|
Este artigo encontra-se parcialmente em língua estrangeira. Ajude e colabore com a tradução. |
A Grande Obra (do latim Magnum Opus), em Thelema, é o processo da consecução do Conhecimento e Conversação do Sagrado Anjo Guardião e aprendimento e cumprimento da Verdadeira Vontade. O conceito se origina da Alquimia medieval, e chegou a Thelema através da Magia Hermética informada pela Qabalah.
Na Qabalah
O termo "grande obra" não existe nos textos cabalísticos clássicoscomo o Zohar e o Sepher Yetzirah. No entanto, o conceito aparece nos escritos de cabalistas ao longo da Renascência:
- 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."
A Interpretação de Crowley no Novo Aeon
Assim como na Golden Dawn, Thelemitas vêm a Grande Obra, at least with respect to the individual magician, como sendo a busca pelo Conhecimento e Conversação do Sagrado Anjo Guardião. No entanto, Crowley nunca perdeu de vista que a Grande Obra individual contribui ultimalmente para a Grande Obra do Universo:
- 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 Abadia de Thelema in Cefalu, after "saying Will before Meat," to add the question, "What is the Great Work?" (MTP, ch. 13).
Referências
- Thelemapedia - 04/09/2007 e.v.