Rubedo is a
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
word meaning "redness" that was adopted by
alchemists
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 ...
to define the fourth and final major stage in their
magnum opus. Both gold and 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", ...
were associated with the color red, as rubedo signaled alchemical success, and the end of the great work. Rubedo is also known by the Greek word ''iosis''.
Interpretation
The three alchemical stages preceding rubedo were
nigredo
In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. Many alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone, all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform b ...
(blackness), which represented putrefaction and spiritual death;
albedo
Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of 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 that refle ...
(whiteness), which represented purification; and
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), the solar dawn or awakening. Some sources describe the alchemical process as three-phased with citrinitas serving as mere extension and takes place between albedo and rubedo. The rubedo stage entails the attempt of the alchemist to integrate the psychospiritual outcomes of the process into a coherent sense of self before its re-entry to the world.
The stage can take some time or years to complete due to the required synthesis and substantiation of insights and experiences.
The symbols used in alchemical writing and art to represent this red stage can include
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the cir ...
, a
phoenix, a
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
, a crowned king, or a figure wearing red clothes. Countless sources mention a reddening process; the seventeenth dictum of the 12th century
Turba Philosophorum is one example:
Psychology
In the framework of psychological development (especially with followers of
Jungian 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" ...
), these four alchemical steps are viewed as analogous to the process of attaining
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 ...
or the process that allows an individual to attain the integration of opposites, their transcendence, and, finally, emergence out of an undifferentiated unconscious. In an archetypal schema, rubedo represents the
Self
The self is an individual as the object of that individual’s own reflective consciousness. Since the ''self'' is a reference by a subject to the same subject, this reference is necessarily subjective. The sense of having a self—or ''selfhoo ...
archetype
The concept of an archetype (; ) appears in areas relating to behavior, historical psychology, and literary analysis.
An archetype can be any of the following:
# a statement, pattern of behavior, prototype, "first" form, or a main model that ...
, and is the culmination of the four stages, the merging of ego and Self. It is also described as a stage that gives birth to a new personality. Represented by the color of blood in alchemy, the stage indicates a process that cannot be reversed since it involves the struggle of the self towards its manifestation.
The Self manifests itself in "wholeness," a point in which a person discovers their true nature. Another interpretation phrased it as "reunification" which entail the reunion of body, soul, and spirit, leading to a diminished inner conflict.
See also
* ''
Psychology and Alchemy
''Psychology and Alchemy'', volume 12 in '' The Collected Works of C. G. Jung'', is Carl Jung's study of the analogies between alchemy, Christian dogma, and psychological symbolism.
Alchemy is central to Jung's hypothesis of the collective uncons ...
''
*
Unity of opposites
The unity of opposites is the central category of dialectics, said to be related to the notion of non-duality in a deep sense.
References
Further reading
* Jung, C. G. Psychology and Alchemy 2nd. ed. (Transl. by R. F. C. Hull)
External links
Jung’s Quaternity, Mandalas, the Philosopher's Stone and the Self
Alchemical processes
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