Inner Alchemy VI

"I had to recognize that I am only the expression and symbol of the soul." Carl Jung, liber novus, page 234. For the alchemists, the rubedo stage meant the last phase, and it was the integration of the (psycho)spiritual insights into the self before its re-entry to the world. The three alchemical stages preceding rubedo are nigredo (blackness), representing the spiritual death, albedo (whiteness), which represents purification; and citrinitas (yellowness), the stage of awakening the interest to come back to life. From the jungian psychological perspective, the rubedo represented the merging of ego and Self. It is the spirit, soul and body that are re-unified, and from this stage one can re-enter life again. The rubedo stage in alchemy is associated with the ‘Philosopher’s stone and Gold.