What is Nigredo? 13 Signs You Have an Alchemical Breakdown ⋆ LonerWolf

Skull, crows, black sun, darkness.

These are all signs of the process crisis, breakdown and ego death represents the first stage spiritual alchemy: Black.

Are you suffering from some intense, internal struggle right now?

Perhaps there is no chaotic crisis, but instead a empty feeling emptiness, isolation, or disconnection from your soul and sense of meaning in life.

Maybe you are at a crossroads in lifeare experiencing the death of their old ways of being or are suffering from the dark night of the Spirit.

Whatever, if you feel like it feelings of confusion, loss, emptiness, anxiety, depression, sadness or disconnection, you are experiencing the first level of spiritual alchemy, ie Black.

What is Nigredo in Spiritual Chemistry?

Nigredo is translated from Latin blackness, and represents The first stage of Soul Workincludes decay, death and decay old, rigid, false and delusional ways of thinking and being.

At this stage we begin to face ourselves shadows and difficult parts of our egos that hinder our growth, happiness, and fulfillment in life.

What we do here at Lone Wolf (and our LonerWolf Supporters Membership) is primarily focused on the Nigredo stage and its purpose is to facilitate the transition to the next stage, Albedo (whitewash or achievement) and then Rubedo (redness or integration).

What Nigredo does Feeling Where? 13 Signs You’re Going Through It

Nigredo is an extremely difficult season in life. Some signs that you may be experiencing this include:

1. It seems that something important to you (or life in general) is falling apart.
2. You are in a recession: there are many painful internal and external deaths or terminations.
3. You are no longer interested in what once motivated youand you feel flat, restless or demotivated.
4. You feeling lost and aimless, with no clear sense of direction.
5. You’ve lost yourself and you no longer know who you are (identity crisis).
6. You have no sense of purpose and the meaning of life.
7. You are facing painful confrontations Shadow Self, and your flaws, faults, and shortcomings will be fully exposed.
8. You can deal with nightmares and disrupts sleep.
9. You may be dealing with a mental health crisis (anxiety, depression, OCD, etc.)
10. You may struggle with addictive tendencies as a way to relieve pain.
11. You may experience strange/scary changes (visions, dissociation, etc.)
12. You have lost confidence aand filled with self-doubt.
13. You feel emotionally vulnerable and often vulnerable.
14. The world, people and situations overcome easily or make you tired.
15. You want solitude and more time than you are alone.
16. You feel disconnected, hollow and far from your heart (Dark night of the soul).
17. You feel an inner sense of dissolution, “cleaned” or broken.

How many of these characters can you relate to? If you think I missed anything, let me know in the comments below.

Nigredo throughout legends and myths

It may comfort you to know this Experiencing nigredo is not a personal failure; it is a natural process of inner maturity and soul evolution.

At some point in life, we all go through this blackening process. A look at old myths and stories from around the world will help remind you that it is.

In black sun psychotherapist Stanton Marlan gives examples of descent into the underworld Nigredo defines the process:

• Goethe’s Faust
• The book of Job in the Bible
• TS Eliot’s The Wasteland
• Japanese goddess of life and death Izanami
• Greek Kore-Persephone
• Roman Psyche
• Heroes of fairy tales Huldah’s mother or Baba Yaga
• Sumerian story Inanna and Ereshkigal
• Dante’s inferno

As you can see, mythologically and symbolically, the Nigredo process usually involves deep dark forests, desolate landscapes, haunted figures or hell itself.

If you provide a picture darkening The process you’re going through, what does it look like? Write or draw about it – the process will calm you down a lot.

I did this a few years ago during my Nigredo experience. Here’s a picture that still hangs on my wall:

This image is illustrated black madonna, Nigredo is said to help people in times of darkness.

His white sun heart represents the next alchemy Albedo stage (light,) and his red clothing represents his last stage Rubedo (integration).

We are experiencing a collective Nigredo (but there is light in the darkness)

In Hinduism it is said that we live Kali Yuga or an age of darkness marked by spiritual poverty, war, and destruction.

From a chemical point of view, we are living in the Nigredo stage – darkening. This is determined by the process the first five stages of alchemy:

• Calcination (burn),
• The solution (melting),
• Coagulation (coagulation) and
• Frustration (death)

Despite the collective Losing the soul We are going through and darkness is covering all corners of the world, there is hope. As a 16th-century alchemical text Rosary of the Philosophers countries,

If you see that your work has darkened, be happy, you are at the beginning of the work.

Nigredo is the first stage of our soul’s work on this planet. We know from observing nature that after night comes a new day, and after winter comes spring. So it is with the nigredo process.

Nigredo (darkness) is followed by Albedo (light). After death comes rebirth. In the words of awakened teacher Adyashanti,

Enlightenment is a destructive process. It has nothing to do with being better or being happier. Enlightenment is the disappearance of falsehood. It is seen through the facade of lies. It is the total destruction of everything we think is true.

This is a powerful definition of Nigredo. To find the inner light of the soul, it is necessary to burn and dissolve all the dark layers of our consciousness.

Sage and psychotherapist Carl Jung reflects this fact, writing:

People will do anything, no matter how ridiculous, to avoid facing their hearts. Man becomes enlightened not by imagining forms of light, but by making darkness conscious.

Nigredo is the process of turning darkness into consciousness, this is where our Soul Work always begins.

We don’t have to do this alone. If you are calling to start, we offer two ways:

1. Alchemical Soul Workbook – a structured journey through the seven stages of spiritual alchemy to help you find more clarity and direction in life.
2. LonerWolf Supporters Membership – Weekly guidance and support will help you dispel the shadows that block your soul and make you feel at home.

In the words of physician and psychiatrist Edward F. Edinger,

This work is difficult and full of obstacles; the alchemical opus is dangerous. First you will meet the “dragon” … the “devil” or, as the alchemists say, “blackness”. blackand this meeting will cause suffering. In the language of the alchemists, matter suffers to the end black disappears, when “dawn” … is announced … and a new day begins, leukosis or albedo.

How was the Nigredo experience for you? What is dying inside you and therefore slowly changing? Share with me in the comments below.