Yellow Dragon

Huang Long Tang (Yellow Dragon Decoction)... 

The yellow dragon is manufactured by pressing the composition into a paper tube. When it is not pressed, it smokes quite quickly and this J.S used for stars of the daylight yellow chrysanthemum(Fig.79) In this case the composition can be used v/ithout consolidation or granulation. The yellov willow composition is formed into pumped stars and is coated with gypsum as it is with the white willow described above. ... 

Arsenikon and sandarach mean to Dioscorides, as to Theophrastus, respectively orpiment and realgar. The former, yellow scales or plates, is used in medicine as a depilatory and a caustic. Heated alone, or with charcoal, it loses color and leaves a mass which cooled and powdered is a deadly poison (arsenious oxide). Curdled milk is said to be an antidote. Sandarach, red like cinnabar (dragon s blood, he means), behaves when heated like arsenikon, and in general has properties similar to that substance. He notes that it gives a sulphureous odor when roasted. 

The view of the sulphur-mercury theory as a union of masculine and feminine principles found an expression in various pictorial representations of the so-called Hermetic Androgyne, Rebis, or Two-Thing. These designs, like so many others in alchemy, were often delicately coloured for example, the masculine and feminine half-figures of the hermaphrodite standing beside the sun-trcc (yellow) and moon-trec (blue), signified multiplication and a dragon at the foot represented the liquid menstruum. 

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 common people hear that the Yellow Emperor rose to heaven with 1,200 women, and say that he obtained longevity only thanks to this. They do not know that the Yellow Emperor compounded the Nine Elixirs on Lake Ding at the foot of Mount Jing, and then rose to heaven by riding a dragon. He might have had 1,200 women, but it was not for this reason that he was able to do it. (Baopu zi, 6.129)... 

If the Medicine has not been fixed by the fire, it must be sublimated again. Add it to Liquor of the Mysterious Water xuanshui ye) and to Grease of Dragons (longgao ze). Mix to make the compound moist, and put it again [5 a] in the red earthenware crucible of the Mysterious and Yellow xuan-huang chitu fu). Seal the joints as in the initial method. Sublimate the compound over an intense fire for thirty-six days, and the Medicine will form after altogether seventy-two days. 

The Seventh Elixir is called Soft Elixir (roudan). Use three pounds of mercury. Add vinegar to the Mysterious and Yellow, and make them into a mud. Smear with it a crucible, making it three-tenths of an inch thick both inside and outside. Place the mercury in the crucible. Close the crucible with another crucible, smear the joints with the Mud of the Six-and-One, and let it dry for ten days. Then heat it for thirty-six days, as in the method of the great Flower of Cinnabar. Extinguish the fire, let the crucible cool for one day and open it. Brush it with a feather to collect what adheres to the upper crucible, and add to it some Grease of Dragons. 

The magnetite is therefore on the top. Close the crucible with another, and smear the joints with the Mud of the Six-and-One to a thickness of three-tenths of an inch. Then make a mud with half pound each of excreta of Dragons of Earth and yellow soil (huangtu). Smear the crucible to a thickness of three-tenths of an inch. 

The alchemist keeps the Azoth at blood heat until it sweats and there is circulation. Always keep the heat moderate at say 37°C to 41 C but make sure the reaction actually starts. The Azoth of this phase sweats and the vapors or exhalations rise and fall (i.e. sublimates). When the sweat returns to the Azoth as rain, it perforates it and the Azoth desiccates or bursts in a bloody broth. With time, the moist slime changes to a dry coagulated substance. The alchemists term this Cold plus Dryness as Earth . The Eyon or Toad s exhalations are the vapors seen in the neck of the flask. It is at first white, then yellow, bluish and blackish. Yellow represents the copulation of the man and woman. Some alchemists visualized the changing colors as a battle between the vapors and the Earth. They often compared it to two fighting dragons, one with wings and the other without. It is also likened to the two snakes of Hermes, which are the conjunction of opposites. Seven or eight successive volatilizations are necessary. Each follows sublimation. 

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