Alchemy

Conceptual Illustration by Enrica Massidda

Dream: On a dark night, immersed in a black sea, I cannot swim because my skirt is stuck to me. I can see myself but I can do nothing except try to figure out what to hold on to. My skirt prevents me from swimming. Slowly my skirt follows the movement of the waves and doesn’t resist them. I lift myself up and embrace the moon I read that for Jung, alchemy was a powerful metaphor for the process of psychic transformation or “individuation.”

Nigredo: Corresponds to the initial phase of depression, confusion, and confrontation with the shadow. In my dream: the black sea.

Albedo: Purification, awareness, illumination of the unconscious. In my dream: the only way the skirt doesn’t get in the way is if it follows the movement (or flow) of the waves.

Rubedo: Fulfilment, the final integration of opposites and the reaching of self-fulfillment or individuation. Waking up and embracing the moon and its dual aspects, life and destruction, death and rebirth.

Alchemy is a conceptual illustration project exploring dream imagery, Jungian symbolism and the alchemical stages of transformation: Nigredo, Albedo and Rubedo. It was created for Redazione stanze, a quarterly culture magazine