I’ve had a fascination with fungi recently, which led me to take a deep dive into homeopathic fungus remedies. There’s something about mushrooms, in particular, that captivate me. I’m drawn to their beauty and the diversity of their patterns, to be sure, but I also admire their adaptability and resiliency.
Fungi are more often feared than revered these days, but they are hardly the problem we make them out to be. Rather, the compromised (aka susceptible) nature of our modern ecosystems, both earthly and bodily, is the larger problem, making us vulnerable to certain types of fungi.
Fungi, including mushrooms, molds, lichen, yeasts, etc. have distinct characteristics that distinguish them from plants, animals, and minerals, and with the collective “fungo-phobia” in our culture, I believe their characteristics make them a particularly important group of homeopathic remedies to lean on today.
Fungal Themes
The homeopath Frans Vermeulen offers intriguing insights into the nature of fungi and into the people needing a homeopathic remedy derived from fungus. Some of what I have learned is from his quotable materia medica on the topic. He outlines themes of this group of remedies:
Penetration and Expansion: Their nature is to spread in, on, and around; to expand and grow rapidly (see below).
Rapidity: The fruiting bodies (mushrooms) develop fast! Isn’t it interesting how our language reflects this? We say something “mushrooms” when it grows rapidly.
Strength: Fungi have to be strong in order to survive the hostile environments they inhabit. Mushrooms, for example, can push through brick pavers and asphalt.
Constant Activity: Fungi are naturally active, often breaking down, or feeding on, organic compounds. They constantly “transform the dead” and “draw nutrients into the living.” This is reflected homeopathically in the frequent appearance of the rubric “Mind, restlessness” in fungal remedies in the repertory.
Flexibility: They have a remarkable ability to adapt to challenging conditions and restore balance.
Colonizing and Exploring: This is what fungi do. In nature, it seems a miracle that fungi can connect the trees together via their colonizing nature. In homes this nature is invasive and destructive.
Symptom Similarities Among Homeopathic Fungus Remedies
We have a number of homeopathic fungus remedies in our Materia Medica. You’ll find brief descriptions of some remedies below. Some of them are well-proven and clinically well-established. Others are more recently popular with the growth of mold-related illness and awareness.
You’ll notice similarities of sensations and symptoms across many of the fungal remedies:
- Burning and itching.
- Twitching and convulsions.
- Paralysis and numbness.
- Restlessness.
- Increased sexual desire or activity.
- Hemorrhagic tendencies are notable as well as uterine and menstrual complaints.
Thus, these remedies tend to have an affinity for particular body systems, such as:
- The central and peripheral nervous systems.
- The circulatory system.
- Female and male sexual organs.
Specific groups of fungi also have specific affinities. For example, the mushrooms tend to impact on the CNS, psyche, GI tract, liver, kidneys. The molds have a greater affinity toward the respiratory organs, sinuses, mucous membranes, skin. The parasitic fungi have an affinity for the CNS, psyche, cardiovascular, and hormonal systems.
Homeopathic Fungus Remedies to Know
Agaricus Muscarius
Source: Red Capped Mushroom. Macroscopic fleshy fungi.
Essence of the Remedy: Courage in face of danger, invasion, or influence; controlling inner vulnerability/insecurity (Sankaran). Agaricus has two sides, or seeming contradictory states. You’ll see this in the extremes of anxiety and euphoria, fearlessness and fearfulness, exalted strength and great weakness. Cancer miasm: controlled/uncontrolled growth, suppressed, keeping order in chaos, superhuman effort in order to survive.
This is Alice’s mushroom in Wonderland. When she ate one side of the mushroom it made her grow taller while the other side made her grow smaller. Isn’t it fascinating that Lewis Carroll had a sense of the effects of this mushroom, even it’s two sides? You can see, then, how this mushroom remedy would support someone with similar, seeming contradictory, symptoms…feeling both superhuman / fearless and utterly vulnerable / fearful.
Some Keynote Symptoms:
- Anxiety about health, especially cancer; fear losing control (Agaricus makes “mountains out of mole hills” due to errors in perception)
- Rage with “superhuman” efforts of exalted strength; feel enlarged, as if drunk (Agaricus also makes “mole hills out of mountains” so is inclined to take risks and get themselves into danger)
- Complaints appear diagonally; for example, upper left and lower right side
- Spine sensitive; sciatica & low back pain; worse sitting, better lying; pressing on spine causes laughter
- Twitching (esp of eyes and face), spasms, convulsions, tremor, tics, neuralgias; consider in Bell’s Palsy, MS, seizure disorders.
- Clumsy; difficult coordination; awkward
- Increased sexual desire
- Burning, itching (consider for frostbite, chilblains); sensation of hot or icy cold needles
- General aggravation from coition (sex), thunderstorms, cold air, alcohol, during menses, mental exhaustion
- Better gentle motion
Bovista Lycoperdon
Source: Giant Puffball. Macroscopic fleshy fungi.
Essence of the Remedy: Feels fragile, inadequate; avoids invasion (Sankaran). Bovista is often prescribed for skin and/or hormone-related symptoms, but the mind symptoms more readily reveal the fragility / weakness aspect of Bovista. Bovista makes mistakes in speaking and writing, has difficulty concentrating, and has a weak memory with confusion of mind. They attempt to cover this weakness with loquaciousness, but wind up sharing without discretion.
Depending on the source, Bovista is said to reflect the Sycotic, Syphilitic, Ringworm, and/or Tubercular miasms (apparently homeopaths do not agree on this). It certainly has oppression and suffocation sensations as well as changeability of symptoms, which is notably Tubercular. It’s found in the rubric Generals; history, personal; tuberculosis, of (with just 18 other remedies). The tendency to avoid and/or cover up weakness reflects the sycotic miasm, as Sankaran suggests.
Some Keynote Symptoms:
- Awkwardness in speech and action, with a tendency to drop things (common in fungal remedies)
- Mistakes in speech & writing
- Alternating moods, from laughing to crying…greatly sensitive
- Bloated, puffy sensation; edema; easy indentation of skin; general sense of enlargement of specific parts (head, heart); delusions of enlargement
- Also sense of emptiness, hollow, deflation physically and mentally/emotionally
- Unhealthy skin; burning, crusty, itchy eruptions; acne; hives with menorrhagia or diarrhea; when Rhus Tox seems indicated but fails to cure in chronic urticaria (Allen)
- Menses comes or notably increases at night (stops entirely during the day)
- Hemorrhagic tendency: bleeding between periods; menses too profuse; nosebleeds; bleeding wounds; after teeth extraction
- Diarrhea before or during menses
- Generally worse tight clothing, before and during menses, worse wine, wheat, yeast; Better eating, bending double
- Intolerable itching at tip of tail bone
- This mushroom contains a lot of aluminum and is very dry…it shares many symptoms with homeopathic Alumina
- Interestingly, the Banerji Protocol for gluten and other food allergies is Bovista
*The next two remedies are ones you’ll especially want to know if you are a woman with heavy periods, continuous bleeding, you’re pregnant or you’re approaching childbirth.*
Ustilago Maydis
Source: Corn smut. Parasitic fungi.
Essence of the Remedy: Trying / struggling against invasion and penetration alternating with acceptance of it. Ringworm miasm. This is a remedy to consider for ringworm. The ringworm miasm is characterized by trying but giving up or struggling and accepting. One minute it’s there and then you lose it. Irritated. (Sankaran). Has some symptoms similar to those of Secale Cornitum (below).
Some Keynote Symptoms:
- A main remedy for uterine hemorrhage and miscarriage.
- Hemorrhage due to easily bleeding, spongy cervix, fibroids; menstrual, post partum, menopausal hemorrhage; continuous bleeding between menses
- Blood partly clotted, dark or red, profuse, in threads or long, black strings;
- Third month miscarriages or threatened abortion
- Irritability, restlessness, esp at night
- Skin, hair, nails also affected; loss of hair and nails; consider for ringworm
- Skin dry and hot
- Excessive sex drive, masturbation
- Left-sided ovarian/pelvic pain, often with fibroids
- Sensation of knot in uterus, throat, bowels
- Generally worse during menses, menopause
Secale Cornutum
Source: Ergot of rye. Parasitic Fungi.
Essence of the Remedy: Invaded and penetrated to the point of disgust and isolation (Sankaran). Leprous miasm (a principle remedy in leprosy). Leprosy miasmatic themes include oppression, dirtiness, despair, disgust, and can be seen in some rubrics of this remedy (below).
Some Keynote Symptoms:
- Restlessness, discouragement, confusion of mind
- Hemorrhagic tendency: nosebleeds with dark blood from slight touch; continuous passive hemorrhage of dark, thin blood esp during or after labor; slight wounds have prolonged bleeding
- Consider during prolonged labor without progress; labor pains are weak and ineffectual
- Threatening, or onset of, miscarriage, esp in third month in women who have had many children
- Painful menses during menopause
- Cramping, tingling, formication (crawling sensation), numbness of extremities (hands, legs, feet)
- Gangrene with numbness; skin ulcers that turn black
- Tremendous aggravation from heat, but ameliorated by cold…one of the warmest remedies in the materia medica
- Burning sensations, despite skin being cold to touch; cannot tolerate being covered; also burning desire
- Holds fingers spread apart; cannot bear them touching
Some rubrics reflecting the leprous miasm in Secale Cornitum:
Candida Albicans
Source: Candida Albicans. Also known as Monilia albicans. Yeast.
Essence of the Remedy: This nosode resonates with suppression and weakness. As Vermeulen notes, candida’s invasion and penetration to the point of dis-ease is a result of a disturbance in the host, not simply a property of the organism itself. That is, suppression and weakness of the host makes it vulnerable to candida. Suppression with antibiotics (or steroids or anti-fungals), suppression of anger, of free will…all of these are themes in Candida. Sycotic Miasm.
Some Keynote Symptoms:
- Brain fog / weakness of memory, spaciness, scatter-brained
- Mood swings; anger & aggression to giddy, silly, laughing
- Overwhelmed by daily requirements, duties; inability to cope, hence restless and hectic; chaotic
- Often feel like victims in their lives
- Sugar and carb cravings, diabetes, hypoglycemia
- Vaginal or oral thrush; tongue coated white; vaginitis; itching genitals
- Mastitis, inflammation of nipples, pain
- Bloated abdomen, gas, loud rumbling
- Skin dry and itching, dermatitis, eczema
- “Stimming”…flapping, spinning, head butting, chewing
- Cystitis, enuresis
Additional thoughts: My understanding of the mental/emotional state of someone who needs Candida has shifted through my exploration of this remedy…the physical symptoms have always been more obvious. I didn’t see before how the sense of weakness (conscious or unconscious) is such a central part of the experience for someone who needs this remedy. And I didn’t see how they tend to cover up and hide that weakness (with angry outbursts or silliness for example). It’s such a clear reflection of the sycotic miasm!
Penicillinum
Source: Benzylpenicillum Sodium. Mold.
Essence of the Remedy: As with all fungi, there is the theme of invasion and penetration. Penicillium “produce enormous numbers of spores that are blown about in the air,” lending to their intrusive nature. Its tendency to produce allergic reactions may be, in part, a result of the sulphur that naturally occurs in penicillium; sulphur being an anti-psoric remedy often employed in allergic conditions. Interestingly, candida is often a result of a system weakened by repeated use of penicillin- derived antibiotics. Psoric miasm (deficiency) and Sycotic miasm.
Some Keynote Symptoms:
- Fear of incurable disease; they want help now
- Mental cloudiness, weakness, lax and tired
- Fidgety
- Consider in chronic fatigue, changing infectious conditions
- Allergic hypersensitivity reactions; dry cough, asthma worse 4am
- Dermatitis of the skin, eczema, allergic skin responses
- Chronic diarrhea, loose stools
- Respiratory passages with slimy or thick yellow discharge
- Conjunctivitis with puffy eyelids, esp in morning
- Joint pains, rheumatism
- Worse from motion, cold, 4am; general coldness
- Better with rest, pressure, warmth, dry sunny weather
- Consider if never been well since taking Penicillin (the antibiotic)
Resources
- Nature’s Materia Medica. Robin Murphy, ND
- Qjure, Online Homeopathy Wiki. Jan Scholten
- A group analysis evaluation of the Kingdom Fungi of homoeopathic remedies in terms of known materia medica. Kristian Leisegang (Dissertation)
- Fungi: Kingdom Fungi, Spectrum Materia Medica Volume 2. Frans Vermeulen
- Healing Complex Children with Homeopathy. Angelica Lemke, ND
- Desktop Guide to Keynote and Confirmatory Symptoms. Roger Morrison, MD
- A Brief Materia Medica of Some Lesser-Known Nosodes. Dr. K.S. Srinivasan
