Anandakanda 1.23

Ānandakanda 1.23
<Specific Refinement Processes of Quicksilver>
Śrī Bhairavī [said]: / Everything has been heard by me, O god, the divine whole of rejuvenation therapy, / by your grace, O Śambhu, ocean of mercy, lord of gods!

I shall ask another matter, beneficial to all the world: / for the aged, women, children, the impotent, and also other sick people

who are incapable of rejuvenation therapies, how can there be well-being, O Lord? / O auspicious Bhairava, who favors all, declare that!

Having heard the goddess's speech full of praise, bestowing benefit to all the world, / having heard it, smiling gently, the god spoke this supreme word:

Śrī Bhairava [said]: / Excellent, excellent, O blessed one! Since you are the mother of the worlds, / therefore the welfare of the world has been asked; I shall declare that, O Īśvarī!

The ritual rule for the refinement processes of quicksilver and the like, which destroys all diseases, / I will declare in proper sequence; let it be heard with attention.

Rasendra, Rasarāja, Rasa, Sūta, and Pārada, / Śivabīja, Śiva, Jaitra, Rasaloha, Mahārasa,

Rasottama, Mahātejas, Sūtarāj, Capala, Amṛta, / Dhuttura, Lokanātha, Prabhu, Indra, and also Bhava,

Rudratejas, Khecara, Rasadhātu, Acintyaja, / Amara, Dehada, Skanda, Skandeśa, Mṛtyunāśana,

Deva, Rasāyana, Śreṣṭha, Yaśoda, [and] Pāvana are considered [the names]. / These thirty-three names of divine mercury have thus been spoken.

Possessed of defects, the king of quicksilver is poison indeed, O fair-faced woman; / devoid of defects, mercury is visibly nectar, there is no doubt in this.

Therefore hear, O Pārvatī, the refinement process of mercury that destroys defects. / The master of alchemy, an excellent physician, self-controlled, knowing the Aghora mantra,

<Refinement Processes for Purifying Mercury; First Method>
under an auspicious constellation, at auspicious ascendants, in an auspicious hour, on an auspicious day, / should first perform worship of quicksilver in a pure place as previously stated.

A hundred palas, or fifty, or twenty-five, / or ten, or five, O goddess; less than this is not desired.

One should throw quicksilver into a mortar made of iron or made of stone; / a sixteenth part of the king of quicksilver [each] of powder of brick and turmeric dust,

having ground with lime juice in a heated mortar for a day, my dear, / one should wash with hot sauvīra vinegar; the lead defect is destroyed.

With aṅkola and indravāruṇī, the tin defect is destroyed; / and with āragvadha, impurity [is destroyed]; with citraka, the taint of lead [is destroyed].

With black thorn-apple, one should remove mobility; with the three myrobalans, poison; / the mountain defect with the three pungents; and intolerance of fire with gokṣura.

For seven days, for the destruction of the seven defects such as tin, / with those respective powders in sixteenth parts, combined with juice of kumārī,

having ground mercury, one should then wash it with hot sour gruels. / Quicksilver is freed from all defects [and] from the seven sheath defects.

If applied in medical practice, mercury removes all diseases. / <Second Method>
With devadāru, sandalwood, jayā, and vāyasatuṇḍikā,

combined with juices of kumārī, musalī, and sterile kārkoṭakī, / one should grind quicksilver for a day, and further in a distillation apparatus

one should distill it; one should employ the purified quicksilver in medical practice. / <Third Method>
Powder of burnt limestone, and with juices of turmeric and kumārī,

one should grind mercury for one day, and distill it in the aforementioned apparatus; / thus thoroughly purified by refinement processes, one should employ it in medical practice.

<Fourth Method>
Cinnabar, indeed for just one watch, with liquids of pāribhadra, my dear, / or having ground it with lime juices, one should cook it

in a distillation apparatus, O goddess; it is freed from defects and sheath defects. / <Fifth Method>
Equal parts of quicksilver and mica prepared with grain are to be ground with juices of punarnavā,

having done so for a day in a heated mortar, the mercury placed into a vajra crucible / one should cook in a bhūdhara apparatus, and again one should thoroughly grind it.

Grinding with the previously mentioned liquids and cooking as before / having done this ten times, it should be sublimed in a sublimation apparatus.

Mercury becomes purified, O goddess, and suitable to be employed in formulations and in rejuvenation therapy. / <Sixth method> / One should place sulphur, one-tenth part of the mercury, into a heated mortar.

One should grind it for one yāma with the juices of varā, jambīra, kanyā, and agni, / and sublime it in a sublimation apparatus; one should do this indeed seven times.

There is grinding with sulphur and sublimation, O beloved; / the mercury becomes pure, O goddess, and fit for employment in mercurial operations.

<Seventh method> / With sesame oil, buffalo urine, sour fermented liquor, / and beef, cinnabar should be cooked in an iron vessel over a graduated fire.

For seven days, one should stir that liquid constantly with an iron rod. / One should moisten it with peacock bile and triturate it in the sun for a day.

One should sublime the cinnabar in a sublimation apparatus over an intense fire. / After four yāmas, the mercury becomes pure, a catalyst for medicinal action.

<The Vaḍabānala salt mixture suitable for digestion> / Listen, O goddess, I shall explain the biḍa salt mixture suitable for digestion, O beloved: / having powdered burnt conch shell and macerated it in calotropis latex under the sunshine,

one should do so for a day, O goddess; then one should macerate soot / for a day with lime juices under intense sunshine.

For four yāmas, in goat urine with one-sixteenth part of suvarcala salt, / it should be boiled until it becomes thick, O fair-faced one.

In sixteen parts of human urine, the kaṇṭakārī plant with its root / must be boiled down diligently until it becomes thick.

Tamarind salt, green vitriol, sarjikākṣāra, and asphaltum / [are triturated] with lime juices, all of them separately for four yāmas.

Croton seeds free of their outer husk, radish salt, rock salt, / guñjā, and borax should each be triturated separately with drumstick juice.

Those thirteen ingredients starting with conch shell are to be triturated with lime juices, / all in equal parts; and after combining them for a day, it is filtered.

One should preserve it at all times; it is known by name as Vaḍabānala. / In the digestion of metals such as gold, and similarly of gemstones,

and of secondary minerals like mica, it must be applied with effort. / <Method for incinerating mercury; First method> / One should grind purified quicksilver and purified sulphur in equal amounts with cow's ghee.

Having formed a lump, one should place it inside an aloe vera leaf. / Having wrapped it thoroughly with thread, inside an iron casing,

having sealed it, it is cooked three times in a mild pit of cow-dung cakes, O beloved; / having taken it out, the wise one should blind it inside a sturdy crucible and blow with the bellows.

The king of quicksilvers is reduced to ash, fit for use in formulations and rejuvenation therapy. / <Second method> / One should dry shade-dried mature fruits of the teak tree,

grind them with calotropis latex, and smear the interior of a crucible with that. / The powdered residue of the placenta of a cow from her first calving

should then be placed inside the crucible; having put the quicksilver, sulphur, and that powder, / and having sealed it, one should blow with the bellows; the mercury is reduced to ash.

<Third method> / Sterile kārkoṭakī, kākatuṇḍī, bitter gourd, / kañcukī, nalikā, kākamācī, kālamañjarī,

and kākajaṅghā—having crushed all these, one should place them inside the crucible. / One should grind mercury with the eight plants starting with sterile kārkoṭakī mentioned earlier.

Having placed that mercury into the smeared crucible and sealed it, / one cooks it eight times in a bhūdhara apparatus; in this way, coating the crucible,

one should grind and blow with the bellows repeatedly, O sovereign of the gods. / The lord of quicksilver becomes incinerated, fit for disease and rejuvenation therapy.

<Fourth method> / One should grind mercury firmly for four yāmas with regulatory herbs, / and cook it slowly over a gentle fire in double its amount of sulphur oil,

cooking the mercury only so long as it attains a solid lump state. / Placing that lump into an iron casing, the wise one should seal it firmly.

Having ground iron dross with water of chebulic myrobalan, one should coat the casing. / Placing glass on a saucer above it, one should deposit lead [upon it].

One should blow with the bellows only as long as that lead melts, O beloved; / as long as it does not reach hardness, the wise one should not blow at all.

When it reaches hardness again, one should blow repeatedly as described before; / by blowing in this manner for three yāmas, the mercury is reduced to ash.

When it is reduced to ash by roots without the process of digestion, the mercury / cannot be employed for the body or base metals; it is to be employed in medicinal treatment.

<Fifth method> / One should grind purified quicksilver in double the amount of sulphur oil / for one day; then it should be ground with sarpākṣī, bhṛṅgarāja,

and viṣṇukrāntā; one should grind it smoothly with the juices of these for three days, / and cook it eight times in a three-jointed apparatus, O beloved.

The lord of quicksilver will become ash, destroying the multitude of diseases. / <Sixth method> / Mercury is to be ground for three days with juice extracted from the root of white aṅkola.

Placing it in a crucible and sealing it, one should cook it in a bhūdhara apparatus; / the mercury becomes ash, supreme in curing all diseases.

<Seventh method> / One should grind viṣṇukrāntā and vedikā with sour gruel; / with that paste, mercury subjected seven times to swooning and revival should be ground.

Placing that mercury into a saucer, one should sprinkle it repeatedly with those juices; / it should be cooked for a day with the flame of a lamp; the ash will have the appearance of salt.

<Eighth method> / The wise one should macerate asafoetida with the milky latex of kākodumbarikā; / repeatedly in this way seven times, one should dry and grind it.

One should place the five parts of kākodumbara in sixteen parts of water; / when one part remains, one should grind that asafoetida with it.

Placing the mercury inside a ball of that, one should seal it in a crucible, / and heat it in a bhūdhara pit repeatedly eight times.

At every heating one should supply that asafoetida; the quicksilver becomes incinerated. / <Ninth method> / Seeds of castor as well as those produced from apāmārga

one should fill; and having placed that into a crucible, one should then add quicksilver. / Above that, the aforesaid powder, and one should seal the crucible well.

One should cook with four light cow-dung pits in this manner; it will be reduced to ash. / <Tenth method> / Inside a bulb of kuḍuhuñcī filled with woman's breast milk,

having placed the mercury, the wise one seals the opening with paste of its pulp; / smearing it thoroughly with cow dung, he should steam it with a cow-dung fire.

When this is done seven times, the mercury becomes calcinated.
<The Eleventh Method>
Quicksilver and sulphur in equal parts, with root-juice of aṅkola,

one should grind for one day and seal within a crucible.
He should bake it in a bhūdharayantra, and at the end of the day calx is produced.

<The Twelfth Method>
Quicksilver and prepared mica in equal parts, with juices of killing herbs,
one should grind for one day; smearing a cloth with that paste,

making that cloth into a wick, holding it with tongs, he should light it.
Its melt falling into a bell-metal vessel becomes black in color.

That should again be ground with killing agents and cooked in a pātanāyantra.
It becomes dead in one day; that calx removes all diseases.

<The Thirteenth Method>
Mercury is to be ground with black dhuttūra oil,
and then it should be ground with regulating agents for one day in a kūrmayantra.

He should cook it; it attains calx-state, becomes white, and destroys all diseases.
<The Fourteenth Method>
One should grind pure sulphur equal to half the quantity of pure quicksilver,

with juices of killing herbs for a day; placed in a crucible, he should cook it
in the apparatus named bhūdhara, and in one day it becomes calcinated.

<The Fifteenth Method>
One should grind quicksilver and mica with banyan latex for three watches, my dear;
placing it inside a crucible, he should cook it in a cow-dung fire for a day.

The lord of quicksilver turns to calx, white, destroying all ailments.
<The Sixteenth Method>
When the mercury is mouth-endowed and scented, with equal gold,

he should digest it by the earlier procedure; then he should add an equal amount of sulphur.
Ground with juices of divine plants for a day, the mercury held in a crucible,

he should cook day and night in a cow-dung fire, or with a husk-fire.
Taking it out, he should steam it; again with seeds born of divine plants

in equal parts it should be ground for four watches, O ruler of gods;
placed inside a vajramūṣā crucible, it must be blown; the mercury turns to calx.

One should always employ that divine calx in disease and rejuvenation therapy.
<The Seventeenth Method>
When gold is digested in mercury itself, he should grind it with an equal [part of] sour [gruel].

Washing the resulting paste with fermented rice-water, taking it again,
he should add pure sulphur equal to half the paste, and borax equal to half of that.

With turmeric equal to the whole, [ground] for a day with menstrual fluid,
he should grind it, and at the end of the day, from that he should make a ball.

The wise one should cook it in a gaḍḍukayantra for a day with a gentle fire;
taking it out, pulverizing it, and adding sulphur equal to it,

it is to be cooked in a garbhayantra for three days with a light husk-fire.
The mercury becomes calx, O goddess, free from resurrection, a rejuvenation agent.

<The Eighteenth Method>
Three karṣas of pure quicksilver and a karṣa of copper powder, my dear,
he should grind vigorously with sour liquids for a day in a mortar; thereupon it becomes

a paste. He should wash it with water, and then take the clean [product].
With pyrite essence and all that, with leaf juices of cakramarda,

he should grind that paste vigorously for three days; in a garbhayantra
he should cook it with a husk-fire for three days, O goddess, or day and night

in a cow-dung fire; it becomes quicksilver calx, dispelling disease and senescence.
<The Nineteenth Method>
Quicksilver, gold, and mica essence in equal parts; bid salt equal to the gold;

he should grind all that in a mortar with juice of plantain stems for a day;
then with equal seeds originating from divine plants, for two days

he should grind it together with plantain liquid; in a garbhayantra,
he should cook it thoroughly according to the earlier method; an auspicious mercury calx will result,

destroying senescence, death, and disease, bestowing all alchemical perfections.
<The Twentieth Method>
Grinding the lord of mercury and vimalā essence in equal parts for three days

with juice of sinduvāra leaves, it becomes a paste; one should place it
inside a glass flask; he should coat the flask with seven mud-smeared cloths,

dry it, and cook it in a sand apparatus for a day over a mild fire.
It becomes a divine mercury calx, dispelling sickness, senescence, and death.

<The Twenty-First Method>
Two karṣas of the lord of mercury, half that of pure sulphur,
and pyrite essence equal to the sulphur part: he should grind all that for a day

with the leaf-essence of nirguṇḍī; that ball he should place, my dear,
inside a crucible; then, sealing the mouth of the crucible, he should place

that crucible in a gaḍḍukāyantra and cook it with a mild fire for a day.
It becomes a divine mercury calx, resembling the dawn color of red lead,

destroying senescence, death, and disease, bestowing all alchemical perfections, auspicious.
<The Twenty-Second Method>
Inside a baked crucible, mercury is covered with an equal amount of sulphur;

adding four times as much kākamācī juice to both, covering it again,
placing it in a gaḍḍukāyantra, he should cook it gradually

over mild, moderate, and intense fires for four watches;
and then it becomes an auspicious mercury calx, destroying all diseases.

<The Twenty-Third Method>
One should grind quicksilver for a day with spurge latex, or in its absence,
with juices of amlavallī alone; that mercury, along with equal sulphur,

placing it in a garbhayantra, the wise one should cook thoroughly as before.
This mercury becomes dead and will destroy all diseases.

<The Twenty-Fourth Method>
Guñjā berries equal to mercury, with honey, borax, and barley-ashes,
combined with juice of bhṛṅga leaves, he should grind for one day.

Covered inside a vajramūṣā crucible, he should blast it with a mild fire;
this mercury becomes moon-like, an aphrodisiac, and an agent of rejuvenation therapy.

<The Twenty-Fifth Method>
Pure sulphur and mercury in equal parts, with juices of kīṭamāriṇikā,
or of ajamārī or himārī, or with juice of white aṅkola,

one should grind for three days; then, placing it into an earthen sealed saucer,
for one day in a cow-dung fire or for three days in a husk-fire,

he should cook; thereupon quicksilver calx is produced, removing disease and senescence.
<The Twenty-Sixth Method>
Mercury purified through sublimation with copper and mica, my dear,

and diamond calx in equal parts, he should grind with haṃsapādī juices;
he should coat the interior of a vajramūṣā crucible with seeds derived from divine herbs.

Placing the aforesaid mercury in it and sealing it, he should cook it for three days
with a husk-fire; taking it out, [adding] liquefied mercury equal to it,

he should grind all that with haṃsapādī juices for three days; then
he should cook it as before; undoubtedly, this mercury turns to calx.

It destroys senescence, death, and disease, grants all alchemical perfections, and is auspicious.
<Twenty-seventh method>
One karṣa of scented mercury, eight guñjās of gold,

and four guñjās of incinerated diamond are to be ground with juices of haṃsapadī.
Placing [the mixture] inside a vajramūṣā crucible within a heated mortar, one must seal it tight.

One should cook it in a bhūdhara apparatus, take that mercury out again,
and grind it with juices of haṃsapādī in a heated mortar for three days.

One should cook it again and again in a bhūdhara apparatus as before.
Having thus subjected it to one hundred calcinations, an ash red in color will be formed.

It destroys senescence, death, and poverty, and destroys mundane existence.
<Twenty-eighth method>
There should be four parts of purified quicksilver and one part of copper powder.

One should grind it in sour liquid for a day, wash it, and take the paste.
Equal to the paste, the essence of copper pyrites is [mixed] with the leaf-juices of cakramarda.

One should grind everything for three days, place the ball into a garbha apparatus,
and cook it for three days in a chaff fire, O Goddess of the gods,

or cook it day and night in a cow-dung fire; the mercury will become ash.
<Twenty-ninth method>
Mercury with an open mouth, mica essence, and gold—these three are equal.

Having ground them with banana juice for a day, along with an equal amount of all of them of biḍa salt,
one should then grind it with seeds of divine herbs for three days.

Afterward, one should cook it in a garbha apparatus in a cow-dung fire; it will become incinerated.
<Thirtieth method>
Quicksilver digested with mica and equal vimalā secondary mineral [are mixed] with nirguṇḍī juices.

Having ground [them] for three days, one should place [the mixture] into a glass vial.
One should cook it in a sand apparatus; within four watches, it is reduced to ash.

<Thirty-first method>
Copper pyrites essence and sulphur are equal; quicksilver digested with an amount equal to both of them
is ground with nirguṇḍī for a day; again that ball,

having sealed it in a vajramūṣā crucible, one should blow with bellows, or in a gaḍḍu apparatus
one should cook it; it will become red-colored; that mercury removes all diseases.

<Characteristics of mercury ash>
Imperishability, absence of recovery into metallic form, non-smearing, true ash quality,
and the power to incinerate metals should be observed from mercury ash.

<1. Sulphur paste; First method>
Having pulverized purified sulphur, one should triturate it seven times in the sun
with the juice of the previous leaf and likewise with women's menstrual blood,

and likewise one should stir the sulphur again with human bile.
One should place one pala of purified mercury in an earthen pan in the sunlight.

Placing that stirred sulphur on top of it, one should grind it with the thumb;
the quicksilver becomes a paste that bestows success in all operations.

<Second method: Gold-sulphur paste>
Purified sulphur, O Goddess, should be ground seven times with juice of tilaparṇī;
it is to be dried in the shade and successively triturated.

One should place only one pala of purified mercury into a crucible,
and then place a pill of a niṣka of gold into the crucible.

Therein, one should put just a little bit of menstrual blood and urine of a woman;
and one should place that crucible inside a sand apparatus, O Śiva.

Little by little, one should add the previously prepared sulphur repeatedly,
and cook with a gentle fire until one karṣa of sulphur is digested.

Taking it down, one should extract the gold ball when self-cooled;
it becomes a divine gold paste, bestowing all desired things.

<Third method>
One should triturate purified sulphur a hundred times with markaṭī water,
and in the shade [mix it with] purified quicksilver, and place it in the sun in an earthen pan.

Little by little, one should add the previously prepared sulphur and the markaṭī juice;
when the sulphur is digested, liquid must be given, repeatedly sulphur and repeatedly liquid,

until a fourth part of the sulphur is digested, and it becomes a paste.
It is divine, suitable for all operations, and rare even to the gods.

<Fourth method>
Having pulverized purified sulphur, one should wash it three times with sour gruel,
three times with sour lime juices, and with haṃsapādī juice

seven times. In this manner, one should separately triturate camphor
with water of śvetādrikarṇikā three times in the sun.

One should smear just two guñjās of camphor inside an apparatus;
therein one should put one and a half niṣkas of the triturated and pulverized sulphur.

On top of that, one should place one pala of quicksilver, and after that,
the same measure of camphor as before, and on top of that one and a half niṣkas

of sulphur again. Then, having ground the root of śvetādrikarṇikā with cow urine,
and covering it with that paste,

one should seal it with an earthen saucer and cook it systematically
inside a perforated apparatus; afterward, one should extract the divine [product].

One should do thus three times, and a sulphur paste will certainly be produced.
<Fifth method>
Inside a mortar smeared with unctuous substance, one should place one pala of purified quicksilver.

One should add one karṣa of purified sulphur and devadālī juice;
one should grind with the fingers in the fierce sun, and it will become a paste.

<Sixth method>
One should place one pala of quicksilver and half a karṣa of sulphur in a copper mortar;
one should cook with gentle fire for one watch, stirring it with the thumb.

It will become a divine sulphur paste, accomplishing all operations and auspicious.
<Fixation of pastes (2)>
I shall describe the fixation of pastes: seeds derived from bitter kośātakī

and caṇḍālinī tuber in equal parts, ground with milk from the breasts of a beloved woman;
one should thickly coat that paste onto it to the depth of a finger.

In a tuber of vandhyā, or in a kṣīrakanda tuber, or in a tuber born of sūraṇa,
or in a vajrakanda tuber, or in a tuber born of kuḍuhuñcī,

one should insert that paste and seal the opening with the respective pulp of that [tuber].
Having smeared that tuber with clay, one should calcine it in a bhūdhara apparatus,

turning it above and below in a cow-dung fire day and night;
the cooking procedure is prescribed such that the tuber does not burn.

Then one should extract the paste; it will be fixed, O beloved.
<Digestion of pastes (2)>
And the digestion of fixed pastes will be declared, O Śiva.

In a nipple-shaped apparatus made of iron, one should throw sulphur equal to the paste,
and on top, O Ruler of gods, the fixed sulphur paste;

on top of that, one should throw pulverized sulphur equal to the paste.
Having sealed it, one should cook it in a bhūdhara apparatus and digest it systematically.

Sulphur should be given again and again, thus up to a hundredfold, my dear. / When the hundredfold sulphur has been consumed, one should extract the paste from the apparatus.

For all sulphur-mercury pastes there is digestion and colouring. / <Killing of the paste (2)> / And I shall declare the method of killing the digested pastes:

Throwing the digested sulphur paste into a heated mortar, / and grinding it for a day with the juices of divine herbs, one should make a ball.

Having ground the seeds of divine herbs with the fresh juices originating from divine herbs, / inside an adamantine crucible one should smear that previous ball.

Throwing it in and sealing the mouth of the crucible, one should cook it in a bhūdhara apparatus, / repeatedly turning it upside down for one day, my dear.

Extracting it as before, one should triturate it with the previously mentioned liquids. / One should incinerate it as before, O goddess, ten times in this sequence.

Doubtless the sulphur paste is killed, fulfilling all purposes. / The ashes of mercury produced by the sequence of sulphur paste, O Bhairavī,

are foremost in all procedures, especially in operations of transmutation. / <Fixations of mercury; first method: vaikrānta fixation> / I shall now proclaim the fixations of mercury; listen, O Bhairavī!

One should put ten niṣkas of purified mercury into a mortar, / and one niṣka of pure sulphur should be added little by little.

One should crush and triturate it with a pestle; in just one yāma it becomes a paste. / Into a kṣīrakanda, or a sterile kanda, or a kuḍuhuñcī,

or into an auspicious ripe bulb, one should place the sulphur paste. / The wise practitioner should deposit half a niṣka of ash of vaikrānta above and below.

Sealing the opening with the pulp of that bulb, and smearing it externally / with clay to the thickness of a finger, having dried it on all sides,

one should cook it eight times in a bhūdhara apparatus in a cock's pit fire. / In a fire of cow dung, my dear, one should again invert the upper portion to the bottom,

and the bottom portion to the top, turning it repeatedly. / Thus, after one day, one should cook it with twin cow dung cakes.

Resembling the seed of a ripe pomegranate, the mercury becomes bound. / Named 'bound with vaikrānta', when powdered it serves as a synergistic vehicle.

<Second method: sulphur fixation> / Tying that previously described sulphur paste in a cloth, in an iron casing / one should place the pouch, with equal sulphur above and below.

Properly sealing the casing, one should cook it in a bhūdhara apparatus. / As the sulphur is consumed, again and again in the same manner,

thus sixfold sulphur is to be consumed, O Great Goddess. / Thus this mercury, bound with sulphur, cures all diseases.

<Third method: sulphur fixation> / Sixteen finger-breadths long and as wide as a lime fruit, / a very sturdy fired crucible in the middle of a sand apparatus

should be made three-fourths submerged and one-fourth situated outside. / Into it one should place one pala of sulphur-mercury [paste], O Queen of the Gods.

Then, above the quicksilver, one should throw two palas of pure sulphur; / one should seal its opening well and cook it over a gentle flame,

cooking it until it becomes smokeless. Then, when the smoke has ceased, / it is to be filled with the juices of kākamācī; and when that juice is consumed,

it should be filled again with the juice of betel leaf, my dear; / it must be filled with the juices of thorn apple, and cooked slowly over a gentle flame.

Until the sulphur is consumed with the juices of kākamācī and the rest / ending with datura, one should cook it in this way; [and] the mercury becomes bound.

Known by the name 'bound with sulphur', one may employ it in all formulations. / <Fourth method: sulphur-and-gold fixation> / First preparing the sulphur paste as described before, the expert practitioner [proceeds]:

There should be three and a half niṣkas of quicksilver and one and a half of pure gold. / Being triturated for a yāma with sour gruel, this is known as gold paste.

Enveloping the sulphur paste evenly on the outside with the gold paste, / and having tied that paste in a cloth in an iron casing shaped like a breast,

throwing it in, and throwing equal sulphur above and below the paste, / the wise practitioner, having sealed the joint with sour gruel and salts,

should cook it in a bhūdhara apparatus. As each portion is consumed, again and again / one should give sixfold sulphur; then one should gently remove the cloth.

An equal portion of sulphur is to be consumed again and again, very slowly. / One must never leave the sulphur completely exhausted, lest the mercury escape.

When a hundredfold [sulphur] has thus been consumed, one should extract the sulphur paste. / Into a casing made of an equal portion of gold, one should place the paste.

Grinding glass with juices of aloe, one should smear it externally to a finger's breadth. / Then smearing it with borax, and afterwards in turn with clay and salt,

each coating must be applied to cover it to the measure of a finger. / One should dry each layer, and then blast it placed inside a furnace apparatus.

With an angled blowpipe and an intense fire, it should remain for a prahara. / Resembling the rising sun, the solid lump of mercury is a divine rasāyana.

This fixation with sulphur and gold destroys senescence, disease, and poverty. / <Fifth method: sulphur fixation> / Alternatively, having tied that sulphur paste in a cloth, and then

giving an equal quantity of sulphur and sealing it firmly in an iron casing, / one should heat it in a bhūdhara apparatus as long as the sulphur is being consumed.