alchemy Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first ...

, nigredo, or blackness, means

putrefaction Putrefaction is the fifth stage of death, following pallor mortis, livor mortis, algor mortis, and rigor mortis. This process references the breaking down of a body of an animal Post-mortem interval, post-mortem. In broad terms, it can be view ...

decomposition Decomposition is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is ess ...

. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the

philosopher's stone The philosopher's stone is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold or silver; it was also known as "the tincture" and "the powder". Alchemists additionally believed that it could be used to mak ...

, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter. In

analytical psychology Analytical psychology (, sometimes translated as analytic psychology; also Jungian analysis) is a term referring to the psychological practices of Carl Jung. It was designed to distinguish it from Freud's psychoanalytic theories as their ...

, the term became a metaphor for "the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the

shadow A shadow is a dark area on a surface where light from a light source is blocked by an object. In contrast, shade occupies the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross-section of a shadow is a two-dimensio ...

within."

Jung

For

Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...

, "the rediscovery of the principles of alchemy came to be an important part of my work as a pioneer of

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

". As a student of alchemy, he (and his followers) "compared the 'black work' of the alchemists (the nigredo) with the often highly critical involvement experienced by the ego, until it accepts the new equilibrium brought about by the creation of the self." Jungians interpreted nigredo in two main psychological senses. The first sense represented a subject's initial state of undifferentiated unawareness, "the first nigredo, that of the , is an objective state, visible from the outside only ... an unconscious state of non-differentiation between self and object, consciousness and the unconscious." Here the subject is unaware of the unconscious; i.e. the connection with the instincts. In the second sense, "the nigredo of the process of

individuation The principle of individuation, or ', describes the manner in which a thing is identified as distinct from other things. The concept appears in numerous fields and is encountered in works of Leibniz, Carl Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Simondo ...

on the other hand is a subjectively experienced process brought about by the subject's painful, growing awareness of his shadow aspects." It could be described as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development. As individuation unfolds, so "confrontation with the shadow produces at first a dead balance, a standstill that hampers moral decisions and makes convictions ineffective or even impossible ... ''nigredo'', , chaos, melancholia." Here is "the darkest time, the time of despair, disillusionment, envious attacks; the time when

Eros Eros (, ; ) is the Greek god of love and sex. The Romans referred to him as Cupid or Amor. In the earliest account, he is a primordial god, while in later accounts he is the child of Aphrodite. He is usually presented as a handsome young ma ...

and

Superego In psychoanalytic theory, the id, ego, and superego are three distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus, outlined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche. The three agents are theoretical constructs that Freud employed t ...

are at daggers drawn, and there seems no way forward ... ''nigredo'', the blackening." Only subsequently would come "an

enantiodromia Enantiodromia ( – "opposite" and δρόμος, ''dromos'' – "running course") is a principle introduced in the West by psychiatrist Carl Jung. In '' Psychological Types'', Jung defines enantiodromia as "the emergence of the unconscious opposit ...

; the ''nigredo'' gives way to the ''

albedo Albedo ( ; ) is the fraction of sunlight that is Diffuse reflection, diffusely reflected by a body. It is measured on a scale from 0 (corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation) to 1 (corresponding to a body that reflects ...

'' ... the ever deepening descent into the unconscious suddenly becomes illumination from above." Further steps of the alchemical opus include such images as

(whiteness), (yellowness), and (redness). Jung also found psychological equivalents for many other alchemical concepts, with "the characterization of analytic work as an ; the reference to the analytic relationship as a , vessel or container; the goal of the analytic process as the , or union of conflicting opposites."

Cultural references

* In the alchemical literary discourse

Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial ''Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, or, a Discourse of the Sepulchral Urns lately found in Norfolk'' is a work by Sir Thomas Browne, published in 1658 as the first part of a two-part work that concludes with ''The Garden of Cyrus''. The title is Greek ...

(1658) the meditative ''nigredo'' stage is described as "lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing" by the physician-philosopher

Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne ( "brown"; 19 October 160519 October 1682) was an English polymath and author of varied works which reveal his wide learning in diverse fields including science and medicine, religion and the esoteric. His writings display a d ...

. *

Shakespeare's sonnets William Shakespeare (1565 –1616) wrote sonnets on a variety of themes. When discussing or referring to Shakespeare's sonnets, it is almost always a reference to the 154 sonnets that were first published all together in a quarto in 1609. Howe ...

are dense with the symbolism of the "nigredo" ... "ghastly night". *

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (, 13 June 186528 January 1939), popularly known as W. B. Yeats, was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer, and literary critic who was one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the ...

in his alchemical stories introduces the alchemical phase of the ''nigredo''. The narrator begins "to struggle again with the shadow, as with some older night".William T. Gorski, ''Yeats and Alchemy'' (1996) p. 85 * In the Japanese light-novel and anime series ''

Overlord An overlord in the English feudal system was a lord of a manor who had subinfeudated a particular manor, estate or fee, to a tenant. The tenant thenceforth owed to the overlord one of a variety of services, usually military service or ...

'', there exists a character called Nigredo. Her two sisters are called Albedo and Rubedo, all three named after the parts of the

Magnum Opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

References

{{Alchemy Alchemical processes Analytical psychology

Jung

Cultural references

See also

References