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
Latin influence in English Old English scribes and christened to become the word "bless". Similarly "fullwiht" (literally, "full-being") and the verb "fullian" came to mean "baptism" and "to baptize" respectively, but probably originally referred to some kind of rite of passage. Whenever a suitable Old English substitute could not be found, a Latin word could be chosen instead, and many Latin words entered the Old English lexicon in this way. Such words include: "biscop" "bishop" from Latin "episcopus", Old English "teped" "carpet" from Latin "tapetum", and Old English "sigel" "brooch" from Latin "sigillum". Other words came in, even though an adequate Old English term