The Great Work: Alchemy and the Power of Words – Paul Kingsnorth

In times like these, we are all in the process of transformation, and so is the world around us. The Great Work, the magnum opus, is the work we are all engaged in, whether we know it or not. The Great Work is the reassembling of the tiny shards of light into which the universe was shattered at the Creation. Every story we tell, every poem we write... See more

Language, written language especially, is a peculiar, powerful, dangerous, and ultimately mysterious human gift. Written words cause ripples in the fabric of reality. The words in the Bible alone may have caused more death, brutality, and oppression, and more love, charity, and redemption, than any other collection of writing in human history. What... See more

Writing, art, creation: this is smithwork. You set your fire; you use your bellows, your pen, your paper, to heat it to the right temperature. You set your base metal in the flames, heat it until it is white. Then you begin your transformation.

This is why art matters: because it dredges our psychic depths in ways that even the artist may not understand. “The arts,” writes the Zen poet Gary Snyder, following Levi-Strauss, “are the wilderness areas of the imagination, surviving like national parks in the midst of civilized minds.” Strange things grow in the wilderness; unusual plants thriv... See more