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
Sambo (racial term) language sources. "Webster's Third International Dictionary" holds that it may have come from the Kongo word "nzambu" (monkey). Note that the "z" of (Latin American) Spanish is pronounced like the English "s" rather than as the "z" in the word "nzambu". The Royal Spanish Academy gives the origin from a Latin word, possibly the adjective "valgus" or another modern Spanish term ("patizambo"), both of which translate to "bow-legged". The equivalent term in Portuguese-speaking areas, such as Brazil, is "cafuzo". Examples of "Sambo" as a common name can be found as far back as the 19th century. In Thackeray's novel "Vanity