But Richard, why would a card which is about joining illustrate "solve".
Or maybe it is that both cards illustrate both, and the maxim is only complete when they both come together...
Would someone like to elaborate on the importance of this phrase in alchemy? and what it means?
I understand it to be - that the two basic processes of creation are separating and combing, combining and separating:combine the egg and the sperm, then the fertilized egg sets about separating, etc... Or: the universe was created from combining matter and anti matter, in a big bang, which set in motion the expansion of the universe --- which is still going on, and amounts to one big slow process of separation...
Combining, mixing, fertilizing, like art, mixing paint, or combining different metals, or separating -- purifying the colors, or the metals.
The combining and separating are also important processes of analytical thought:
==>bring thoughts together = compare, find similarities and analogies between ideas/myths/ images, etc. --
==>separate thoughts = to make distinctions and classifications.
We brought up dismemberment -- lol, that is separation...
and love - combining
choosing = separating...
etc.
So perhaps Art and the Lovers card both illustrate both parts of the maxim?