nigredo, n.Definitions

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 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.

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.