Nigredo
The blackening: putrefaction, dissolution, melancholy. The old form must die before anything new can be made.
From Alchemy.
In Symbols of the Psyche
- Death: The ending that belongs to a change.
- Putrefactio: Rotting: the old form must decay before the new can grow.
- Mortificatio: The killing of what has ruled too long.
- Black: The blackening at the start of the work.
- Lead: The heaviest and darkest metal, where the work begins.
- The Eclipse: The light swallowed by the dark.
- The Bird: Spirit, soul, and thought in flight.
- The Raven: The black bird of the beginning.
- The Tomb: The grave that is also a womb.
More from Alchemy
Albedo · Citrinitas · Coniunctio · The Philosophers’ Stone · Prima Materia · Rubedo · Solve et Coagula