School Play - Platina and Merc go to the awards

Merc is pacing to and fro' holding a sheaf of papers and stabbing at her mobile. She's looking annoyed and agitated ... muttering about killing her Financial Advisor. Why won't he answer the phone? The bastards probably on Holiday - on what's left of my savings!

Meanwhile Platina's trying to get through to Merc ... When Merc finally picks up she says "Do you know what time it is? Are you coming to my award ceremony or not? Have you FORGOTTEN?

Merc: No, of course I haven't forgotten, I've got more important concerns on my mind than some blasted award ...

Plat: WHAT could be MORE important than my AWARD?

Merc: Its just empty flattery. I've had a court summons - my business partner's suing me for £28,000, and I'v just lost half that amount in a derivatives trade.

Plat: I'v just bought a new ROLEX ...

Merc: Well, that's just GREAT!

Plat: Look, just get here for 7! We're going in your MERC!

Merc: I'm not going. Those bastards know I'm past it.

Plat: I'll go on my own then SAD-ACT!

Merc: Hangs up. Bloody friends. Bankers. Awards. BACK-STABBERS!

Plat: Who cares! I'v got to get ready ... don't want to keep my fans waiting.

Voice Dialogue with Merc

The Big Mind Process applied to Merc.

The Autonomous Self

• The Integrated Self - My main issue is the fear of losing my power.
• Big Mind - I must protect my failing, rotten kingdom any way I can.
• Big Heart - I'm a hypocrite, totally alone. I've lost faith in everything.
  

The Powerful Self

• The Protector - My job is to protect the Self from harm. I want to protect my position and my luxurious lifestyle. I do this by being guarded and suspicious of everyone, especially backstabbers. I don't like open spaces, or crowds. Anything could happen. My enemies might try some trick on me.
  

The Controlling Self

• The Controller - My job is to control. I'm disgusted and discontented with everything. I'm terse, rude, hateful and dictatorial and I will destroy anyone who offends me or gets in my way.

The Searching Self

• The Seeker - I'm bored and cynical about everything. I'm sick of empty flattery. I love flashing money around but then I go gambling to claw it back.
  
• The Vunerable Child - I want to be at home. I feel frightened and forsaken. I have a horrible sensation of falling.
  

The Reflective Self

• The Voice of the Dualistic Mind - I struggle to control all sorts wild and frightful ideas, even of my own impulses. I'm lascivious and will try anything. A slight offence makes me want to kill anyone, even my loved ones. I have a "thing" about knives.
  

The Shadow Self

• The Damaged Self - I feel as if I'm dying. I'm not afraid of death. I want out! Its Hell anyway!
  
• The Skeptic - My job is to be skeptical of everything. I keep trying but I worry about the future. It's all going to end badly. I loath this life sometimes.
  

Voice Dialogue with the remedy derived from Platinum

The Big Mind Process applied to Platina.

The Autonomous Self

• The Integrated Self - My very soul is exalted!
• Big Mind - I am proud of everything I do.
• Big Heart - I'm a sexual egoist too, above anything common.
  

The Powerful Self

• The Protector - My job is to protect the Self from harm. I want to protect my pride. I might have implants or a face-lift, because I fear that i'm not appreciated. I have a real temper, even from trifles. I'm contemptuous and easily offended. I can be violent and cruel. I don't like being ruffled by children.
  

The Controlling Self

• The Controller - My job is to control. I'm dictatorial and contemptuous of everyone. I'm beautiful and I'm rude to everyone - because I'm worth it! If you lend me money I'll treat you to a lavish night out, but once I'v spent it all thats it, you'll never see me again. As long as my lawyers and bankers are happy I don't care.
  

The Searching Self

• The Seeker - I'm already spiritually accomplished. I'm self-absorbed and narcissistic about it. I don't really care about religion. I like expensive things, gaiety and excitement, catch up with me at the Cannes Film Festival.
  

The Reflective Self

• The Voice of the Dualistic Mind - I struggle to control my excessive sexual passion and frustration with everything. It's all beneath me really, but that makes me feel strange, disconnected and alone. I don't really care about my family.
  

The Shadow Self

• The Damaged Self - I can be highly erotic or highly egotistical. I have to express my exaggerated sense of self somehow! The other side of my ego is a feeling that I'm a disgrace. My temper tantrums open up my dark side. I can commune with the dead. People look dark and devilish. I'm haunted by a fear that I could easily die.
  
• The Vulnerable Child - I feel frightened and alone, because I don't really belong. I don't want to be abandoned. I'm sad, sulky, anxious and weary of life.
  

Misha Norland's approach to Symptoms.

Choleric - Phlegmatic Axis
Stg 15 [N Ph Ars Sb Bi Tm]

Choleric HOT/DRY Sx are dynamic and decisive. Irritable and explosive.

On the Phlegmatic COLD/WET Polarity we get static, indecisive, faithful, feeling engulfed and loss of identity.

Take Bismuth. Morose. Suicidal.
The subnitricum has delusions of superiority, of falling and of being alone. Amoral. Fear of death and of suicide. Moods are obstinate or sad, longing for female company. The pains are cramping.

Do the complaints fit with your idea of HOT & DRY vs. COLD & WET? Bismuth is heavily phlegmatic but there a some choleric aspects (extremities: coldness vs. skin: burning).

Looking at the evidence what would you expect Thulium to be like? Yes, serious and heavy! Dr Scholten lists loss of autonomy. Annihiliation. Darkness. Falling. Doom. The very epitomy of the phlegmatic temperament, but Thulium can also express the choleric polarity, becoming excessive, wild and murderous.

Compare Thulium and Bismuth with Opium. There are similarities which suggest that Opium has an affinity with Stage 15 (or 16) [Xref]. The disturbance is mainly of affect and to the formation of ideas - Silver Series. Antimony (S5,St15) has shades of these polarities e.g. Ecstacy, walking in moonlight, Lascivious vs. Loathing, Morose, Sad.

Opium symptoms seem to lies mainly on the Choleric - Phlegmatic axis.

It seems to be a very changeable state, with a variety of dark moods and polarites.

The other Paperveraceae may have a similar shaped plot (Chel, Morph and Sang all have deep moods with similar polarities of anger and excitabilitiy). Dr Sankaran gives the passive reaction for the whole family as Analgesia, Coma, Painlessness and Numbness. He gives the active reactions as rage, spasms and convulsions.

(Click image for white b/g)


In Ignatia, which is representative of the Loganaceae family, rubrics indicate that the main axis is in the direction of water. The warmer sanguine and colder phlegmatic temperaments merge into a watery gradient.

The polarity, the choleric temperament is an equal blend of earth and fire.



Remember that these are soft relationships - their function is primarily to create a deeper "neural network" of memorable associations, but they can also help us access unfamiliar or unknown remedies and predict how they might behave.

We've strayed quite far into foreign lands already, lets get really eccentric now, and plot the planetary aspects (which represent the Inner Self in Huber Charts) of my birthday, 4/9/55 onto a Misha style map to show where I should be at in good health ...

Does this show the type of remedies that might be useful to me in this life? I wonder. If I was convinced I'd select one of the corresponding Misha Remedy Maps (in McRep or his book).

The ones with a main vertical axis, crossed by a minor 45' axis are: Calc-phos, Sul-ac, Ars-Iod, Iodum, Iris, Anaholium and Agaricus. These are Maps of the totality though - you'd have to include the Astrological Houses as well to get such a complete picture. Still, these suggestions are not that far off the mark.

A further use for this system of plotting hot/cold against dry/wet is that has the potential to represent data on the plant's natural habitat and ecology e.g. Pulsatilla has an affinity for sandy soil and fresh air.



Ref: Misha's book: The Four Elements in Homeopathy

Xref: Stages in the Plant Kingdom (The Eudicot Series - Opium)

Hawks and Doves and the Dysprosium State

Hawks and Doves refers to J. Maynard Smiths work on "Evolution and the Theory of Games". It is a sort of Transactional Analysis using the replicator equation which demonstrates the fitness landscape of various population types.

It is assumed that every genotype has a well defined replication rate (fitness). This fitness is the "height" of the landscape. Genotypes which are similar are said to be "close" to each other, while those that are very different are "far" from each other. The two concepts of height and distance are sufficient to form the concept of a "landscape".

The analysis is applied to a situation in which there is a competition for a shared resource and the contestants can choose either conciliation or conflict.

That's the theory part of it. I once used it to draw similar inferences from a cluster analysis of the social interactions of a group of Orangs. That's the long way round - a research project!

The short way is just to observe ... and to get a feel for the comfort zone of each subject.

To get a feel for the landscape of our own comfort zone consider the game of chicken ... where two drivers both head for a single lane bridge from opposite directions. The first to swerve away yields. In the game of chicken we automatically evaluate the risk of the confrontation in terms self-esteem and self-respect as well as the intensity of the physical danger. The point at which we yield demonstrates the limit of our comfort zone (i.e. fitness, in Hawks and Doves).

The Transactional analysis model (Eric Berne), also demonstrates that we manifest our personality through a mixture of behaviours or ego-states which can shift between dominant and yielding, the parent, the adult or the child. If these states cause us sufficient embarressment and discomfort they can become disowned, and exist as shadow parts of ourselves - organised clusters of unwanted perceptions, cognitions and affects ^[1,2].

In the Homeopathic study of the elements the landscape of our comfort zone and deeper constellations of "hidden" energy patterns, is measured by a sliding scale of characteristic "Stages" (1-17)^[3] (the stages represent distance in Hawks and Doves).

An example to illustrate: I asked a colleage if he would like me to find a more deeper acting remedy than the St John's Wort he uses. The answer came back with depth and force (Scorpio?) and with a steely/iron determination,

"Not if it interferes with my creativity".

That's enough to indicate to me that we are looking at the self-determination of the Lanthanides (not the creativity of the Silvers) , and then Stage 8 at the very least, and more likely at Stage 12 - Dysprosium. Dysprosium can be suspicious of people interfering with their freedom.

Do try repertorising it ... where would you end up? Rubrics can only give a fragmented glimpse. It is very difficult to choose a group that really expresses the 'gestalt' ...

Suspicious - medicine will not take [anac ars Cimic Lach]??

Dictatorial [anac ars aur aur-m-n Aur-s Camph carc Cupr falco ferr Fl-ac lac-h lach lil-t LYC Med Merc ozone pall Plat puls Sulph thuj verat]

On this analysis we might be prompted to take a closer look at anacardium, or the aurums. Other interesting ones might be ...

Lachesis (Viperidae), in some commentaries Lachesis sounds like a deeply spiritual remedy, but its only a snake! Its about self-grasping and self-expression coming out in a very materialistic way. It finds is home in our primitive, shadowy, reptile brain - the medulla and parts of the limbic system. These areas of the brain are the home of suspicion, jealousy and rivalry and also the source of our agressive and seeking dreams.

Camphora (Laurales, Stage 15?), feels isolated and alienated. The image of the Steppenwolf, the ranting philosopher who is forsaken, out in the cold. He alternates from vexation to rage (Sulph).

Cimicifuga (Ranuncs, Stage 13?), Trapped/Vexed. Hoyne: Miserable, dejected feeling; feels grieved and troubled.

Ozone (Stage 16) is a special case - usually prescribed as an Oxdatum, e.g. Dysprosium-Oxy, which has the feeling that they need to keep self control in order not to be abused. I think that's about as close as you can get from the information given.

... Dys-Oxy!

^[1]Xref: Ego State Therapy
^[2]Xref: Pt3.Ch1.Archetypes.BigMind
^[3]Xref: Pt1.Ch1.Scholten.18-stages

Oxygen is Worthless?

Exploring the theme of Worthlessness in Oxygen (Stage 16).

A portrait derived from the Oxygenium rubrics ...

The Oxygen client is normally sensitive and sympathetic. They have a sense of what is just and fair, and are easily offended. Then they rationalise everything and loose contact with their emotions. The resulting depression extends to diminshed self-appreciation. They can try to compensate by being sarcastic and egotistical.

The Oxygen rubric, "Indifference external things to" describes the state that arises from the feeling that everything is worthless.  A similar state (Worthlessness + Indifference) is also found in Agnus Castus, Anacardium, Thuja and Perigrine Falcon.

In Agnus Castus there is arrogance, discontent, alternating with self-contempt, deep sadness and a worthless feeling.  Anacardium trys to impress because she feels helpless, insecure and has a lack of confidence.Thuja feels unlovable - lonely and empty. The Peregrine feels trapped.

The rubric "Indifference to external things" lists several other remedies. Do the other remedies listed in this rubric express the same sense of worthlessness?

Schroyens: [agn am-c am-m anac berb bit-ar bov buth-a calc-p cann-i cham cic coca-c con euphr falco-pe Hell Kola lyc merl olib-sac op ozone part-ra Ph-ac plat polys rumx stann staph SULPH tarent thuj verat vip].

Roger van Zandervort: [achy allox bac Bos-s choc Heroin lsd oxyg PHOS pyrit sulo-ac]

The expression of 'worthlessness' can be determined by examining each remedy in the context of our best understanding of its totality. Some examples:

achy:- Caryophyllales: Amaranthaceae: achyranthes calea : Psychological themes: rationalizing, lack of feeling, depression; Apathy; Remorse, repentance; Fear of suffering.

In Achyranthes the indifference looks like the expression of a moral dilemma - the amoral polarity swings back to quietude, fear, repentance and remorse. This is one-step removed from the Pyrites feeling and two-steps removed from the Oxygen feeling.

Bos-s:- Bos-s is Frankincense - Boswellia serrata: Sapinales. Normally, Religious, sensitive and clairvoyant, harmonious, loving and altrustic, he can loose his state of grace and become worried about trifles, ashamed and discontented with himself and even confused about his identity. There is detatchment and misanthropy.

am-c and am-m:- Both Ammonia compounds, the (bi)carb [NH4HCo3] and the chloride [NH4Cl], contain Nitrogen. Nitrogen (stage 16) has the delusion that everything is meaningless, which is only a short step away from getting into the indifference of Oxygen (stage 17). Am-c also contains Oxygen so it's no wonder that it is estranged, indifferent and has a delusion that things are empty.

Carbonicums can also feel that thier self-worth is in doubt and to them the world is a hard place - carbon adds a softness to any compound. Carbon compounds dissolve harsh realities into soft tears and the world takes on a softer aspect. 

am-m:- Ammonium chloride (the chloride ion is at stage 17) has its own special take on loathing and aversion to everything. The tears of Chlorine compounds (Muriaticums) can flow from self pity. The bicarb decomposes to the chloride which mirrors the homeopathic change from stage 16 to 17 ... 

NH₄HCO₃ + HCl → NH₄Cl + CO₂ + H₂O

allox:- Alloxan is produced by the oxidation of uric acid (ammonia again)!

pyrit:- Pyrite: Fools Gold: FeS2: Psychological themes: rationalizing, lack of feeling, depression; shame, offence; despair; lonliness; self-appreciation diminished; Delusions, he is being beaten. Dreams, stealing, persued. Misanthropy. Quiet wants to be. Sadness. Weeping.

Pyrites seems to have an Indifference that is similar to the Oxygen feeling. Generally Ferrums push hard, but can breakdown (weakness of will) when they are criticised. The sense of worthlessness may be due to the disulphide since Sulphur (Stage 16, like O2) has various degenerate themes, e.g. "He is disgraced". Sulphur also comes up empasized in capitals in the rubric.

PHOS:- Stage 15: Psychological themes: Altruism. Compulsions, responsibility decreased, avoiding. Distance, reservation. Apathy. Desires nothing. Discontented - everything. Disgust - everything. Estranged. Indifference.

The indifference in Phos (Stage 15) is close to the Oxygen state (Stage 16) -but a healthy Phos is usually very affectionate so the state of indifference develops as a result of being let down or being put upon, if there is a feeling of worthlessness it arises from a different cause. Oxygen needs respect, Phos wants love.

bit-ar:- Bitis arietans: Viperidae: The Puff Adder: Forsaken. Homesick. Delusions: as if far off; separated from the world. Everything seems unreal. Spaced out feeling, as if he had taken drugs.

Vip-b:- Vipera berus: Viperidae: The European adder: Indifference. Discouraged. Forsaken. Hatred. Revengeful.


Indifference in the two Vipers considered above seems to be because their feelings are so intense that they are out of touch with reality. Its not a lack of self-worth.

What is Memory to a Homeopath?

Homeopathic Remedies tunnel back in time.

Each point on the graph below represents a significant growth ring, perhaps the result of a traumatic year. Metaphorically speaking, a remedy works backwards from the present moment through all the rings until its momentum is exhausted. Theoretically the only way the remedy can work its way back to birth, at point zero, is if there is something there - at point zero - that it resonates with. That would be the simillimum of your life. In the case illustrated below Lutetium went all the way back. The depth is therfore 100%. There were still obstructions to be resolved though - the width was something much less than 100%.

Anacardium, the second remedy was needed, which had a depth of about 60%, and a width of 20%. It stopped acting when it reached origin of that particular obstruction. The job's a good'un?

A further problem was resolved by Sabadilla, which went back to almost the same year as Anacardium - a depth of about 55%. It had a tiny width - only 10% ...represented by a single rubric. Lut-oxy, Anac and Sabad memories and experiences must connect on some point of common susceptablity somewhere, purely on the fact that they exist in the same mental contiuum, but no other remedy could ever be quite so specific for that particular extreem Sabadilla situation.













There is no way a single remedy could ever solve that case! Q.E.D.

Conclusion: Was that case of a Mineral or a Plant? Well ... Its a no-brainer really, don't we all need some structure and don't we all have some sensitivity? Of course, a dent in the structure of our reality (shock) would affect our sensitivites, but a structural remedy would not necessarily address every sensitivity issue. We can still include Aconite in our travel kit if we are diagnosed as a "mineral" type.