Nigredo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the character in Xenosaga, see Gaignun Kukai. Nigredo is also an album by Diary of Dreams

Nigredo, or blackness, in alchemy means putrefaction or decomposition. The 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 black matter ^[1]. In psychology Carl Jung interpreted nigredo as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development ^[2]. Further steps of the alchemical opus are albedo (whiteness), citrinitas (yellowness) and rubedo (redness).

[edit] References

• ^[1] Chemical History Tour, Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science Adele Droblas Greenberg Wiley-Interscience 2000 ISBN 0-471-35408-2
• ^[2] Jung, C. G. Psychology and Alchemy 2nd. ed. (Transl. by R. F. C. Hull)