"The wise men say that the blackness is the beginning of this art." — Theatrum Chemicum
"The body must be dissolved in the subtlest middle air: the body also dissolves in its own heat and moisture; where the soul, the middle nature, retains dominion over the color of darkness in all parts of the glass: the darkness of nature, which the ancient philosophers called the raven's head, or the black Sun."
— Marsilio Ficino
Saturn / black crow perching on top of a skull / Visita = Putrefaction Jupiter / black crow watching itself dissolving / Interiora = Dissolution
"Dissolution is the First Operation which has to take place in the Art of Alchemy, for the order of Nature requires that the Corpus, Body, or Matter, be changed into Water which is the much spoken of Mercury. The Living Silver dissolves the adjoined pure Sulphur. This Dissolution is nothing but a killing of the moist with the dry, in fact a Putrefaction, and consequently turns the Matter black."
— Splendor solis; c. 1582, by Salomon Trismosin
Death in and to the profane world A disillusionment with one’s current self, with the world, ….
The goal of nigredo is to obtain the "materia prima" - the original substance of creation which can then be refined and exalted in the further stages of the Opus
- “The need to turn to prime matter is associated with the fact that with the Fall, all things in the world lost their true nature and became "corrupted." Only by bringing the fallen matter back to the original Chaos, reaching the state in which it existed at the very beginning of creation, can further operations be carried out with it.”
The Beginning of the Work
The Beginning of The Opus The Beginning of The Work
The first stage of the Alchemical process Once the actual Work has begun (There is a whole labyrinth that many get lost in for many lives just to get out of and so find the entrance to the Alchemical Mountain)
The nigredo stage is entered into through the gateway of initiation.
One is brought into a new life and new world, but the beginning is dark and challenging. One has to learn anew, from step 1.
The Contrast
You aren’t dying or going crazy or getting worse - you are just finally starting to get healthy, starting to wake up…
You don’t realize how sick you are until you start to get healthy How bound you are until you start to taste freedom
“When you see your matter going black, rejoice, you are at the beginning of the work.” — Rosarium Philosophorum
We can rejoice even as we are disslving ourselves into blackness, because we know we are poceeding in the work. We can rejoice in the death of the unreal. Things must seem like they are getting worse before the get better. Always darkest before the dawn.
The Black Womb: Khem
"Nigredo is the beginning of wisdom. It is the black womb from which the golden child of enlightenment shall emerge." — Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens
That creative matrix, that black womb everything is broken down into its prima materia, prima chaos
But it is the boiling it down into that totally unrefined mass that brings it all the back to its original purity - so that it can then be refined into gold It is the dung that is sweet fertilizer for the flower.
In that womb of darkness, the seed germinates and grows It needs that darkness so that it isn’t influenced by anything from outside and its own inner nature can arise
Al-Khem
That black womb is infinitely creative, infinitely rich, infinitely fertile The black earth of the NIle out of which Alchemy is born Al-Khem Khem = the black land Alchemy is born out of the fertile black soil in the land of Khem.
Lead
Lead is the simplistic and commonest of metals (?)
“a black blacker than black”
Total darkness
The blackening
When something impure is excreted it is excreted as a black substance - because black is …. It is in the darkness that the seed grows.
Through going into the depths that the light is found.
Prima Materia
"The stone must be divided into two parts, and the blackness must vanish, and the body must be broken down and reduced to its first matter." — Theatrum Chemicum
"materia prima" (prime matter) - the original substance of creation
Breaking things down until you get a raw high-quality prima materia (?) Or is it taking the raw prima materia and purifying it more…?
The Mythos of Nigredo
Descent into the underworld Pluto orpheus going to underworld
- The Knight going forth into the dark forest alone
- adventuring and questing in the dark forest and in the world
- Trials and tribulations
- Failures that break you down so you can be built back up, being stripped of your falsities, weaknesses, and illusions
- Going into the cave and facing the Dragon
Lent is a very Nigredo time The time of when the Christ is being persecuted, captured, confined
Tarot Cards
- Fool - beginning of journey
- Magician - learning the tools and techniques
- Tower - experiencing a fall
- Death -
- Hermit - going within, going into desert
- pentacle cards associated with hardship and hard work
- ???
Symbols of Nigredo
The Black Crow
"The blackness is called the head of the crow; when it appears, it signifies that the dissolution is at hand." — Splendor Solis
"The black crow flies at night; its wings shadow the sun." — Mutus Liber
The Raven
The Black Sun
- ”The black sun, Sol niger, is one of the most important images representing this phase of the process and this condition of the soul. Usually this image is seen as phase specific to the early part of the opus and is said to disappear “when the ‘dawn’ (aurora) emerges.” *
The black hole that absorbs all light
Kali - the divine destroyer
That Black Sun that destroys rather than gives light and life - but yet it is not evil, this is a sacred and necessary destruction The old rotten house must be demolished so a new temple can be built
The Skeleton
The body that has been stripped down to the bones The Calcined substance - now only the raw salt body remains
The Inner Experience of Nigredo
Purification, Detoxification, …. The burning away of impurities, fears, shadows, poisons, fat….
First it has to be encountered, brought up to light of awareness It can be very sobering and challenging - because now that it is brought up it is felt strongly The “healing crises” - the detoxing
Identity & Meaning Crisis
a crisis in meaning and identity Who am I?
Why am I?
What am I doing?
suffering, grief, depression
- a crisis in meaning and identity
Shadow Work
Doing shadow work. Really coming face to face with your shadows, fears, ….
Trauma
All things that wound us create trauma. This trauma must be healed for that energy to be freed up, for us to open up…
in “psychological terms, the soul finds itself in the throes of melancholy locked in a struggle with the ‘shadow.’”
- Jung
Facing & Clearing Karma
Experiencing the karma of what you have created in ignorance and facing it and no longer running. So you can bring it into balance and heal what was wounded.
Descending into the Underworld
Rock Bottom & Repentance
"In the blackest of nights, the seed of the sun is sown." — Atalanta Fugiens
Acknowledging that you are insane, sick, lost and that you need to surrender and do something totally different.
Addiction
Repentance turning back, turning around
Descending into the depths of darkness to redeem It and transform it
In order to grow into heaven, the tree must have its roots reach deep into the earth, into the underworld.
“Nobody can fall so low unless he has a great depth. If such a thing can happen to a man, it challenges his best and highest on the other side; that is to say, this depth corresponds to a potential height, and the blackest darkness to a hidden light.” — C.G. Jung
40 days and 40 nights in the Desert Wilderness
- in alchemy texts, it says nigredo lasts for 40 days and 40 nights
40 days and nights is an archtypally significant time period. It is enough time for someone to completely change who they are and what their life is.
There is a certain period of time where one must go through the darkness It may feel like a very long time while you are in it. And it is a decent amount But also once you are out of it, it won’t feel like it was that long looking back
Going into the desert and/or wilderness Separating from the world so you can go within and be alone
The Work of Nigredo
The Foundation Stone
Back-to-basics Foundation Stone
The humility to be a beginner, a neophyte Beginner’s mind
Discipline, Practice & Doing The Work
Doing The Work Getting into the gym, on the mat, in the laboratory Doing the Discipline and practice needed to boil the materia and start to work on it and get it ready for rising higher.
Discipline & Disciplines
- Practice & Practices
A time of training, discipline
Happens on all levels - physical, energetic, emotional, mental, soul
Banishing & Purification
Do purification rituals Do LBRP - banishing ritual
Do rituals to awaken the 4 elements within your being and aura
Nigredo & 4 Elements
MAJOR OPERATIONS in this stage
- Calcination - Destroying by Fire - burning something into its ashes
- Dissolution - Destroying by Water - dissolving it into water
- decomposition
- putrefaction
- ????
Within the Nigredo Stage, there are the 4 Elemental aspects of the Work
- Earth
- Water
- Air
- Fire
Just as there are 4 Alchemical Stages, within Nigredo there are 4 dimensions of the Nigredo process occurring
Each of the elements has a unique way of doing the work of nigredo. A unique way of breaking down and purifying
Elemental Magic and Nigredo go together As one systematically goes through the 4 elements, they awaken that quality in their being and consciousness and gain the mastery and abilities that each element represents.
Calcination - Burning in the Fire
- Calcination - Destroying by Fire - burning something into its ashes
- taps
- Noyaki - controlled burn
Tapas The burning that occurs when one pushes the limit of comfort and the normal pattern and posture. That burning is unpleasent, but if you can stay in it, and continually push the edge, then you will grow and expand and open up, and burn away more and more resistance to full movement.
The Philosophic King sweating in the sauna
- sweating out toxins
- heating until a luquid is expelled
Dissolution - Dissolving in the Water
- Dissolution - Destroying by Water - dissolving it into water
- baptism(?) - sorta, but baptism occurs upon initiation into Albedo stage (?)
"Make the matter black, and seek in the darkness the secret of your illumination, for only in dissolution can the true form arise." — Mutus Liber
Solutio: Dissolving a substance in a solvent, representing the dissolution of boundaries and the merging of opposites.
Returning to primordial chaos the massa confusa, the fluid, shapeless mass so that a new Order, a new Chaos can be created
'Perform no operation till all be made water.' First dissolve everything into one oceanic liquid state
Breaking things down into their first mercurial matter 'the main ground for the possibility of transmutation is the possibility of the reduction of all metals, and such Minerals which are of metallick principles, into their first mercurial matter'.
- Starkey (Eirenaeus Philalethes),
A treatise attributed to 'Alphonso, King of Portugal', states: 'our dissolution is no other thing but that the body be turned again to moistness. The first result of this work is the body reduced to water, that is to Mercury, that is what the Philosophers call solution, which is the foundation of the work'.
Decomposition - Entombment in the Earth
going into the underworld Descent into the underworld Going into one’s shadow, reconnecting with one’s daimon and the heavy machinery of the lower base self.
- Allowing the old shell to die so the new life can sprout
Death Death Tarot
Mortificatio: The death or decay of the old self, leading to transformation and rebirth.
Be with nature, connect with body and physical world
Losing weight, losing baggage Letting go of past Past patterns, beliefs, thoughts, perceptions
Fasting abstaining from activities, substances, etc. Developing of the will be abstaining from something the ego wants
Seperatio - Dispersal in the Air
- working with the breath to free blockages, dissolve it into the air
Separating things so that they can be purified on their own.
Sublimatio: The process of purification through evaporation and condensation, symbolizing spiritual ascent and refinement.
The Lead Body of Saturn
Work of Nigredo on all levels of being:
Physical
- fasting
- detoxing
- sweating
- yoga training
- Clean your space
- Bath in natural hot springs, sweat in suana
- disxconnect from technology, screens
- ground into nature
Emotional
- crying, releasing emotions
- inner child work
- trauma-work
Mental
- Realizing that you know nothing, don’t know what anything is….
- ….
Soul
- Deep soul themes from past lives you brought into this incarnation that are based in fear, trauma, etc…
Nigredo Pathworking
Pathworking visualization of going through nigredo process of dissoliution, dcomposition, burning and becoming simply a skeleton All the weights have been melted away - leaving just the pure black prima materia This pure black substance is beautiful and powerful and it is the black sun that shines with a bright black light ….
Inner alchemical meditational exercises
Expelling black smoke
- Breathe out of mouth and visualize grey/black smoke coming out of the bottom of your feet. Imagine/see the dark smoke being expelled out of you
Gichtel's Basic Practice for Transforming the Seven Seals/Chakras.
The Dark Night
The Dark Night of the Mind
"The blackest black must come before the whiteness, and the darkness must be complete before the dawning of light." — Aurora Consurgens
At the end of Nigredo stage and right before Albedo appears The first dark night.
Darkest before the dawn
The final descent into the darkness, into temptation Healing crises
The White Wedding
Nigredo ends with the parting of the veil of Paraketh The dawning of the White Wedding One has purified enough that an inner moon light has arisen within and an experience of illumination has occurred - this is the reflected moonlight of the sun, so not a full illumination. An experience of beauty and grace,
How do you know you have moved beyond Nigredo and into Albedo?
- the body, emotions and mind have been purified, disciplined, changed enough that the primary focus is no longer on detoxing, purifying, removing conditioning, etc.
- Now one is focusing more on inner spiritual experiences and growth
The purification is never done, throughout the whole path one is undergoing deeper and deeper purification You never really fully leave Nigredo and are done with it. - There is a Nigredo stage within every other stage.
Quotes about Nigredo
"Make the matter black, and seek in the darkness the secret of your illumination, for only in dissolution can the true form arise." — Mutus Liber
"Nigredo is the beginning of wisdom. It is the black womb from which the golden child of enlightenment shall emerge." — Michael Maier, Atalanta Fugiens
"Understand that the dissolution is not the end but the fertile soil of beginnings. Without the black, the white cannot be born." — Source????
"It is in the darkness that the soul learns to see the hidden light, and through the blackness, the gold is revealed." — Emerald Tablet Commentary
"The first stage of the work is the Nigredo, the putrefaction of the soul. It is a painful but necessary process of death and rebirth." — Julius Evola, The Hermetic Tradition
"In the Nigredo lies the seed of transformation, where the soul descends into shadow to awaken the spark of divine fire." — Hermetic Texts
"Our matter becomes black like coal; this is the beginning of the Work." — Rosarium Philosophorum
"The blackness is called the head of the crow; when it appears, it signifies that the dissolution is at hand." — Splendor Solis
"In the blackest of nights, the seed of the sun is sown." — Atalanta Fugiens
"The wise men say that the blackness is the beginning of this art." — Theatrum Chemicum
"The black crow flies at night; its wings shadow the sun." — Mutus Liber
"The blackness is the beginning of this work, and it is the chief key of all the rest." — Theatrum Chemicum
“There can be no rebirth without a dark night of the soul, a total annihilation of all that you believed in and thought that you were.” ― Hazrat Inayat Khan
“Nobody can fall so low unless he has a great depth. If such a thing can happen to a man, it challenges his best and highest on the other side; that is to say, this depth corresponds to a potential height, and the blackest darkness to a hidden light.” — C.G. Jung