Alchemical laboratories in India, like their counterparts in China, were not mere collections of apparatus in a convenient place. The laboratory itself was known as ‘the temple of mercury’, and was laid out in strict accordance with rules which took into account associations made between apparatus and materials and relevant divinities. Herbs and other plant matter were stored on the eastern wall because the east belongs to Indra, King of the gods. In the south-east, the distilling instruments; in the south, oxidising chemicals; in the south-west, the alchemist’s mortar, pestle and instruments for grinding and pulverising; in the west, his liquefying apparatus; in the north-west, bellows; in the north, colouring agents (because alchemists tinge substances a golden colour or cover their surfaces with gold or gold-coloured material); and in the centre, upon a square stone slab is erected the lingam made from mercury and gold or sulphur, set in a yoni, which serves as his or her daily object of worship, along with the fire-pit needed to effect the various purifications and transformations. The alchemist, however, as we have seen more than once, will not carry out the operations alone; for at least one female assistant is necessary, a menstruating woman with whom he will have sexual congress, since both male and female fluids are essential to the work.
P.G. Maxwell-Stuart, from The Chemical Choir: A history of alchemy (Continuum 2008)
from here via eaux-fortes
