The Stages

The soul, otherwise known as the fallen character or the matter, must go through three stages in order to reach divinization. These stages, each with their own signatures, correspond to the stages metal would go through in it's transmutation into gold. They are black, white, and red, otherwise know as and will be furthermore referred to as nigredo, albedo, and rubedo.

The first stage of an alchemical work is dissolution, usually called the nigredo or the black stage. In order to pass onto the next stage the body of the impure metal must be left behind, killed, and the soul go on to be reborn in a new form. This process of breaking down the matter into it's materia primia, prime matter, is represented in a metallurgy of burning down. Thus dark images and fire are often used to symbolize the nigredo.

This is typically the longest stage and upon entering it the reader will be introduced to a setting full of contraries. Part of the contraries presented within the nigredo is a quarreling couple. Since the alchemical work purifies the base metal by dissolving and recongealing it the two principle reagents who reflect the masculine and feminine polarities of existence the couple must be composed of these two entities, know as alchemical sulfur and mercury. Alchemical sulfur represents the masculine, impulsive, red pole, where as alchemical mercury represents the feminine and cool component. Together and separately these reagents advance the base metal into gold.

The second stage is that of purification, usually called the albedo or the white work. It follows the ablution or washing of the prima materia, which causes the metal to turn white. The shattered survivor of the nigredo is washed and restored. When the matter reaches the albedo it has become pure and spotless. Frequently used symbols of the white work include, but are not limited to, the moon, water, pearls, and swans.

The third and last stage of a chemical work is recongealing and is referred to as the rubedo, the red stage. In it the matter, now purified, is ready to be reunited with the spirit, or is already, and is the formless matter of the philosophers stone. At this union a supreme chemical wedding occurs and the body is resurrected into eternal life.

The stage itself is red because the characters final transformation is usually revealed in the stories final crisis, the climax, this is represented by red figures, such as roses and blood. In an alchemical climax there are certain things to look for. They are, as follows: The revelation of concealed identities and changes of characters the resolution of enmity, contraries, and antagonism.

There must also be an alchemical wedding of a Red King and White Queen, a conjunction of sulfur and mercury. Within an alchemical wedding both the male and female identities are lost and out of them an androgynous figure is born. This is sometimes referred to as a philosophical orphan, a child who is without gender and is the resolution of these two contraries. This philosophical orphan is a stand in for the philosophers stone, so the birth would fulfill the reproduction of the stone, or a story symbol for it, that is necessary in the rubedo.