Association presents a webinar with

Berna Lee

Finding a Path: Lineage, Curiosity, and the Practice of Free Will in Action

Wednesday 16th June 2026, 11.00 BST (GMT+1)

This talk reflects on my journey of finding a path through the study of cultural astronomy and contemporary Chinese astrology (xuanxue 玄學), and how this process has involved both honouring lineage and responding to personal curiosity.

Coming from a background that includes a family lineage of astrological practice, my engagement with the field has always been both personal and intuitive. However, it was through my MA studies at UWTSD that I began to develop the tools to approach this interest more critically and systematically. The course provided a framework that allowed me to work with an abstract way of thinking in a more grounded and structured way, translating intuition into research.

Drawing on my MA research with contemporary Chinese astrologers in Hong Kong, I explore how practitioners understand the relationship between fate (ming 命) and free will. Rather than fixed positions, their perspectives reflect a spectrum of views shaped by experience, with many drawing on the concept of change (yi 易) to navigate between what is given and what can be transformed.

In this sense, my own academic journey can be understood in similar terms, not as something predetermined, but as a process of ongoing negotiation between inheritance, curiosity, and choice. This talk reflects on how studying at UWTSD supported this process, the skills learned empowered me to engage with both tradition and transformation with more structure and self growth.