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 ...

, the Magnum Opus or Great Work is a term for the process of working with the prima materia to create 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 ...

. It has been used to describe personal and spiritual transmutation in the Hermetic tradition, attached to laboratory processes and chemical color changes, used as a model for the

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 ...

process, and as a device in art and literature. The magnum opus has been carried forward in

New Age New Age is a range of Spirituality, spiritual or Religion, religious practices and beliefs that rapidly grew in Western world, Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclecticism, eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise d ...

and neo-Hermetic movements which sometimes attached new symbolism and significance to the processes. The original

process philosophy Process philosophy (also ontology of becoming or processism) is an approach in philosophy that identifies processes, changes, or shifting relationships as the only real experience of everyday living. In opposition to the classical view of change ...

has four stages: *'' nigredo'', the blackening or melanosis *''

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 whitening or leucosis *'' citrinitas'', the yellowing or xanthosis *'' rubedo'', the reddening, purpling, or iosis The origin of these four phases can be traced at least as far back as the first century. Zosimus of Panopolis wrote that it was known to

Mary the Jewess Mary or Maria the Jewess (), also known as Mary the Prophetess () or Maria the Copt (), was an early alchemist known from the works of Zosimos of Panopolis () and other authors in the Greek alchemical tradition. On the basis of Zosimos's commen ...

. The development of black, white, yellow, and red can also be found in the Physika kai Mystika of Pseudo-Democritus, which is often considered to be one of the oldest books on alchemy. After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress '' citrinitas'' into '' rubedo'' and consider only three stages. Other color stages are sometimes mentioned, most notably the ''cauda pavonis'' (peacock's tail) in which an array of colors appear. The magnum opus had a variety of

alchemical symbol Alchemical symbols were used to denote chemical elements and compounds, as well as alchemy, alchemical apparatus and processes, until the 18th century. Although notation was partly standardized, style and symbol varied between alchemists. Lüdy ...

s attached to it. Birds like the raven, swan, and phoenix could be used to represent the progression through the colors. Similar color changes could be seen in the laboratory, where for example, the blackness of rotting, burnt, or fermenting matter would be associated with nigredo.

Expansion on the four stages

Alchemical authors sometimes elaborated on the three or four color model by enumerating a variety of chemical steps to be performed. Though these were often arranged in groups of seven or twelve stages, there is little consistency in the names of these processes, their number, their order, or their description. Various alchemical documents were directly or indirectly used to justify these stages. The '' Tabula Smaragdina'' is the oldest document said to provide a "recipe". Others include the '' Mutus Liber'', the twelve keys of

Basil Valentine Basil Valentine is the Anglicised version of the name Basilius Valentinus, ostensibly a 15th-century alchemist, possibly Canon of the Benedictine Priory of Saint Peter in Erfurt, Germany but more likely a pseudonym used by one or several 16th-c ...

, the emblems of Steffan Michelspacher, and the twelve gates of George Ripley. Ripley's steps are given as: In another example from the sixteenth century, Samuel Norton gives the following fourteen stages: Some alchemists also circulated steps for the creation of practical medicines and substances, that have little to do with the magnum opus. The cryptic and often symbolic language used to describe both adds to the confusion, but it's clear that there is no single standard step-by-step recipe given for the creation of the philosopher's stone.Mark Haeffner. ''Dictionary of Alchemy: From Maria Prophetessa to Isaac Newton''. p.237

Magnum opus in literature and entertainment

References

{{Alchemy, state=expanded