Part 8 - Mercurial operations (6): Confinement of Mercury (rodhana)

(a) First process.

Mercury is to be subjected to a process of confinement (rodhana) for removal of the impotency which it has acquired by being sublimated, The process is as follows:—Put the mercury into a glass bottle or a shell of a cocoanut. Put over it as much decoction of bala and riddhi (or, a solution of rock salt, according to another version), as is necessary for the immersion of the mercury, The bottle or the cocoanut shell, as the case may be, is then to be kept buried for 3 days in a hole one yard deep, dug out in the ground. By this way mercury is freed from impotency.

(b) Second process.

Mercury, if confined with the decoction of riddhi and bala (according to another version; if confined

with a solution of rock salt becomes a giver of happiness. It gains in potency by further heating, etc.

(c) Third process.

Mercury acquires impotency by being subjected to processes of sublimation. For the purpose of increasing its potency, it is therefore, to be boiled by being confined within bhurja leaves, containing rock salt.

(d) Fourth process.

Mercury is to be rubbed with a sour vegetable juice and put into a bottle, the mouth of which is to be hermetically sealed. The bottle is then to be put inside a Damaru Yantra, in which it is to be boiled for seven days. When completely cooled, it is again to be boiled in the same way.

(e) Fifth process.

Mercury is said to undergo ‘rodhana’ or confinement, if it is kept for 3 days in a vessel containing water and saindhava salt.

N. B. In addition to the foregoing processes, a few others are sometimes resorted to, viz., (1) heating of mercury with a solution of rock salt; (2) Mercury is to be put into a bottle with the menstrual discharge of a young girl, the closed bottle being kept buried for 3 days in a hole cut in the ground; (3) Mercury is to be heated in a Damaru Yantra for 3 days with the menstrual discharge of a young girl.