Alchemical blackening (Esotericism)

At the beginning of the alchemical operation, the bodily consciousness is chaotic and obscure, a state symbolized by lead. During this operation man consciously separates himself from appearances by allowing himself to drown in the cosmic feminine nature, the full power of which he seeks to awaken and master. The work of blackening can therefore also be understood as a death, a marriage (or perhaps a parturition in reverse), or a descent into hell. The death is a death to the cosmic illusion through which insight is congealed. During this process man detaches himself from his sense of separateness, extracting his vital force from bodily and mental attractions, developing spiritual discernment. He recollects this force within himself as a pool of stillness. The marriage arises from the recognition of the intimate bond between his body and nature, an interplay on which the illusion of individuality can no longer be projected. In this marriage cosmic femininity prevails over masculine reification and objectification. The feminine power, and its fascination, dissolves the "solidification" of the virile nature and awakens its power. This liberating dissolution draws the virile force back from separative modes of action and knowledge in order to bathe it in the baptismal waters of universal life. This re-potentiation may also be experienced as a descent into hell, an encounter with the world as a poisonous flower in all its seductive and fragmented aspects. The alchemist then comes to embody the process through which this sense of fragmentation is engendered. The world is then understood as a womb through which forms are engendered in the present rather than as a grave of dead forms from the past. The alchemist, fertilizing himself, becomes the egg from which he himself will be reborn.

The first stage in the alchemical work.