The Three Essentials of Alchemy
The Furnace & Cauldron, Fire Phases & Medicinal Ingredients
Hello,
Wishing you a happy summer solstice!
These are the three fundamental elements of Daoist alchemical practice, which we must understand in order to progress.
Furnace & Cauldron 爐鼎
The furnace and cauldron is a metaphor for the locations that generate alchemical transformation. These locations can be referred to as ‘centres’.
At first, a practitioner works with a post-heaven centre, such as the lower dantian. However, as practice develops, the centre shifts.
The Middle School master Li Daochun 李道純 set out the following four orthodox centres:
Lower Vehicle 下乘: Lower Dantian 下丹田
Middle Vehicle 中乘: Muddy Pellet 泥丸
Upper Vehicle 上乘: The Celestial Heart-Mind 天心
Highest Vehicle 最上一乘: The One Opening of the Mysterious Pass 玄關一竅
— Collection on the Centre & Its Harmony 中和集 (late 13th century)
The phrase ‘establishing the furnace and setting up the cauldron’ 安爐立鼎 refers to the method of correctly working with the centre.
Once the stage of refining essence to transform into energy 鍊精化氣 is complete, there is a transformation of the furnace and cauldron from one location to another. This is referred to as ‘moving the furnace and changing the cauldron’ 移爐換鼎.
Fire Phases 火候
The fire phases are a metaphor to describe the regulation of the strength of awareness within the practice.
The patriarch of our lineage, Huang Yuanji 黃元吉, set out four broad classifications of fire phase that are used within the first stage of alchemical practice, which is known as the refinement of essence to transform into energy 鍊精化氣:
Martial Fire 武火
Civil Fire 文火
The Fire of Bathing and Gentle Nourishment 沐浴溫養之火
The Fire of Returning to the Furnace & Sealing 歸爐封固之火
The fire phases are the most closely guarded secret in alchemical lineages because they are the pivot upon which success or failure depends. They are rarely written down and passed on almost entirely orally:
The Seal, treatises, scriptures and songs expound ultimate reality, yet do not commit the fire phases to writing. If you want to know the oral instructions and mysterious points, you must discuss them with a divine immortal.
— Awakening To Reality 悟真篇, verse 28 (1075 CE).
The fire phases are subtle, and must be fully understood:
Even if one recognises red cinnabar and black lead, without understanding the fire phases, all is in vain. On the whole, it all depends on the force of practice, with the slightest error, the elixir will not coalesce .
— Awakening To Reality 悟真篇, verse 27 (1075 CE).
The Medicinal Ingredients 藥物
The medicinal ingredients is a metaphor for understanding the substances that are worked with in the alchemical process in order to create internal transformation.
In the broadest sense, the medicinal ingredients are essence, energy and spirit:
The higher medicines are of three grades: spirit, qi, and essence.
— The Heart Seal Scripture 心印經 (9-11th century CE)
However, it is essential to understand that these are not post-heaven 後天 essence, energy and spirit, but pre-heaven 先天 essence, energy and spirit. I cannot begin to express how fundamental a point this.
In a more narrow sense, the medicinal ingredients refer to:
True Yang 真陽 (also known as: original qi, lead, etc.)
True Yin 真陰 (also known as: original spirit, mercury, etc.)
True Intention 真意 (also known as: spirit fire, the yellow matchmaker, etc.)
True yang is born within the water palace 坎宮 of the lower dantian. It accumulates until it is full enough to open the governing channel. Once the governing channel opens, true yang reaches the fire palace 離宮 of the head and extracts true yin.
The conception channel then opens, allowing true yang and true yin to descend back to the lower dantian. This completes initial opening of the waterwheel. When true yang and true yin return to the lower dantian, they fuse together to form the elixir 丹.
The elixir is still very weak and can easily break. It must go through a further three hundred circulations through the waterwheel and transfer to the middle dantian via the central yellow 中黃 (macrocosmic orbit) before it becomes the lesser reverted elixir 小還丹, and reaches relative stability.
True intention, the third medicinal ingredient, refers to a pre-heavenly intention of clarity and stillness, which allows the medicinal ingredients to fuse together, and for the elixir to grow and develop.
The alchemical tradition also commonly divides the medicine in lesser and greater:
The lesser medicine 小藥 is true yang.
The greater medicine 大藥 is the greater reverted elixir 大還丹.
Although the content of this article is difficult to understand at first, it contains many keys that clarify the alchemical path.
道炁長存
Oscar
This sounds very akin to the way kundalini transformation processes seem to run, though the framework is slight different. They are highly complementary to my eye, even if the alchemical language tends towards more esoteric. Thank you for sharing this!