What are the stages of alchemy?

The alchemists described their Great Work in two ways. Most simply, as four colours the matter passed through: black (nigredo), white (albedo), yellow (citrinitas) and red (rubedo). In more detail, as a series of operations; the best-known list has twelve, from Calcination to Projection, set out by George Ripley in The Compound of Alchymy in 1471.

The four colours

Some later writers dropped the yellow and counted three. The four colours, explained.

Black, nigredo: breaking down, the dark before new life.
White, albedo: washing and clearing, as the matter begins to set.
Yellow, citrinitas: new light, the dawn after the white.
Red, rubedo: completion, the gold.

The twelve stages

George Ripley called them the Twelve Gates. Each one has its own page here:

Calcination: burning off what isn’t you.
Solution: letting the hard shell dissolve.
Separation: keeping what is yours.
Conjunction: joining your opposites.
Putrefaction: the dark before new life.
Congelation: the new self begins to set.
Cibation: feeding it, little by little.
Sublimation: rising above.
Fermentation: new life and inspiration.
Exaltation: raising it to its highest.
Multiplication: it grows and reaches others.
Projection: your gold, cast into the world.

How the twelve fit the four colours

In Lead to Gold the first five gates, Calcination to Putrefaction, are the black stage of shadow work. Congelation, Cibation and Sublimation are the white stage of clearing. Fermentation and Exaltation are the new light, and Multiplication and Projection are the red: your gold.

The old writers did not all agree on the number or the order of the operations. Ripley’s twelve is the list most people know.

Why the order matters

Each stage grows out of the one before. In the Golden Tractate the vulture cries, ‘I am the White of the Black, and the Red of the White’: the light comes out of the dark, not around it.

In the old masters’ words

“That Blackness passed he may grow white.” Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, Ashmole's English verses, 1652

In Lead to Gold

Lead to Gold walks the twelve gates one week at a time: 84 days from shadow work to your gold, with a short lesson, a guided exercise and a journal prompt each day. Missing a day never puts the fire out.

Last updated October 24, 2026.

Lead to Gold: Shadow Work, on Google Play

The alchemists’ Great Work, made into ten quiet minutes a day: twelve gates, a private journal, and a line of wisdom from the old masters. Free to download, for Android.

Get it on Google Play

Keep reading

Nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo: what do they mean?: Nigredo, albedo, citrinitas and rubedo are alchemy’s four colour stages: black, white, yellow and red. What each one means, in the flask and in you.
What is calcination in alchemy?: Calcination, stage 1 of the twelve stages of alchemy: burning off what isn’t you. What the alchemists did, and what it means for you.
Spiritual alchemy for beginners: what is it?: Spiritual alchemy reads the old art of turning lead into gold as inner change. Where it comes from, its stages, and how to begin, in plain words.