Bundle II by Frans Vermeulen
This is a bundle of Vermeulen’s work that includes:
- Monera: Kingdom of Bacteria & Viruses – Spectrum Materia Medica Volume 2
- Fungi: Kingdom Fungi – Spectrum Materia Medica Volume 2
- Prisma: The Arcana of Materia Medica Illuminated
Monera: Kingdom of Bacteria & Viruses – Spectrum Materia Medica Volume 2
This materia medica contains classification of all the bacteria and viruses that have made their way into the homeopathic pharmacopoeia. The history of disease, vaccines, medicine and religion is charted here. We see how disease and religion walk hand in glove; how the evolution of man mirrors that of the microbe. We see the myths attendant on disease and the unbelievable power of the pathogen. Our language is riddled with the language of disease this is shown in the many anecdotes and myths that lighten and balance the dry and sometimes statistical medical and scientific language.
There is often more than one remedy per bacteria (for example one remedy made from the disease product and another from the vaccine). The history and genealogy of these makes fascinating reading, and Vermeulen has implemented his sleuthing skills to unravel many irregularities.
As in The Prisma, there is a lot here to read and to ingest. The material answers some questions, but raises many much deeper questions about the roots and philosophy of disease. Controversial matter is made available, and Vermeulen, seldom commenting, offers websites for further searches. Some of the language is impenetrable, old fashioned, and some is new because this book charts the history of the microscopic world of the Monera from four billion years ago to the present and that needs a new language. The glossary helps out by elucidating obscure language from many -ologies and opathies!
What is subtly distilled is the essence of bacterial and virus sensation. These groups are coming to light as a difficult and dysfunctional family. There are the glimpses of brilliance and egocentricity that we associate with particular remedies Tuberculinum and Syphilinum. And we see in a flash familiar fingerprints in the Lyme nosode and Brucella melitensis pictures. We understand that bacterial life exists at the extremes, creating both genius and mind-numbing dullness; euphoria and prostration; dehydration and inundation.
This is a book that will make you question your very DNA. And, of course, it provides the reference tool you seek if you work in the realm of Miasmatic prescribing, or Family and Sensation. It is an informative tool regardless of which methodology you use to effect your prescription.
Fungi: Kingdom Fungi – Spectrum Materia Medica Volume 2
This 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, fertilizing 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 from this strange, chameleon-like kingdom. Fungi, Molds, 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.
Vermeulen’s 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 molds 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, hard-covered 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.
Prisma: The Arcana of Materia Medica Illuminated
Prisma: The Arcana of Materia Medica Illuminated is a fully expanded version of Synoptic One, containing the same remedies, and also an encyclopedic amount of information on the source, zoology, chemistry, physics, distribution, folklore, mythology and history of the remedies. This contextual material is absolutely fascinating reading, bringing the medicinal substances vibrantly to life. Whereas Synoptic One and Concordant Materia Medica are vital books for the student and the practitioner alike as clinical reference texts, Prisma is all this, plus bedtime reading too.