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A sign for controlled decay, held to precede regeneration.
Also known as: Putrefaction sign, Nigredo
Allowing matter to rot under gentle warmth. Understood as a necessary destruction before something new could form, and associated with the blackening stage of the great work.
Denotes putrefaction: allowing matter to decompose under gentle sustained heat, often over weeks, as a preparatory stage.
Associated with nigredo, the blackening, the first of the colour stages of the magnum opus — the work had to be seen to die before it could be seen to be reborn.
Extensively reinterpreted in twentieth-century psychological writing, particularly by Jung, as an allegory of psychic dissolution. That reading is a modern overlay on a laboratory operation.
A twentieth-century psychological reinterpretation, recorded as such and not as the historical meaning.
A short looped stroke with a crossing line beneath it.