The Great Work is an alchemical

Alchemy

Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...

 term for the process of creating the philosopher's stone

Philosopher's stone

The philosopher's stone is a legendary alchemical substance said to be capable of turning base metals into gold or silver. It was also sometimes believed to be an elixir of life, useful for rejuvenation and possibly for achieving immortality. For many centuries, it was the most sought-after goal...

. It has been used to describe personal and spiritual transmutation

Transmutation

Transmutation may refer to:*Biological transmutation, the claim that nuclear transmutation occurs within living organisms*Dimensional transmutation, a physical mechanism that transforms a pure number into a parameter with a dimension...

 in the Hermetic tradition

Hermeticism

Hermeticism or the Western Hermetic Tradition is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus...

, attached to laboratory processes and chemical color changes, used as a model for the individuation

Individuation

Individuation is a concept which appears in numerous fields and may be encountered in work by Arthur Schopenhauer, Carl Jung, Gilbert Simondon, Bernard Stiegler, Gilles Deleuze, Henri Bergson, David Bohm, and Manuel De Landa...

 process, and as a device in art and literature. The magnum opus has been carried forward in new age

New Age

The New Age movement is a Western spiritual movement that developed in the second half of the 20th century. Its central precepts have been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and then infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational...

 and neo-hermetic movements which sometimes attached new symbolism and significance to the processes. It originally had four stages:

• nigredo
  Nigredo
  Nigredo, or blackness, in alchemy means putrefaction or decomposition. The alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter....
  
  , a blackening or melanosis
• albedo
  Albedo (alchemy)
  In alchemy, albedo is one of the four major stages of the magnum opus; along with nigredo, citrinitas and rubedo. It is a Latinicized term meaning "whiteness" and follows the nigredo stage...
  
  , a whitening or leucosis
• citrinitas
  Citrinitas
  Citrinitas, sometimes referred to as xanthosis, is a term given by 15th- and 16th-century alchemists to "yellowness." It was one of the four major stages of the alchemical magnum opus, and literally referred to "transmutation of silver into gold" or "yellowing of the lunar consciousness." In...
  
  , a yellowing or xanthosis
• rubedo
  Rubedo
  Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness" that was adopted by alchemists to define the fourth and final major stage in the Magnum Opus. Both gold, and the philosopher's stone were associated with the color red, as rubedo signalled alchemical success, and the end of the great work. Rubedo can be...
  
  , a reddening, purpling, or iosis

The origin of these four phases can be traced at least as far back as the first century. Zosimus of Panopolis wrote that it was known to Maria the Jewess. After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas

Citrinitas

Citrinitas, sometimes referred to as xanthosis, is a term given by 15th- and 16th-century alchemists to "yellowness." It was one of the four major stages of the alchemical magnum opus, and literally referred to "transmutation of silver into gold" or "yellowing of the lunar consciousness." In...

into rubedo

Rubedo

Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness" that was adopted by alchemists to define the fourth and final major stage in the Magnum Opus. Both gold, and the philosopher's stone were associated with the color red, as rubedo signalled alchemical success, and the end of the great work. Rubedo can be...

and consider only three stages. Other color stages are sometimes mentioned, most notably the cauda pavonis (peacock's tail) in which an array of colors appear.

The magnum opus had a variety of alchemical symbols attached to it. Birds like the raven, swan, and phoenix could be used to represent the progression through the colors. Similar color changes could be seen in the laboratory, where for example, the blackness of rotting, burnt, or fermenting matter would be associated with nigredo.

Expansion on the four stages

Alchemical authors sometimes elaborated on the three or four color model by enumerating a variety of chemical steps to be performed. Though these were often arranged in groups of seven or twelve stages, there is little consistency in the names of these processes, their number, their order, or their description.

Various alchemical documents were directly or indirectly used to justify these stages. The Tabula Smaragdina is the oldest document said to provide a "recipe". Others include the Mutus Liber

Mutus Liber

Mutus Liber was an alchemical text published in France in the later half of the 17th century. It professed to outline, through a series of mystical illustrations, a method of manufacturing the Philosopher's Stone...

, the twelve keys of Basil Valentine, the emblems of Steffan Michelspacher, and the twelve gates of George Ripley

George Ripley (alchemist)

Sir George Ripley was a famous English author and alchemist.Ripley studied for twenty years in Italy where he became a great favourite of Pope Innocent VIII...

. Ripley's steps are given as:

1. Calcination Calcination Calcination is a thermal treatment process applied to ores and other solid materials to bring about a thermal decomposition, phase transition, or removal of a volatile fraction. The calcination process normally takes place at temperatures below the melting point of the product materials...	7. Cibation
2. Solution (or Dissolution)	8. Sublimation
3. Separation	9. Fermentation Fermentation (biochemistry) Fermentation is the process of extracting energy from the oxidation of organic compounds, such as carbohydrates, using an endogenous electron acceptor, which is usually an organic compound. In contrast, respiration is where electrons are donated to an exogenous electron acceptor, such as oxygen,...
4. Conjunction	10. Exaltation
5. Putrefaction Putrefaction Putrefaction is one of seven stages in the decomposition of the body of a dead animal. It can be viewed, in broad terms, as the decomposition of proteins, in a process that results in the eventual breakdown of cohesion between tissues and the liquefaction of most organs.-Description:In terms of...	11. Multiplication Multiplication (alchemy) Multiplication is the process in Western alchemy used to increase the potency of the philosopher's stone, elixir or projection powder. It occurs near the end of the magnum opus in order to increase the gains in the subsequent projection...
6. Congelation Congelation Congelation is the process by which something congeals, or thickens. This increase in viscosity can be achieved through a reduction in temperature or through chemical reactions. Sometimes the increase in viscosity is great enough to crystallize or solidify the substance in question.In alchemy,...	12. Projection Projection (alchemy) Projection was the ultimate goal of Western alchemy. Once the Philosopher's stone or powder of projection had been created, the process of Projection would be used to transmute a lesser substance into a higher form, often lead into gold....

In another example from the sixteenth century, Samuel Norton gives the following fourteen stages:

1. Purgation	8. Conjunction
2. Sublimation	9. Putrefaction in sulphur
3. Calcination	10. Solution of bodily sulphur
4. Exuberation	11. Solution of sulphur of white light
5. Fixation	12. Fermentation in elixir
6. Solution	13. Multiplication in virtue
7. Separation	14. Multiplication in quantity

Some alchemists also circulated steps for the creation of practical medicines and substances, that have little to do with the magnum opus. The cryptic and often symbolic language used to describe both adds to the confusion, but it's clear that there is no single standard step-by-step recipe given for the creation of the philosopher's stone.

Magnum opus in literature and entertainment

Sometimes an artist's magnum opus

Magnum opus

Magnum opus , from the Latin meaning "great work", refers to the largest, and perhaps the best, greatest, most popular, or most renowned achievement of a writer, artist, or composer.-Related terms:Sometimes the term magnum opus is used to refer to simply "a great work" rather than "the...

 is modeled around the alchemical magnum opus. More than simple mention of alchemy within the story, masterpieces like Finnegans Wake

Finnegans Wake

Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish author James Joyce, significant for its experimental style and resulting reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language. Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years, and published in 1939, two years before the author's...

 follow the process of transmutation, weaving their entire narrative with alchemical symbolism. The scholarly journal, Cauda Pavonis which had been published out of various universities since 1980, explored these connections in art and literature. Recently, John Granger

John Granger

John Granger is a speaker and writer whose principal focus is the intersection of literature, faith and culture. He is most well known as the author of several books analysing J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels. He writes a weblog called 'the Hogwarts Professor'.Granger was born in Corning, New...

has coined the phrase literary alchemy to describe these trends in popular fiction.