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This book review is reprinted from Volume 104, Number 2 summer 2011 Edition, with permission from American Journal of Homeopathic Medicine.
801 N Fairfax Street, Suite 306
Alexandria, VA 22314 USA

Matridonal Remedies of the Humanum Family: Gifts of the Mother
by Melissa Assilem

2009. Quality paperback, 136 pgs.
ISBN: 9781886546066

Matridonal Remedies of the Humanum Family is the third book by Ms. Assilem and, just like the first two, The Mad Hatter's Tea Party (1994) and Women Ripening Through the Menopause (1996) (each has been revised several times), is quirky, amusing and overflowing with wisdom. This latest addition, subtitled' Gifts of the Mother,' concerns six remedies, Lac humanum, Folliculinum, Placenta humana, Vernix caseosa, Amniotic fluid, and Umbilical cord. These chapters are interspersed with several others; i.e., The Humanum Family, Enhanced Proofings, and Coming Into My Own (a lengthy case).

Right away, in her Foreword, Assilem makes the case for using the word 'proofing' instead of 'proving.'
"I use the word 'proof throughout the book, because for me is (sic) says so much better than 'prove.' To 'prove' something sounds too much as if one is testing something, which smacks of a trial. I think of a 'proofing,' as being about stepping into the energy of a substance and recording it. A 'proofreader' is someone looking over information before it is put into use. A 'proof has been described as a record of a journey in which someone has discovered an important truth, and made a record of that journey adequate enough so that a second person can walk a similar path and see a similar truth. Doesn't that sound so much more similar to what we are doing? In Chapter Six you will find my own story of the evolution of provings into what I call 'Enhanced Proofings.'"-M. Assilem, p. viii.

Matridonal remedies ('gifts of the mother') are remedies we are all familiar with on some level. Whether we've taken them or allowed them to nurture or connect, the author makes the point that there are times in our lives when we will all need them as remedies.

Upon reading the list of remedies, one finds an unfamiliar one, Vernix caseosa-the cheesy layer of 'grease' we are covered with upon our birth; a 'cheesy varnish.' Assilem calls it "The Protector' and identifies it with the following themes-unprotected, assaulted, no sense of self, skin-before presenting a case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

Like her first two books, this one is no different; it is filled with striking metaphor. As long as you give it some berth and an open mind, many 'gifts' will flow forth.

"These Matridonal remedies are about loving ourselves and loving others from a place of strength."- p. 67.

These 'lessons' are something all of us need to re-learn everyday. We need to constantly remind ourselves to 'love me,' to 'be gentle to me.' That's what everyone-the entire world-wants anyway, isn't it? More love, more kindness. Every page acted as a reminder. Well, at least to me.