Alchemical Transformation: 1. Nigredo (‘Darkness’) W. Zeitler [PIANO]
Advent Improvisation
Alchemy is an ancient philosophical and proto-scientific tradition historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were the transmutation of “base metals” (e.g., lead) into “noble metals” (like gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease.
Within the alchemical tradition there was another stream that saw the transformation of physical lead into gold as not only a physical practice, and also a metaphor for transforming the human heart from ‘lead’ into ‘gold’ — transforming our ordinary state of consciousness into Enlightenment or Oneness with God. Alchemical metaphor allowed folks to write about the Spiritual Path under the radar of the Inquisition, and is now known as “Inner Alchemy”. The preeminent 20th century psychiatrist Carl Jung (1875-1961) wrote extensively about this.
Herding alchemists is worse than herding cats, but one consensus about how to turn lead into gold involved four major steps. This first week of Advent we’ll consider the first step: ‘Nigredo’ — Latin for ‘blackness’. Psychologically speaking, the ‘darkness’ has several aspects: one is that the old must ‘die’ to make room for the new: “Unless a grain of wheat fall into the earth, it dies. But if it dies it bears much fruit.” This is certainly true for the ‘lead’ parts of our souls that need the Refiner’s Fire. Another is ‘the dark night of the soul’ — that place of grief and loss, waiting for healing to transformed it into peace and acceptance. Also, not all darkness is negative — darkness also includes the unknown, undiscovered goodness in us waiting to be brought forth, the unknown talent waiting to be developed, the unknown Quest waiting to be undertaken. After all, the seed begins its new life in the darkness of soil and womb.
Unlike the Easter story, in which the rising sun mirrors the Rising Son in the blazing brightness of day, the polar opposite Christmas story takes place in the starry night. Furthermore, although we tend to imagine Jesus being born in a stable, in the first century animals were also housed in caves. So as we imagine our Advent transformation beginning in darkness, there is a certain poetic rightness to imagining the baby Jesus being born in the darkness of a cave. (The image of Jesus being born in a cave instead of a stable is particularly popular in the Eastern Orthodox Church.)
So this first week in Advent we might consider the ‘lead’ within us that needs to be purified, the sorrow or pain that needs to be healed, and the unknown treasure within us that needs to be brought forth. In darkness is where our alchemical transformation begins.