‘Solve et Coagula,’ to divide and unite, to analyse and synthesize is, according to Eliphas Levi, the motto branded on the fore-arms of the devil. It is the underlying process of the alchemical or ‘spagyric’ (from the Greek spao ‘divide’ and ageiro ‘unite’) art of transmuting shit into gold. It could just as well serve as the formula for deconstruction, critique, or dialectic (whether of Hegelian spirit, or Marxist materialism). Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno in their critique of the culture industry, ‘Dialectic of Enlightenment’ explored the ‘entwinement of myth and enlightenment’ - “Myth is already enlightenment; and enlightenment reverts to mythology.” Magical thought persists everywhere, wrapped up snugly in the myth of the rational, the logical, the scientific. “Science has entered the realm of dreams. It dreams the world mathematically. Ancient metaphysics never dared indulge in such an orgy.” - J. H. Sainmont