What is happiness?

The Ten of Cups

The first thing I always say on seeing the ten of cups in a tarot reading is ‘happy families….emotional fulfilment for yourself and others’ which sounds all very well and lovely but actually what does that mean?

Only because this card came up as my ‘best course of action’ in a reading last week and in a reading with a client yesterday, did I decide this morning to write about it for the blog and do a little word association. In the process I did a bit of googling.

I’m sorry everyone, I missed an essential point.  This card is not literally about happy families, it’s about what happy families represent, happiness, a happy home.  This card is actually about coming ‘home’ to our heart where we feel emotionally complete.

No 10 in the cup suit says we've completed the journey of the cup suit from the first release of emotion and heart opening to fulfilment. Where our emotional happiness is not just about ourselves but about the love and connection we feel for others and the world. At the ten level we feel complete. There is joy and harmony.

Happiness is not letting you have my ball

I find it quite telling that I am writing about the ten of cups for the first time today.  There must be other cards in the 78 deck that I haven’t written about?  Perhaps this card hasn’t resonated before because I don’t have my own family, I’m not married and don’t have children, and my birth family, two sisters and parents long dead have never really fitted the happy family mold. Rather it represented all the complications, hurts, disappointment, conflict that come with many relationships and families. 

Descriptions of the ten of cups…..

But I like the advice.  Come home to my heart.   Where I accept myself and others and give and receive love.  A sense of homecoming. A sense of appreciation, enjoyment, gratitude, kindness, gentleness, joy, feeling fulfilled pervade. Put your heart and energy into what makes you happy, what makes you feel fulfilled.

I suppose a question to ask ourselves is.

What is happiness to you?

What does happiness feel like?

I know for me it is that feeling of being blessed, grateful, enough, safe. All the pushing, fearing, wanting, trying, achieving, is not present, instead I am present to contentment….that I love and am loved.  And all is well.

Do come and have a tarot reading with me online and we can explore what happiness is for you and how to be it!