On The Blessedness Of Rest

A homily for the Autumn/Spring Equinox on September 22, 2024. Dedicated to a rest ally.

Dearly Beloved,

A very blessed Autumn Equinox to those in the Northern Hemisphere and a very blessed Spring Equinox to those in the Southern Hemisphere! Recently, I have been reminded by one of my household spirits of one of the most overlooked experiences in our spiritual lives, and so in my gratefulness I have written this homily dedicated to that spirit.

In our rise-and-grind “western” culture spawned by the twin hellscapes of authoritarianism and late stage capitalism, we are taught to work hard year round, to maximize productivity, and that any rest or relaxation is an indulgence, a weakness, and (often) a sin. As mages, it is all too easy to apply this same mentality to our magickal and spiritual lives. We get caught up in our initiatory work, our daily practices, our relationships with our deities, ancestors, and ally spirits, the spiral of solar and lunar rituals in our liturgical year, and, for many of us, our teaching, pastoral, and artistic vocations. All of that often leads to tired and cranky mages.

We could use a nap.

And so, on this day where my home here in Northern California begins to tip over into the dark time of the year, the period of sleep and rejuvenation for half of our beloved planet, I am moved to speak on the virtue of sleep and the joys of regeneration. I am moved to speak on periods of just letting ourselves take a breath.

I am moved to speak on the blessedness of rest.

To be sure, work is necessary in the spiritual life. I believe strongly that we are here to learn and experience and grow into the Divine, and all of that takes sustained effort. This is a basic and brute fact of our existence as mages and mystics. But I want to invite—and perhaps to gently challenge—you to take a fresh look at the notion of the “Great Work” and to question where that notion has taken us.

First, the term “Great Work” or “Magnum Opus”, while it comes to us in the modern “western” occult world as an artifact of that particular batch of occult traditions extant in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, originated as a term in alchemy. It has absolutely nothing to do with the notion of work as a virtue or work for its own sake, the so-called “Protestant Work Ethic” made famous by sociologist Max Weber. The alchemical usage of the term “work” is more akin to an “action” or “undertaking”, and expresses in alchemy the process of transforming a “base” or “imperfect” substance, such as lead, into an “ideal” or “perfect” substance, such as gold. This process was understood as being both literal and mystical; the medieval alchemists were just as often trying to produce perfect people as they were perfect substances. In alchemy, the development of spirit and matter are wed together into one undertaking.

Our honored ancestors in the craft, such as groups like the Hermetic Order Of The Golden Dawn, the A.’.A.’., and the Aurum Solis, inherited the traditions of alchemy and then used the term “Great Work” to describe their systems of initiation, of spiritual alchemy. This usage has found its way into modern “western” magick. As lead is “perfected” by being transformed over the stages of alchemy into gold, so too many modern mages conceive of themselves as being “perfected” over the stages of various systems of initiation and mysticism.

I am not ashamed to admit that I am one of these…I am a true believer in the Great Work. Much of my life since I was 12 years old and my mother bought me my first book on magick has been dedicated to the Great Work. I have officially drunk the Great Work Kool-Aid and subscribed to the Great Work newsletter.

And let me tell you, esteemed friends and colleagues, I am tired.

Every mage I know is tired. My colleagues online are tired. My primary teacher back in Santa Cruz (some of my older friends might know who I am talking about) was in his late 40s and early 50s when he was training me, and he was tired. Before he died, my dad was tired (as those of you who knew him can attest). We’re all tired. The Great Work has taken its toll.

We need rest.

As pagans, we subscribe to a naturalized theology. I repeat this endlessly, in homilies and essays, in social media posts and conversations with my peers. I believe devoutly that the surest and clearest knowledge we can have about the Divine is through Their manifestation in, with, and as nature. We meet our deities and allies first in nature, in the elements, in the Sun and the Moon, and in the planets and the stars. Nature is divine and the Divine is, in a very real way, nature. So what does nature, the world that the Divine has created and become for us, through us, and with us, have to teach us?

Nature teaches us that there is a time to grow and a time to consolidate that growth. Light and dark. Day and night. Summer and Winter. A time to reach out our branches to the sky and a time to send our energy back down into our roots. A time for waking and a time for sleeping. And yes, a time for the Great Work and a time for a Great Rest.

The equinoxes are moments of a balance point between light and dark, warm and cold, growth and death. Today the world tips over to the other side, and in the Northern Hemisphere, we move into the time of pulling back within, to the time the darkness begins to eclipse the light. So let us honor that time by taking a breath. Let us turn down the light and settle snug into bed with our favorite people and spirits. Let us lay back and let ourselves doze for awhile.

Let us rest.

Pleasant dreams.

In love,

Soror Alice