Alchemia - Opus Magnum

All Photographies by Ernest. F. Scott as Doktor Gnomegang

ALCHEMY:

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"Solve et Coagula"

2012
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"Solve et coagula is a maxim or motto of Alchemy which means "dissolve and coagulate". It means that something must be broken down before it can be built up. One interpretation of this saying is to dissolve the body and build up the spirit".

http://miriadic.wikia.com/wiki/Solve_et_coagula

"Nigredo"

2012

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"In alchemy, nigredo, or blackness, means putrefaction or decomposition. The alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter.

In analytical psychology, the term became a metaphor 'for the dark night of the soul, when an individual confronts the shadow within'".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

"Albedo"

2010

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"In alchemy, albedo is one of the four major stages of the magnum opus; along with nigredo, citrinitas and rubedo. It is a Latinicized term meaning "whiteness". Following the chaos or massa confusa of the nigredo stage, the alchemist undertakes a purification in albedo, which is literally referred to as ablutio – the washing away of impurities. In this process, the subject is divided into two opposing principles to be later coagulated to form a unity of opposites or coincidentia oppositorum during rubedo.

Titus Burckhardt interprets the albedo as the end of the lesser work, corresponding to a spiritualization of the body. The goal of this portion of the process is to regain the original purity and receptivity of the soul.[2] Psychologist Carl Jung equated the albedo with unconscious contrasexual soul images; the anima in men and animus in women. It is a phase where insight into shadow projections are realized, and inflated ego and unneeded conceptualizations are removed from the psyche".

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Cauda Pavonis"

2012
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"The cauda pavonis (the so-called. Peacock tail or peacock's tail) shows by an iridescent play of colors of semi-converted prima materia So most alchemists believes that the formation of the Philosopher Stone is failed and the alchemical process instead in caput mortuum, the skull, ends. Individual authors see in the colors of the cauda pavonis but also to prove that the process moves in the right way".

  

From AnthroWiki

"Other color stages are sometimes mentioned, most notably the cauda pavonis (peacock's tail) in which an array of colors appear".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Citrinitas"

2012

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"Citrinitas, sometimes referred to as xanthosis,[1] is a term given by alchemists to "yellowness." It was one of the four major stages of the alchemical magnum opus, and literally referred to "transmutation of silver into gold" or "yellowing of the lunar consciousness."[citation needed] In alchemical philosophy, citrinitas stood for the dawning of the "solar light" inherent in one's being, and that the reflective "lunar or soul light" was no longer necessary. The other three alchemical stages were nigredo (blackness), albedo (whiteness), and rubedo (redness).

Psychologist Carl Jung is credited with interpreting the alchemical process as analogous to modern-day psychoanalysis. In the Jungian archetypal schema, nigredo is the Shadow; albedo refers to the anima and animus (contrasexual soul images); citrinitas is the wise old man (or woman) archetype; and rubedo is the Self archetype which has achieved wholeness".

 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 

"Rubedo"

2010
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"Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness" that was adopted by alchemists to define the fourth and final major stage in their magnum opus. Both gold and the philosopher's stone were associated with the color red, as rubedo signalled alchemical success, and the end of the great work. Rubedo is also known by the Greek word, Iosis".

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Opus Magnum"

2010

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