In
alchemy
Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...
, nigredo, or blackness, means
putrefaction
Putrefaction is the fifth stage of death, following pallor mortis, algor mortis, rigor mortis, and livor mortis. This process references the breaking down of a body of an animal, such as a human, post-mortem. In broad terms, it can be viewed ...
or
decomposition
Decomposition or rot 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 e ...
. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the
philosopher's stone
The philosopher's stone or more properly philosophers' stone (Arabic: حجر الفلاسفة, , la, lapis philosophorum), is a mythic alchemical substance capable of turning base metals such as mercury into gold (, from the Greek , "gold", a ...
, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter.
In
analytical psychology
Analytical psychology ( de , Analytische Psychologie, sometimes translated as analytic psychology and referred to as Jungian analysis) is a term coined by Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist, to describe research into his new "empirical science" ...
, the term became a metaphor for "the
dark night of the soul
''Dark Night of the Soul'' ( es, La noche oscura del alma) is a poem written by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross. The author himself did not give any title to his poem, on which he wrote two book-length commentari ...
, when an individual confronts the
shadow
A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two-dimensional silhouette, o ...
within."
Jung
For
Carl Jung
Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who founded analytical psychology. Jung's work has been influential in the fields of psychiatry, anthropology, archaeology, literature, philo ...
, "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. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
". 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 ''unio naturalis'', 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 Gustav Jung, Gunther Anders, Gilbert Sim ...
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'', ''tenebrositas'', chaos, melancholia." Here is "the darkest time, the time of despair, disillusionment, envious attacks; the time when
Eros
In Greek mythology, Eros (, ; grc, Ἔρως, Érōs, Love, Desire) is the Greek god of love and sex. His Roman counterpart was Cupid ("desire").''Larousse Desk Reference Encyclopedia'', The Book People, Haydock, 1995, p. 215. In the earli ...
and
Superego
The id, ego, and super-ego are a set of three concepts in psychoanalytic theory describing distinct, interacting agents in the psychic apparatus (defined in Sigmund Freud's structural model of the psyche). The three agents are theoretical const ...
are at daggers drawn, and there seems no way forward...''nigredo'', the blackening."
Only subsequently would come "an
enantiodromia Enantiodromia ( grc, ἐνάντιος, enantios – "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 emerg ...
; the ''nigredo'' gives way to the ''
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...
''...the ever deepening descent into the unconscious suddenly becomes illumination from above."
Further steps of the
alchemical opus include such images as
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of sunlight, solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body ...
(whiteness),
citrinitas Citrinitas, or sometimes xanthosis,Joseph Needham. ''Science & Civilisation in China: Chemistry and chemical technology. Spagyrical discovery and invention : magisteries of gold and immortality.'' Cambridge. 1974. p.23 is a term given by alchemists ...
(yellowness), and
rubedo
Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness" that was adopted by alchemists to define the fourth and final major stage in their magnum opus. Both gold and the philosopher's stone were associated with the color red, as rubedo signaled alchemical succ ...
(redness). Jung also found psychological equivalents for many other alchemical concepts, with "the characterization of analytic work as an ''opus''; the reference to the analytic relationship as a ''vas'', vessel or container; the goal of the analytic process as the ''coniunctio'', 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 f ...
(1658) the meditative ''nigredo'' stage is described as ''lost in the uncomfortable night of nothing'' by the physician-philosopher
Thomas Browne
Sir Thomas Browne (; 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 deep curi ...
.
*
Shakespeare's sonnets are dense with the symbolism of the "nigredo"..."ghastly night."
*
W. B. Yeats
William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...
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", there exists a character called Nigredo. Her two sisters are called Albedo and Rubedo, all three named after the parts of the Magnum Opus.
See also
* ''
Dark Night of the Soul
''Dark Night of the Soul'' ( es, La noche oscura del alma) is a poem written by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross. The author himself did not give any title to his poem, on which he wrote two book-length commentari ...
''
*
Nekyia
In ancient Greek cult-practice and literature, a ''nekyia'' or ''nekya'' ( grc, νέκυια, νεκυία; νεκύα ) is a "rite by which ghosts were called up and questioned about the future," i.e., necromancy. A ''nekyia'' is not necessarily ...
References
{{Alchemy
Alchemical processes
Analytical psychology