Vermeulen tries in this work to achieve a new understanding of the remedy pictures by going beyond the knowledge of the remedy provings, incorporating symbolism and the original substance to broaden our knowledge of the remedies. Franz Vermeulen’s Prisma is – first of all – a beautiful book. Care in creation is what we’ve all come to expect from a work of Vermeulen’s, and this offering merely brings that expectation to a new level.

Prisma- The Arcana of Materia Medica Illuminated – While the author’s Concordant Materia Medica has become the gold-standard of a luggable reference to our medicinary – fodder for the ‘left brain’ of our art – Prisma strikes off in a new direction, as a resource for the right-brained appreciation of our Materia Medica. It is often far too easy for us to regard our remedies as little white pellets with unpronounceable names and incomprehensible lists of symptoms. Vermeulen counters this loss with detailed descriptions of the substance in the natural world, folding in generous volumes of insight from anthroposophy, folklore, mythology, toxicology and eclectic use. While the Concordant is the hands-down winner for succinct comprehensiveness in describing the symptomatology of our remedies, Prisma turns to the task of bringing the most essential of these symptoms to life. In the Main Symptoms sections, carefully-selected narratives from the provings, cases or classical teachers expand the meaning of individual symptoms. One can begin to imagine that Ernest Farrington, Constantine Hering or Margaret Tyler were reading over your shoulder and expanding on each point. Vermeulen’s Concordant is one of the few books of which I own 2 copies -one at the office, one at home so as never to be without it. Prisma, I am certain, will join that honor. Will Taylor, MD