The current issue of SPECTRUM with the title “Lilies – Problems with the Group” is a kind of GPS for homeopaths. Functioning as a sort of global positioning system (GPS), SPECTRUM brings much-needed clarity to the Liliales order because the Lilies have certainly caused considerable terminological confusion, both in homeopathy and botany: Lilianae, Liliidae, Liliiflorae, Liliales, or Liliaceae? Moreover the Liliales as grasped in Jan Scholten’s modern APG classification contain fewer plant families than in the classical Cronquist taxonomy. The latter is preferred by Sankaran and Yakir, and includes the impressive bunch of remedies that our authors have put together. Jörg Wichmann‘s introduction attempts to cast some light on this chaos of order.
“Problems with the group” is indeed the central theme of the Liliales, which can easily be derived from Scholten’s group plant code of 633.6. The digits 633 indicate the third row of the periodic table, the Silica series, with its focus on relationships, families and groups. The final digit, phase 6, indicates the feeling of being on the edge of the group, not really belonging. With her case of Crocus sativus Deborah Collins presents a vivid example of working with Jan Scholten’s plant theory.
Via the common physical vital sensation of “being pressed from inside outwards,” Rajan Sankaran arrives at the same basic feeling of being excluded as does Jan Scholten via his plant theory. Michal Yakir presents the Liliales and their problems with the group in the context of plant evolution. She describes in her article the relationship problems and the strong ego of the self-centered monocotyledons.
This issue of SPECTRUM clarifies how the differing perspectives on the Liliales botanical order taken by Scholten, Sankaran, and Yakir supplement and deepen our homeopathic understanding of it. With a splendid collection of Lilies remedies, Jürgen Weiland illuminates their particular connection to the urogenital area. His marvelous plant photos make the current Liliales issue of SPECTRUM an exquisitely colorful treat.
