Solve et Coagula by Johanna Nyqvist for Black Sheep: The Alchemist by Invisible Chicks and PPN

Solve et Coagula is an animated artwork invoking the forgotten feminine core of alchemy. Through chant, symbol, and repetition, the work reclaims transformation as a living, embodied process rather than a historical pursuit of gold. Lunar forces, copper, blood, and breath form a cyclical ritual where knowledge once erased returns—not as explanation, but as presence. The piece positions the feminine not as an assistant to transformation, but as its origin, which emerges from alchemy as a language of survival—one that hid knowledge in symbols when direct speech was forbidden. Historically framed as secrecy or mysticism, alchemy was also a method for preserving embodied, often feminine ways of knowingwithin hostile systems of power.

Solve et Coagula draws from alchemical concepts such as, the Philosopher's Stone, the Chemical Wedding, and internal traditions where transformation is understood as cyclical, relational, and inseparable from the body. Lunar symbolism, copper, blood, and breath appear not as metaphors, but as active agents in the Great Work. Here, transformation is not the production of gold, but the remembering of unity—many made into one.

Rather than illustrating history, the work activates it. Chant replaces narration, and repetition replaces explanation. The voice becomes a vessel through which suppressed knowledge continues to circulate. In this space, the feminine is not lost to time—it is encoded, waiting, and ongoing.

Part of Lyrics for Solve et Coagula: Luna in silver, soft and slow Venus in copper, flesh and glow White Queen rising, veiled in light Red Dragon dreaming through the night Solve et coagula Soror Mystica, lead us through Solve et coagula We are the Work becoming true