Great Work Great Work The term Great Work (magnum opus) is a term used in Hermeticism and in certain occult traditions and religions such as Thelema. The Great Work signifies the spiritual path towards self-transcendence in its entirety. This is the process of bringing unconscious complexes into the conscious awareness, in order to integrate them back into oneself. Accomplishing the Great Work, symbolized as the creation of the Philosopher's Stone, represents the culmination of the spiritual path, the attainment of enlightenment, or the rescue of the human soul from the unconscious forces which bind it. Eliphas Levi (1810–1875), one of the first
Joseph S. Iseman Joseph S. Iseman Joseph S. Iseman (May 29, 1916 – April 25, 2006) was an attorney and educator known for his work with National Television, Children's Television Workshop, also known as Sesame Workshop, and Bennington College (where he stepped in as acting president in 1976), as well as the American University of Paris, where he served for a time as the vice chair. As a lawyer at the firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, Iseman notably managed the estates of composer Cole Porter, writer Vladimir Nabokov, writer Jean Stafford, poet Robert Lowell, writer A. J. Liebling, artist