Fungi, Spectrum series Vol. 2

The Materia Medica of Fungi is as elusive and mysterious as the fungi themselves. The repertories list 72 fungi, of which 27 have less than 20 symptoms; 40 exist in name only, and perhaps 13 might appear in a repertorization. Our knowledge, themes and signatures have to date come from the alphabet of Agaricus, Bovista and Claviceps [Secale].

In The Hollow Men T. S. Eliot wrote:

Between the idea
And the reality,
Between the motion
And the act
Falls the Shadow

This is where we find the fungi. They are the critical link in the biological cycle of life and death. They exist in the penumbra, of our fields and forests; our homes and rafters; our literature and folklore; our medicines and drugs; our fridges and foodstores; our living and dying.

In Spectrum Fungi we are led ineluctably down the road of excess, to a palace of homeopathic wisdom. We begin to understand the evolutionary role of fungi in plant life, as in Monera we learnt that bacteria form the engine of human evolution. We walk in the shadows of the transformative nature of the fungi, without which we should be forever swamped in the unrotting debris of our own making. As fungi deliquesce our solid flesh, fertilising the waiting earth and delivering us back to the silent depths, so they also transubstantiate the grape into wine and the flour into bread.

With speed and strength, the fungi penetrate, like an invisible fifth column through the soil of our being, the Psora of our materia medica, hydra-headed, bizarre, unexpected, infiltrating, colonizing, absorbing and decomposing. Sinister? Infinitely so, in their hidden power.

This book contains all the fascinating details you need to make a prescription in this strange, chameleon-like kingdom. Fungi, Moulds, Yeasts, Lichens. They are all here some as well-known drugs ~ Cyclosporin, Penicillin ~ some as the scourge of lung diseases ~ Aspergillus ~ some you love to eat and drink ~ Camembert, Roquefort, Beer, Alcoholus, Lager, Quorn, Agaricus campestris, Cantharellus, Bovista ~ and some to blow your mind ~ LSD and Psilocybe.

Vermeulens library of books about fungi expanded from one single book to 80 during the course of his research. As the homeopathic materia medica of fungi is far from complete, most of the information is synthesized from other sources. In the past, the fungi have been grouped into the Kingdom Plantae, and sometimes as excrescences of the earth! Now, however, particularly with the means of DNA testing, it is important that these organisms, and also the fungus-like moulds and yeasts, take their place in their own Kingdom. We must desist from making any comparison between the plants and fungi.

Much of the classification used in homeopathy is incorrect, and for this book, and to be continued throughout the coming Spectrum Volumes on Plants, Frans has adopted the current standards.

As well as the extant information available to the homeopathic world on Fungi, Yeasts and Lichens, the book, hardcovered and Fly Agaric red, contains a Glossary to help you through the sometimes arcane terminology. Other useful information, all placed at the back of the book, makes connections between fungi and minerals; fungi and pathology; fungi and trees and fungi and insects. There is the usual extensive index, a sprinkling of black and white drawings and a few recipes to whet your taste buds. The book leaves enough space for your own important jottings.

Fungi, the second book in the Spectrum Materia Medica series, continues the fastidious research and production standards that we expect of Emryss Publishers. As well as being a valuable materia medica, it also makes fascinating reading.