Nigredo

In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. Many alchemists believed that this was an important first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone. They thought that all ingredients needed to be cleansed and cooked until they turned into a uniform black matter.

Later, in analytical psychology, the idea of nigredo was used as a metaphor. It stood for "the dark night of the soul," a time when a person faces their inner shadow. This shows how old ideas can influence new ways of thinking.

Jung

For Carl Jung, learning about old ideas from alchemy was very important for his work in psychology. He thought the "black work" of alchemists, called nigredo, was like what people go through when they face difficult feelings and grow.

Jungians saw nigredo in two ways. First, it was like a person's beginning state where they don't know much about their deeper feelings. Second, it was a hard time when someone starts to see their own hidden, darker feelings. This can feel very tough and stuck, but it's needed for growth. After this dark time, people can start to feel brighter and more balanced.

Jung also linked many other alchemy ideas to psychology, like seeing therapy as a special kind of work and the goal being to bring together opposite feelings.

Cultural references

Main article: Alchemy in art and entertainment

In stories and plays, the idea of nigredo appears in many ways. In a book from 1658 called Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial, a writer named Thomas Browne described this stage as feeling lost in a dark, empty night. Famous poems by Shakespeare also use dark night symbols that relate to nigredo. A writer named W. B. Yeats used nigredo in his stories too, talking about fighting with shadows and old darkness. In the anime and novel series Overlord, there is a character named Nigredo, whose sisters are named Albedo and Rubedo, after important steps in an old process called the Magnum Opus.