Great Work If You Can Get It
In many Wiccan traditions, as well as a few other Pagan faith groups, there is something called ‘the Great Work’. This term is probably stolen from the Masons and, in Pagan venues, refers to what might be termed a calling, though that is most often used when referring to some kind of spiritual dedication. Traditionally, an initiate chooses what will become his or her Great Work sometime during their time at Second Degree (if following the Gardnarian format). Other traditions might not follow that form but still retain something like the idea of the Great Work. Whatever it may be called, finding your Great Work is an extremely important event.
The traditions and conditions for a Great Work might vary but there are some fairly consistent elements to it. Probably the most important one is the fact that it often will dominate the person’s life; they’ll do almost anything to continue their Great Work because it will mean so much to them. Nearly every important accomplishment has been the result of such dedicated persistence.
Usually, when a person is told they should find a Great Work, they tend to fumble around looking for something ‘important’ they think they can do, something that may be somewhat a stretch but for which they currently have the confidence and ability they’ll need to carry it out. This view is what I call the project approach. The person tries to find something that fits their abilities and hopes they’ll come up with something really nifty and for which they will receive acclaim when completed. While this is certainly a good thing in many ways, it isn’t what the Great Work means or is intended for.
To understand what a Great Work is, one must understand why it’s an important part of an initiate’s development. It is an area of interest that fascinates and attracts them to the exclusion of all others. In doing so, the initiate is able to build a more complete sense of self and a broader relationship with the world around them. The purpose of finding a Great Work is not in what the initiate accomplishes, but what they become. The act of dedicating one’s self to a higher purpose is a way of giving, an act of creating. And, ultimately, all acts of creation are spiritual acts. In this respect, the Great Work is a pathway.
A Great Work is something like a great love affair. It is meaningful beyond words and seems so important for the person they’ll sometimes forget to eat or sleep or otherwise attend to their mortal needs while engaged in it. And when they aren’t so engaged, part of their mind will still be contemplating some piece of it. They’ll sacrifice for it and consider their sacrifice a good trade. But dedication and fascination can lead to obsession and part of the work of a Great Work is learning how to avoid some of the more negative aspects. Learning to do so will further benefit the person in the rest of their endeavors.
Many traditions require an initiate to find their Great Work before they are allowed to go on to their next degree. The wisdom of making it a requirement may be up for debate but it can’t be argued that it does prove to be of great benefit to have found your Great Work before you focus on the responsibilities and pressures of living with more complex magical awareness and spiritual discovery.
Faced with the task of finding their Great Work, some will grab at anything that seems handy. They’ll claim interest in whatever opportunity that comes along first, whether they actually know anything about it or not. This results, of course, in a flashy start that loses its luster almost from the start. They might make a show of ‘dedicating’ themselves to such-and-such cause or course of learning but their interest will begin to fade as soon as the first obstacle or difficulty shows up. Soon, they’ll drift away from all actual effort and hide their feelings of guilt with various masks to keep from admitting their mistake. If the initiate is lucky enough to have some kind of monitor, that person should provide a confident but realistic approach when discussing the problem with the initiate. It serves no good to ignore the problem. It is, in fact, neither uncommon nor shameful. It is only a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes.
Finding your own, personal Great Work is often an exercise in seeing the obvious. Though a true Great Work will always make the person stretch and grow, it nearly always is closely associated with that person’s talents and interests that have been their constant companion for years. It might be a cliché, but it has been the consistent advice of successful people for ages: do what you love and let it carry you beyond your dreams.
Joseph Campbell said, “Follow your bliss,” and did exactly that for himself by showing the world how all the great philosophies and myths affirmed the power and joy of that declaration. If you look at the truly wondrous accomplishments of people who have added to the human experience, you will find they did so by doing what they loved. In fact, no other formula works as well. Unless you love your work, you won’t be capable of sustaining an interest or an energy level sufficient to go beyond the barriers that will inevitably come along.
Some people think that playing to their strengths is ‘cheating’ when in fact it’s the best way to work your way into what will become your Great Work. Your talents and interests have been developed because of what you find rewarding and pleasurable. You only need to find a way of employing your skills and interests in a way that will sustain you and give you reason to venture to new heights.
It’s all too easy to look at your personal interests and talents and say they aren’t something somebody would want to employ you for. And you may be right but a Great Work doesn’t always have to be a source of income. However, perhaps with a little more education or experience, you might be able to use your skills in an area that right now seems out of reach. Never be afraid to make a new beginning; in all likelihood, you’ll make several in your lifetime. And don’t settle for work that depresses you. Life is not supposed to make you unhappy all the time any more than it’s supposed to make you happy all the time. But if you spend your time and energy in something that you truly love, something that gives you a sense of worth, you’ll be happier than you would be doing anything else. Don’t measure your Great Work by how much money it might bring you. If it inspires you, the money won’t be important.
Also, a Great Work doesn’t always have to be a vocation. Personally, I have a job as a Dispensing Optician. Both of my parents were Dispensing Opticians and I grew up swearing I’d never be one. However, after leaving the Navy in ’68, I went to work ‘temporarily’ with them to keep a paycheck coming in and found to my surprise that I truly loved the work. But, as happy as I have been in my career, I’ve found another activity that gives me even more pleasure. I’m doing it right now: I’m writing. I’ve been learning this skill for nearly thirty years and I’m getting good enough at it that others are encouraging me to continue. I still need to stretch more; getting published for larger works requires energies I’ve yet to master. But I’ve had some success in the past and expect I’ll have more in the future. My biggest problem is that I enjoy expressing myself in words so much that I leave very little time for finding publishers. Plus, I still find the process of submitting my work somehow distasteful. But I’ll grow, rest assured, because this is my Great Work. This is what I’ll be doing when they’ve hooked me up to beeping machines and ten miles of plastic tubing. The only disappointment will be I’ll probably not finish the piece I’m working on when I finally gasp my last (I hope I’ll have a good agent by then).
A Great Work is like that; it carries you to places unknown and then a little further. It is the altar upon which you willingly sacrifice yourself. It is a constant source of wonder and pleasure, even the painful parts. So I encourage you to find yours. Remember that it will be something that both inspires and consumes you. It will limit what you can do in other parts of your life because you will be busy doing your Great Work. In all likelihood, though, you won’t notice because you’ll be so caught up in your work. This, however, is one of the negative aspects of a Great Work. If you read the biographies of some very famous people who have almost singlehandedly changed the world, you’ll read of the overwhelming dedication they brought to their work. But you will also find in many cases that they became almost like hermits; they cut themselves off from the world to an unhealthy extent in many cases.
Two very good examples of this in American history are Edison and Tesla. They were contemporaries and their work often was in the same areas. Such common interests could have made them fast friends and one can only wonder what great things could have been created by these two if they had joined forces. But history says they instead fought one another in many ways. Edison had a reputation for being a grouch, unable to make or keep friends, and Tesla came to be known as man who often broke into wild ravings. They never cooperated on anything and they both died with hardly anyone around who loved them or whom they loved. Though their work benefitted the world, they in many ways paid a sad personal price for it.
Hopefully, this won’t be the case for you. As in all activities, balance is the key. A Great Work is largely a concentration on the Earth altar, but to be truly whole, to experience the wonder and magic that is your birthright, you must attend to the other altars in your temple of life.