Very much less numerous. In the progress of the substance from blackness to whiteness (I.E., the second phase of our

Magistery), the most beautiful colours are seen in a variety such as eclipses the glory of the rainbow; before the

perfection of blackness is reached, there are also some transition colours, such as black, azure, and yellow—and the

meaning of these colours is that your substance is not yet completely decayed; while the body is dying, the colours are

seen, until black night shrouds the whole horizon in pitchy gloom. But when the process of resurrection begins (in the

second phase), the hues are more numerous and splendid, because the body is now beginning to be glorified, and has

become pure and spiritual.

But in what order do the colours of which we speak appear? To this question no definite answer can be given, because

In this first phase there are so much uncertainty and variation. But the colours will be the clearer and more distinct,

the purer your water of life is. The four principal colours (white, black, white, red), always follow in the same order;

but the order of the intermediate colours cannot be so certainly determined, and you ought to be content if within the

first 40 days [weeks] you get the black colour. There is only one caution you should bear in mind, in regard to this

point: if a reddish colour appears before the black (especially if the substance begins to look dry and powdery at the

same time), you may be almost sure that you have marred your substance by too violent a fire. You should be very

careful, then, about the regulation of your fire; if the fire be just hot enough, but not too hot, the inward chemical

action of our water will do the rest.

A Brief Guide to the Celestial Ruby, by Eirenaeus Philalethes, 1694 AD

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24. White Stage

Having adjusted the heat during the black stage, so that the body dries out in between rains, the black body

will slowly pass through various colors and turn white.

As when turning black, the whiteness will not appear suddenly one day, but it will be a slow progress over

a few months.

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When you find it black, know that in blackness whiteness is hidden, and you must extract the same from his most subtle

blackness. But after putrifaction it waxes red, not with a true redness, of which one says: It is often red, and often of a

citrine color, it often melts, and is often coagulated, before true whiteness.

[...] There appears also before whiteness the peacocks color, whereon one says thus, Know you that all the colors in

the world, or that may be imagined, appear before whiteness, and afterward true whiteness follows.

The Mirror of Alchemy, by Roger Bacon, 13th Cen.

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after the putrefaction and conception, which has taken place at the bottom of the vessel, there is once more a change

of colours and a circulating sublimation. This Reign, or Regimen, lasts only three weeks [months]. During this period

you see all conceivable colours concerning which no definite account can be given. The "showers" that fall will

become more numerous as the close of this reign approaches, and its termination is signalized by the appearance of a

snowy white streaky deposit on the sides of the vessel. Rejoice, then, for you have successfully accomplished the

regimen of Jupiter. What you must be particularly careful about in this operation, is to prevent the young ones of the

Crow from going back to the nest when they have once left it; secondly, to let your earth get neither too dry by an