Last time when I spoke about Juno, through the lens of spiritual astrology, I shared with you how one of her greatest spiritual teachings was understanding what happiness truly means, and more precisely, that happiness doesn’t depend on material things. One of the oldest words for happiness was the ancient Greek word eudaimonia.
Eudaimonia is not an emotion – it is a state of being in good spirit. It essentially means that happiness is to a live a life overall of good spirit and virtue, and to be a good person. Happiness is thus what gives us wellbeing in life, and wellbeing is not really an outcome or goal or title, it is rather a process of fulfilling or realizing one’s true nature and purpose in this life, and fulfilling our highest potential through our every day living in virtue, kindness, love and goodness. This is why in esoteric ancient scriptures, God was often named “goodness” to refer to these mystical secrets.
Money, status, all these can fall away and in our world moving forward none of these material things will matter. We are moving in an age where materially we may all become a bit more equal, and with the integration of ai in our every day work and life, what will matter most is who we are on the inside and what our true talents and gifts are.
Happiness is essentially about feeling a sense of purpose in your life – to feel like you are fulfilling your highest potential and feeling like you are contributing to other people. It isn’t about being on big stages or grand-ness of work and world contribution – it is about your ordinary every day along the circling staircases of life. How do you encourage and support others, how do you make someone smile and feel accepted in your presence, how do you take care of others? When you cook a meal for a loved one, don’t you feel happy seeing them happy? When you are respectful towards strangers and the cashier, doesn’t it make you feel happy? Aren’t you happy knowing you are a good person?
At the core of our being human is our greatest need to be our highest self, i.e. to be the best version of ourselves and feel like we are doing something of purpose. People want to belong. And sometimes life, or their own decisions, take them into more difficult and wrong paths, where their need for belonging pulls them into doing some not so great things.
Many years ago when I was doing independent research and investigating on various international affairs and how to create change and positive impact, one of my projects was to look within the prison system and education offered to the inmates. And I remember one of the inmates was sharing how he got into trouble because he wanted to feel a part of something, and surely, it wasn’t the right path and he understood that now, but he had realized what had driven him to this, and what his deeper need was and is, and was now dedicated to be a better person and find his inner true self.
In his prison they had some good educational resources, as well as spiritual counselling and therapy also, and for years he had been working on himself, finding his connection to his spiritual self and what deeply mattered to him in life, and was also learning new skills, which he had hoped to use when he is released and work a good job as a technician while also helping other inmates. He shared how he wanted to feel a sense of purpose and be the best version of himself, and was hoping to find a good job, where he can use his skills and hopefully mend the relationship with his son and be a good example in the future. This is just one story. There are many others. Many people make not so great choices, but it’s never too late to take a different path.
Know thyself is at the root of happiness. You can’t be happy if you are in the wrong or unhealthy environment for you, or surrounded by the wrong people for you. But in order to know what’s true or not for you, you need to know yourself and who you truly are, so that you can discern and follow your inner truth.
The house of happiness in our natal chart is our 4th house, which sits at the root of our chart – this is the deepest part within us, our heart, our inner world. To know ourselves we must know our heart; and to know our heart we must enter the part of us that is beneath the skin and external self – we must enter the doorways of our inner lands and inner worlds, and explore what is there, what resides in the home of our heart.
All begins with know thyself, and once you know thyself, then you learn the earth and soil outside of you also, and how your own steps move things, and how your own hands move things, and how your words move things. Our world is one of interdependence and this is one of our greatest lessons that keeps us humble. We all affect one another in many ways, whether subtle or more tangible.
As happiness is a state of wellbeing, it means our surrounding matters also. A rose cannot release her true fragrance if she can’t bloom, if her soil isn’t well nourished. Eudaimonia and happiness are both dependent of our ability to be free in order to release our true selves and be authentic, our ability to thrive and grow and expand, and our sense of purpose and meaning in our life. A rose is a rose, an apple tree is an apple tree, and we are all each different; this is the beauty, that we all have our own unique ways of contributing, our own soul songs, our own sweetest most natural fragrance.
When we nurture our inner world, we will naturally feel more peaceful and calm and joyful; and of that inner world of love and acceptance, we will then be able to create outer worlds of loveand unity also, as we are inspiring more love, contributing with more compassion, and walking a life of virtue. We walk in virtue not for others to validate us but because it’s the right thing. We do the right thing not because someone’s watching; we do it even when no one is watching because it’s the right thing.
As we move forward in our world, the outer masks will fall and we’ll be equalized sooner or later regarding material things. Internal beauty and soul’s light will begin to be seen more visibly, so if there ever was a time for you to invest in your inner development, it is now. The home of our heart is where all is, all resides, it is the home of our soul, and through how we love we see who we are. Love is not merely air up in the clouds like a beautiful idea, love is meant to be embodied through our words, movements, hands and gestures.
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Cover photograph by me of our spring gardens.
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