Within the depth-psychology corpus, ‘Great’ functions less as a simple intensifier than as a charged qualifier marking a qualitative threshold—the point at which magnitude, nobility, and orientation of will converge into something cosmologically or psychologically decisive. The I Ching traditions (Ritsema/Karcher, Wilhelm, Huang, Wang Bi) are the most systematic: TA (大) is formally defined as that which imposes direction, enables leadership, and stands in polar tension with HSIAO (small), the principle of flexible adaptation. This pairing generates much of the hexagram system’s moral psychology. In the Taoist register (Zhuangzi), ‘Great’ proliferates into compound ideals—Great Unity, Great Yin, Great Serenity, Great Man, Great Clod—each naming a mode of perfected, boundaryless awareness that transcends conventional categories. The Tibetan Buddhist usage (Evans-Wentz, Govinda) makes ‘Great’ an epithet of fundamental metaphysical structures: the Great Path, the Great Light, the immutable ground of Clear Wisdom. In Gnostic sources (Meyer), ‘Great’ is an honorific of the divine hierarchy—Great Seth, Great Mother, Great Luminaries—marking ontological rank within the pleroma. Neumann’s Jungian framework preserves the archetypal sense, invoking Great Mother and Great Individual as poles of psychological development. Across traditions, the term anchors a discourse of the superlative-as-normative: what is ‘great’ sets the standard against which ordinary orientation must be measured.
Great, TA: big, noble, important, very; orient the will toward a self-imposed goal, impose direction; ability to lead or guide your life; contrasts with small, HSIAO, flexible adaptation to what crosses your path; keyword.
This passage provides the canonical definitional opposition of TA (Great) and HSIAO (small) as the I Ching’s governing polarity between self-imposed directional will and responsive adaptation.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994thesis
With the Great Unity you may penetrate it; with the Great Yin, unknot it; with the Great Eye, see it; with the Great Equality, follow it; with the Great Method, embody it; with the Great Trust, reach it; with the Great Serenity, hold it fast.
Zhuangzi constructs ‘Great’ as a modality of perfected attunement across seven distinct cognitive and existential registers, each naming an aspect of non-dual comprehension.
, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, 2013thesis
This yoga also concerns the foundation of the immutable Great Light. The teaching of this changeless Great Light is of the unique Clear Wisdom here set forth, which, illuminating the Three Times, is called ‘The Light’.
The Tibetan tradition uses ‘Great’ as an epithet of unchanging metaphysical ground—the Great Path and Great Light are not achievements but irreducible foundations of Clear Wisdom.
, The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation, 1954thesis
Great Strength represents a positive advance for further achievement. The structure of the gua is Thunder above, Heaven below… This gua is a union of motion with strength, resulting in Great Strength.
Huang demonstrates how ‘Great’ in the I Ching names a qualitative intensification produced by the structural union of complementary trigrams, not merely an additive increase.
, The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation, 1998thesis
Great Beginning, 88, 282 Great Clod, xxix, 7, 44, 48, 202-3. See also Complete Man; Great Man; Holy Man; Man of Great Completion; Man of the Way; Perfect Man; sage.
The Zhuangzi index reveals ‘Great’ as the systematic qualifier that unifies its catalogue of ideal human types, from Great Man to Great Clod, under a single paradigm of completeness.
, The Complete Works of Zhuangzi, 2013supporting
Great Seth, son of the incorruptible human Adamas, offered praise to the great invisible unnameable unspeakable virgin spirit… Plesithea came forth through great Seth.
In Gnostic cosmology, ‘Great’ marks ontological rank within the divine pleroma, distinguishing Seth and his associates as principals of a supernal hierarchy rather than mere narrative figures.
, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus: The Definitive Collection of Mystical Gospels and Secret Books about Jesus of Nazareth, 2005supporting
Da means great, and Xü means accumulation. Thus, taken together Da Xü is Great Accumulation. Great Accumulation refers to one’s virtue. If one is truthful, naturally one accumulates virtue.
Huang grounds the I Ching sense of ‘Great’ in an ethics of accumulation, linking greatness directly to the cultivation of virtue through truthfulness over time.
, The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation, 1998supporting
Egypt… and Great Individual, 428–29; and Great Mother, 48–49, 54, 55–57, 63–73, 75, 77ff, 84, 99, 135–36, 142n, 156
Neumann’s index documents ‘Great’ as the Jungian archetypal marker par excellence, anchoring both the Great Mother and the Great Individual as the two poles structuring the development of ego consciousness.
, The Origins and History of Consciousness (Princeton, 2019supporting
Actually Provision’s season righteously great in-fact… Actually Jaws’s season great in-fact… Actually Great Exceeding’s season great in-fact… Actually venturing’s season availing-of the great in-fact.
Ritsema’s concordance shows how ‘the great’ recurs as a temporal and situational intensifier throughout the I Ching, marking moments when the scale of a hexagram’s challenge rises to the level requiring full orientation of will.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994supporting
Harvesting: visualizing Great People. Growing… That uses great Growing to avail-of visualizing Great People… And-also great Growing uses nourishing all-wise eminences.
The compound ‘Great People’ emerges here as a recurring I Ching formula, linking the concept of greatness to both visionary capacity and the nourishment of collective wisdom.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994supporting
The meaning of the time of RETREAT is great; that is, it is vitally important to hit upon the moment when retreat is called for.
Wilhelm’s commentary uses ‘great’ to denote the supreme importance of temporal discernment, framing the recognition of when to withdraw as itself a form of greatness.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
RETREAT is great; that is, it is vitally important to hit upon the moment when retreat is called for.
This parallel passage confirms Wilhelm’s consistent use of ‘great’ as a marker of decisive psychological importance attached to moments of strategic withdrawal.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
the mentor, who helps a man rebuild the bridge to his own greatness or essence. King Arthur is an example of such a male mother.
Bly repositions ‘greatness’ as an innate essence requiring mentored recovery rather than external achievement, linking it to the depth-psychological concept of the male initiation journey.
, Iron John: A Book About Men, 1990supporting
great attendant Yesseus Mazareus Yessedekeus, the living water the great commanders, Jacob the great, Theopemptos… those stationed over the gates of the waters… great Gamaliel, great Gabriel, great Samblo, great Abrasax
The proliferation of ‘great’ as an honorific across angelic and archontic figures in the Sethian Gnostic text reveals its function as a liturgical rank-marker within heavenly bureaucracies.
, The Gnostic Gospels of Jesus: The Definitive Collection of Mystical Gospels and Secret Books about Jesus of Nazareth, 2005aside
Actually Provision’s season righteously great in-fact… Actually Retiring’s season righteously great in-fact… Heaven[and]Earth’s great righteousness indeed.
Ritsema repeatedly associates ‘great’ with righteousness as a cosmic attribute, suggesting that greatness in the I Ching framework is inseparable from moral propriety aligned to seasonal and situational context.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994aside