15d • General discussion
RED & WHITE IN ALCHEMY
Red and a white symbolism feature heavily in the Magician with his red outer cloak over his white robe, and then a reiteration of this colour combination in the red roses and white lilies. This red and white combination shows up in other places in the Tarot, in the Justice card, in the Two of Wands there is a crossed lily and rose, The Hierophant.
Red and white are important colours in alchemy and represent the unification of opposites in the alchemical process of transformation, the marriage of the Red King and White Queen.
The Red King represents a fiery, passionate, active and volatile principle and corresponds to sulfur. The White Queen conversely is connected to a passive, receptive and material energy represented by mercury which lacks fixed form.
In the Great Work, or Magnum Opus, the alchemist undergoes a process of transformation which was often referred to in encoded language such as ‘transmuting lead to gold’ using the ‘philosopher’s stone.’
This process was often described in four stages of Nigredo (Blackening or dissolving), Albedo (Whitening or purification), Citrinitas (Yellowing or illumination) and Rubedo (Reddening or culmination). Although different approaches used a seven or twelve stage approach. In the Sufi tradition I am trained in we use seven stages (grey, black, white, yellow, red, blue and green corresponding to the seven luminaries/ classical planets).
‘Many childlike souls have tried to make gold by stilling mercury and melting silver, and they have tried to find the herb; but they were deluded, and they had better have worked and earned money. The real interpretation of this process is that mercury represents the nature of the ever-restless mind.’
~ Hazrat Inayat Khan
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RED & WHITE IN ALCHEMY
