According to alchemical doctrine, the unremitting addition of mercury to the prima materia in the alembic or retort and the repeated cycles of distillation to which it is subjected spurs a violent reaction, causing it to attain a deep red hue that can be likened to blushing. Fiery red is a color of rage, anger, passion, emotion and activity, as well as the unconscious will to dominate, subjugate and rule over nature. It is also the color associated with the culminating phase of the alchemical opus, the rubedo, where the prima materia becomes ultima materia or the Philosopher’s Stone. The latter is habitually described as an elusive dense, red powder that glints in the daylight like shards of broken glass. Miraculous feats are attributed to it, the most notable being the transmutation of base metals into gold and the gift of immortality on those who ingest it. Like earthly quicksilver, it was supposed to coagulate into a wax-like jelly when subjected to high temperatures and reacquire its original solid state again upon cooling.
Rubedo is a Latin word meaning redness that was adopted by alchemists to define this fourth and final major stage in their magnum opus. Both gold and the philosopher’s stone were associated with the color red, as rubedo signaled alchemical success, and the end of the great work. Rubedo is also known by the Greek word, Iosis. The three alchemical stages preceding rubedo were nigredo (blackness), which represented putrefication and spiritual death; albedo (whiteness), which represented purification; and citrinitas (yellowness). the solar dawn or awakening. When the White stone or the White Elixir has been made, it needs to purified further, sublimated, until the matter becomes totally fixed and is completely stable. Then we have the Red Sulfur, the red stone, the Red Elixir, the Philosopher’s Stone.
Countless sources mention a reddening process; the seventeenth dictum of the 12th century Turba Philosophorum is one example:
O Turba of Philosophers and disciples, now hast thou spoken about making into white, but it yet remains to treat concerning the reddening! Know, all ye seekers after this Art, that unless ye whiten, ye cannot make red, because the two natures are nothing other than red and white. Whiten, therefore, the red, and redden the white!
In describing this, the most desirable of alchemical stages, the seventeenth century alchemist Eirenaeus Philalethes (the peaceful lover of truth) posited that: ‘And so the Red they name their Vermilion, their red lead, their Poppy of the Rock, their Tyre (i.e. Tyrian Purple), their Basilisk, their red Lion, and in sum it borrows the names of all red things.’
The symbols used in alchemical writing and art to represent rubedo can include blood, a phoenix, red flowers like roses and lilies, the ruby gemstone, and the red King.
The last of these is inexplicably linked with the sun, a material constituent of the collective and personal conscious. Hence the rubedo alludes to the exaltation of the conscious mind under the auspices of an integrated unconscious; what Carl Jung called individuation. In the framework of psychological development, these alchemical steps are viewed as analogous to the process of attaining individuation. In an archetypal schema, rubedo represents the Self archetype, and is the culmination of the four stages, the merging of ego and Self. The Self manifests itself in “wholeness,” a point in which a person discovers their true nature. Unlike the foregoing stages, the rubedo signals a permanent change to the individual’s personality. Somebody who has reached this level of development through clinical work, spiritual searching or life experiences should be fueled by spiritual love and harmony. They will be concerned for their own welfare; the welfare of their brothers and sisters; and for the betterment of global ethos and lifestyle.
Rubedo, then, might be described as a permanent psycho-spiritual shift within the client or individual involving the appearance of objectively-sensed truths. The most important of these relates to the nature of the relationship between the inner and outer planes, between microcosm and macrocosm or mind and matter. Integrated persons know pursuing fulfillment of thought-desires orientated towards the acquisition of material properties is futile because the desirousness of the ego-self is perpetual and can never be completely gratified. Tere is no worth or value in anything material unless it is appropriated by the dualism of the human mind. What we call reality and objective truth are in fact internal; a subjectively-constructed situation of each person’s ‘heart’. Divining and considering this truth and then grounding it by applying it to relationships and to life in general is what rubedo is aimed at. Just like the ultima materia, the Philosopher’s Stone, completing the spiritualization of consciousness in this psychotherapeutic stage is about programming the mind to be unconditional and non-judgmental and pulling down fixated and neurotic obstructions. The imaginal world is its inheritance and creative vision is its language, enabling a clarity and freedom of person impossible in one anchored to that pursuit of fulfillment through material acquisition.
Kimchee and Catnip 