In many Wiccan traditions, as well as a few other Pagan faith groups, there is something called \u2018the Great Work\u2019.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Traditionally, an initiate chooses what will become his or her Great Work sometime during their time at Second Degree (if following the Gardnarian format).\u00a0 Other traditions might not follow that form but still retain something like the idea of the Great Work.\u00a0 Whatever it may be called, finding your Great Work is an extremely important event.<\/p>\n
The traditions and conditions for a Great Work might vary but there are some fairly consistent elements to it.\u00a0 Probably the most important one is the fact that it often will dominate the person\u2019s life; they\u2019ll do almost anything to continue their Great Work because it will mean so much to them.\u00a0 Nearly every important accomplishment has been the result of such dedicated persistence.<\/p>\n
Usually, when a person is told they should find a Great Work, they tend to fumble around looking for something \u2018important\u2019 they think they can do, something that may be somewhat a stretch but for which they currently have the confidence and ability they\u2019ll need to carry it out.\u00a0 This view is what I call the project approach.\u00a0 The person tries to find something that fits their abilities and hopes they\u2019ll come up with something really nifty and for which they will receive acclaim when completed.\u00a0 While this is certainly a good thing in many ways, it isn\u2019t what the Great Work means or is intended for.<\/p>\n
To understand what a Great Work is, one must understand why it\u2019s an important part of an initiate\u2019s development.\u00a0 It is an area of interest that fascinates and attracts them to the exclusion of all others.\u00a0 In doing so, the initiate is able to build a more complete sense of self and a broader relationship with the world around them.\u00a0 The purpose of finding a Great Work is not in what the initiate accomplishes, but what they become.\u00a0 The act of dedicating one\u2019s self to a higher purpose is a way of giving, an act of creating.\u00a0 And, ultimately, all acts of creation are spiritual acts.\u00a0 In this respect, the Great Work is a pathway.<\/p>\n
A Great Work is something like a great love affair.\u00a0 It is meaningful beyond words and seems so important for the person they\u2019ll sometimes forget to eat or sleep or otherwise attend to their mortal needs while engaged in it.\u00a0 And when they aren\u2019t so engaged, part of their mind will still be contemplating some piece of it.\u00a0 They\u2019ll sacrifice for it and consider their sacrifice a good trade.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Learning to do so will further benefit the person in the rest of their endeavors.<\/p>\n
Many traditions require an initiate to find their Great Work before they are allowed to go on to their next degree.\u00a0 The wisdom of making it a requirement may be up for debate but it can\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n
Faced with the task of finding their Great Work, some will grab at anything that seems handy.\u00a0 They\u2019ll claim interest in whatever opportunity that comes along first, whether they actually know anything about it or not.\u00a0 This results, of course, in a flashy start that loses its luster almost from the start.\u00a0 They might make a show of \u2018dedicating\u2019 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.\u00a0 Soon, they\u2019ll drift away from all actual effort and hide their feelings of guilt with various masks to keep from admitting their mistake.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It serves no good to ignore the problem.\u00a0 It is, in fact, neither uncommon nor shameful.\u00a0 It is only a mistake.\u00a0 Everyone makes mistakes.<\/p>\n
Finding your own, personal Great Work is often an exercise in seeing the obvious.\u00a0 Though a true Great Work will always make the person stretch and grow, it nearly always is closely associated with that person\u2019s talents and interests that have been their constant companion for years.\u00a0 It might be a clich\u00e9, but it has been the consistent advice of successful people for ages: do what you love and let it carry you beyond your dreams.<\/p>\n
Joseph Campbell said, \u201cFollow your bliss,\u201d 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In fact, no other formula works as well.\u00a0 Unless you love your work, you won\u2019t be capable of sustaining an interest or an energy level sufficient to go beyond the barriers that will inevitably come along.<\/p>\n
Some people think that playing to their strengths is \u2018cheating\u2019 when in fact it\u2019s the best way to work your way into what will become your Great Work.\u00a0 Your talents and interests have been developed because of what you find rewarding and pleasurable.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all too easy to look at your personal interests and talents and say they aren\u2019t something somebody would want to employ you for.\u00a0 And you may be right but a Great Work doesn\u2019t always have to be a source of income.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Never be afraid to make a new beginning; in all likelihood, you\u2019ll make several in your lifetime.\u00a0 And don\u2019t settle for work that depresses you.\u00a0 Life is not supposed to make you unhappy all the time any more than it\u2019s supposed to make you happy all the time.\u00a0 But if you spend your time and energy in something that you truly love, something that gives you a sense of worth, you\u2019ll be happier than you would be doing anything else.\u00a0 Don\u2019t measure your Great Work by how much money it might bring you.\u00a0 If it inspires you, the money won\u2019t be important.<\/p>\n
Also, a Great Work doesn\u2019t always have to be a vocation.\u00a0 Personally, I have a job as a Dispensing Optician.\u00a0 Both of my parents were Dispensing Opticians and I grew up swearing I\u2019d never be one.\u00a0 However, after leaving the Navy in \u201968, I went to work \u2018temporarily\u2019 with them to keep a paycheck coming in and found to my surprise that I truly loved the work.\u00a0 But, as happy as I have been in my career, I\u2019ve found another activity that gives me even more pleasure.\u00a0 I\u2019m doing it right now: I\u2019m writing.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been learning this skill for nearly thirty years and I\u2019m getting good enough at it that others are encouraging me to continue.\u00a0 I still need to stretch more; getting published for larger works requires energies I\u2019ve yet to master.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve had some success in the past and expect I\u2019ll have more in the future.\u00a0 My biggest problem is that I enjoy expressing myself in words so much that I leave very little time for finding publishers.\u00a0 Plus, I still find the process of submitting my work somehow distasteful.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll grow, rest assured, because this is my Great Work.\u00a0 This is what I\u2019ll be doing when they\u2019ve hooked me up to beeping machines and ten miles of plastic tubing.\u00a0 The only disappointment will be I\u2019ll probably not finish the piece I\u2019m working on when I finally gasp my last (I hope I\u2019ll have a good agent by then).<\/p>\n
A Great Work is like that; it carries you to places unknown and then a little further.\u00a0 It is the altar upon which you willingly sacrifice yourself.\u00a0 It is a constant source of wonder and pleasure, even the painful parts.\u00a0 So I encourage you to find yours.\u00a0 Remember that it will be something that both inspires and consumes you.\u00a0 It will limit what you can do in other parts of your life because you will be busy doing your Great Work.\u00a0 In all likelihood, though, you won\u2019t notice because you\u2019ll be so caught up in your work.\u00a0 This, however, is one of the negative aspects of a Great Work.\u00a0 If you read the biographies of some very famous people who have almost singlehandedly changed the world, you\u2019ll read of the overwhelming dedication they brought to their work.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Two very good examples of this in American history are Edison and Tesla.\u00a0 They were contemporaries and their work often was in the same areas.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But history says they instead fought one another in many ways.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They never cooperated on anything and they both died with hardly anyone around who loved them or whom they loved.\u00a0 Though their work benefitted the world, they in many ways paid a sad personal price for it.<\/p>\n
Hopefully, this won\u2019t be the case for you.\u00a0 As in all activities, balance is the key.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In many Wiccan traditions, as well as a few other Pagan faith groups, there is something called \u2018the Great Work\u2019.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Traditionally, an initiate chooses what will become his or her Great Work sometime during their time at Second Degree (if following the Gardnarian format).\u00a0 Other traditions might not follow that form but still retain something like the idea of the Great Work.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Probably the most important one is the fact that it often will dominate the person\u2019s life; they\u2019ll do almost anything to continue their Great Work because it will mean so much to them.\u00a0 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 \u2018important\u2019 they think they can do, something that may be somewhat a stretch but for which they currently have the confidence and ability they\u2019ll need to carry it out.\u00a0 This view is what I call the project approach.\u00a0 The person tries to find something that fits their abilities and hopes they\u2019ll come up with something really nifty and for which they will receive acclaim when completed.\u00a0 While this is certainly a good thing in many ways, it isn\u2019t what the Great Work means or is intended for. To understand what a Great Work is, one must understand why it\u2019s an important part of an initiate\u2019s development.\u00a0 It is an area of interest that fascinates and attracts them to the exclusion of all others.\u00a0 In doing so, the initiate is able to build a more complete sense of self and a broader relationship with the world around them.\u00a0 The purpose of finding a Great Work is not in what the initiate accomplishes, but what they become.\u00a0 The act of dedicating one\u2019s self to a higher purpose is a way of giving, an act of creating.\u00a0 And, ultimately, all acts of creation are spiritual acts.\u00a0 In this respect, the Great Work is a pathway. A Great Work is something like a great love affair.\u00a0 It is meaningful beyond words and seems so important for the person they\u2019ll sometimes forget to eat or sleep or otherwise attend to their mortal needs while engaged in it.\u00a0 And when they aren\u2019t so engaged, part of their mind will still be contemplating some piece of it.\u00a0 They\u2019ll sacrifice for it and consider their sacrifice a good trade.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The wisdom of making it a requirement may be up for debate but it can\u2019t 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.\u00a0 They\u2019ll claim interest in whatever opportunity that comes along first, whether they actually know anything about it or not.\u00a0 This results, of course, in a flashy start that loses its luster almost from the start.\u00a0 They might make a show of \u2018dedicating\u2019 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.\u00a0 Soon, they\u2019ll drift away from all actual effort and hide their feelings of guilt with various masks to keep from admitting their mistake.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 It serves no good to ignore the problem.\u00a0 It is, in fact, neither uncommon nor shameful.\u00a0 It is only a mistake.\u00a0 Everyone makes mistakes. Finding your own, personal Great Work is often an exercise in seeing the obvious.\u00a0 Though a true Great Work will always make the person stretch and grow, it nearly always is closely associated with that person\u2019s talents and interests that have been their constant companion for years.\u00a0 It might be a clich\u00e9, 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, \u201cFollow your bliss,\u201d 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In fact, no other formula works as well.\u00a0 Unless you love your work, you won\u2019t 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 \u2018cheating\u2019 when in fact it\u2019s the best way to work your way into what will become your Great Work.\u00a0 Your talents and interests have been developed because of what you find rewarding and pleasurable.\u00a0 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\u2019s all too easy to look at your personal interests and talents and say they aren\u2019t something somebody would want to employ you for.\u00a0 And you may be right but a Great Work doesn\u2019t always have to be a source of income.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Never be afraid to make a new beginning; in all likelihood, you\u2019ll make several in your lifetime.\u00a0 And don\u2019t settle for work that depresses you.\u00a0 Life is not supposed to make you unhappy all the time any more than it\u2019s supposed to make you happy all the time.\u00a0 But if you spend your time and energy in something that you truly love, something that gives you a sense of worth, you\u2019ll be happier than you would be doing anything else.\u00a0 Don\u2019t measure your Great Work by how much money it might bring you.\u00a0 If it inspires you, the money won\u2019t be important. Also, a Great Work doesn\u2019t always have to be a vocation.\u00a0 Personally, I have a job as a Dispensing Optician.\u00a0 Both of my parents were Dispensing Opticians and I grew up swearing I\u2019d never be one.\u00a0 However, after leaving the Navy in \u201968, I went to work \u2018temporarily\u2019 with them to keep a paycheck coming in and found to my surprise that I truly loved the work.\u00a0 But, as happy as I have been in my career, I\u2019ve found another activity that gives me even more pleasure.\u00a0 I\u2019m doing it right now: I\u2019m writing.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been learning this skill for nearly thirty years and I\u2019m getting good enough at it that others are encouraging me to continue.\u00a0 I still need to stretch more; getting published for larger works requires energies I\u2019ve yet to master.\u00a0 But I\u2019ve had some success in the past and expect I\u2019ll have more in the future.\u00a0 My biggest problem is that I enjoy expressing myself in words so much that I leave very little time for finding publishers.\u00a0 Plus, I still find the process of submitting my work somehow distasteful.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll grow, rest assured, because this is my Great Work.\u00a0 This is what I\u2019ll be doing when they\u2019ve hooked me up to beeping machines and ten miles of plastic tubing.\u00a0 The only disappointment will be I\u2019ll probably not finish the piece I\u2019m working on when I finally gasp my last (I hope I\u2019ll have a good agent by then). A Great Work is like that; it carries you to places unknown and then a little further.\u00a0 It is the altar upon which you willingly sacrifice yourself.\u00a0 It is a constant source of wonder and pleasure, even the painful parts.\u00a0 So I encourage you to find yours.\u00a0 Remember that it will be something that both inspires and consumes you.\u00a0 It will limit what you can do in other parts of your life because you will be busy doing your Great Work.\u00a0 In all likelihood, though, you won\u2019t notice because you\u2019ll be so caught up in your work.\u00a0 This, however, is one of the negative aspects of a Great Work.\u00a0 If you read the biographies of some very famous people who have almost singlehandedly changed the world, you\u2019ll read of the overwhelming dedication they brought to their work.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They were contemporaries and their work often was in the same areas.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But history says they instead fought one another in many ways.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They never cooperated on anything and they both died with hardly anyone around who loved them or whom they loved.\u00a0 Though their work benefitted the world, they in many ways paid a sad personal price for it. Hopefully, this won\u2019t be the case for you.\u00a0 As in all activities, balance is the key.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1700"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1697,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1700\/revisions\/1697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}