Below is a [loose] transcript of the video, above, in which I share a little bit about the Black Stage of transformation.
TRANSCRIPT
The first stage is the black stage, or the nigredo stage. These are the times in our lives where everything breaks down, or melts down. These are the crises of our lives whether they are instigated from without or within. They can be emotional breakdowns, they can be family, breakups, they can be workplace problems, issues. On a collective level we entered the black stage when COVID came and stopped everything in its tracks.
Using this as brief example of the importance of transformation: I think we can start to see now who used this time of COVID as an opportunity to reframe their lives, heal or leave toxic relationships or jobs, or reprioritize their lives. These are people for whom, even though these years were difficult, have a certain sense of respect for the windows it opened.
And, we can see those who fought against it from day 1, and never truly entered the crucible for transformation and can only feel bitterness for the lost years. This is a collective example of what it looks like when we accept we’re in the black stage, and when we fight against it tooth and nail.
The black stage is the stage of fire. It is the stage in which we must face the dragon, who will burn down and break down everything that we think is true about the world and force us to reflect on what really matters. So perhaps if you're in this stage right now you are feeling a loss of control, or a loss of identity. You are feeling confused, out of place, maybe like you don't belong. You're questioning your upbringing. You're questioning cultural beliefs, you're questioning your work, your purpose, your sense of meaning. The great alchemists knew that you could not make gold out of lead unless you first broke the lead all the way down to its prima materia or its primal material. This is what's happening to us in these times in our lives, and we've all been through them. We've all been through times where everything just falls apart.
Now, society wants us to hurry up and put ourselves back together again. It's all Humpty Dumpty, right? Just pull ourselves together, zip ourselves back up, put on a happy face and get back out there.
When we look at it through an alchemical lens, however, we see that this is a sacred space to be in. It doesn't mean that we've been forgotten or lost…really just the opposite, is that the universe sees more potential within you and that you've gone as far as you can with the beliefs that you have and the Constitution that you have and and the particular perspectives you're carrying in life. This stage says to us - you cannot go any further until you break things down, sort through them, and see what's really working and what's not.
As long as you're here in the black stage, as long as things are breaking down, sometimes it's better to simply let it happen to let things fall apart to let it go to stop the resistance and stop trying to pull it together. And let yourself fall apart assuming that you have some proper support in order to do this. What we're talking about here is not the same thing as just completely throwing a tantrum and quitting your job and leaving your marriage. But this is more about letting those internal blockages and those internal beliefs just start to crack a little bit and break in half so that we can see what's in them and where they came from, which is all the work we're going to be doing in the second stage of the process.
You will know you are in this stage it if you're starting to question everything that you believe you've been told that you understood about the way that the world works, your place in life and all the rest.
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