The Stages of Awakening (Part I) - The Descent into the Unconscious, The Nigredo
“The difficulty and grief to be encountered at the beginning of the work once more coincide with the nigredo, like the “horrible darknesses of our mind” and these in their turn are surely the same as the “affliction of soul…”
-C.G. Jung, 1968, para. 389
Nigredo: Blackness, Division, Putrefaction, Decay, Chaos, Mass Confusion
Perhaps the most frightening part of an awakening is the unknowing. Emotions, feelings, and intuitions boil to the surface in the beginning. Something new has presented itself which we, to date, have no words, no vocabulary for… Until the searching begins.
There are many names for an awakening: Spiritual awakening, the path of individuation, coming to enlightenment, self-realization, self-transcendence, to name a few. The names are subjective and contingent upon the background of the person experiencing the awakening, combined with what they discover on their journey. For ease of understanding in this article, we will be using the terminology: Awakening.
Although the experience can be subjective and unique to the one experiencing the awakening, the psychological process and journey occurring within is fundamentally the same. It consists of three primary stages:
1) Psychologically speaking, the first stage is the descent into the unconscious. This is where we turn within and come face to face with the otherworldly dimension of our psychological structure that is the unconscious. This stage is known in the ancient discipline of alchemy as the nigredo: It is the blackness, putrefaction, decay, and metaphysical death. It is an introspective dive into the depths of our being.
2) The second stage is the beautiful white light we experience within, and without. It is what many refer to as the moment of enlightenment. It is a brilliance and radiance of joy, purity, ecstasy, and love. Within alchemy, this is the albedo: The whitening. It is the coming into contact with the brilliance of feminine wisdom and feminine consciousness, and therewith, the realization of its contents and the subsequent rapture in which it brings. It is the discovery of the light in the darkness.
Most believe an awakening ends with the albedo; however, this is far from true as there is much work still to be done. There is still the rubedo:
3) The third and final stage is the ascent: The journey out of the unconscious. It is a return from our inner depths back to the physical world with what we have discovered while in the unconscious. In alchemy, this is the rubedo: The reddening. It is a fulfillment of the work. It is the return as indicated by Joseph Campbell on the Hero’s Journey. It is integrating the newly discovered contents of the unconscious into our daily actions and conscious life. What comes with it is a new way of seeing, a new way of moving, a new way of living, a new way of love.
Although coming to a new state of consciousness evolves with the evolution of consciousness itself, awakening is nothing new. The path to awakening has been told a thousand times, in a thousand different languages, from rural tribes to ancient civilizations across the world in symbolic stories within mythology, spiritual texts and disciplines, to ancient stories told around campfires. The storytelling language has always been the mode of communicating this process. It only requires that we see these ancient words with symbolic eyes to uncover the hidden meanings which lay within each story. But now, thanks to depth psychology, we can also understand an awakening psychologically.
In this article, we’ll be covering in detail, the first stage: The descent, the nigredo.
I will not deny nor attempt to hide the truth. This first stage is dark, frightening, and utterly terrifying. Many think awakening or enlightenment is nothing but bliss or joy, but the beginning is quite the opposite.
As we experience each stage inwardly, within our inner world, we also experience each stage physiologically as well; this is why the first stage can feel as if we are traversing hell. Well, because, symbolically, we are. There are numerous symbols for the unconscious across the previously mentioned stories and mythologies-. Some of the symbols for the unconscious within myth and story are the underworld, the other world, the ocean, the abyss, the labyrinth, the deep dark cave, the cavern, the tomb, etc.
I’m sure you can begin to see a theme and motif with these symbols mentioned. It is anything that is below the surface, dark, difficult to navigate, etc. The reason these are its symbols because the unconscious, that wild and mysterious dimension of our psychological structure, lives deep within us, under the surface of our skin, deep in our inner world and psychological roots.
The moment the awakening, specifically the nigredo, begins for people is rarely by choice. It is an occurrence, a happening, an experience. It quite typically results from a moment. Perhaps it was a progression of subtle hints which finally caught our eye; but typically it ensues from an intense amount of suffering, not uncommon to be a tragedy, anxiety, or severe depression. Whatever that moment may have been, it suddenly stops the world around us. Time is of no more. We begin to look around and question everything. Life now appears as if it were scripted, no authenticity can be seen. Our eyes open wide, and we no longer know what is up and what is down. It can seem as if the world freezes over for a moment as we have not the slightest idea what is being observed and no fathom of what is happening. It hit us so insanely deep that we can do nothing else but look within.
This is the moment our forward moving conscious energy, our ego-consciousness, stops. It freezes, it halts in place. It acknowledges that something is different, something is off. Here, the depth of being begs for self-inquiry and the Eastern principle known as the backflow of energy begins. This is where our forward striving energy, our ego-consciousness, also our masculine consciousness- every bit of our energy we once put into the world through work, activities, relationships, etc. suddenly turns around; it looks backwards, as if into its own self, and what it sees is something new, something it was never aware existed, yet was there all along. And what it begins to see, consciously for the first time, is the unconscious and its contents. A mode of introspection, of deep-seated introversion has begun. This is the descent into the unconscious, the nigredo.
But, right in this moment, many turn back to the old ways. They run away from the feeling of darkness, the feeling of unknowing, the fear of something different. They run back to the comforts of former beliefs, traditions, and orthodox behavior they have always known; but only do they discover that the unconscious will not allow it. She follows closely behind in her dark ways. Nightmares, anxiety, and depression loom until we answer the call to turn within and investigate our inner being. The unconscious seeks our all; it demands it while we are in our depths.
I would like to say- If you have found yourself here, know that you are strong enough to endure. You may not feel it, but this would not have been presented before you if you could not handle it. You were called to experience it for a reason. Take care of yourself when you must, but know we are always stronger than we realize.
So, with an inner boldness, if we can somehow find the courage to endure what feels to be teetering the line of madness, tears of unknowing, and battles with the new paradoxes displayed before our eyes, there we sink further into our depths and encounter the darkest hour of night, the labyrinth of stories far and old, the black of Yin, the terrifying abyss, and the true meaning of the phrase: the dark night of the soul, where we may be purged of everything which is not part of our authentic nature.
Things are dark at this moment. Here in our personal unconscious, our own inner world, we are met with every truth, every belief, every value, every behavior, and every attitude we maintain in life. The depth of our being has forced us to inquire these and the validity of each. But what happens is nearly too much, as here in our depths, within the dark night of the soul, all our truths crumble before our eyes.
This is why the beginning of an awakening hurts and feels as if we are breaking down and being ripped apart from the inside. Deep in our psychological structure; deep in our inner world, our ego nearly shatters in place. Not totally, or we could not properly function, but just enough. Just as the nigredo is the blackness, the decaying, and metaphysical death, we are symbolically, inwardly, and metaphysically dying to the ways we have always known. We can no longer live the life of conformity we always have, and change must now be embraced.
But there is reason for this darkness and pain endured in this stage: We have to be taken back to ground zero. We must let go of the falsities of how we imagined life to be and what we have been told about life, so that we may now discover our own truths, our own beliefs, and move into accordance with who we each authentically are, without prior dogma or the pressures of society or others. We must descend to a state of emptiness, stripped of everything we have been conditioned of, purged of what we imagined life to be, so we may finally come to see life as it actually is. This metaphysical death is so we may awaken to the potential of a new life.
And so, a journey, a path we never knew existed, has now opened before our eyes. It leads us through untrodden trails of the depths of psyche. We have found ourselves in a realm of dreams and visions, and here we discover that dreams do guide.
But this was just the beginning. This was the nigredo. This is the descent into the unconscious.
And if we have endured and traversed thus far, finally, we begin to see: Within the greatest darkness also lies the most radiant light.
We have been cleansed and purged. We have been prepared for the second stage- The albedo: the whitening, the illumination.
“Consciousness is renewed through its descent into the unconscious.”
-C.G. Jung, 1974, para. 520
With all my love,
Mark
References
Jung, C. G. (1968). The collected works of C. G. Jung: Psychology and Alchemy (Vol 12). Princeton University Press.
Jung, C. G. (1974). The collected works of C. G. Jung: Mysterium Coniunctionis (Vol 14). Princeton University Press.
