Solve et Coagula
Dissolve and coagulate - the fundamental alchemical operation.
Solve et coagula (dissolve and coagulate) summarizes the Tablet's teaching. First dissolve fixed, rigid patterns; then reform them in a higher, purified state. This applies to matter, psyche, and spirit.
Dissolve and coagulate.
This formula summarizes the entire alchemical process.
Alchemical Literature
Written about in
- What Hermeticism says about failure
Dissolve and coagulate is one instruction, not two. A person stuck in dissolution — broken up and never reformed — has stopped halfway through an operation rather than failed at it.