Nigredo
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
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]. Chaos precedes enlightenment. In psychology Carl Jung (a student of alchemy) forwarded the notion of nigredo as the moment of maximum dispair as a prerequisite to enlightenment.
[edit]
References
- [1] Chemical History Tour, Picturing Chemistry from Alchemy to Modern Molecular Science Adele Droblas Greenberg Wiley-Interscience 2000 ISBN 0471354082
