The Great Work
The Great Work (a.k.a. Evolution) is the collective work of creating playground paradises for the enjoyment of all. The Great Work proceeds from Godhead through eight stages. Compare to The Work which is the work of Healing and Connection, specifically after being damaged by Toxic Socialization.
Syncretic Terms
Related Terms
Doctrine of the Three Times, Eschatology
Notes
The Great Work is about creating playgrounds for incarnated Spirit.
At one level or another, we are all involved in The Great Work. From innkeeper to Chef, mother to mogul, if your goal is to heal, connect, and help create a playground paradise for all life on Earth, you are participating in The Great Work. However, if, OTOH, your primary concern is selfish profit at the expense of others, you are not.
The Great Work includes:
- the cosmic work of creating the Physical Universe (completed almost instantly).
- the solar work of creating planetary systems and heavier elements (completed billions of years ago).
- the evolutionary work of creating a Physical Unit capable of fine-grain manipulation of physical matter (i.e. a Pinnacle Species).
- the engineering work of creating World Systems (i.e. technology and institutions) capable of supporting planetary utopia and Integration.
- the day to day work of making the world a better place.
Contrary to what is typically taught, the Great Work is not an operation that we conduct on our "souls." The Great Work is not an alchemical work of soul purification, not a karmic balancing of debt, and not an attempt to win "daddy's" good graces by proving just how "special" you are. Our souls, our monadic sparks, are already perfect and require no moral, evolutionary, or spiritual development at all. The Great Work is the work of evolving The Body to match the utopian intent of God.
At a spiritual level, the Great Work is about bringing Consciousness to Ground (i.e.Ain Soph to Malkuth, God to Earth).
In Thelema, the Great Work is reduced to the individual practice of Connection, what on the LP would be referred to as simply The Work. "The Great Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with the macrocosm, of the female with the male, of the ego with the non-ego."[1]
Paule Faster Case also reduces the collective Great Work to the individual work of healing and reconnection. [2]
Additional Reading
The World Archetype
Sharp, M. (2006a). The Song of Creation: The Story of Genesis. St. Albert: Lightning Path Press. https://www.michaelsharp.org/the-song-of-creation/
