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...dissolutions. If the MatterMatter: The primary substance being worked on in the alchemical vessel, often referred to as the "Subject." is now held in such philosophical and vaporous fire, a true and radical dissolution finally follows: and that which has dissolved is volatile, and gradually raises itself into its sphere, depositing itself above in the circle of the glass like a talc, and does not flow like common water; therefore the Philosophers have called it a distant solution original: "solutionem remotam." This refers to a state where the matter is dissolved but has moved away from its original solid form into a gaseous or shimmering state.. Thus this body must be broken and resolved within itself, as the Turba Turba: Short for Turba Philosophorum (Assembly of the Philosophers), one of the oldest and most famous Latin alchemical texts, written as a debate between various thinkers. says: It dissolves itself, it sublimes itself, it kills itself, and makes itself living again. Our grinding is not done with hands, but by cooking or putrefaction. original: "Nostra contritio non fit manibus, sed decoctione, vel putrefactione." And so the solution or dissolution is accomplished solely through putrefaction Putrefaction: A stage of the "Great Work" where the matter is allowed to rot or break down. Alchemists believed that, like a seed in the ground, the matter must "die" and turn black before it can be reborn as something more perfect.. For putrefaction is highly necessary to our work, because without it, the life of no other thing—be it in the animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom—can emerge and be attained. And if it is not first brought into its putrefaction before all else, it remains undissolved, and consequently unfit for any transmutation and transformation. But what rot or putrefaction accomplishes in this work cannot be sufficiently expressed; for through this...