Magnum opus (alchemy)

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Colors of the magnum opus seen on the breastplate of a figure from Splendor Solis


  • nigredo, a blackening or melanosis
  • albedo, a whitening or leucosis
  • citrinitas, a yellowing or xanthosis
  • rubedo, a reddening, purpling, or iosis



Expansion on the four stages[edit]

Alchemical authors sometimes elaborated on the three or four color model by enumerating a variety of chemical steps to be performed. Though these were often arranged in groups of seven or twelve stages, there is little consistency in the names of these processes, their number, their order, or their description.[5]

Various alchemical documents were directly or indirectly used to justify these stages. The Tabula Smaragdina is the oldest document[6] said to provide a "recipe". Others include the Mutus Liber, the twelve keys of Basil Valentine, the emblems of Steffan Michelspacher, and the twelve gates of George Ripley.[7] Ripley's steps are given as:[8]

1. Calcination 7. Cibation
2. Solution (or Dissolution) 8. Sublimation
3. Separation 9. Fermentation
4. Conjunction 10. Exaltation
5. Putrefaction 11. Multiplication
6. Congelation 12. Projection

In another example from the sixteenth century, Samuel Norton gives the following fourteen stages:[9]

1. Purgation 8. Conjunction
2. Sublimation 9. Putrefaction in sulphur
3. Calcination 10. Solution of bodily sulphur
4. Exuberation 11. Solution of sulphur of white light
5. Fixation 12. Fermentation in elixir
6. Solution 13. Multiplication in virtue
7. Separation 14. Multiplication in quantity

Some alchemists also circulated steps for the creation of practical medicines and substances, that have little to do with the magnum opus. The cryptic and often symbolic language used to describe both adds to the confusion, but it's clear that there is no single standard step-by-step recipe given for the creation of the philosopher's stone.[10]

Magnum opus in literature and entertainment[edit]

Sometimes an artist's magnum opus is modeled around the alchemical magnum opus. More than simple mention of alchemy within the story, masterpieces like Finnegans Wake,[11] follow the process of transmutation, weaving their entire narrative with alchemical symbolism.[12] The scholarly journal, Cauda Pavonis which had been published out of various universities since 1980, explored these connections in art and literature. Recently, John Granger has used the phrase literary alchemy to describe these trends in popular fiction, such as the Harry Potter series.[13]


  1. ^ The-Four-Stages-of-Alchemical-Work
  3. ^ Henrik Bogdan. Western esotericism and rituals of initiation. State University of New York Press, Albany. p.197
  4. ^ Meyrink und das theomorphische Menschenbild
  5. ^ Stanton J. Linden. The alchemy reader: from Hermes Trismegistus to Isaac Newton. p.17
  6. ^ it is unclear if the text originates in the Middle Ages or in Late Antiquity, but it is generally assumed to predate 1150, when Gerard of Cremona translated it from the Arabic (Mircea Eliade, History of Religious Ideas, vol. 3/1)
  7. ^ From George Ripley's Compound of Alchymy. (1471)
  9. ^ Mark Haeffner. Dictionary of Alchemy: From Maria Prophetessa to Isaac Newton. p.238
  10. ^ Mark Haeffner. Dictionary of Alchemy: From Maria Prophetessa to Isaac Newton. p.237
  11. ^ Barbara DiBernard. Alchemy and Finnegans Wake. SUNY Press, 1980.
  12. ^ For details from English literature, see Stanton J. Linden. Darke Hieroglyphicks: Alchemy in English Literature from Chaucer to the Restoration. University of Kentucky Press. 1998.
  13. ^ John Granger. The Alchemist’s Tale Harry Potter & the Alchemical Tradition in English Literature