사용자:배우는사람/문서:Magnum opus (alchemy)
The Great Work (Latin: Magnum opus) is a term which originated in medieval European alchemy which refers to the successful completion of the transmutation of base matter into gold or the creation of the philosopher's stone. It has subsequently been used as a metaphor for spiritual transformation in the Hermetic tradition, see "Great Work".
It originally had four stages:[1]
- nigredo (-putrefactio), blackening(-putrefaction): corruption, dissolution, individuation, see also Suns in alchemy - Sol Niger
- albedo, whitening: purification, burnout of impurity; the moon, female
- citrinitas, yellowing: spiritualisation, enlightenment; the sun, male;
- rubedo, reddening: unification of man with god, unification of the limited with the unlimited.
After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas into rubedo and consider only three stages.[2]
However, it is in citrinitas that the Chemical Wedding takes place, generating the Philosophical Mercury without which the Philosopher's Stone, triumph of the Work, could never be accomplished.