The Great Work
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The Great Work (lat: Magnum Opus), within Thelema, is the process of attaining Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and learning and accomplishing one's True Will. The concept originates as far back as Medieval alchemy, and came to Thelema through Hermetic Magic informed by the Qabalah.
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In the Qabalah
The term "great work" does not exist in classic Qabalistic texts such as the Zohar or Sepher Yetzirah. However, the concept appears in the writings of Qabalists throughout the Renaissance:
- Do not pray for your own needs, for your prayer will not then be accepted. But when you want to pray, do so for the heaviness of the Head. For whatever you lack, the Divine Presence also lacks.
- This is because man is a "portion of God from on high." Whatever any part lacks, also exists in the Whole, and the Whole feels the lack of the part, You should therefore pray for the needs of the Whole. (from a disciple of the Kabbalist R. Israel Baal Shem Tov)
The classic Jewish Kabbalist is less concerned about the Great Work as a manifestation of "True Will" than he or she is as a part of bringing the world back to the state which the Creator intended. Thus one finds current Jewish Kabbalistic movements such as the Kabbalah Center in Jerusalem recruiting new "converts" to Kabbalah (such as Madonna) in an attempt to bring each new Kabbalist into their concept of the Great Work. As more individuals come into the Kabbalistic system, the closer the world comes to perfection as was originally conceived in the Kabbalistic scheme.
Eliphas Levi and the Golden Dawn
Eliphas Levi, the first of the modern "ceremonial magicians" and predecessor to the "Golden Dawn" defined the Great Work thus:
- The magnum opus is pre-eminently the creation of man by himself, that is, the full and complete conquest which he can make of his faculties and his future; it is pre-eminently the perfect emancipation of his will.
The modern incarnation of the Golden Dawn defines the Great Work as "a term borrowed from alchemy's magnum opus. Refers to the path of human spiritual evolution, growth and illumination, which is the goal of ceremonial magic."
Crowley's Interpretation in the New Aeon
Like the Golden Dawn, Thelemites view the Great Work, at least with respect to the individual magician, as being the quest for Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. However, Crowley never lost sight that the individual Great Work contributes ultimately to the Great Work of the Universe:
- The first condition of membership of the A.'.A.'. is that one is sworn to identify one's own Great Work with that of raising mankind to higher levels, spiritually, and in every other way. (Magick Without Tears, ch. 9)
It was the practice of Thelemites at the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, after "saying Will before Meat," to add the question, "What is the Great Work?" (MTP, ch. 13).
References
- Levi, Eliphas. Dogme et rituel de la haute magie, published in English as Transcendental Magic. A.E. Waite, trans.
- Crowley, Aleister. (1997). Magick: Book 4. 2nd ed. York Beach, Me. : S. Weiser.
- ____. (1982). Magick Without Tears. Phoenix, AZ : Falcon Press
- ____. Liber CXCVII. Sir Palamedes the Saracen Knight "A poetic account of the Great Work and enumeration of many obstacles."
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