Rubedo

For the character in Xenosaga, see Gaignun Kukai, Jr.

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Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness" that was adopted by 15th and 16th century alchemists to define the fourth major stage in the "alchemical opus" in achieving enlightened consciousness and the total fusion of spirit and matter. The three alchemical stages preceding rubedo were nigredo (blackness) which represented putrefication and spiritual death, albedo (whiteness) which represented purification, and thirdly citrinitas (yellowness); the solar dawn or awakening.

In the framework of psychological development (especially followers of Jungian psychology) these four alchemical steps are be taken as analogous to the process of attaining individuation: In an archetypal schema, rubedo would represent the Self archetype, and would be the culmination of the four stages. The Self manifests itself in "wholeness", a point in which a person discovers his or her true nature.

References:

• Jung’s Quarternity, Mandalas, the Philosopher's Stone and the Self

• Jung, C. G. Psychology and Alchemy 2nd. ed. (Transl. by R. F. C. Hull)