Adeptus Major is from Latin words meaning, “Greater Adept”.
The initiation into the degree of Adeptus Major is the sacrifice\crucifixion of the current personality and the birth of a higher consciousness. The experience opens up awareness of the Masculine current within the individual. This current is what raises the consciousness. The rational mind and the will become stronger at this point as well. The individual must learn how to lighten their Karma and avoid generating any new karma. The key to not generating any new karma is to not block the unique paths that others take back to God. The student must learn to acknowledge the fact that his or her consciousness is changing and may be a bit unstable until it matures. The individual must learn to experience the Joy of Life and loosen up and just Be. The individual will also learn about the intellect and it’s approach to life. Care must be taken not to get so caught up in this approach that Compassion is forgotten. The Student must learn Compassion. All of these lessons are part of the continuing experience of the Dark Night of the Soul, an experience begun in the former degree, and each lesson is a graduating step out of it, toward the Divine.
In Hermeticism and Spiritual Alchemy, the work of this degree corresponds to the step of Distillation.
According to the Kabala, this degree corresponds to the Sephira of Giburah.
On the level of Practical Magick, there is an increase in the amount of power the individual is able to wield at this degree, as well as a heightened state of consciousness.