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The Four Stages of Alchemical Work

By Jo Hedesan. Published in Esoteric Coffeehouse www.esotericoffeehouse.com on 26 Jan 2009.

I have intended for sometime to write a little piece on the stages of alchemical work.
There are several books on alchemy, but I’m afraid not very many talk in a clear
manner of the alchemical process itself. Surely, throughout the centuries alchemical
techniques underwent a natural evolution, and matters are complicated by the personal
touch each alchemist set on the process. However, it appears that the Western
alchemical tradition maintained a consistency of four phases expressed in colors:
nigredo (blackness), albedo (whiteness), citrinitas (yellowing) and rubedo (redness).
This habit of expressing alchemical change through color was called ‘dyeing’ and
underlay a belief that colors expressed fundamental stages of nature (1). Carl Jung
thought this sequence originated with Heraclitus, although no reference from the
ancient Greek philosopher is given (2).

Alchemical work was rooted in the philosophy of a gradual but irreversible process of
improvement in nature. Perhaps the best summary of the worldview pervading
alchemy was Mircea Eliade’s lesser known work The Forge and the Crucible.
According to him, alchemical practice was rooted in a primordial human impulse as
homo faber (3). The fundamental idea was that Nature was perfectible and that it was
in a perpetual process of self-improvement. All metals tend, or wish, to become gold,
and they do so over centuries of change. However, man can intervene and quicken the
process of natural growth. This human implication into the course of Nature was
accompanied by a feeling of sacredness and reverence toward her. This was not inert,
inferior matter: but matter hiding the very seeds of divinity. It was by delving deep
into the heart of Nature that the alchemist discovered the secrets of Creation and
immortality.

When starting off on his quest, the alchemist had two main choices: the dry or the wet
path (4). The dry path was quicker, but harsher; the wet was longer but safer.
Whichever path was chosen, it was through fire or fiery substances, mainly, that the
purification of metals was achieved. That is why alchemy was famed as ‘Art of Fire’
and the alchemists, ‘Philosophers by Fire’(5).

In the dry way, the ‘first matter’ – which was usually a metal such as gold, tin or
copper – was immolated by fire, vitriol, antimony or aqua regia. This process was
called calcination. In the wet way, the same reduction was achieved through
putrefaction (6). The result was dark ashes – hence the first stage of the work was
called nigredo (black). Nigredo was a destructive, sorrowful stage – the moment
where an existing thing (a gold piece, for instance) was brought to dissolution. To
symbolize this dark moment alchemists often used figurative images like the Black
Crow, the Raven or the Toad (7).

Continuing on the right path, often an intermediary state, the so-called ‘Peacock’s
Tail’ occurred – an explosion of colors in the flask. Associated with the goddess
Venus, the peacock was a beautiful display of all the colors of the work (8). Mixing
other substances in the flask, the blackness of the matter eventually disappeared to
make room for a whiteness called albedo. This sudden inversion of colors was a sign
that the work was going in the right direction. Albedo was usually portrayed in the
form of a White Eagle, Dove or Swan (9, 10). It was also associated with silver, and
the moon (11).The whitening was compared to the coming of dawn after a long night,
and embodied as a white Virgin (12). This was a moment of rejoicing, of hope; it was
a proof that darkness would not last forever.

The next state was citrinitas, yellowing, a stage that many authors after the 15th
century tended to suppress, or rather compress into the last one, rubedo. While the
albedo represented the moon – or female, citrinitas referred to the sun – or male. The
union of male and female (the so-called ‘chemical wedding’) was often a symbol of
the Work. From their conjunction the hermaphroditic offspring – philosophical
Mercury was born. This phase – rubedo – was the triumph of the Work: the creation
of the Philosopher’s Stone in the form of a transparent red stone. This Stone, often
portrayed as a Phoenix, was supposed to perfect anything from metals to human
beings, bestowing long life or immortality (13).

The four-stage Work could never have been accomplished without the so-called
Philosophical Mercury, which was the unifying spirit enlivening the matter, the divine
flow without which transmutation was impossible. Philosophical Mercury was not
common mercury, although mercury could be seen as an image of the philosophical
one. The purpose of the whole alchemical process was in fact, the fixation –
solidification of this elusive spirit, often imagined as a bird. The only way Mercury
could be transformed into matter was by passing through the colorful four-phase
journey.

As a final note, I should add that the four-stage alchemical Work became the basis of
the Jungian psychology of the Self (14). Believing that alchemists in fact did not
pursue physical transmutation, but spiritual one, Jung sought to express the process of
achieving the Self through alchemical imagery.

References

(1), (13) Regai, J. (1992). The Philosopher's Stone: Alchemy and Chemistry, Alif:
Journal of Comparative Poetics, No. 12, pp. 58-77.
(2) Alchemy Website. Archive August 2002. Online. Available at:
http://www.alchemywebsite.com/a-archive_aug02.html . Accessed on 23 Jan 2009.
(3) Eliade, M. (1978). The Forge and the Crucible. New York: Harper & Bros.
(4), (10) Roob, A. (2006). The Hermetic Museum: Alchemy & Mysticism. Koln:
Taschen.
(5) Nève De Mévergnies, P. (1935). Jean-Baptiste Van Helmont. Philosophie par le
Feu. Liege: E. Droz.
(6), (7), (9) McLean, A. Animal Symbolism in the Alchemical Tradition. Online.
Available at: http://www.levity.com/alchemy/animal.html . Accessed on 25 Jan 2009.
8), (12) Trismosin, S. Splendor Solis – 22 Plates. Online. Available at:
http://www.hermetics.org/solis.html . Accessed on 24 Jan 2009.
(11) The Mystica Website. Online. Available at:
http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/~alchemy/alchemical_process_summariz
ed.html . Accessed on 23 Jan 2009.
(14) Jung, C. (1980). Psychology and Alchemy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

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