Citrinitas

Citrinitas, or sometimes referred to as xanthosis is a term given by 15th and 16th century alchemists to "yellowness". It was one of the four major stages of the alchemical opus, and literally referred to "transmutation of silver into gold" or "yellowing of the lunar conscientiousness". In alchemical philosophy, citrinitas stood for the dawning of the "solar light" inherent in one's being, and that the reflective "lunar or soul light" was no longer necessary. The other three alchemical stages were nigredo (blackness), albedo (whiteness) and rubedo (redness).

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Psychologist Carl Jung is credited with interpreting the pseudo-scientific alchemical process as analogous to modern-day psychoanalysis. In the Jungian archetypal schema the nigredo is the Shadow; albedo refers to the anima/animus (contrasexual soul images); citrinitas is the Wise old man (or woman) archetype; and rubedo is the Self archetype which has achieved wholeness.

Sources:

• Nigel Hamilton (1985), The Alchemical Process of Transformation
• C. G. Jung, Psychology and Alchemy 2nd. ed. (Transl. by R. F. C. Hull)
• E. J. Holmyard, Alchemy New York. Dower Publications. 1990