Alchemical whitening (Esotericism)

In this second stage of the process, the body is experienced as dissolving in the waters of the spirit (revealed by the first stage of the alchemical process). This reduction of bodily consciousness to its psychic substance effectively causes the soul to withdraw from the sensory organs and to expand into a "space" that is both inward and unlimited. When the inner consciousness is thus reduced to its primary matter, the alchemist experiences a power emanating from the mysterious centre of his being, from his divine essence. This living light illuminates, integrates and nourishes. The passions, and their corresponding instincts, are pacified and made cosmic, gradually recovering their primordial innocence. Heaviness is melted in life. The alchemist experiences nature from within in its immaculate conception. The process of whitening thus leads to an experience of the synthesis of all forms and especially as a marriage of opposites.

The second stage of the alchemical work.