Refined Elixir

According to one method, if you add lead to this elixir it will form gold. And if you add a speck of Refined Elixir to one pound of quicksilver, and heat it, gold will also form. 

You really are what you eat. By using these Seven Basics over time, their refined and spiritualized matter become part of you and in turn you become more refined and spiritualized. It is said that the attitude of the artist, more than the process itself, is what makes alchemy "The Divine Art." This attitude and energy becomes transferred to the matter being acted upon and affects the outcome of the operation. The energy is released again within us from the Elixir in a more noble state. 

Second Elixir Divine Tally (shenfu). The section on the Second Elixir is divided into three parts that describe methods for making the Divine Tally and two other elixirs. All three methods are based on mercury, which according to the Secret Instructions initially should be refined nine times in order to expel its toxicity. In the first part of the method, the crucible is luted first with the Mud of the Six-and-One, then with a mud of oyster shells and red clay. Mercury is heated in nine cycles of one day each, and the crucible turned upside down at every cycle. The product of the sublimation is collected, added to carp s gall, and sublimated nine more times then it is added to Grease of Dragons to obtain the Divine Tally. This elixir can be heated in nine further cycles with the Mysterious and Yellow to obtain the Yellow of the Elixir Flower (danhua zhi huang), or can be added to mercury to obtain a Reverted Elixir huandan). ... 

The name of this elixir can also be rendered as Cinnabar Flower, where flower denotes the sublimate and cinnabar is its color as said below, the elixir sometimes will be of a vivid scarlet color like cinnabar. The Taiqing jinye shendan jing, i.iyb-ihb, describes a similar method where cinnabar is refined with realgar and orpiment as the Mysterious and Yellow does in the methods of the Nine Elixirs, these two minerals incorporate Yin and Yang in the crucible. For another translation of this section of the Nine Elixirs see Ware, Alchemy, Medicine and Religion in the China of a.d. 320, 78-79. 

According to the Scripture of the Nine Elixirs (Jiudan jing), one should smear the crucible with the Flower of Metal (jinhua, i.e., refined lead) in order to nourish mercury. But could one ever use the words Yin and Yang ... 

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