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. What exactly were the alchemists turning into gold? The answer lies in the context of transmutation–turning the Moon (unconscious mind) into silver and the Sun (conscious mind) into gold in a figurative sense, or in the language of the alchemist. Or perfecting the contents of consciousness through the process of transfiguration, or bringing the “prima materia” the purest desire (beyond a “shadow” of doubt) or spirit itself into conscious reality using the following steps:

• Calcination
• Dissolution
• Separation
• Conjunction
• Putrefaction
• Distillation
• Coagulation

After completing the Major Arcana of the Tarot in 2018, Cabaret Bizarre decided to take its inspiration for future events from the alchemical magnus opus, in order to reflect the main purpose of our cultural great work, the transmutation of society into a more diverse and open minded future, away from the shadow of prejudice and hate into the light of love. The series of seven flyers will be illustrated by one of the most influential illustrators in the European dark arts movement, Alexander Irrwisch