Gazing into the Abyss of Happiness

Mastering the Art of Feeling Really Good

Comic by Bill Watterson

DO YOU DARE TO GAZE INTO THE ABYSS OF HAPPINESS?

More and more creative people find they do their best work when they're feeling healthy and secure. We know writers who no longer need to be drunk or in agony in order to shed the numbness of their daily routine and tap into the full powers of their imagination.

We have filmmaker friends whose best work flows not from the depths of alienated self-doubt but rather from the heights of well-­earned bliss. Musician P. J. Harvey is the patron saint of this new breed. "When I'm contented, I'm more open to receiving a lot of inspiration," she testified. "I'm most creative when I feel safe and happy."

At the Beauty and Truth Lab, we've retired the archetype of the tormented genius. We have zero attraction to books and movies and songs by angry cynics whose work is celebrated by angry cynics.

Stories about supposedly interesting creeps don't rouse our perverse fascination, because we've broken our addiction to perverse fascination.

When hearing about illustrious creators who brag that they feel most stimulated when they're outraged or miserable, we unleash the Official Beauty and Truth Lab Histrionic Yawn.

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Sadly, many storytellers and artists are still addicted to the old delusions about the risks of good mental health. Even those who don't view peace of mind as a threat to their creative power often believe that it's a rare commodity attainable only through dumb luck.

"One cannot divine nor forecast the conditions that will make happiness," said novelist Willa Cather. "One only stumbles upon them by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere."

There is another obstacle to overthrowing the status quo. Oppressively nice, indiscriminately optimistic, sentimental comfort-hoarders give happiness a bad name. They seem to justify Flaubert's mean-spirited observation that "To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost."

Here's a third blotch on the reputation of happiness: that it's mostly an absence of pain. In The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, Sogyal Rinpoche frames the issue well: "Would you prefer the happiness of scratching a mosquito bite over the happiness of not having a mosquito bite in the first place?"

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It's possible to define a more supple variety of happiness that does not paralyze the will or sap ambition. For the first clue about how to proceed, we turn to Buddhist researchers Rick Foster and Greg Hicks. In their book How We Choose to Be Happy: The 9 Choices of Extremely Happy People, they reveal that the number one trait of happy people is a serious determination to be happy.

Bliss is a habit you can cultivate, in other words, not an accident that you stumble upon by chance, in a lucky hour, at the world's end somewhere.

For another clue about how to conjure up a kind of happiness that does not anesthetize the soul, we call on Kenneth Koch. Here's what he wrote about Nobel Prize-winning poet Saint-John Perse: "So many poets have the courage to look into the abyss. But Perse had the courage to look into happiness."

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Hear me do the spoken-word version of “Do You Dare Gaze into the Abyss of Happiness?”: tinyurl.com/HappinessAbyss

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EXPLORE THE BIG PICTURE OF YOUR LIFE

with my EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES for the Coming Year:

https://RealAstrology.com

What new influences and opportunities will be headed your way in 2025? What fresh resources will you be able to draw on? How can you conspire with life to create the best possible future for yourself?

Beginning this week, and for the next two weeks as well, I'm exploring the BIG PICTURE of your life in my Expanded Audio Horoscopes.

If you slip into a philosophical, visionary mood at the end of each year, you might appreciate my perspectives on your long-term outlook.

To listen to PART 1 of your BIG PICTURE horoscopes online, go to

https://RealAstrology.com

Register and/or log in through the main page, and then click on the link "Part 1: Long-Term Prediction for 2025."

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The cost for the Expanded Audio Horoscopes is $7 per sign. (You can get discounts for multiple purchases.)

Each forecast is 7-10 minutes long.

P.S. You can still access last week's Sneak-Peek at 2024. In these expanded audio horoscopes, I describe some major themes I think you'll be working and playing with in 2025. After you register and/or log in, click on "Last Week (Dec. 24, 2024)."

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Happiness is the consequence of personal effort. You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings. And once you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it. You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top of it.

― Elizabeth Gilbert

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Hear the podcast conversation: Amanda Yates Garcia and me

Author, witch, and activist Amanda Yates Garcia wrote the fabulous book Initiated: Memoirs of a Witch. She also creates one of my favorite weekly newsletters, which I highly recommend: Mystery Cult with Amanda Yates Garcia.

She had me on her Between the Worlds podcast. Here’s the link.

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DON’T GET STUCK IN PETTY HAPPINESS

There's an old fairy tale in which two old folks are given three wishes by a magic dwarf, but impulsively waste them on the first silly whims that pop into their heads.

I'll tell you what I would have told them: Proceed on the assumption that only a few of your fervent prayers will be granted. Don't use them up on pleas for convenience when you're tired, cranky, or desperate.

A Tibetan proverb says, "The person who gets stuck on petty happiness will not attain great happiness."

MASTERING THE ART OF FEELING REALLY GOOD

Dear Beauty and Truth Lab: I was lying in my bed basking in a sunbeam this morning, too comfortable to get up and take my Prozac, when I thought, Hey, what if I'm not, you know, emotionally challenged? What if I'm just lazy? Maybe if I worked harder at cultivating happiness, I'd just sort of outgrow my depression—you know, render it irrelevant. Do you have an opinion about this theory? —Slothful Slack Seeker

Dear Slothful: We'd have to know more about your personal history to evaluate whether laziness is the cause of your depression. We do know this, though: Many people are extremely lax about their pursuit of happiness. Here's our question to you: What tricks would you have to play on yourself in order to get more aggressive about mastering the art of feeling really good

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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY

For the Week of January 2

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): You’re the most pragmatic sign of the zodiac and are most highly skilled at getting constructive things done. It’s also true that you thrive on organizing the chaotic details of our messy world into smooth-functioning systems. But I periodically need to remind you that these superpowers of yours require you to nurture a vigorous and rigorous imagination. So much of what you ultimately accomplish originates in the fantasy realm. This will be especially crucial for you to keep in mind during 2025.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The Mona Lisa is a world-famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci. Beneath its visible surface is evidence that the artist reworked it extensively. There are at least three earlier versions with different facial features. In one, the figure has eyebrows and is wearing hairpins and a headdress. These details were scrubbed out of the image that now hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris. I bring this to your attention, Aquarius, because I suspect you have been engaged in a comparable process as you’ve worked on your labor of love. In my reckoning, you’re finished with your false starts, practice runs, and dress rehearsals. In the coming months, you can make excellent progress toward ripening and culminating your creation.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Ancient Greek literature references a drug called nepenthe. Anyone who ingested it would forget memories that stirred pain and sorrow. Many of us modern people might consider taking such medicine if it were available. But let’s imagine a very different potion: one that arouses vivid memories of all the wonderful experiences we have been blessed with. If there were such a thing, I would recommend that you sample it frequently in the months to come. That’s because your relationship with the good parts of your past will be especially useful and inspirational. In fact, drawing on their power will be instrumental in helping you create your best possible future.

ARIES (March 21-April 19): There are experiences, people, and places that can either be good for you or bad for you. Which way they tilt at any particular time may depend on your mood or their mood or forces beyond your immediate control. An example for me is social media. Sometimes it’s a mediocre drug that dulls my sensibilities and aggravates my fears. On other occasions, it brings rich connections and teaches me lessons I’m thrilled to learn. What about you, Aries? In my astrological view, 2025 will be a time when you will be wise to re-evaluate and redefine your relationships with these paradoxical resources. If there are some whose influence is far more likely to be bad than good, consider ending your bond. For those that are equally bad and good, do what you can do to enhance the goodness.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus supermodel Linda Evangelista has supreme levels of self-esteem. At the height of her career, she bragged that she got out of bed each morning with the intention of earning no less than $10,000 in the coming day. I’m not advocating that you be equally audacious in your expectations during 2025, dear Taurus. But it’s reasonable for you to adopt at least a measure of Evangelista’s financial confidence. According to my analysis of your destiny, cosmic rhythms will be conspiring to open up economic opportunities for you.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): In 2025, I invite you to make ample use of at least five of the following 11 tactics: 1. Shatter the mold. 2. Defy the conventions. 3. Challenge the norms. 4. Redefine the boundaries. 5. Disrupt the status quo. 6. Defy old rules and create new ones. 7. Go against the flow and against the grain. 8. Bushwhack through frontiers. 9. Dance to unfamiliar rhythms. 10. Search for curious treasures. 11. Change the way you change.

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EXPLORING YOUR LONG-RANGE FUTURE

Would you like some inspiration as you muse and wonder about your upcoming adventures in 2025?

In this week's EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES, I offer you a long-term, in-depth exploration of your destiny in the coming months. This is Part One of a three-part series.

Part Two and Part Three will be available in the next two weeks.

Access them at

https://RealAstrology.com

Register and/or log in through the main page, and then click on the link "Long-Term Prediction for 2025."

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You can also still access my Sneak-Peek forecasts for 2025 from a week ago. To hear these, click on "Last Week (Dec 24, 2024)."

The cost is $7 per sign. Discounts are available for bulk purchases.

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CANCER (June 21-July 22): Good advice for the first half of 2025: 1. Lose your respect for tangled complications that have begun to rot. 2. Keep some of your necessary protective defenses, yes, but shed those that no longer serve you and are weighing you down. 3. Bury a broken-down dream to make room in your heart for a sweet new dream. 4. Scour away as much resentment as you can. 5. Sneak away from people and situations that are too demanding. 6. Discard as much as you can of what’s inessential, unhelpful, and defunct. 7. Don’t make a radical break for freedom yet, but begin plotting to do so by your birthday.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The coming months will be an excellent time to dream up bigger, better, more original sins and seek out wilder, wetter, more interesting problems. You should experiment with being naughty and even sweetly wicked as you uplift your spirit and deepen your love for life. You are being invited by your future self to experiment with daring departures from tradition that bring you exciting challenges. Dear Leo, may you be cheerfully courageous as you become both smarter and wiser than you have ever been before.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Aztecs were originally known as the Mēxihcah people. Before they forged an empire, they were semi-nomadic tribes. But even then, early on, they were guided by a prophecy that they would eventually settle permanently in a place where they found an eagle roosting on a cactus holding a snake in its talons. In 1325, wanderers spied this precise scenario on a small island in Lake Texcoco. Soon they began to construct the city of Tenochtitlan, the capital of their future kingdom. I bring this true myth to your attention, Virgo, because I want to invite you to formulate a similar prophecy—and then fulfill it in 2025. Your personal empire is primed for expansion and consolidation.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): As 2025 unfolds, your burdens will grow lighter, and your duties will become more interesting. Joyless missions and trivial hopes will be increasingly irrelevant and easy to relinquish, opening up opportunities for fresh assignments that motivate you to play more and to work smarter rather than harder. During the coming months, dear Libra, I predict you will be basking in extra good karma and tapping into more fertile mojo than you have in a long time. Would you like more freedom than ever before? It’s yours for the plucking.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Painter P. K. Mahanandia is well-known because of his fine art. He is even more famous for an amazing adventure he had in the name of love. It's a long story, but his wife was living in her native Sweden while he was stuck in his native India. Mahanandia was still at an early stage of his career and couldn't afford to fly by plane. Instead, he bought a used bicycle and headed west, covering about 27 miles per day. He pedaled through Afghanistan, Iran, and Turkey until he arrived in Europe 127 days later. He had raised money by drawing portraits of people he met along the way, so he had enough to travel by train the rest of the way to Sweden. I'm thinking you may have an epic romantic adventure yourself in 2025, Scorpio. Maybe not quite as extreme, but very interesting.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): To symbolize your destiny in 2025, I drew a Tarot card. It was the 9 of Cups. Here’s my four-part interpretation: 1. Sometime soon, you should identify your top desires and ruminate about how to express them in the most beautiful and fulfilling ways possible. 2. Take a vow that you will shed half-hearted, insecure approaches for bringing them to fruition. 3. Be uninhibited about seeking not just a partial but a complete version of each fulfillment. 4. Figure out which allies you will need in your life to manifest the happiest and most meaningful outcomes.

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