The following case summary and reflection serves to introduce the fundamental issues and themes of the homeopathic remedy Cygnus X-1 (Black Hole). The remedy was proved in 2010 by Jason-Aeric Huenecke. Documents related to the proving are available at: https://www.thefieldprovings.org/lux-foraminis-nigris-proving

Case summary:

“I’m coming to you because of a constant irritation I’m feeling. It’s heavy. It feels like I am about to get my period. When I have this feeling of irritation, I can feel it affecting my whole body. It’s like things are getting pulled inwards, starting from the genitals and then going up into the abdomen. It also feels sometimes like I have a UTI, but I don’t. It’s very irritating psychologically. Taken together, this all produces a feeling of restlessness, of something irritating you all the time! I need to constantly change my posture, to shift my position. Even when I sit down to watch a movie I can’t keep still, it is especially in the legs, I have to keep moving them. Until the time I lay down and go to sleep, it does not go away. I try not to move, but then the lack of comfort becomes even more intense. [Note: an intolerable sensation of things pulling inwards].

And with all of this every now and then I can hear a vrrrrrrrhhhsound, like a truck running its engine somewhere close by.

Even minor sounds can wake me up and then my mind is such that I start thinking right away. It is very difficult for me to go back to sleep. My mind starts calculating, weighing the negative against the positive in my life. [Note: slight sounds interrupting sleep. Polarity of negative vs positive].

I tend to overthink things. I am not an optimistic person. I’m drawn to the dark: dark literature, dark movies, the dark arts. It is all very interesting for me. The vastness of psychological experiences! I like very heavy movies, like those of Lars von Trier. But when I see horrific things in real life, I can’t stand it, I don’t want to hear about any kind of suffering. I feel deep, deep sorrow and devastation when I think about the suffering of others. I cannot think about the immense suffering of people, animals, or children. [Note: not optimistic, drawn to the dark]. 

Being confronted with suffering is a very dark experience for me. It makes me feel totally depleted. It’s like I have to get up but I can’t really. I once saw a documentary about how they are cutting forests and the orangutans are losing their habitat. When I think about that, I experience a nostalgic feeling, like something is slipping through my fingers and there’s nothing I can do about it.

To be hopeful requires a lot of resources from me. I don’t like hoping. It consumes a lot of my energy. I would rather not be hopeful, but despairing in a good way. That way there are no expectations, there is not much to lose. That is easier than hoping for something uplifting. However I am trying to have more kindness towards myself and to cultivate loving kindness to the world. Without hoping, and just being present. The question is: how to reconcile loving kindness and presence with the idea that everything will not end well? Like the Buddhists teach, suffering and the cessation of suffering, the realization that there are inevitable things that will happen and we just have to get prepared. That way I can learn to be able to enjoy existence without clinging to it.

Dreams:

I had a reoccurring dream when I was a child. A ballerina is dancing, she keeps spiraling, one turn after the other, in complete silence. The crowd starts coming from all sides, and at some point I realize that the auditorium is going to collapse. Then I feel fearful. It will be a mess, a bloody mess, there is no harmony, it’s complete havoc! As the crowd is gathering, getting closer and closer to the dancer my feeling of tension grows more intense. There is tension, an anticipation of collapse and then total havoc. [Note: this dream points directly to an important sensation and source characteristic of the remedy, I.e. spiralling out of control].

In another dream I could see two planets moving towards each other, and also two armies moving towards each other. I was in the middle of it all and I knew at some point that they would all collide. I can feel those powers sometimes. [Note: impending destruction of everything around her. Planets colliding].

The patient is asked to elaborate on “those powers”:

It is the evil gathering. It is getting stronger and consuming all of the good, all the beautiful. I can feel it in my fingers, and I lose touch with reality. It is like I fall to pieces. Disintegration. Lack of control. It is like I am losing my identity, like I’m sucked in somewhere. I can’t orient, there is a complete void, a black hole! Everything there is unfamiliar, scary, it is a horror! But it is quiet horror, which is even worse! [Note: direct identification with the source: the black hole].

This horror is something worse than death. Everything ceases, everything is destroyed, but this horror doesn’t stop. It is hard to say for sure, because I do not know what death is…[Note: the patient is speaking directly from source of the remedy in describing a force so destructive that it will persist even after it has annihilated personality, time, space, and being/existence itself].

The closest equivalent to this experience is of going into space, or suddenly realizing how much weight is pressing on the atmosphere, pressing on us here on the earth It is like you don’t have enough air to breathe, like you’re running out of air. Everything becomes unfamiliar, and the weight pressing on me feels like a hydraulic press. I know that eventually it will destroy me. Since it is me it will destroy me and then it will destroy everything because everything exists in my mind. That is the end. [Note: Supra-earthly forces which threaten total destruction. Extremely heavy pressure, compression, going into space].

I cannot stay alone at night, I need someone to be here with me. I feel a weird presence. A spirit presence. I get afraid, and am overwhelmed with an anticipation that something out of the ordinary is going to happen, that I am to see something extremely scary. [Note: total intolerance and horror of the dark].

I can’t describe this presence. When it is dark and I move close to the window, my mind automatically draws a white face. This face gets close to the window from the other side, from out of the darkness. I just don’t go there, I can’t go further than that.

When I approach the darkness, I feel there is something with me. It is oppressing. You can call it a fear of the Other. It is something of the other world, something not of this world. It can take something from me. Something dear to me, a part of me…my soul. I am worried that I can lose my mind, my sanity. I don’t know where I will end up. That would be the worst eventuality, that I would be possessed by this force, this presence.

Additional case notes: The patient was also struggled with bouts of intense and overwhelming anger, irritability and quarrelsomeness towards her husband and family. E.g. her husband would talk about conspiracies and the dire state of the world, which evoked in the patient the feeling that she was “becoming part of these dangerous delusions.”

Materia medica Excerpts, Cygnus X-1 (Black Hole):

“The entire theme of the black hole energy is the ‘Polarity of matter and energy.’ The specific sensation of a Black hole is that of an experience that one is pulling in, drawing everything around oneself into one’s own depths and in the process getting oppressed, dense and small. It is a feeling of extreme gravitational power or pull within oneself that draws anything and everything around it. It’s a feeling of being huge, magnanimous and powerful yet dark, invisible and sometimes having a negative energy” (Bahwisha & Shachindra Joshi, ‘Nosodes and Imponderables Come Alive!’ pg. 302).

“*Delusions related to threat, danger or harm

*Impending destruction of all near her

*Being possessed

*Body immaterial

*Body dissolving

*Trapped

*Point of no return

*Sucked in

*Waking from slight noise

*Unstoppable power. Overpowering. No stopping it. No end point. Spiraling out of control. Sensation of being under control.

*Predominant sensations: Pulling or drawing inward; being pulled in; being pulled down; compressed into a dense mass. Drawn to something, events, activities, thoughts.”

(Frans Vermeulen, ‘Synoptic Reference, Volume 2’ pg. 585 – 588)

Summary of central themes in the case:

*Gravitational pull / inward attraction — sensations of being pulled inward, drawn in, sucked in, compressed, or psychologically absorbed.

*Compression and immense pressure — crushing weight, density, hydraulic pressure, inability to breathe, overwhelming force pressing inward.

*Event horizon / point of no return — inevitable progression toward collapse, irreversibility, crossing a threshold from which there is no escape.

*Collapse of order into chaos — harmony giving way to disintegration, destruction, disorder, and total havoc.

*Cosmic / supra-earthly imagery — black holes, planets, space, gravity, vast cosmic forces, and universal rather than earthly perspectives.

*The void / annihilation — emptiness, abyss, nothingness, unfamiliarity, extinction of self and existence.

*Loss of self / disintegration — loss of identity, orientation, sanity, possession, dissolution, falling to pieces.

*Invisible overwhelming force — unseen presences, dark entities, oppression by an external or transcendent force beyond one’s control.

*Polarity — oscillation between opposites (hope vs. despair, good vs. evil, positive vs. negative, light vs. darkness, matter vs. energy).

*Attraction toward darkness — fascination with melancholy, tragedy, horror, and profound psychological suffering while simultaneously being overwhelmed by real-world suffering.

Patient’s response to treatment:

Cygnus X-1 Black Hole, administered in the 1M and later 10M potencies over the course of a year produced a deep and sustained constitutional improvement. The patient’s tendency to become pulled into uncontrollable and overwhelming states of fear, sorrow, conflict, and catastrophic thinking gradually resolved. Over the course of treatment the patient became calmer, less reactive, less jealous, less pessimistic, and far less prone to being emotionally consumed by interpersonal conflicts and the suffering of others. In follow-ups she repeatedly described being able to observe distressing situations and images without becoming “sucked in”: “with the remedy, I’m learning to distance myself from being sucked in…I’m learning to to be an observer rather than getting sucked in.” These expressions were a sign that the patient was developing greater equanimity, emotional equilibrium, and an acceptance of the vicissitudes of life. 

The patient’s fear of darkness greatly diminished, her sleep significantly improved, the intrusive thoughts and images stopped, and she developed a balanced relationship with death, loss, and suffering while simultaneously deepening her spiritual practice. She developed a self aware relationship to her tendencies towards destabilizing sympathetic sorrow and catastrophic anticipation, which gradually ceased. Objective physical improvements—including complete resolution of her chronic irritation/pulling in sensations, increased energy and stamina, better sleep, and stabilization of menstrual irregularities —paralleled these mental and emotional changes. The patient remains completely well nearly 2 years after the start of her treatment.

Lac Humanum is a homeopathic medicine made from human breast milk. The following cured case can help us to understand some of its most essential themes: abandonment, neglect and abuse, feeling alone in the world, severe depressive states, body image issues, death and loss, guilt, and a distorted/inverted relationship between mother and child.

“I suffer from a very angry acne problem. It always looks like I have big black bruises on my face! I have tried every treatment imaginable. I went on Accutane and it helped but then 2 months ago it completely stopped working. I see clients, and it is very embarrassing!

It started all started when was in a bad relationship, I was emotionally abandoned. I was ignored, unloved, not attended to. I was living with my husband like we were roommates, we hardly spoke. I would get sick and he would not look after me or help me at all. I started getting depressed and took two different kinds of antidepressants. I never had any acne before that time. This was almost 10 years ago now.

I started drinking a lot. I started smoking. When I realized that I was drinking almost every day I went to the doctor, they said it was emotional and they gave me antidepressants. The acne only got worse and worse and worse. I made a decision to leave that relationship a few years ago. Since then I’ve had huge pustules on my face, like a volcano. At times I can’t even talk because it hurts everywhere. The acne can stink, the smell can be very ugly.

I deal with a lot of stress now. My son, he’s involved with drugs, he’s overdosed a few times…There have been fights, he goes crazy. I’ve have had to kick him out of the house.

My mother passed away unexpectedly a few months ago. She fell, went to hospital and 4 days later she passed away. It was yet another shock. I always had to take care of my mother, she was not always the best. I was more like a mother to her than she was to me.

When we came to this country I was the one who had to take care of myself. My mother was just there, but not there for me. I was there for her because I loved her and somehow I had hope that one day she would recognize that. When we came here, just me and my mom, I felt alone, totally abandoned. I had always wanted to go back home but it was impossible…

The most difficult thing for me was me having to grow up alone. My mother mostly relied on me. My father was not in my life at all. It wasn’t planned, but I had a daugther when I was 16…

So I got married as soon as I could but it was a big mistake. He was an abusive man and really into drugs. He beat up my daughter so badly. He would go crazy, he would hit us both. We were bruised from head to toe. My daughter ended up in the hospital, it was chaos. After that, we separated, he ran away before there could be any justice.

I have nightmares involving my mom where she tries to beat me. I have to find a place to hide. I also have dreams where I’m in the forest, I lift a log and then am surrounded by snakes! I am terrified of snakes. I wake up almost every day with these dreams, they leave me feeling terrible, I have bad migraines after these dreams and it is very hard for me to do anything most days.

My family is what brings me the most joy, my kids are very important to me. Just being close to my loved ones, that completes me.”

After Lac Humanum 1M the patient’s longstanding, disfiguring acne – which literally looked like gigantic bruises on her face – disappeared and never returned. She was able to completely stop drinking and smoking. Her nightmares – dreams of being surrounded by snakes and of being unjustly abused are characteristic of Lac humanum – turned into dreams of reconciliation, unity and love.

As Alize Timmerman has commented, “Right after we are born, feelings of loss can be dominant. Loss of connection with our mother, our source is felt deeply.” Our patient was permanently stuck in this state of loss, had nowhere to turn and was headed down a path of self destruction. This same deeply held pattern of emotional trauma had unfortunately carried over into the lives of her children. Yet, “the sweet warm mother’s milk invites us to be on this earth, to connect to the earth and our path in life” (ibid). With just a few doses of Lac humanum, our patient was able to do just that.

Art: Bertha Wegmann, ‘Sommer’, oil on canvas, circa 1906.

A patient who was struggling with looping thoughts, and a persistent stuck feeling with confusion and uncertainty about how to proceed in personal and professional areas of life reported the following after taking the homeopathic remedy Amphiprion percula (Orange clownfish):

“Life feels less serious.

I have a regained sense of confidence.

Less stressful approach to my big decisions.

I feel like opportunity is suddenly showing up.

I have more trust in the universe or life process.

I suddenly have two amazing opportunities for work and

I received an offer on my house suddenly too and it got accepted last night!

When I took my first dose I just felt silly and was laughing a lot. It felt like a huge relief kind of like I was laughing at how serious I’ve been taking life haha like laughing at myself in a good way!”

The patient has strong identification with the water, which helped to point to the fish group of remedies:

“Water takes all the stress away, I feel weightless in the water. Being in the water takes away all of my pains and leaves me feeling rejuvenated. It’s almost like nothing else in life matters, everything just clears right up! Like I’m one with the water.

Water just makes me feel very alive, refreshed, relaxed, creative even! It has a very sedative effect on me. Almost like I’ve taken something, I feel so good. It is inside. Not just ‘oh, my skin is wet’, it is an inner feeling.

In the water I’m whole, complete. It’s like time stops. All the stress and worries just melt away. I think a lot less when I’m in the water.

No wonder I’m not a mermaid, I would spend all my time in the water! I need to get in there more!

Even drinking water, I love the feeling of it going down. I like my water very cold, feel it going all the way down esophagus, that cold feelings seems to just energize me.”

Amphiprion percula is known for confusion about how to proceed, failure to accomplish, a lack of confidence and trust in one’s innate abilities, and physical and mental restlessness. There is a desire for more creativity and playfulness in life which is thwarted by persistent inner feelings of indifference, apathy and the heavy burden of responsibility. Sleeplessness from rushing, looping thoughts at night and an aggravation during the full moon are also characteristic of this remedy.

An 80 year old female patient came in with the chief complaint of chronic dark, putrid diarrhea, which had been occurring daily for over 2 years. Allopathic, naturopathic, and nutritional interventions had failed to provide any relief. Dozens of different supplements were taken and strict elimination diets were diligently adhered to without success. Various diagnostic labels were given to this patient – from “leaky gut” to parasitic infections.

The patient also complained of bronchiectasis, presenting as excessive green mucus and intermittent pain in the lungs which significantly affected her physical stamina. This issue would vary in severity depending on the season, but was also chronic and stubbornly persistent.

On questioning the patient, it was revealed that she suffered a deep, penetrating grief several decades ago: the death of two of her children in a tragic accident. It was after this that the patient experienced the sudden onset of serious respiratory issues. Gradually declining physical health followed.

Before this tragedy the patient was already navigating a strained marriage, which became even more arduous after the couple’s horrific loss. The patient maintained sincere devotion to her husband and the ideal of marriage. She only accepted after over 20 years of one sided efforts at remediation that the relationship was untenable.

The patient described herself as deeply pious and devout. It was her faith that allowed her to navigate these trials and tribulations: “I dealt with it all through prayer and meditation. I could be bitter or better. I chose to be better. I wanted to walk closer with God and He helped me get stronger in my faith.”

The patient was given the Mycoplasma pneumoniae nosode in the 30C potency. After the remedy the patient reported: “I am so pleased that the remedy you gave me has helped. I have very little gas and bowel movements have returned to normal. Hallelujah! After almost 2 years of loose movements and putrid gas, what a relief!”

Homeopath Louis Klein has introduced Mycoplasma pneumoniae as a remedy for “ailments from premature death of a partner or family member” which leads to “deep grief and spiritual sensitivity.” Klein also emphasizes that patient requiring this medicine can experience “great sensitivities and grief around relationships and soul connections.” There can be continued attempts to “shape their “soulmate” into their “perfect” person” – even in situations where it is clear that the relationship has reached its endpoint.

There is a strong tendency in this medicine to seek for deep religious or spiritual connection. In our case, this presented as the emergence a powerful and total surrender to the grace of God after unspeakable grief.

Lastly, the medicine is also noted for a history of frequent respiratory ailments, chronic cough, asthma, and a susceptibility to infections.

The patient continues to be very well, and has started to experience respiratory improvements along with the regulation of her bowels.

This case illustrates the necessity of highly individualized prescribing in deep seated chronic cases. Without touching the core of such a case and understanding the true etiology of severe pathology, curative results remain elusive at best.

Lilith is a 1 year old cat who was started on homeopathic treatment because of a variety of extreme behaviors. Since she was a little kitten, Lilith has always had an exceedingly strong desire for attention. If attention was not forthcoming, she would do everything that she could to ensure that it was given to her. Lilith’s behaviour was always frenetic and it often seemed that she did not know what she actually wanted. She was described as being possessed. No amount of attention would ultimately be enough for her. Her incessant crying and whining would only come to an end when she was too tired to continue, only to resume thereafter. Lilith also had a very strong fear of the sound of rain, which would cause her to hide and tremble.

Lilith was given the remedy Elaps corallinus 1M, made from the potentized venom of the coral snake. Elaps is a remedy that is known for its loquacity, egotism and pronounced desire for attention. The Elaps patient wants to be shown by others that they are valued and considered special. As with many snake remedies, there can be a general tendency towards making a strong, even overwhelming impression. It is also a remedy known for a its fear of rain. Strong fears in the Elaps patient can often lead to trembling.

After a single dose of the remedy, Lilith no longer appeared or behaved as if she was possessed. The snake had left her. She has become much more calm and contemplative, and now appears for the first time to be at peace in herself and with her surroundings.

On 26th December, 1898, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie announced the isolation of radium. It was only long after its discovery that the real dangers of radiation were recognized. Curie herself dyed of leukemia, which arose as a consequence of her frequent exposure to the incorporeal powers which so fascinated her (radioactivity is a spontaneous release of energy generated without a chemical or material reaction).

Curie had the option to patent the procedure she discovered to isolate radium, but refused on the basis of her belief that science should be kept free and open, and that her discovery be always available to anyone who wanted to use it. As Ulrich Welte has remarked, this unrestricted attitude speaks to the transpersonal dimension of the radioactive elements, which can be observed in various ways in the dispositional features of patients who tend to benefit from such remedies.

Radium is a remedy that has been used clinically for such issues as: “leukemia, bone marrow disease, splenomegaly, skin cancer, radiation damage, the effects of x-ray radiation, skin burns due to radiation, genetic damage, mytosis and muscle decay, etc” (Ulrich Welte). On the mental-emotional level, Radium patients can “feel guilty that they are special, that they have survived disasters where others are deceased” (Jan Scholten). Marked fears of the dark, of ghosts, and of being alone can be suggestive of this prescription. There can be apocalyptic dreams of trying to save the world, of hot air balloons, bombing, explosions, tidal waves and huge floods, disease, deformity and malformation, blood and premature birth. Prophetic and clairvoyant themes are also common, as they are for all of the radioactive remedies.

 Buddleja davidii (butterfly bush). Buddleja has been described as a remedy for those who find themselves in an “emotional bombsite.” It is a remedy for states of hypersensitivity which arise as a consequence of extreme shock, sudden loss, overwhelm and ruin. It can be given to those who have witnessed or been subjected to horrific events. Beyond its employment in acute situations characterized by deep, destabilizing shock, Buddleja is also one of the primary remedies for affecting healing in those who carry trauma from long ago, including the trauma of one’s ancestors as well as from past lives. Symbolically, it is a remedy that works on the level of primordial fear and terror which reach all the way back to humanity’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Buddleja facilitates the releasement of deep states of devastation which keep a person mired in cycles of never ending anguish and negativity. Buddleja allows for the renewed communication with Life. It is a remedy of remarkable peace and surrender which gradually allows one to move forward after being held back by the accumulated ill effects of negative karmic patterns of experiencing.

Buddleja is also an excellent remedy to give before and after anaesthesia, and greatly helps to ward off or undo any ill-effects of such. It is a remedy for head injuries, as well as comatose states. Buddleja is also remarkable for aiding in the transitions in and out of this life (pregnancy, birth, and death).

The use of Lapis Lazuli as a medicine extends back thousands of years, with documentation of its healing properties found in the ancient cultures of Babylon, Sumer, and Egypt. Some traditions exalt Lapis as the archetypal healing stone, as can be seen in the symbology of the Medicine Buddha (Bhaiṣajya-guru-vaiḍūrya-prabhā-rāja) the patron deity of healing and medicine, whose formal Sanskrit name translates to “Medicine Master and King of Lapis Lazuli Light.” The Medicinde Buddha’s blue skin represents his power to eradicate the cardinal causes of suffering, to lessen the burden of those with heavy karma, and to heal all manner of diseases that have been brought about through an imbalance of the elements. In his second of twelve vows, the Medicine Buddha states: “…my body, inside and out, shall be like Lapis lazuli, shining with penetrating and immaculate purity.” A vision of the power of enlightened wisdom and compassion to transform sorrow into bliss.

“Lapis lazuli embodies the image of the boundless universe painted by nature” (Walter Schmitt), and by extension the illimitable possibilities of healing that are intrinsic to life itself. As a homeopathic remedy, it helps to strengthen the connection between the subtle bodies and the physical body, thereby allowing for a greater willingness and ability to freely communicate with and navigate the outer world. It is a helpful remedy when challenges of communication have resulted in destructive familial dynamics. Lapis is a medicine for highly intuitive and sensitive individuals who have difficulty with the mundane, practical side of life, those who are ‘in the world but not of it’ (Colin Griffith). Lapis patients may report delusions of starvation, fearing that one’s family or even all of humankind will starve – a strange, rare, and peculiar symptom which reflects a pathological mirror image of the Medicine Buddha’s universal compassion. Lapis helps to restore objectivity to the perception of highly idealistic, anxious individuals whose vision has become muddied through emotional entanglements of all kinds. It is a medicine with affinities for the eyes, throat and thyroid gland, thymus gland, bone marrow, and the immune system.

Are there connections between homeopathic and alchemical systems of healing? While many would balk at the mere suggestion, a closer, unprejudiced look reveals deep allegiances. The alchemist Paracelsus held the view that the microcosm and macrocosm were intimately and inextricably bound together by way of a complex network of correspondences, which served as the invisible ground of all phenomena, including health and disease. Disease for Paracelsus, then, was not to be understood as a materially based phenomenon. The same is true for Samuel Hahnemann, who understood that disease is a mistunement or derangement of the Vital Force, the dynamic, spiritual principle that animates and governs the life of the organism.

The reason that Paracelsus was at odds with the medical establishment of his day is the same reason that Hahnemann was at odds with that of his (and, needless to say, ours). This is precisely because Paracelsus and Hahnemann both understood that the underlying source and meaning of disease could not be adequately approached by way of mechanical, chemical or physiological modes of understanding. To treat localized pathologies (focusing on the diseased organs themselves), is to remain fixated on the external effects of internal causes. Both Paracelsus and Hahnemann recognized that, in order to affect the greatest depth and breadth of healing, the physician must look to the innermost spiritual causes from which outward (material, measurable, and quantifiable) afflictions ultimately stem.

The task of the physician then becomes “to treat the very essences out of which corporeal organs become crystallized, and to supply them with the power of vitality of the quality which they require” (Franz Hartmann).

To affect a cure by means of a transformation on the level of the innermost spiritual causes of disease is the shared aim of both alchemy and homeopathy. Both Paracelsus and Hahnemann postulated the existence of an immaterial Vital Force that regulates and governs the body in health and disease, a single universal principle of life that oversees the parts that make up the whole. If this life principle is functioning harmoniously, health is the result. If it is obstructed or impeded, disease is the consequence.

Homeopathy and alchemy are both concerned with transformation, evolution, and realization. As a branch of modern alchemy, homeopathy leads us to “turn the base lead of our gross existence into the pure gold of service, not only for our fellows, but for our own spiritual selves, so that we may shine like living suns” (Martin Miles).

There are a number of imponderable remedies in the homeopathic materia medica. These are remedies that are made from intangible energy sources. Homeopathy is premised on the notion that every substance is infused with a dynamic motivating energy, and that this energy can be reflected in human consciousness and corresponding states of health and disease. This same notion of dynamic, motivating energy applies equally to material and immaterial realms of existence.

One such immaterial (or imponderable) remedy, called Spectrum or Rainbow, is made from sunlight shining through a prism, which separates the light into its component colors. The chief indications of this remedy are to encourage the flow of fluid energy, especially as it relates to the blood, lymph, and cerebrospinal fluid. As cerebrospinal fluid is responsible for supplying nutrients to nervous system tissue and removing waste products from cerebral metabolism, Spectrum also acts indirectly on the central nervous system. It is a remedy that can be extremely useful when it comes to ridding the system of toxicity and pollutants, such as exposure to radiation and the ill effects of inoculations. Spectrum can also greatly help the organism to detoxify and recalibrate itself after excessive drug use, both pharmaceutical and otherwise, and hence may be called for as a remedy in treating addictions.

The patient in need of Spectrum may complain of being stuck, with an inability to see how to move forward in life, and can feel like they just don’t fit in with their surrounding environment or family. There can be a deficiency of intuitive perception, pervasive spaced out feelings and a lack of groundedness, as well as a generalized apprehensive and fearful orientation towards the world. Spectrum may also be indicated in cases of sudden emotional shocks to the system that result in states of breakdown or debility. In short, Spectrum is a remedy that helps to provide roots to those who are rootless, to strengthen the intuitive faculties, to create flow where there is stagnation, and thus help with the movement towards the integration and unification of one’s whole being.

[Photo of The Samuel Hahnemann Monument in Washington, D.C.]

One of the fundamental distinguishing and characteristic features of the homeopathic medical paradigm is its focus on rehabilitating and enhancing the individual’s natural, and inherent capacity for self-healing. This capacity is something that all living beings possess. The word ‘healing’ is etymologically related to the word ‘whole.’ To heal means to restore to a state of wholeness. Put differently, the integrity of the organism is what must be given pride of place in a genuinely holistic system of healthcare. Those who practice homeopathic medicine strive to find the health in their patients through the art of careful attention and detailed, direct, and unprejudiced perception of the totality of an individual’s symptoms.[1] Homeopathy employs a non-linear approach to understanding health and disease that is able to respect the complex interdependence of body, mind, soul, and spirit.

Orthodox medicine hones in on morbid pathology, seeking to eradicate disease through extrinsic means. This approach is necessarily impersonal, and sometimes toxic insofar as chemical agents that compromise an organism’s capacity for feeling and function are involved. Such a mode of treatment can often serve to suppress or distort the patient’s self-healing capacity, temporarily ameliorating symptoms at the expense of long-term bodily integrity. Orthodox medicine tends to lose sight of a patient’s own natural patterns of equilibrium/disequilibrium. All too often, there is little to no attention given to a patient’s individual life history and the unique conditions of their embeddedness in a particular social and cultural context, or their direct, personal embodiment and expression of nature’s laws of healing. Homeopathy, in shifting the focus beyond the narrow and exclusive frame of pathology towards the understanding of disease as a dynamic continuum, is able to find and mobilize the state of health, directly engaging the self-healing capacity that is intrinsic to life itself.

Our 21^st century world is increasingly characterized by growing rates of chronic, debilitating diseases that are being fueled by increasing stress levels and social pressures across global populations. It is a world that is facing exponentially worsening patterns of income inequality, declining food quality and soil depletion, and an environmental crisis that is spiraling asymptotically towards uncertainty and precarity. Our current global environmental predicament is also serving to give rise to a growing number of acute epidemic diseases throughout the world’s populations.[2]

Homeopathy, in perceiving the relations of an individual’s state of health to the larger social, cultural and ecological matrices in which it is being expressed, has the potential to offer unparalleled support in times of mounting crisis, on both the individual and collective levels. Homeopathic methodology contains a sophisticated ability to understand the context and continuum of health and disease. As such, it is a system of healing that can, if its principles were to be more widely adopted, contribute immensely to understanding the factors that predispose not only individuals, but also larger cultural groups, to specific patterns of imbalance, disequilibrium, unrest, and dis-ease. It is only from a place of such genuine understanding (one that embraces rather than shies away from complexity) that significant and lasting positive social, cultural and environmental changes can begin to be undertaken.  

Homeopathic medicine is one of the most sustainable systems of medicine in existence. Given that homeopathy works with ultra-high dilutions of substances taken from the natural world, it requires very minimal physical resources to produce its remedies. These remedies, moreover, can be produced anywhere in the world at an extremely low cost and with a minimum of human effort. Homeopathy thus lends itself to be utilized in parts of the world that have faced economic hardship, and where access to pharmaceutical drugs is limited. The humanitarian potentials of homeopathy are further supported by the fact that the principles and practices of homeopathic medicine are truly universal in scope and can be understood and applied irrespective of an individual’s cultural background (as is clearly attested by homeopathy having been taken up with great success and enthusiasm around the world).

Homeopathy can be described as a medicine of peace and compassion. As noted above, homeopathy does not declare war on disease, but works along with and supports the process of the individual’s vital energy through understanding its patterns and modes of expression. Samuel Hahnemann, the founder of homeopathy, taught that the vital energy (or that which governs and maintains life in the individual) is the fundamental basis of health, and that disease can only be understood by observing the dysfunction of the vital energy. By working with, rather than against, the body’s processes homeopathy is rightly considered a medicine of applied compassion. It is precisely such a medicine that can offer real solutions to the worsening and increasingly complex ailments of the modern world.

[1] The totality of symptoms does not suggest a narrow focus on pathological manifestations. It is a notion that embraces the concept of health and disease as a continuum: for health and disease to be properly understood, what needs to be taken into account includes an individual’s character, personality, constitution and disposition. How does an individual think about themselves and their place in the world? How do they relate to others? What are their genetic predispositions? How do they react, think about, and respond to the different circumstances and events that they have faced in life? All of this and more, understood alongside and as inextricably bound up with morbid pathology, is what is meant by the totality of symptoms.

[2] Pharmaceutical drugs, while undoubtedly life saving in many situations, are also contributing to the spread of disease through their over-prescription and misuse. Consider how the routine use of antibiotics, for example, has resulted in dangerous, and increasingly treatment resistant, forms of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) present us with another pressing example: countless millions of pounds of over 50 pharmaceutical forms of SSRIs have made their way into all of the wastewater systems of every industrial nation in the world. From the perspective of planetary ecology, when introduced into a given ecosystem these inhibitors have been shown to alter the function of every biological system that serotonin affects (impacting e.g. sexual maturation, reproduction, germination, root and brain development in plant an animal species). Were homeopathic medicine to be more widely adopted and accepted, this would significantly offset the over-prescription of pharmaceutical drugs and help to remediate the dire ecological and public health consequences of their misuse.

This post was originally published at: https://homeopathycanada.com/blog/homeopathic-medicine-for-the-21st-century-what-does-homeopathy-offer-our-modern-ailing-world/

Poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendron) is well known for the allergic reactions, caused by an oily resin called urushiol, that it elicits in susceptible individuals who come into contact with it. Given the potential severity and unpredictability of its effects, poison ivy is considered to be a hazard by many. But when seen through the prism of homeopathic medicine, wherever there is an overt poison in nature, so too is there a latent, potential medicine. The alchemist Paracelsus is purported to have said “Everything is poison, there is poison in everything. Only the dose makes a thing not a poison.” In this light, when poison ivy is prepared as a potentized medicine and prescribed according to homeopathic principles, its healing virtues are revealed, and it can be seen for the wonderful healing substance that it is.

Homeopathic Rhus tox is known chiefly by the general public as an antidote for the effects of poison ivy. When used in this way, it is being applied according to the principles of isopathy, i.e. ‘same treats same.’ The idea is that if a substance causes a certain reaction, it can be also be used, given in a highly diluted form, to treat that same reaction. Potentized Rhus tox can, in fact, often relieve even severe cases of skin rashes, eruptions, swelling and difficulty breathing that were brought on by contact with poison ivy. Rhus tox is also taken prophylactically (that is, in a preventative manner) by those who are especially sensitive to the plant’s poison effects. This can significantly reduce, or even completely eliminate, a previously highly sensitive individual’s tendency to develop poison ivy symptoms when coming into contact with the plant.

Homeopathically, Rhus tox is prescribed for a wide variety of ailments and afflictions, only a select few of which we will discuss here. On the mental-emotional level, the Rhus tox patient may appear in a constant state of anxiety, “as if something were going to happen.” They harbour many fears, which often appear suddenly, and are especially pronounced at night and in bed. These fears can include the fear of people as well as the fear of being alone, the fear of evil, of being poisoned or even murdered. The Rhus tox patient can become suspicious of the members of her own family, sensing an impending danger, threat, or attack. They feel helpless, irredeemably forsaken by others. There can be the feeling of isolation and imprisonment, of being handicapped and incapable of extricating oneself from horrible circumstances that are seen as being beyond one’s control. This state can, in some cases, escalate to the condition of mania.

Homeopath Tinus Smits relates that this state can be brought on as a consequence of severe childhood trauma, but further suggests that “The deeper causation of this layer can [also] be situated in past lives. When we are killed in a war, or sexually abused or beaten to death, etc. and we died in great pain and anxiety with hate and resentment, then these feelings are stored in our unconscious mind and one day we get the opportunity to let everything go and to free ourselves.” Whether one believes in past lives or not, Rhus tox is nevertheless an invaluable remedy for treating patterns of deeply held, potentially intergenerational trauma that manifest as a fearful and anxious orientation in the world.

Rhus tox is known as a remedy that can treat ailments that arise as a consequences of excessive fearfulness and the associated feelings of helplessness. These feelings may be kept hidden from others, however, due to the outwardly timid, shy, and self-conscious nature that Rhus tox patients tend to possess. The patient needing Rhus tox can also be extremely superstitious. The combination of anxiety and superstition manifests as an insuppressible restlessness that leads the patient to constantly want to move about.

Children requiring Rhus tox are often incapable of sitting still, tend to be constantly fidgeting, and always moving some part of their body or other. They may also have issues with involuntary urination and bedwetting. Generally the Rhus tox patient is worse when still, and better with initial movement. This is equally true with respect to mental-emotional symptoms (the patient’s fears can be relieved when they go out for a walk in the open air), as it is arthritic and rheumatic complaints, for which Rhus tox is also widely utilized.