The Magnum Opus or Great Work is the goal of alchemists. From ancient Alexandria and the wisdom of Maria the Prophetess comes a color phase process of the work, black, white, yellow and red. In later alchemy the concept develops further and yellow is dropped.
The Magnum Opus of the alchemist can be one or a series of accomplishments. While this may be creating the perfect alloy, a brilliant pigment or dyeing technique, medical discovery or literary extravaganza of opinion, it's often linked to the mythical philosophers' stone.
This stone is an object of discourse mentioned as far back as the ancient Greek philosophers. Alchemy is considered a branch of natural philosophy, thus the mysterious substance earns the name philosophers' stone, first appearing in 13-14th century AD as lapis philosophorum.
Before that it's rarely mentioned, only as "a stone", "the stone", or Zosimos' "stone that is not a stone" (c. 300 AD). In the 13th century Albertus Magnus calls it "the stone philosophers laud". It's connected to the color red, the rubedo or final stage of the Great Work.
So where do the colors black, white, yellow and red come from? Black, white and red are the first three colors an infant can see. They are colors on the Egyptian scribal palette. Ancient Egyptian scribes use yellow also, because gods have golden skin.
At its basic the Egyptian scribal palette is limited to red and black. The classic Greek palette, however, is made up of the colors black, white, yellow and red.
The Greek name of the distillation apparatus invented and/or used by Maria or Mary the Jewess, kerotakis, comes from the name of the triangular palette on which the ancient Greek painters mix their four basic pigments - white, black, yellow, and red - with wax {keros).
Scribes and artists put the palette on a small brazier or kerotakis to keep the wax soft. The four colors known by Maria and applied by her to the creation process match the Greek palette. At first they pertain to a copper treatment process but later any alchemical work.
From the Theatrum chemicum 1622:
" ... Alchemists use the kerotakis in a similar manner to soften the metals and mix them with the coloring agents, which is one of their chief procedures. The kerotakis becomes a three-part apparatus.
In its simplest form it consists of a vessel under a plate into which are placed vaporizable substances capable of attacking metals, while over it is an inverted cup in which the vapors are condensed to liquid. On the plate itself are placed the metals to be treated ... "
Metals can be melted, smelted, dyed and alloyed. It's important to have the purpose in mind before messing with metals, and each stage should be given proper consideration. Methods can vary depending on the alchemist or desired outcome.
The four colors relate to:
nigredo - black, putrefaction, Gr. melanosis
albedo - white, purification, Gr. leucosis
citrinitas - yellow, illumination, Gr. xanthosis
rubedo - red, the Magnum Opus, Gr. iosis
Red can have a connection with purple in the rubedo stage. The elusive pigment caput mortuum relates to this phase as that which is shed off, a side product of the quest for the red. It's also compared to iosis and the Angel of Violet Light.
Black, white, yellow and red are easily available in the environment. White pigments come from clays and limestone or chalk soils. Black is soot, charcoal, burnt bone. Charcoal is made for art up to 30,000 years ago.
Red comes from ubiquitous iron oxide or vegetation like madder root. Yellow is also plentiful as ocher iron oxide. The pigments are extracted by grinding down materials like earthy hematite which is rich in red, or yellow goethite and limonite.
In the alchemical process, one proceeds through each color stage as in methods of alloying metals or changing their natures. Alchemy has strong connections with metallurgy and the art of coloring metals. For example Maria's lead ("our lead" she calls it), is as follows:
" ... I have spoken to you previously of this molybdochalkon, [when talking] of our traditional silver. Thus the water blackens, attaching itself to our molybdochalkon, and gives it a permanent black tint ...
" ... and even though this tincture is nothing, all the initiates desire very much to know it. Now the water capable of taking on such a color produces a fixed tincture, the oil and the honey having been eliminated ... "
Molybdochalkos is an alloy of 8-12% copper and 88-92% lead. When heated, copper turns black, and this may be the start of a Great Work.
Non-Fiction Books:
Fiction Books:
READ: Lora Ley Adventures - Germanic Mythology Fiction Series
READ: Reiker For Hire - Victorian Detective Murder Mysteries