Fabrizio Pregadio's Blog, page 4

End of Year Sale: 25% Discount on Paperbacks

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce that several paperbacks are available with a 25% discount until December 31, 2011.





For further information and to place orders, please see this web page: 2011 End of Year Sale.




These books are available for purchase with a 25% discount:




The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi, the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir, by Fabrizio Pregadio [Web page]

List Price: $24.95 — Discounted Price: $18.71 (ca. €14.15)— You save: $6.24



Foundations of Internal Alchemy: The Taoist Practice of Neidan, by Wang Mu [Web page]

List Price: $16.95 — Discounted Price: $12.71 (ca. €9.60) — You save: $4.24



The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy, by Isabelle Robinet [Web page]

List Price: $15.95 — Discounted Price: $11.96 (ca. €9.05) — You save: $3.99



Awakening to Reality: The "Regulated Verses" of the Wuzhen pian, a Taoist Classic of Internal Alchemy, by Fabrizio Pregadio [Web page]

List Price: $15.95 — Discounted Price: $11.96 (ca. €9.05)— You save: $3.99



Hinduism and Buddhism, by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy [Web page]

List Price: $13.95 — Discounted Price: $10.46 (ca. €7.90) — You save: $3.49



Visit the 2011 End of Year Sale web page.



Prices in US Dollars are correct. Prices in Euros are provided only for reference and are approximate, based on exchange rates in late November 2011. 

The Lovely Maid and the Yellow Sprout (from the Cantong qi)

This passage of the Cantong qi is reproduced from Fabrizio Pregadio, The Seal of the Unity of the Three: A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi, the Source of the Way of the Golden Elixir (Golden Elixir Press, 2011).



The Golden Elixir website contains an extended collection of of free translations, essays, and other materials on the Cantong qi reproduced from this book.






 










Book 2, Section 68: The Lovely Maid and the Yellow Sprout





1-4The Lovely Maid of the River

is numinous and supremely divine:

when she finds Fire she flies away,

leaving behind not a speck of dust.

 

5-8Like a demon she hides, like a dragon she conceals:

nobody knows her whereabouts.

If you want to control her,

the Yellow Sprout is the root.






 









Notes


The Lovely Maid of the River (heshang chanü) is True Mercury; she is the Yin line within Li , referred to as the "second daughter" in the terminology of the Book of Changes. Aroused by fire, she escapes and flies away. Only the Yellow Sprout (huangya), which is True Lead, can hold her. When they meet, they join and generate the Elixir.





The argument poetically expressed in these verses resounds at different levels and can be understood in different ways. From the perspective of the Cantong qi, all of them are instances of one and the same principle. In a material sense, the Lovely Maid of the River can be mercury, which escapes (volatilizes) when it is heated by fire. In a spiritual sense, referred to the human being, the Lovely Maid can refer to sentiments and passions. When one's own Fire is used to stimulate those sentiments and passions, they escape and run uncontrolled. When they are presided over by one's own True Nature (Lead, the Yellow Sprout), they turn into qualities — instincts, intuitions, propensities — that express one's Nature.


 



© Fabrizio Pregadio and Golden Elixir Press

New Translation of the Main Text of Taoist Alchemy

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of The Seal of the Unity of the Three, by Fabrizio Pregadio.





"The Cantong qi is the forefather of the scriptures on the Elixir of all times. Its words are ancient and profound, arcane and subtle. No one can fathom their meaning." Thus begins a preface found in one of the commentaries to the Cantong qi (The Seal of the Unity of the Three). These words express several significant features of the work translated in the present book: the charm of its verses, the depth of its discourse, its enigmatic language, and its intimate relation to the Taoist alchemical traditions.



Under an allusive poetical language and thick layers of images and symbols, the Cantong qi hides the exposition of a doctrine that inspired a large number of commentaries and other works, and attracted the attention not only of Taoist masters and adepts, but also of philosophers, cosmologists, poets, literati, calligraphers, philologists, and bibliophiles.



As shown by its title, the Cantong qi is concerned with three major subjects, namely Cosmology (the relation of the world to the Dao), Taoism (the way of "non-doing"), and Alchemy, and joins them to one another into a unique doctrine, known as the Way of the Golden Elixir. In addition to a complete translation of the text, this book contains explanations of each of its sections, notes on many of its verses, and a detailed introduction to its history and doctrines.



The book is offered with a 20% early publication discount until October 23, 2011. Please see below for this offer.



Visit the Web page on this book.





Publication Data



Fabrizio Pregadio

The Seal of the Unity of the Three:


A Study and Translation of the Cantong qi,

the Source of the Taoist Way of the Golden Elixir



Golden Elixir Press, 2011

ISBN 978-0-9843082-8-6

324 pp., paperback, US$ 24.95 (list price)



Early publication price: US$ 19.96 (20% discount)

Buy from CreateSpace.com — Enter discount code XK73HZN5 at checkout

This offer is valid until October 23, 2011 (*)





Preview and Samples



For a preview of the book (PDF, 28 pp.) and other online samples, see this page.





(*) By the time your read this, Amazon.com and other online bookstores may sell this book with a discount even higher than 20%. Except for CreateSpace — the online shop of the company that prints this book — Golden Elixir Press has no way to activate or influence any discount offered by online bookstores. You may want to check your favorite online bookstore's price before using this offer.

Autumn 2011 Catalogue — 10% discount on all PDF editions

The Autumn 2011 catalogue is now available. Click the picture or the link below to access the download page:





• Autumn 2011 catalogue




The catalogue includes a code for a 10% discount on all PDF editions. This offer is valid until the end of autumn (December 21, 2011).

Li Daochun on the Dragon and the Tiger

This passage from Li Daochun's most important work is quoted in Isabelle Robinet, The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy (Golden Elixir Press, 2011)






The image of the Dragon-Tiger undergoes a thousand transformations and ten thousand changes, and its transcendence (liao) is divine and unfathomable. This is why we use it to represent the ingredients, we establish it as Tripod and Furnace, and we move it with the Fire regime. By analogy, it is Kan and Li; by substitution (jia), it is Metal and Fire; by naming, it is the boy and the girl; by conjoining, it is the husband and the wife.



All these different names constitute the wondrous function (yong) of the Dragon and the Tiger. By virtue of their divine animation (ling gan), we call them ingredients; because they bring things to achievement, we call them Tripod and Furnace; by virtue of their transformations, we call them Fire regime; because they cross each other and join to one another, we call them Kan and Li; because they are firm and straight, we call them Metal and Wood; because they ascend and descend, we call them boy and girl; because they wondrously harmonize with one another, we call them husband and wife.






Li Daochun (late 13th century)

Zhonghe ji (Anthology of Central Harmony), chapter 4

Isabelle Robinet, The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy

Golden Elixir Press is pleased to announce the publication of The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy , by Isabelle Robinet, in paperback and PDF editions.





The World Upside Down contains four essays on Internal Alchemy (Neidan), originally published in French and translated here for the first time into English. The essays are concerned with the alchemical principle of "inversion"; the devices used by the alchemists to "give form to the Formless by the word, and thus manifest the authentic and absolute Dao"; the symbolic function of numbers in Taoism and in Internal Alchemy; and the original meanings of the terms "External Elixir" (waidan) and "Internal Elixir" (neidan).




Visit the Web page.



About the Author



Isabelle Robinet (1932-2000) was one of the most important Western scholars of Taoism. Her work dealt with several major topics: the Laozi and the Zhuangzi with their commentaries; the Shangqing (Highest Clarity) school of Taoism; Neidan (Internal Alchemy); and Taoist thought and cosmology. Her publications in English include Taoist Meditation: The Mao-shan Tradition of Great Purity (1993) and Taoism: Growth of a Religion (1997).


Publication Data



Isabelle Robinet, The World Upside Down: Essays on Taoist Internal Alchemy

Edited and translated by Fabrizio Pregadio

Golden Elixir Press, 2011

viii + 129 pp.

ISBN 978-0-9843082-6-2

Paperback, US$ 15.95 (list price)

PDF, US$ 9.95 (list price)



Free Online Samples



• PDF sample (62 pages)

• Yin and Yang in Internal Alchemy (web page)

• "Reversal" in Internal Alchemy (web page)

• The Language of Internal Alchemy (web page)