Colour alchemy

Colour as an alchemical force
In classical alchemy, the work was never solely about creating gold; it was about the purification of the soul. In the same ancient Hermetic tradition, colour alchemy invites inner transformation: from chaos to order, from unconsciousness to awareness, from fragmentation to wholeness.

Each colour represents an alchemical phase. Classical alchemy recognised four primary stages of transformation, which are also reflected in colour alchemy:

1. Black (Nigredo): darkness, not-knowing, stillness, shadow work
   Nigredo literally means blackening. It symbolises the phase of dissolution and breakdown. Here, you confront the shadow, the unknown and the unconscious. It is the necessary silence that precedes transformation.
2. White (Albedo): purification, clarity, insight, quiet truth
   Albedo means whitening and represents purification. After the darkness of Nigredo, space opens for inner clarity. The fog begins to lift, and you start to sense what is true.
3. Yellow (Citrinitas): awakening, life force, soul light
   Citrinitas refers to yellowing or a golden glow. This phase marks the awakening of inner light. Life force returns, bringing access to soul energy, courage and direction.
4. Red (Rubedo): integration, embodiment, love, the sacred fire
   Rubedo means reddening and signifies completion. Everything you have learned becomes integrated. You embody your essence and live your truth with fire and love.

Alongside these classical colours, other hues represent subtler frequencies that act as transitional gateways, such as turquoise (heart-truth), indigo (soul vision) and magenta (cosmic consciousness).

Colour fields as energetic portals
When you attune to a colour in colour alchemy, you enter a field. This is not merely an emotion or a mood, but a deeper layer of consciousness. For example:

• Deep red is not simply grounding; it is the remembrance of primal power, incarnation and your right to exist on Earth.
• Indigo is more than a beautiful, deep colour; it is the field of mystical knowing, the inner seer: the temple of silence where truth is revealed.
• Golden yellow opens the field of solarity*: leadership from within, where your soul light radiates into the world.

In this way, colour functions like a temple. Each colour is a space you can enter. Within it, you may encounter insights, emotions, memories or sometimes a silence that says everything.

Alchemy requires surrender
In colour alchemy, you do not make colour work for you. You attune to it without expectation and that requires surrender. Colour cannot be manipulated; it responds to your willingness to feel, to sink into the body and to release the need to understand everything immediately.

A central question in this work is therefore:
Do you dare to be with colour, without trying to resolve it?

Only then does true alchemy unfold: the moment when colour touches you at soul level and knowing arises without words. Something you feel in your belly, your chest, your hands. Colour as direct transmission.

The inner colour body
Colour alchemy works not only with colours outside ourselves, but also with the inner colour body. Every person carries a unique colour composition: an energetic tapestry of memories, qualities, blockages and potential. This inner colour body:

• changes throughout your life
• carries soul characteristics (such as soul blue, soul pink or soul brown)
• responds to colour impulses in your environment
• can be healed, purified or strengthened through specific colour frequencies

In deep alchemical processes, working with particular colour fields can release old patterns and energies, sometimes even on familial or karmic levels.

Rituals and symbolism
Colour alchemy naturally lends itself to ritual. For example:

• writing with ink in the colour that resonates with your intention
• wearing a specific colour during a period of inner transformation
• invoking a colour through visualisation or meditation
• working with colour in nature (flowers, stones, light and shadow)

Symbolically, colour acts as an anchor in the invisible. You do not always need to understand it; colour reminds your system of what it already knows.