We just finished a new formula that Paul was inspired to make a few years ago, which we were finally able to source all the materials for. We’re calling it 3 Treasures Reishi– a combination of Duanwood and Red Antler Reishi mushrooms and activated Reishi spores.
We’ve worked with Duanwood reishi for many years, and love it as an energizing, immune-boosting tonic and support to physical well-being. We’ve also offered Red Antler Reishi whenever we can get it, which can be a real quest as I shared in this post. We find the Antler to be the better support for the Shen and its steady Heart-centered energy.
Both shapes of Reishi can grow from the same spores, since the difference between the elegant shelf-form Duanwood and the dramatic Red Antlers is in the environmental conditions the mushroom grows in. Higher oxygen environments, like forests, favour the shelf form that grows on trees, while more CO2 stimulates the Antler form, found naturally near caves and waterfalls.
The spores themselves are also highly medicinal, but since they are also extremely tough, they are very difficult to extract. Their cell walls are made of chitin, which is the same stuff that armours shellfish like shrimp and crabs. This chitin breaks down naturally in the soil where mushrooms spores fall from the fruiting body of the mushroom, allowing it to form root-like hyphae and eventually more mushrooms. Natural processes in the soil make this happen, but until recently, how to reproduce the “opening” of the spores in a lab hasn’t been well understood.
After some research, Paul found a company using a special method to open the spores, making them extractable in our usual Spagyric process, along with the Duanwood and Antler. The company we sourced the spores from calls them the Jing of the Reishi, referencing the TCM concept of the creative and reproductive force in the triad of Jing, Qi and Shen. This way of looking at both the ecological role and the medicine of the spores makes sense to us, as they brought a restorative quality to the formula that we feel will build with use over time.
Testing this formula, we both experienced a good boost of energy and a feeling of well-being, as we expected based on the healing qualities of Reishi. What was interesting was that on a different day of testing, I found the formula very calming and relaxing. This is a paradoxical effect I have found with a few tonic herbs, and what I think is happening is that the herb sends the body into the mode it most needs at that time: energizing when health is good, but calming when rest is needed.
We created this formula under the rulership of Sun, as with most of our tonic and adaptogenic Spagyrics. Working with the 3 Treasures Reishi on a spiritual level, we both found it expansive in a very Solar way, with Paul saying the expansion initially started at his solar plexus and moved out from there. I felt a lovely euphoric quality from it, which is something I also find with the Antler Reishi. It’s a quality of uplift and rising above difficulties, which is the way its Shen tonic properties are described in TCM texts.
We’re excited to finally have this formula to share with you, and to be able to work with such ancient and intelligent beings as mushrooms within our Spagyric lineage and practice. We hope you’ll try 3 Treasures Reishi and let us know what you think!
