nigredo, n.All

The Nigredo (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠where the work must begin: the descent into darkness, ninety nights in purgatory's dark fire before turning east.

The Nigredo (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the blackness of the massa confusa where the elements fight, the opening stage of the alchemical work, picturing an unconscious state that the later whitening and reddening bring to light.

The Nigredo (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the alchemists' black melancholy state, paralleled by St John of the Cross's dark night — a supremely positive state in which God's invisible radiance pierces and purifies the soul.

The Nigredo (n.) brought ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠decay, death and hell before the alchemist's eyes and also cast its melancholy over his solitary soul, a despair not his own of which he was only the witness.