The Pursuit of Happiness

I woke up this morning, 9/13/2025, with the urge to keep studying the Constitution of the United States. As I started opening the content (The U.S. Constitution, A Reader, edited by the Hillsdale College Politics Faculty) from the course The Meaning and History of the Constitution, one place my eye stopped was Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics, where he addresses the question, “What is the best life for man?” He wrote on purpose, action, and intention, and this is what this text is about. But I’m going to start at the end, where the synthesis comes, which is politics. That is the master art that synthesizes all the other arts and pursuits in a society. This is what we condense and how we create collaborations that are meaningful and non-violent.

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But in order for me to explain this, let’s go to the beginning. Every art, every inquiry, every action and choice ends at some good. This is where Aristotle’s opening to the Nicomachean Ethics, sets up his entire philosophy of human purpose. Some ends are activities, others are products beyond the activity itself.

One person of many who was very influenced by this was Ludwig von Mises, and he created Human Action by reducing the Aristotelian structure into Praxeology, the science of purposeful behavior. His axiom, “man acts,” mirrors Aristotle’s “every action and choice ends at some good.” Mises was one of the founders of Austrian economics for those who don’t know it yet.

Aristotle speaks of εὐδαιμονία eudaimonia, the flourishing of citizens in the polis, life lived in accordance with virtue and purpose. Mises begins with the axiom that man acts, that every individual decision is purposeful. Where Aristotle sees the good life emerging through civic collaboration, Mises shows how social order arises through the aggregation of individual actions. Both point to the same truth: purpose is never abstract, it becomes visible in the choices we make and in the structures we inhabit.

Even in the etymology, the Greek terms reveal the depth of Aristotle’s system. τέλος Telos is the end, the aim, the purpose. πρᾶξις Praxis is the action in which humans make decisions. And προαίρεσις prohairesis is literally choosing beforehand, from pro- “forward, in advance,” and hairein “to take, to choose.” It marks the inner act of deliberate choice that makes action truly human.

And the pursuit of happiness. So to see politics as the result of collaboration is to recover that synthesis. Individual purpose and intention converge, and their collective enactment shapes political life. This is why the Founders read Aristotle alongside Cicero and Locke. Politics was not opposed to happiness, but was the framework that secured the conditions for its pursuit.

Politics is the master art that synthesizes all other arts and pursuits. Medicine, shipbuilding, and strategy are subordinated to politics because politics asks, what is the good life for human beings living together? In Aristotle’s sense, happiness, eudaimonia, is not private but civic: the flourishing of citizens through virtue within a shared order.

Modern life, however, has often severed politics from happiness. Politics is treated as power or bureaucracy these days, which makes no sense to me, while happiness is privatized into consumption or psychology. This has broken the Aristotelian synthesis where politics was originally the shape and the space where individual intentions and purposes became enacted in common.

So let’s go back to Aristotle. From the foundation emerges the insight that every act has both an inner and outer dimension: purpose, telos, the end towards which an act tends; and intention, prohairesis, the inner orientation, the deliberate choice of means towards the end. Aristotle makes it clear that purpose and intention are inseparable. The act is human when guided by rational intention, not just by its external result. Intention, therefore, forms the foundation, yet the purpose is what completes the act.

TIMELINES SHIFTING

The upcoming solar eclipse [New Moon] on September 21st at the last degrees of Virgo is exactly opposing Saturn at the last degrees of Pisces. So we’re dealing with discernment, we’re dealing with redefinition, reshaping. And what exactly? Well, we can think about our lives, we can think about the state of the world, we can think about any levels, from very small habits that you’re doing and bigger through purpose. Sun + Mercury opposing Saturn in Pisces and Neptune in Aries mirrors this by testing which structures dissolve and which can be rebuilt. What is real, shall we have more lies uncovered? Can those lies be inside of ourselves covering painful truths?

-Are you still behind the veil, of what is showing what reality really is?, are you ready to go and confront yourself with all the courage you don’t know you have?

The eclipse chart mirrors civilization itself. It calls us to refine detail into wholeness. It asks us to stay attentive to what is essential as structures tremble.

With what level of awareness will you leave 2025 behind? This year, 2025, is a 9 universal year: completion, endings, release, universal compassion. Enter the new reset year 2026 = 1: beginnings, individuality, initiative, leadership, independence. The eclipse closes that cycle. The day after comes the equinox, the balance point of light and dark. In numerology this is the vibration of the 2, the number of polarity and harmony, reminding us that every ending (9) requires equilibrium before the new beginning (1), that every reset is born through balance.

So, I couldn’t think of a better way to start this, thinking about the solar eclipse as a way to redefine ourselves. And for that, I want to go back to history, and I want to go back to philosophy, and I want to go back to the basics. Because sometimes if we ground ourselves in logic and what really matters, maybe we can start rethinking at different levels.¹

I have been studying the Constitution, the United States, the Bill of Rights, natural law, for a while now, over a year. I am extending this into common law and the crucial difference between what is legal and what is lawful — a difference overlooked by almost every citizen of this country and the world. This distinction is central to individual freedom, and it matters as much today as it did at the founding.²

And I keep thinking to myself: when we want to attack a system that doesn’t work, a government or a state that intervenes with private property and takes away rights, is it not important first to understand how that system was constituted? What in its foundation of principles makes it impede our ability to stand for our own rights? This is why I am delving into politics, in the sense of true civics, not the partisan game of the present, but the deeper study of how nations³, rooted in nature and in principles, first constituted themselves in organized institutions, and how, over time, these have eroded into states of dependency and even debt slavery through their monetary systems that are corrupted, inflated, and debasing our time.

Praxeology, the science of human action, grounds freedom in the fact that every decision originates in the individual. Natural law carries this forward: the recognition that law must be aligned with human purpose and not imposed as arbitrary statute. This is where the distinction between lawful and legal becomes urgent. Lawful principles arise from alignment with natural order, while legal statutes can be imposed in contradiction to it. The pursuit of happiness depends on keeping that difference alive.

Ludwig von Mises

So, that’s why I’m today talking about the eclipse through Aristotle, through von Mises, Cicero, Virgil, Locke, and many others, and the Founders of this beautiful country.

I know everybody, including myself, we have given up on politics, but I want to come to the core of what politics means. You know, it’s a collective behavior between one another. So if we have the chance to rebuild it, how would we do that? What do we base it on? We can’t start where we are right now. Everything has to be kind of like rewired, rewritten. and we must keep, money, state and faith separated.

I’m asking myself a question, and I know that part of this country and all over the world it is said that the United States was founded on violence. And with that narrative, the narrative keeps on having a lot of fracture, because it doesn’t seem to be able to be integrated. There’s no cure, there’s no resolve. There’s only drama and trauma. The divisions between North and South, Black and White, don’t seem to find any resolve.

So, in this article I question the new beginnings, and I kind of make a proposal. Any proposal can be a proposal, right? So what if we go back to some principles that were enacted, or that were said, or that were studied, or that were written thousands of years ago, when people were more wise—or at least that’s what I think.

I want to say that I am writing about this in depth in my upcoming book, but I just wanted to pull a little bit of the kind of conversations that I am having in the book into some things that I observe happening in the country and in the world. One of them is the amount of violence that is being spewed all over social media. But the violence is a reflection of fear, and fear is a reflection of not being aligned. And fear is also a reflection of unhappiness.

So how can we find the core of our happiness? Where is the purpose of life? How can we find our own responsibility in our own actions? How can we return to the core?

The Sabian Symbol for 30° Virgo, where the New Moon takes place, is a false call unheard in the attention to immediate service. It speaks of awareness, of distinguishing between trivial distractions and genuine crises, and of knowing when to respond and when not to. This marks the culmination of refinement, the readiness for service, the integration of detail into the greater whole, and the development of strong character.

The Sabian Symbol for 30° Libra, where Mars is placed, is the three mounts, representing the Trinity of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. It speaks of intuitive harmony, of integrating spiritual knowledge, earthly experience, and intellect into wisdom. The power here is subtle, like the Taoist sage who walks unseen.

The Sabian Symbol for 3° Virgo, where Venus is, is two angels bringing protection. It speaks of finding reassurance in solitude and quiet, of trusting subtleness, and of transformation from despair into clarity. Venus here offers a chance to envision the future, to prepare as the architect of your own time.

It also recalls last month’s New Moon. What habits or projects did you begin then, and how are you tending to them? For me it was closing and throwing away all my storage, things I don’t need to identify with, finishing and closing projects, setting up routines that re-wired my nervous system, and organizing all my digital archives. This time, Venus is conjunct the Vertex, square Uranus, and in tension with Pluto and Neptune creating finger of G*D. It is an unmistakable call to release old personas, images, and attachments.

RESTORATION

I personally felt a lot of disruption this week, but I immediately tried to synthesize the meaning of it in my life. So what can I do to change this? How can I improve it? With all the Virgo going on, that’s the main question. How can I discern and improve, and do I have to do anything to improve? And if I don’t, let it go. Wash it out. Give it away. Sell it. Dump it. Don’t breathe it anymore.

But for me, some things became very valuable, and it’s the question of principles. It’s the question of, okay, if we’re setting up the future, what are those foundations, Saturn? How are they being sustained, and can we give them meaning, Jupiter, from our heart? But at the same time, can we make them make sense in the future?

I value peaceful dialogue and inquiry, but I will not tolerate violence at this moment. I am tuning subtly to a space of non-violent principles and property rights, giving myself more time to educate myself.

So how do we close this reflection? For me, it goes back to Aristotle. Every action, every inquiry, every choice ends at some good. The pursuit of happiness is not separate from politics, not separate from purpose, not separate from intention. If we are facing endings, if we are stepping into a new beginning, then the reminder is to anchor our actions in principles that sustain meaning and create collaboration. This is what makes politics the master art, and this is what grounds the future of civilization. I am not speaking of the current political landscape, but of the meaning intended by the ancient masters: the telos, the aim; the praxis, the action in which humans make decisions; and the prohairesis, the intention.

Politics is the reflection of our individual actions, a mirror of collective choices. It becomes distorted only when we convince ourselves it does not matter. In its true sense, politics is and must be the reflection of human action.

Lighting strike

Charlie Kirk’s death struck me at the core because the last eclipse fell so deeply on my Chiron while Mars opposed my natal Mars in Aries in the third house, igniting an initiation of voice and forcing me to surrender pain into a direct sense of value. His natal Mars at 12°11’ Scorpio falls exactly on my natal Moon in Scorpio in the ninth house. It is a frequency that was activated with his assassination, and I was intensely devastated. It felt more than personal; it felt cellular.

His chart⁴ touches mine at fated points. That is why his assassination felt like a blade through the body of my own purpose, as if the silencing of his voice demanded I recognize mine. This convergence of eclipse, Chiron, Mars, and his death ripped me open to the recognition that my mission is not optional.

I am called to educate the schooled and the indoctrinated, inspiring everyone to speak their truth with courage.

These words were whispered through meditation a few days ago, and they set the platform I would like to start building. I also feel I need to express and clarify the difference between lawful and legal, to root value in natural order, to speak with the authority of human action and the memory of politeia.

The eclipses ahead will carry this further through the purification of the eighth house, the visibility of the ninth, the activation of the seventh, the embodiment of the first, the redefinition of value in the second, and the Saturn–Neptune conjunction square to my nodal axis will anchor it historically.

I will continue to create art, but my voice, awakened by devastation and aligned to principle, is the core.

If I, as an individual, do not activate my full alignment with all the opportunities both painful and joyful, I am missing an important calling.

1. Mars square Pluto in a third-quarter square and forming a Yod with Neptune and Uranus: collective frustration and redirection of energy, catalyzing evolutionary pressure. Pluto is also currently out of bounds — beyond the Sun’s path by latitude. The last time Pluto was out of bounds was during the American Revolution. Out of bounds amplifies a planet’s archetype: with Pluto this means transformation, upheaval, and structural change.

2. The word Constitution comes from the Latin constitutio, from constituere, meaning “to set up, to establish, to make solid.” It is the act of making something firm, setting the foundation. In contrast, statutes are particular laws enacted within that framework. One is foundational, the other derivative. These distinctions — between what is constitutional, what is statutory, and what is truly lawful — will be subjects to explore further.

In Greek thought, the closest word to Constitution was politeia, the arrangement or order of the polis. They also distinguished between nomos (living law, custom) and thesmos (law as decree, statute). This tension between law as natural order and law as imposed authority echoes through history. I will return to this in future work.

3. The word nation comes from Latin natio, meaning birth or origin, from the same root as nature (natura), “that which is born.” Both share the verb nasci, to be born. Nation and nature are thus originally one idea: what comes forth into life. This opens another path of inquiry into how natural law, origin, and political life are connected — a subject I will return to.

4. Kirk’s Sun, Moon, and Jupiter in Libra in my ninth house of law and philosophy; his Venus and Juno in my eighth house where the eclipse cut through; his Mercury exact on my Neptune and his Pluto on my tenth house of public destiny; his North Node on my Juno and Pallas; his Saturn, Pallas, and Vesta on my Ascendant in Aquarius, where my own Vesta burns. When someone’s life impacts me, I usually take time to ask their soul if they have message for me so I can give value to their life, I received mine last weekend.

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