Nine Elixirs : methods practices

The Nine Elixirs, which is translated below in Chapter 9, is one of the few extant sources to give details on the entire ritual sequence of the alchemical practice, from the ceremony of transmission to the ingestion of the elixirs. It consists of three main parts, respectively concerned with (i) an introduction about the revelation of the scripture, the benefits of the alchemical medicines, and various ritual rules (2) the methods for making two preliminary compounds, called Mysterious and Yellow (xuanhuang) and Mud of the Six-and-One (liuyi ni) and (3) the methods and properties of the Nine Elixirs, which are nine separate preparations—an adept is not required to make and ingest all of them, but only one—related to each other by the main phases of their compounding and by the benefits that they grant. ... 

Directions for building the alchemical laboratory, which is typically called Chamber of the Elixirs (danshi or danwu), are found in both the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles and the Flower of Langgan. According to the Reverted Elixir in Nine Cycles an adept retires to a mountain after he has received the method and has performed the purification practices. He builds the laboratory (here called Chamber of the Divine Stove, shenzao wu) and places the furnace lu) inside it, with an iron stand to hold the crucible. The adept should make sure that the Chamber does not touch the ground and is not built over an old well or a tomb ... 

This method of the Divine Elixir in Nine Cycles is the oral instructions (koujue) of Lord Wang. It is clear and easy to perform. If the ingredients are utterly pure (jinjing), and if you duly perform the purification practices, observe the precepts, and cultivate yourself dwelling in deep retirement and attaining to a state of clarity and tranquility (qingjing), this divine and wondrous method will never fail. 

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