THE VARIOUS STATES IN ALCHEMY and
HOW TO FIND THEM IN TAROT IMAGES
For the alchemical work or opus to be successful, a rigorous mental attitude was
required of the alchemist, including meditation, active imagination, visualization, as
well as a variety of qualities or virtues that included a withdrawal from externals,
aloneness, and ability to keep the secret of the opus. Much of this psychological
preparation still holds true for us today as we embark on our own search for
wholeness. Whether using psychotherapy or soul retrieval or quietude in
meditation, there are certain mental states that trigger deep soul work or that
signal the need to transcend a particular situation in which we find ourselves. I
have found that just naming the problem or challenge changes dramatically the
dynamics of the situation at hand. The anxiety or pain or fear is no longer lurking
in the shadows, a state which could easily transfer to physical conditions or
ailments; instead the problem is given a name and sometimes even a face. This is
a process of limitation and transcendence which closely resembles the alchemist’s
work in her lab.
Alchemical processes of transformation and the psychic operations leading to
them are taking place all the time in our lives. We all experience psychological
stages that demand that we let go, burn, dissolve, regroup, restructure our
thoughts and dispositions. The constant dissolution and coagulation is what
characterizes alchemy as a whole. We can cry our eyes out and we can try to
dissolve our ego with tears, but we better know how to put ourselves back together
or else. So it is just as important to name the problem or issue, go through the
necessary operations to transcend it, and then regroup and generate a new
foundation from which to build a more solid psychological perspective or structure.
When we consciously engage in any kind of transformative work, our road to
individuation becomes easier and more accessible. This is not an overnight affair.
It takes tremendous personal commitment and self-discipline. Let’s look at some
traditional alchemical stages and see if we can use the rituals in our own personal
soul work:
Because we are now in alchemy land, we must speak alchemy lingo a bit. My
intention is to provide you with a general understanding of both the psychological
stages we can expect to go through as well as the alchemical operations involved.
Nigredo and Albedo are the two most common mental states we find in alchemy.
Nigredo, blackness, is the heavy and black psychological state ruled by the metal
lead and the restricting energies of the planet Saturn. This is the psychological
state triggered by despair, deep sadness, loss, separation. Although nigredo
relates closely to mortification and putrefaction, this state is present at the
beginning of any process that demands of us action and purging or rescuing a
part of our lost self. Any shadow work, any work that we consciously undertake to
take back or rescue parts of our soul, has a nigredo aspect to it.
Albedo refers to a state of purification or whitening resulting from breaking down
the prima materia (the matter that we are trying to transcend) into undifferentiated
elements by using any of the alchemical processes. This is a purification process
that sometimes takes several “washings” and that might entail further operations
such as distillation and circulation (and quite often other deaths and rebirths in
one lifetime). In fact most of us reach, through much trial and error, an albedo
stage that allows us to outgrow many situations or conflicts by entering a more
mature level of awareness.
Most people go through life alternating between nigredo and albedo and never
attempting to reach the last two stages called for in alchemy. Frankly, you get to
where you need to go at any given moment. You must bare (and bear) what you
can afford to; it is your life. There is no rush. You have other lifetimes to work
these kinks out. And, if you believe in the concept of "parallel lives" then you know
that at some level of beingness you are already closer to individuation and
wholeness.
If we consciously continue with the alchemical processes, we might experience a
third stage called the citronitis or yellow stage, which is usually associated with
fermentation, the spiritization of the matter or substance. This yellow stage is the
first hint that personal transmutation or the making of gold is finally within our
reach. (See Dennis Hauck, The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal
Transformation, p. 232.)
The fourth mental stage, rubedo, signals the birth of a new psychological attitude
or approach to our lives. The color red serves to remind us of this new birth. In
some alchemical texts we find a red rose, for example to signal this purified and
perfect mental stage. I like to visualize this rubedo state as the flower, the red
rose, that comes out of any major transformational work.
The sequence of operations required to complete the Great Work is elusive at
best. Calcinatio is usually designated as the first operation, perhaps because of its
connection to fire as the primal energy and its numinous symbology. Chemically,
calcinatio entails the intense heating of a solid to eliminate all water and any other
elements that would volatilize it. Jung assigned fire to the libido; thus, calcinatio is
performed on “the primitive shadow side, which harbors hungry, instinctual
desirousness and is contaminated with the unconscious.” (See Edinger)
Active imagination is important at every stage, not only in the way we identify the
prima materia but also in how we engage the operations. We must establish a
direct dialog with a part of our self we are denying or suppressing, or we should try
identify which psychic energy needs to be purified and put in the bottle or
alchemical vessel to be subjected to the process. How we manage this internal
dialog will determine our level of success. In calcinatio, for example, we are
actually frustrating instinctual desires; but as we grow older there are other
energies that we need purify, so we must burn the nonessential. In fact, all these
processes are going on all the time within us.
After the element of fire we have water through the process called solutio. Solutio
allows us to liquefy or dissolve the rigid and static parts of the personality which
resist change. This is usually where most of our personal challenges are
processed and transmuted. Chemically, solutio represents the capacity of mercury
to dissolve or amalgamate with gold or silver, an essential quality we need in order
to reach higher levels of awareness as we consciously proceed with the opus
magnum. Solutio allows the return of differentiated matter to its original
undifferentiated state, a regression that symbolizes a return to the womb. On the
other hand, solutio could also be experienced as dismemberment or
fragmentation, so the best way to express it would be as some sort of dissolving of
matter, where a part of our persona, personality or ego is dissolved and
eventuality re-structured. The usual “solvents” that cause dissolution are strong
emotions such as love, lust, extreme anger or deep personal loss. I find dissolution
or solutio in my work more often than calcinatio as a deep emotional need in many
clients. It could very well be my own approach. After all, fire and water dissolve
and bring us back to essentials. But one (fire) subjects us to a more dramatic and
radical transformation because there is something about water that calls for
gradual, going with the flow kind of, movement that we just don’t get with fire
energies.
Solutio is usually followed by coagulatio, by some kind of solidifying or
reconstituting of the ego. Interesting enough, both solutio (water) and coagulatio
(earth) are “female” elements or principles and both can symbolize the beginning
and the end of the opus. Dissolve and coagulate, solutio and coagulatio, are
constantly going on within ourselves. But coagulatio at lower transformational or
developmental levels is just another fixation, a concretization that can be just a
temporary or (even worse) a quick fix that eventually leads to a return to solutio or
to sublimatio.
In coagulatio the ego has an opportunity to reconstitute itself, improve, become
more resilient and move forward into a higher level of awareness. Coagulatio is
associated with the images of creation, with the world of manifestation in Qabalah
and with Mother Earth. At its highest potential, coagulatio could become the last
operation in alchemy, as is the case in Hermetism: “The body is made spiritual
and the spirit is made corporeal. Coagulation transcends both heaven and earth
and produces a new incarnation that can survive in both realms.”(see Dennis
William Hauck, The Emerald Tablet, p. 272)
Sublimatio, which turns matter into air by volatilizing and elevating it, is a mental
process we use daily, anytime we try to gain a new perspective into anything we
are dealing with by separating ourselves from the object of inquiry and looking at it
from a distance. Sublimatio helps us establish a new relationship with a challenge
or issue we cannot understand first hand. In psychoanalysis sublimatio allows us
to name our fears and to bring clarity to a given situation. By doing so it lifts us and
helps us release the heavy weight that so often is followed by blackness or
nigredo. The sense of release and elevation of sublimatio is always connected with
clarity and new levels of awareness. This is the alchemical operation that releases
the spirit from matter and helps bring levity and lightness to our load.
In truth, I believe that most of these processes happen to us unawares, especially
at first. I imagine that our guides and teachers eventually tire of our neglect or
indifference or just plain denial and they take the matter (of our soul retrieval) into
their own hands. For me, alchemy represents one of our most basic and useful
archetypes. In modern times, alchemy as a transformational tool symbolizes our
“Path of Return” to the unity of the Self and the realization of “at-one-ment.”
All of us either choose or are given the challenge to walk in the dark; and through
fires of anger or desperation and tears of anguish and fear we learn to name our
dragons. Only then can we bring in the candle of albedo that can light our path, if
only for a few steps along the way, until we stumble again in the dark and
consciously reach out for the prima materia that we need to redeem next time.