The Great Work (
Latin:
Magnum opus) is an
alchemical term for the process of working with the
prima materia to create the
philosopher's stone. It has been used to describe personal and spiritual
transmutation in the
Hermetic tradition, attached to laboratory processes and chemical color changes, used as a model for the
individuation process, and as a device in art and literature. The magnum opus has been carried forward in
new age and neo-hermetic movements which sometimes attached new symbolism and significance to the processes. It originally had four stages: