Purpose Paired With Bliss

From the Greenwood Tarot, the Knight of Cups; from the Rune Cards, Sun (Sowilo):

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

― Ralph Waldo Emerson

When salmon have matured, they migrate up freshwater rivers to spawn, swimming with determination and purpose. Potter suggests the self-sacrificing Knight of Cups believes he also serves a greater purpose. This compassionate fellow knows through experience what researchers have now discovered: altruism has a positive effect on subjective well-being, including life satisfaction and positive emotions. Yet the Sowilo (Sun) rune reminds us that even the most devoted person benefits from time soaking in their own beam of joy and vitality. As Joseph Cambell explains:

[Sacred space] is an absolute necessity for anybody today... Our life has become so economic and practical in its orientation that, as you get older, the claims of the moment upon you are so great, you hardly know where the hell you are, or what it is you intended. You are always doing something that is required of you. Where is your bliss station? You have to try to find it.