Main Chinese Alchemical Scripture

The Zhouyi cantong qi (Token for Joining the Three in Accordance with the Book of Changes) is the main Chinese alchemical scripture. According to the traditional account, the legendary Han immortal from Guiji (in present-day Zhejiang), Wei Boyang, wrote it in the second century CE after reading the Longhu jing (Scripture of the Dragon and Tiger). Later he transmitted it to Xu Congshi, who appended a commentary, and to Chunyu Shutong, who first circulated it in the world. While some features of this account provide significant details -- especially about the reputed date of the text, and about its formation having taken place in stages -- the received Cantong qi actually is not the product of a single generation of authors, but the result of several centuries of textual accretions. At the end of this process, the text rose to the status of main scripture within both the waidan ("external alchemy") and neidan ("internal alchemy") traditions. More than thirty Commentaries of the Cantong qi are extant in at least 120 editions, not including reprints. This testifies to the prestige that the work enjoyed not only within the alchemical traditions, but also among Neo-Confucian thinkers and scholars. Its primary received version, on which about two thirds of the extant commentaries are based, consists of four parts: 1. The main text, in four- or five-character sentences (mostly in rhymes) 2. A section usually entitled "The Five Categories" ("Wu xianglei") or "Filling Lacunae" ("Busai yituo"), deemed to address matters not accounted for in the main text 3. The "Song of the Tripod" ("Dingqi ge"), a poem in three-character lines 4. A "Eulogium" ("Zanxu"), not found in all editions, which some commentators regard as a synopsis of the Cantong qi, and others as the postface to an early commentary Doctrines. Written in a poetical style and in a densely metaphoric and allusive language, the Cantong qi does not fully describe any waidan or neidan method, and only occasionally refers to actual practices related to waidan or neidan. Nevertheless, the Cantong qi has been the only scripture cherished within both forms of Chinese alchemy, and the influence it has exerted on their history from the Tang period onward is not matched by any other work. The main focus of the text is the Dao and its relation to the cosmos, explicated by means of a wide array of alchemical, cosmological and other emblems. Among the main recurrent themes are the distribution of Original Breath (yuanqi) from the center (the Norther Dipper, beidou, or Heart of Heaven, tianxin); the view of time as caused by the continuous upward and downward movement of Original Breath; and the joining of the essences of the Sun and Moon, or Yin and Yang, which occurs at the end of each time cycle and generates the next one. Both space and time are thus seen as essential vehicles for the circulation of the "essence" (jing) originally issued by the Dao in the cosmos. Borrowing from a passage in the Daode jing, the Cantong qi states that "Superior virtue (shangde) has no doing: it does not use examining and seeking. Inferior virtue (xiade) does: its operation does not rest." Some commentators explain these sentences as referring to two ways of realization that are reflected in this work. The first, also known as "entering from Non-being into Being" (cong wu ru you), is based on the immediate realization of the non-distinction of Dao and existence, Non-being and Being. In the second, also known as "using Being to enter Non-being" (yi you ru wu), one attains to the Dao through the alchemical practice. While the doctrines of the Cantong qi apply to both approaches, the text does not focus on either waidan or neidan. The task of presenting alchemical methods based on those doctrines is left to the commentaries and to a large number of associated texts. Early history. Chunyu Shutong's relation to divination, as well as some passages in the received text, suggest that the original version of the Cantong qi was closely related to the so-called "apochryphal" texts of the Han dynasty. According to some scholars, the received text faithfully reproduces the original version; according to others, the original version was lost after the Han, and the received text was entirely fabricated in the early Tang period. There are reasons, however, to assume that the text was expanded during the Six Dynasties, and that no major break in transmission took place at that time. Quotations or mentions of the Cantong qi in works by Jiang Yan (444-505), Tao Hongjing (456-536), and Yan Zhitui (531-91), all of whom came from or lived in the Jiangnan region, show that the Cantong qi circulated in southeastern China after the end of the Han. It appears likely that the text was transmitted there by the lineage of the Later Han cosmologist Yu Fan (164-233), who also came from Guiji and whose cosmological doctrines are reflected in the Cantong qi (Yu Fan is attributed with a lost commentary to the text). Further evidence for the circulation of the Cantong qi in Jiangnan during the Six Dynasties, and for the existence of a textual layer dating from that time, is provided by several dozens of terms and expressions shared with the Scripture of the Yellow Court (Huangting jing) and the Central Scripture of Laozi (Laozi zhongjing), two texts whose meditation and Visualization methods are nonetheless criticized in the Cantong qi Together With physiological practices. A poem by Jiang Yan attests, on the other hand, that the Cantong qi was used in association with the compounding of elixirs by 500 CE. We know nothing about the lineages that created or transmitted the alchemical version of the scripture, but one of two extant Tang waidan commentaries on it, the anonymous Zhouyi cantong qi zhu (CT 1004), appears to be related to the legacy of Hugang zi. Dating from ca. 700 ce, this commentary -- the latter half of which is lost -- is contemporary with another extant Tang exegesis, entitled Zhouyi cantong qi (CT 999) and attributed to the immortal Yin Changsheng. From around that time, mentions and quotations of the Cantong qi in other texts begin to multiply. In the mid-eighth century, moreover, Liu Zhigu wrote his Riyue xuanshu lun (Essay on the Mysterious Pivot, the Sun and Moon), which is the first of a series of short essays on the Cantong qi.

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How To Practice Divine Architect Principles Of Creation

Possible scenario: You wish to change a friend’s very unhappy home life and its chaotic circumstances. Step 1: Identify which principle is most likely to assist. In this case, Number 3: Creating Heaven on Earth. Step 2: Note that the nature archetype affiliated with it, is number 16 which is light. Take at least half an hour until you become one with the embodiment of Heaven on Earth. Tip: You will be able to feel a slightly different frequency vibrating in the cells of your body if you are sensitive. Step 3: Because you now embody this principle, as you go into the adoration of the Infinite, this principle which is part of the Infinite life, is strengthened (according to the Laws of Reality, what you focus on, you empower). Enter into an attitude of adoration while embodying Heaven on Earth, thereby helping to bring it about throughout all life. Note: It is difficult at times to find the full measure of adoration when the Infinite seems nebulous, but the Infinite’s face is mirrored in the exquisite beauty of life forms within Creation. Adoration can be felt for the Infinite by what has been created. Sustain the adoration for at least 15-20 minutes. This time period is a guideline for beginners. As you do this frequently, it might eventually take a few minutes. Step 4: Because you have just given a gift to the one life expressing as the many, you are now entitled to receive gifts in return. Place the window of Creating Heaven On Earth, number 3, immediately in front of you on the table. Place underneath it (symbolic of the underlying principle) the window of Adoration, number 1. Immediately, on top of them, place the 50 Codes of Creation. Now communicate with the archetype of light, taking time to feel the service that it gives until you feel love, praise, and gratitude in your heart. For example, light and love has become inseparable since the earth’s ascension started February 5, 2005 (See Opening the Doors of Heaven). Light is the organization of all known information. Coupled with love, it is the desire to embrace in inclusiveness all that is known. Life will only manifest what is needed at any given point - everything known serves a purpose that should be honored. After experiencing the gratitude, request that the nature archetype bring in the Creational Codes from the Earth through the wheel into the window of Creating Heaven on Earth. Step 5: For the next 10 minutes, envision these holy codes of light, like a living stream of blue light, coming from the center of Earth through the wheel before you into the wheel you have chosen. Step 6: Put your head directly over the wheel on top of the two windows. As though you are looking into the situation you wish to heal. Envision it beneath the three pieces of paper and see the scene clearly, e.g., the chaotic house Step 7: See a ball of blue light developing around the 3 papers and starting a stream of blue light carrying the codes entering the scene and filling the space you are envisioning. See the scene change to a higher order (Note: this mystical information will not work when a lower order is envisioned). You can therefore not force your will onto the scene if it is not for the highest good of all. Note: If the principle you choose is the principle of adoration, only one window will be used

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Arnold Of Villanova Biography

Arnold of Villanova was born in the year 1240, and studied medicine with great success in the University of Paris. He afterwards travelled for twenty years in Italy and Germany, where he made acquaintance with Pietro d'Apone; a man of a character akin to his own, and addicted to the same pursuits. As a physician, he was thought, in his own lifetime, to be the most able the world had ever seen. Like all the learned men of that day, he dabbled in astrology and alchemy, and was thought to have made immense quantities of gold from lead and copper. When Pietro d'Apone was arrested in Italy, and brought to trial as a sorcerer, a similar accusation was made against Arnold; but he managed to leave the country in time and escape the fate of his unfortunate friend. He lost some credit by predicting the end of the world, but afterwards regained it. The time of his death is not exactly known; but it must have been prior to the year 1311, when Pope Clement V. wrote a circular letter to all the clergy of Europe who lived under his obedience, praying them to use their utmost efforts to discover the famous treatise by Villanova on The Practice of Medicine. The author had promised, during his lifetime, to make a present of the work to the holy See, but died without fulfilling it. In a very curious work by Monsieur Longeville Harcouet, entitled "The history of the Persons who have lived several centuries, and then grown young again," there is a receipt, said to have been given by Arnold de Villeneuve, by means of which any one might prolong his life for a few hundred years or so. In the first place, say Arnold and Monsieur Harcouet, "the person intending so to prolong his life must rub himself well, two or three times a week, with the juice or marrow of cassia (moelle de la casse). Every night, upon going to bed, he must put upon his heart a plaster, composed of a certain quantity of Oriental saffron, red rose-leaves, sandal-wood, aloes, and amber, liquified in oil of roses and the best white wax. In the morning, he must take it off, and enclose it carefully in a leaden box till the next night, when it must be again applied. If he be of a sanguine temperament, he shall take sixteen chickens -- if phlegmatic, twenty-five -- and if melancholy, thirty, which he shall put into a yard where the air and the water are pure. Upon these he is to feed, eating one a day; but previously the chickens are to be fattened by a peculiar method, which will impregnate their flesh with the qualities that are to produce longevity in the eater. Being deprived of all other nourishment till they are almost dying of hunger, they are to be fed upon broth made of serpents and vinegar, which broth is to be thickened with wheat and bran." Various ceremonies are to be performed in the cooking of this mess, which those may see in the book of M. Harcouet, who are at all interested in the matter; and the chickens are to be fed upon it for two months. They are then fit for table, and are to be washed down with moderate quantities of good white wine or claret. This regimen is to be followed regularly every seven years, and any one may live to be as old as Methuselah! It is right to state, that M. Harcouet has but little authority for attributing this precious composition to Arnold of Villeneuve. It is not to be found in the collected works of that philosopher; but was first brought to light by a M. Poirier, at the commencement of the sixteenth century, who asserted that he had discovered it in MS. in the undoubted writing of Arnold.

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Spiritual Alchemy

Practiced alongside physical alchemy was a philosophical and spiritual doctrine of personal evolution and transformation. Its adherents strove to transform both their bodies and souls into pure, untainted representations of divinity. They attempted to attune themselves to the essences of the four elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water) as well as to the powers of the "Seven holy Planets" (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, Sun and Moon), and they did this through intense study, experimentation, prayer and ritual. Through the application of alchemical principles and Hermetic wisdom, it was believed that the alchemist would become a master of both this world and the next.

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