Joseph Campbell’s best-known quote is, “Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.” This principle has inspired many. There is even a book that builds on it entitled, Do What You Love, the Money Will Follow.
For most people, however, work seems to be anything but blissful. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word is synonymous with labor, toil, travail, grind, and drudgery. True, there are those who have achieved notable success in occupations of their dreams. However, many who have actually relinquished “secure” lines of endeavor, end up struggling to cover expenses while following what would have been their bliss if the attempt hadn’t proven to be so exhausting. Still more brave souls have started down the road less traveled, only to return to a money-centered activity. These days most people are so bogged down in material concerns that they don’t dare even stop to ponder what their bliss might be.
So, was Campbell’s quote just another enchanting New Age myth? From a metaphysical viewpoint, bliss and compatible states such as love and enjoyment, are more than just nice feelings. They are powerful vibrations that, if sustained, can heal the very conditions of your life. The great author’s invitation would not be limited to a single act of dumping your current commitments and acting on your childhood dream, say, of riding a horse across the Argentine pampa. (Actually, there is a famous businessman who did just that before becoming a millionaire, as we will see a bit further on.) Campbell has another quote suggesting that he understood that bliss for him was as an ongoing search: “Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.”
The value of integrating inner work with financial and business systems has come to the fore acutely since the 2008 ingress of Pluto—The Inexorable Transformer—into the sign of the Mountain Goat that rules those systems. The present lunation in Virgo, sign of work, conjuncts Venus—ruler of bliss—and makes a grand trine to Pluto in Capricorn, and Jupiter, Lord of Prosperity. If there was ever an opportunity to bless our work with the power of joy, this portal is most apt. The following suggestions are designed to rewire our experience of work from that “place inside”, and as we do, bring forth the best fruits that have yet to be harvested from our work of the past, present and future.
Prayerful (and optional) altarations
- A candle or candles, preferably beeswax or in earthy shades of yellow, green and/or brown
- Incense, preferably myrrh or pine
- Minerals to have on hand: agate, sapphire, copper
- Grains: wheat, oats or rye
Ceremony and affirmations for the Virgo New Moon
1) Light your incense, saying something like,
This is an offering for the Angels of Bliss, whose assistance I request to heal my relationship with and results of work from the past, present and future.
2) Light your candle, saying,
Just as this brilliance fills my space, Infinite Intelligence fills my path, bringing to light and manifestation my true work and true results for the present and all future phases of my life.
3) Spend at least 20 minutes writing all the things that you love and enjoy about your work of the past or present. Don’t only list them, but build sentences that serve to reiterate your blissful perception.
For instance, a carpenter might write, “I love the smell of wood. I enjoy having beautified people’s living and work space. I take pleasure in having tangible results of my efforts. I enjoy releasing all worries as I focus on the work at hand. I am grateful for the physical connection with nature my work has provided. I love seeing the grain of the wood come to life with oils and varnishes. I enjoy having received substantial amounts of money from my larger project,” and so on.
Once you have exhausted all the joyful results and experiences you remember in your own occupational description, repeat affirmations like those that follow during 6 minutes or more:
I bless my work for the good it has brought and continues to bring me and others. This blessing heals my work path of any limiting patterns, naturally connecting me with the greatest joy and prosperity in it now.
Burning out the pain, as Campbell called it, is no quick fix. However, as we persist each day from now until the next New Moon in seeing the joy, as we read and rework our happiest perceptions of work, and affirming in ways like those suggested, we can discover the alchemy of choice.
By the way, about following that childhood dream of a trip on horseback across the Argentine pampa, Anita Roddick’s husband did precisely that. To support her family in his absence, she began selling personal care products in returnable containers out of a tiny space adapted at her home. This activity blossomed into The Body Shop chain, whose blissful benefits led them both her to become multi-millionaire activists.
About her phenomenal results, Anita said, “I am aware that success is more than a good idea. It is timing too.” Could this New Moon cycle be the time for your own joyful path to come forth? Try or adapt our prayerful offerings and see for yourself.
References and Resources
Aspra, Lucy, Manual de Ángeles, Volúmen II
Bills, Rex E., The Rulership Book (USA, American Federation of Astrologers, 1971)
Roddick, Anita, Body And Soul: Profits with Principles—The Amazing Success Story of Anita Roddick and The Body Shop (Three Rivers Press, 1994)
Roderick, Timothy, Wicca: A Year & a Day: 366 Days of Spiritual Practice in the Craft of the Wise (Llewellyn, St. Paul, 2005).
I love the picture you put up, Susan. Your talent continues to come through and beautify Daykeeper and everything you do.
This looks like the opportunity I’ve been searching for recently. Sometimes it seems that just continued effort isn’t quite enough to get past a stall of creative progress. Even if the bliss is there to be followed, the path isn’t always clearly lighted. As always, these words in this valuable column give perspective and illuminate. Gratitude.