From Manhunter: Will Graham catches his breath as his surroundings
come back into focus, after his encounter with his Jungian shadow,
Hannibal Lecktor. The encounter with the shadow is associated with the
alchemical stage known as the nigredo.
At the end of Manhunter, Graham defeats Francis Dollarhyde, the
'red dragon'. In alchemy, the red dragon symbolizes the rubedo.
Lately we have been talking about Mann's depiction of movement of the Holy Spirit in some of his movies, and about the relationship of the Holy Spirit to breath. In early Greek alchemy, the nigredo stage was identified with chaos (see below for a basic description of alchemy and the nigredo.) Because of association with the creation in Genesis, where "the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (Gen. 1:2), Chaos was further identified with the element Water.
Alchemy is an ancient tradition, the primary objective of which was the creation of the mythical "philosopher's stone," which was said to be capable of turning base metals into gold or silver, and also act as an elixir of life that would confer youth and immortality upon its user. The Philosopher's stone is created by the alchemical method known as The Magnum Opus or The Great Work. Often expressed as a series of color changes or chemical processes, the instructions for creating the philosopher's stone are varied. The Great Work originally had four stages:
1) nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
2) albedo, a whitening or leucosis
3) citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
4) rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis
After the 15th century, many writers tended to compress citrinitas into rubedo and consider only three stages. However, it is in citrinitas that the Chemical Wedding takes place, generating the Philosophical Mercury without which the Philosopher's Stone, triumph of the Work, could never be accomplished.
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.[4][5] Let us examine the four steps in greater detail.
1. Nigredo, or blackness, in alchemy means putrefaction or decomposition. The alchemists believed that as a first step in the pathway to the philosopher's stone all alchemical ingredients had to be cleansed and cooked extensively to a uniform black matter. In psychology, Carl Jung (a student of alchemy) interpreted nigredo as a moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development.[6]
It's my belief that Mann's depiction of the Holy Spirit moving over the waters in some of his movies, has to do with the nigredo. As mentioned in the caption to the top screencap above, the nigredo is also associated with the encounter with the psychological shadow.
2. Albedo - following the harrowing, chaotic nigredo, it is necessary for purification provided by the albedo which is literally referred to as ablutio; the washing away of impurities by aqua vitae. Jung equated the albedo with unconscious contrasexual soul images; the anima in men and animus in women. It is a phase where insight into shadow projections are realized, and inflated ego and unneeded conceptualizations are removed from the psyche.[7]
3. Citrinitas literally referred to "transmutation of silver into gold" or "yellowing of the lunar consciousness", and in alchemical philosophy 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. In Jungian terms, citrinitas is the wise old man (or woman) archetype.[8]
4. Rubedo is a Latin word meaning "redness". 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.[9]
As noted next to the second screencap above, Will Graham's encounter with Francis Dollarhyde at the end of Manhunter, represents Will's rubedo, the final stage of his alchemical process.
Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung associated the processes of alchemy with the stages of individuation, which is a process of psychological integration having for its goal the development of the individual personality.
We will continue to explore Mann's depiction of the processes of alchemy (and thus possibly also those of individuation) as the analysis proceeds.
