The Choice to Be Happy

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Tarot Wisdom: The Choice to Be Happy is in Your Hands

by Karen Hollis

How many of the choices presented to us in life actually make us happy – not for a fleeting moment, but bring to us real, deep happiness? Prevailing thought suggests that happiness is something that happens to us as a result of something else, and that it is some grand achievement in life or in a relationship. What if we all were to acknowledge happiness not as a feeling that results from something else, but as a choice?

To be happy one must choose to be happy, not respond to a circumstance that now controls your happiness. ~ Dr. Joyce Meyer

It’s true; events can and will occur in our lives that shake our inner peace and rattle our happiness. These moments, to paraphrase the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, are the moments “into each life that some rain must fall.” How we choose to respond to that ‘rain,’ that trying circumstance, is what determines whether or not we experience happiness. Even in times of great sorrow, “behind the clouds the sun is still shining” if only we will have faith and choose to wait for it.

The Tarot offers rich symbolism and wisdom about the pursuit of happiness. It can help us to discern the difference between happiness that is real and deep, and what is fleeting and unfulfilling. Using a three-card draw, I inquired of the Tarot on the topic of “choosing to be happy”:

The first card that literally flew out of the deck and onto my reading table was the Five of Cups. In this card, we see a cloaked figure looking miserably upon three spilled goblets, which represent emotion and regret. At further inspection of the card, we see that there are two cups that remain upright behind this desperately depressed person. The two upright cups represent our choice to change our perspective and find our happiness. All the person in the card need do is change their perspective.

OM Times is a leading voice of the Conscious Community with articles covering the full spectrum of Conscious Living. Click here to see all we share.