René Guénon
Chapter 8

6 | Solve et Coagula

At the end of the last chapter we made a passing reference to the Hermetic ‘coagulation’ and ‘solution’, and even though we have discussed them here and there on various occasions it will perhaps be useful to clarify once again certain related concepts which are more or less immediately relevant to our exposition up to this point.

The formula _solve et coagula_ is regarded as containing in a certain respect the entire secret of the ‘Great Work’, inasmuch as this reproduces the process of universal manifestation with its two inverse phases that we have just been discussing. The term _solve_ is often indicated by a sign depicting Heaven, and the term _coagula_ by a sign depicting Earth.[1] In other words the first term is identified with the action of the ascending current of the cosmic force (or the action of _yang_), the second with the action of the descending current (or the action of _yin_).

Every expansive force is _yang_, every contractive force is _yin_. Accordingly, the ‘condensations’ which give birth to individual composite beings are due to terrestrial influences whereas the ‘dissipations’ that return the elements of these composite beings to their originating principles are due to celestial influences. If we wished, we could speak here of the effects produced by the attraction of Earth on the one hand and of Heaven on the other. For so it is that ‘the ten thousand beings are modified by _yin_ and _yang_’ from the moment of their appearance in the manifest world up to their return to the non-manifest.

We should add that it is very important to realise that the order of the two terms depends upon one’s particular standpoint when viewing them. This is because the two complementary phases that they correspond to not only alternate but are also simultaneous: hence the order in which they present themselves will depend as it were on which state is taken as point of departure. So, if we were to start from the state of non-manifestation and proceed to the manifest (which is the strictly ‘cosmogonic’ point of view[2]), we would naturally find the ‘condensation’ or ‘coagulation’ occurring first. The ‘dissipation’ or ‘solution’ will come next, as a movement of return towards the non-manifest—or at least to something that, in a relative sense, corresponds to the non-manifest at a particular level.[3] If on the other hand we were to take as our point of departure some specific state of manifestation, first we would have to envisage a process tending towards the ‘solution’ of whatever is contained in that state, followed by a subsequent phase of ‘coagulation’ involving a return to another state of manifestation. We should add that in this case the stages of ‘solution’ and ‘coagulation’, corresponding respectively to the earlier state and the later state, can in reality be simultaneous.[4]

There is another factor involved here, which is even more important: namely that things are seen in reverse according to whether they are viewed from the standpoint of the Principle or from the standpoint of manifestation which we were adopting a moment ago. It results from this that what is yin from the one side is yang from the other, and the other way around—although it is only in a manner of speaking which is not strictly correct that one can speak of or imply a direct relationship between the Principle itself and a duality such as yin and yang. In fact, as we have already pointed out elsewhere,[5] it is the ‘expiration’ or movement of principal expansion which determines the ‘coagulation’ of mani- festation, and the ‘inspiration’ or movement of principal contraction which determines its ‘solution’. It would come to exactly the same thing if, instead of using the symbolism of the two phases of respiration, we were to use the symbolism of the double movement of the heart.

As to the incorrectness of expression we mentioned just a moment ago, it only requires a quite simple observation for us to circumvent it. Heaven, as the ‘positive’ pole of manifestation, is directly representative of the Principle insofar as manifestation is concerned;[6] but Earth, as the ‘negative’ pole, can only present an inverted image of the Principle and no more. This means that the ‘perspective’ of manifestation will naturally ascribe to the Principle itself what really belongs to Heaven. Accordingly the ‘motion’ of Heaven (motion understood in a purely symbolic sense, of course, for there is nothing spatial about it) will in a way be ascribed to the Principle itself, in spite of the fact that the latter is by definition immutable.

Basically it is more accurate to speak, as we were doing above, of the different attractions exerted in opposite directions by Heaven and by Earth. All attraction gives rise to a centripetal movement, hence a ‘condensation’; this will be balanced at the opposite pole by a ‘dissipation’ governed by a centrifugal movement that aims at re-establishing—or rather maintaining—the total equilibrium.[7] One consequence of this is that what from the point of view of substance is ‘condensation’ is, on the contrary, ‘dissipation’ from the point of view of essence; whereas, inversely, what from the point of view of substance is ‘dissipation’, will from the point of view of essence be ‘condensation’. This means that all ‘transmutation’ (to use the term in its Hermetic sense) will consist precisely of ‘dissolving’ what was ‘coagulated’ and simultaneously ‘coagulating’ what was ‘dissolved’. In appearance these two operations are inverse; in reality they are merely two complementary aspects of one single operation.

Here we have the reason why the alchemists frequently say that ‘the dissolution of the body is the fixation of the spirit’, and the other way round: for ultimately there is no difference between spirit and the ‘essential’ aspect of being, and between body and the ‘substantial’. This saying can be understood as referring to the alternation of ‘lives’ and ‘deaths’ in the broadest sense of these words, and if we interpret it in this way we have an exact correspondence to the ‘condensations’ and ‘dissipations’ of Taoist tradition.[8] We therefore end up with the statement that what is life for the body is death for the spirit, and vice versa. This explains why the process of ‘volatilising (or dissolving) the fixed and fixating (or coagulating) the volatile’, or ‘spiritualising the body and embodying the spirit’,[9] is also defined as ‘extracting the live from the dead and the dead from the live’; and this happens to be a Quranic expression as well.[10]

To some degree,[11] then, ‘transmutation’ implies a kind of reversal of ordinary relationships (by which we mean relationships as viewed from the standpoint of the ordinary man), although in reality this reversal is more than anything else a re-establishing of normal relationships. We will confine ourselves here to the bare comment that this question of ‘reversal’ is particularly important in relation to initiatic realisation. But we are not in a position to elaborate on this statement here, as to do so would involve examining matters outside the framework of the present study.[12] Viewed from another angle, the dual operation of ‘coagulation’ and ‘solution’ corresponds with the utmost precision to what in Christian tradition is described as the ‘power of the keys’. This power is dual as well, incorporating as it does both the power to ‘bind’ and the power to ‘loose’. Now ‘binding’ is clearly the same as ‘coagulating’, and ‘loosing’ the same as ‘dissolving’:[13] comparison with different traditional symbols confirms this correspondence beyond doubt. It is well known that the power in question is most commonly portrayed in the form of two keys, one of gold, the other of silver. The golden key refers to spiritual authority, or the priestly function; the silver one to temporal power, or the royal function. In the context of initiation, the two keys refer respectively to the ‘greater mysteries’ and the ‘lesser mysteries’; and this is the sense in which they were understood by the Romans when they made them the attributes of Janus.[14] Alchemically, the two keys refer to analogous operations carried out at two different levels: on one level the ‘whitening’, corresponding to the ‘lesser mysteries’, and on another level the ‘reddening’, corresponding to the ‘greater mysteries’.

These same two keys, which in the language of Dante are the keys to the ‘celestial paradise’ and the ‘terrestrial paradise’, are often crossed in a way that is reminiscent of the swastika. When this is the case, each of the two keys must be thought of as possessing the double power (at the particular level at which each operates) of both ‘opening’ and ‘closing’, or ‘binding’ and ‘loosing’.[15] But there is actually another, more comprehensive way of

about the relationship between Heaven and Earth.

depicting the keys according to which, for each of the two different functional levels, the two contrasting powers are represented by two keys, one opposite the other. This configuration is known as the 'claviger' swastika, precisely because each of its four limbs is shaped like a key (figure 12); this gives us

Figure 12

two keys lying opposite each other along a vertical axis, and another two facing each other along a horizontal axis.[17] Interpreted in terms of the annual cycle (and the close relationship between this cycle and the symbolism of Janus is well known), the former of these two axes is a solsticial axis, the second equinoctial.[18] Here the vertical, or solsticial, axis corresponds to the priestly function, and the horizontal, or equinoctial, axis to the royal function.[19]

The connection between this symbol and the symbol of the double spiral is confirmed by the existence of another version of the swastika that has curved limbs which look like two intersecting ‘S’s. The double spiral can of course be equated either with the vertical or with the horizontal part of the swastika; and although it is quite true that the double spiral is most often drawn horizontally (so as to bring out the complementary, and in a sense symmetrical, nature of the two currents of cosmic force[20]), it is also true that the curved line which corresponds to it in the yin-yang is generally drawn vertically. So either of the two positions is a possibility, depending on the particular situation; and both of the positions can be found together in the version of the swastika with the curved limbs. These limbs will therefore correspond to the two respective domains in which the ‘power of the keys’ is exercised.[21]

Another analogy to this ‘power of the keys’ can be found, in the Hindu and Tibetan traditions, in the double power of the vajra.[22] The vajra, as is generally known, is the symbol of the thunderbolt.[23] Its two tips, consisting of points shaped like flames, correspond to the two contrasting aspects of the power which the thunderbolt embodies: generation and destruction, life and death.[24] If we think of the vajra symbol in terms of the ‘World Axis’, these two tips correspond to the two poles, as well as to the solstices.[25] This points to a vertical alignment of the vajra; and indeed its role as a masculine symbol,[26] plus the fact that it is essentially a priestly attribute,[27] both confirm this. In a vertical position, the vajra represents the ‘Middle Way’, which is also (as we shall see later) the ‘Way of Heaven’. But it can also be tilted to either side, and the two positions that result from this tilting correspond to the two Tantric ‘paths’ of the right and left hand (dakshina-mārga and yāma-mārga). This ‘right’ and ‘left’ can, in turn, be related to the equinoctial points, just as ‘up’ and ‘down’ relate to the solsticial points.[28]

Clearly there is a great deal more we could say about all this, but rather than deviate too far from our main subject we will make do with these few observations and conclude our remarks by noting that the power of the vajra (or the ‘power of the keys’, which in essence is exactly the same thing) implies the ability to handle and apply the forces of the cosmos in their dual aspect of yin and yang. This means that ultimately it is no less than the power of control over life and death itself.[29]

Footnotes

[1]We are here alluding primarily to the symbolism of the signs in the 18th degree of Scottish Masonry, as well as to the symbolism of the ‘calumet’ rite of the North American Indians. This rite comprises three successive movements which relate to Heaven, Earth and Man respectively, and which can be summarised by the terms ‘solution’, ‘coagulation’ and ‘assimilation’.
[2]The sequential order of the two phases from this particular point of view also demonstrates once again why, in cosmogony, yin comes before yang.
[3]This has numerous applications in the domain of the traditional sciences. At one of the lowest levels we find it in the ‘summoning’ and ‘dismissal’ of the ‘errant influences’ at the start and end of a magical operation.
[4]This is the case when ‘death’ to one state and ‘birth’ into another are considered as the opposing and yet inseparable aspects of one and the same modification of the being. See The Symbolism of the Cross, chapter 22, and Aperçus sur l'Initiation, chapter 26.
[5]Aperçus sur l'Initiation, chapter 47.
[6]Hence the reason why _T’ai Chi_ appears to us as the ‘pinnacle of Heaven’ even though it is above both Heaven and Earth and prior to their differentiation.
[7]This can be related to the explanations in _Les Principes du Calcul infinitésimal_, chapter 17.
[8]According to the commentators on the Tao Te Ching, this alternation between states of life and death is ‘the to-ing and fro-ing of the shuttle on the cosmic loom’. See The Symbolism of the Cross, chapter 14, where we have also recorded the other comparisons made by the same commentators with breathing and with the lunar cycle.
[9]The statement ‘to hide the manifest and manifest the hidden’ also has the same meaning.
[10]Quran vi:95. For the alternation of lives and deaths, and the final return to the Principle, see ii:28.
[11]To understand the reasons for this qualification, see our comments in Aperçus sur l'Initiation, chapter 42.
[12]At the highest level this ‘reversal’ finds a close parallel in what in Kabbalistic symbolism is called the ‘displacement of the lights’, as well as in the saying which Islamic tradition puts into the mouth of the awliyā: ‘Our bodies are our spirits, and our spirits our bodies’ (ajsāmnā arwāḥnā, wa arwāḥnā ajsāmnā). This ‘reversal’ also means that in the spiritual order of things it is actually the ‘inward’ that surrounds and embraces the ‘outward’; and here we have the justification for what was said earlier
[13]Latin also has the expression _potestas ligandi et solvendi_ (the power to bind and loose). The idea of ‘binding’ re-occurs in a literal sense in the magical use of knots, which has its counterpart in the usage of the points in the ‘dissolution’ process.
[14]See _Autorité spirituelle et pouvoir temporel_, chapters 5 and 8, and also, for the relationship between the ‘greater mysteries’ and the ‘priestly initiation’ and between the ‘lesser mysteries’ and the ‘royal initiation’, _Aperçus sur l’Initiation_, chapters 39 and 40.
[15]Even so, it can still be said that in a certain sense the power to ‘bind’ is predominant in the key corresponding to the temporal, while the power to ‘loose’ is predominant in the key corresponding to the spiritual. The rationale behind this is that, in relation to each other, the temporal is _yin_ and the spiritual _yang_; even outwardly this can be justified by connecting ‘constraint’ with the temporal domain and ‘freedom’ with the spiritual.
[16]There are various versions of this schema. The one we are reproducing here can be found for example, alongside an ordinary swastika, on an Etruscan vase in the Louvre Museum. A Christian motif that approximates to the 'claviger' swastika can be seen in Mgr Devoucoux's introduction to the Histoire de l'antique cité d'Autun by Canon Edme Thomas, page xlvi.
[17]Strictly speaking we should talk of two axes that are relatively vertical and relatively horizontal with regard to each other, because the swastika itself should be imagined as lying on a horizontal plane: see The Symbolism of the Cross, chapter 10. The key is essentially an 'axial' symbol, as is the staff or sceptre which in certain representations of Janus is substituted for the one of the two keys that symbolises temporal power, or the 'lesser mysteries'.
[18]In the most common representations of Janus (Janus Bifrons) the two faces symbolise (along with other meanings) the two solstices. But other representations of Janus also exist which show him with four faces (Janus Quadrifons). These correspond to the two solstices plus the two equinoxes, and they present a quite remarkable resemblance to the Brahma Chaturmukha in the Hindu tradition.
[19]Certain inferences could be drawn from this regarding the significance of the predominance attributed to the solstices in some traditions and to the equinoxes in others, particularly for the purpose of fixing the start of the year. We will simply say here that the solsticial point of view is always more 'primordial' than the equinoctial point of view.
[20]This symmetry is also strongly evident in the case of the two serpents of the caduceus.
[21]The art of medicine, which for the ancients was an offshoot of the ‘priestly art’, will accordingly correspond to a vertical positioning of the double spiral inasmuch as it activates the dual forces of yang and yin as indicated above. This vertical double spiral is represented by the serpent coiled in an ‘S’ shape around the staff of Asklepios; in this particular case the serpent occurs alone, so as to indicate that medical science only employs the ‘beneficent’ aspect of the cosmic force. It is worth noting that the term ‘spagyry’ (a designation for Hermetic medicine) expresses by its composite formation the double operation of ‘solution’ and ‘coagulation’. So the exercise of traditional medicine is indeed precisely an application, within a specific domain, of the ‘power of the keys’.
[22]Vajra is the Sanskrit word; the Tibetan form of it is dorje.
[23]It actually has a double meaning: ‘thunderbolt’ and ‘diamond’. In both these meanings it is an ‘axial’ symbol.
[24]Certain double-edged weapons also have the same connotation: for example the double axe in ancient Greek symbolism, which has a significance comparable to that of the caduceus. In Scandinavian tradition the thunderbolt was represented by the hammer of Thor, which can be equated with the Master’s mallet in Masonic symbolism. Hence the mallet or hammer is also an equivalent of the vajra; and indeed just like the vajra it has the double power to mete out life and death. This is shown on the one hand by its role in initiatory consecration, on the other hand by its role in the legend of Hiram.
[25]In the spatial correspondence of the annual cycle they are equivalent to North (winter) and South (summer), while the two equinoxes correspond to East (spring) and West (autumn). From the point of view of ritual, these correspondences possess great significance, particularly in the Far-Eastern tradition.
[26]Its feminine counterpart in the Hindu tradition is the conch (shankha). In the Tibetan tradition its counterpart is the ritual bell (dilbu), which often has depicted on it a feminine figure who represents Prājnā-pāramitā or ‘transcendental Wisdom’. The bell is her symbol, just as the vajra is the symbol of the ‘Method’, or the ‘Way’.
[27]The Lamas hold the vajra in their right hand and the bell in their left. These two ritual objects must never be separated from each other.
[28]Sometimes in Tibetan symbolism one can come across a configuration consisting of two crossed vajras. This is clearly an equivalent of the swastika, which means that the four tips correspond exactly to the four keys of the ‘claviger’ swastika.
[29]In ancient manuscripts originating from Operative Masonry, mention is made without any further explanation of a certain faculty of abrac. This enigmatic word abrac has given rise to a number of different interpretations, all of them more or less totally fanciful. Obviously it is a word that has become corrupted. It would seem quite clear that it must have had the meaning of ‘thunderbolt’ or ‘flash of lightning’ (ha-baraq in Hebrew, el-barq in Arabic), so that here again it would be another instance of the power of the vajra. All this makes it easy to grasp the kind of symbolism that has so often induced the most varied of peoples to see in the power to cause storms a kind of consequence of initiation.
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