Wednesday 28 September 2016

Why the Colours of the Alchemy? – (1144)

Introduction

I was always a bit puzzled by why the colours of the Alchemy were black, white, yellow and red.  The black and the white made perfect sense, though the yellow and red were puzzling for me.

I very naively thought at one point that it was a reflection of the four colours of human beings, the yellow Asiatic, the red Indian, the black African and the white European. I somehow don’t think that this is a very good reason or analogy.

Here below is an interesting excerpt by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov giving an interesting explanation.


Excerpt

“Why do alchemists describe the transformation of matter in the Great Work as a sequence of colours? Because they have observed this sequence with vegetation. Think of fruit trees for example: apart from some nuances – for nature is rich in variety – they pass through a series of colours, and always in the same order. In winter, the trees are black and bare. In spring, they become white with flowers and green with leaves. Then comes summer, and the ripening fruits turn yellow and red. In autumn the foliage turns red and gold, and with red and gold the process is finished. It is the end of the cycle, as it is in the work of alchemy.

Like vegetation, human beings must inwardly pass through all the phases of the alchemical process: they die, then they are reborn, resurrecting with new virtues and powers: new colours.”

End (1144).

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