Samarium Praxis - the struggle to acheive, from page to stage.
Jan Scholten says that the experience of Samarium is extreme pressure and heaviness. They have to force their way through life. They have amazing inner strength, and they will put incredible pressure on themselves to get things done. Their own expectations are the driving force. Their forceful attitude to life might be expressed as ....
"You just have to get on with it".
"Lets get it done. Whatever it takes."
"Nothings gonna bring me down".
A typical Samarium dream is of driving at great speed trying to keep the car on the straight and narrow.
They still feel that they have lots to do and that they will go far. The reward for their struggle is independence and autonomy.
They have to get over, round or through every obstruction. Opposition is felt as harsh criticism, in fact it can seem like everyone's a critic. Its easy to criticise, but much harder to DO!
Provings often give a mixed bag of results. In Clinical trials the remedy is judged to be suitable for the person, which means they will be sensitive to it and their reactions will be good indicators of its therapeutic role. One person who took part in an early proving seems to have experienced the expected result with Samarium, which is a Stage 8 Lanthanide (autonomy/power) Remedy:
"I feel self-confident and assertive. The sensation is that I am who I am."
Various others described feelings of "hindrances" or of "breaking boundaries" which are, in general, typical of Stage 8 - the theme of "pushing through".
End Game - Lutetium.
Lutetium has suffered so much that there is nothing left. The connection to this world is crumbling and or broken. They are dissociated and dysfunctional.
They dont want or need anything the world has to offer, they are alone but they don't care. Its a state beyond desire, without hope. The "emotional body" isn't flat - its dead.
Its one stage from the Autistic-like states of the Halogens and it looks a bit like some of the Bird Remedies - the captive ones, for sure. They still have a sense of playfulnes and humour - but it arises from their own distance from the world and its clarity and wisdom are pervaded by nostalgia and emptiness.
Image: Think of a survivor stumbling around the sterile war-torn landscape of Judgement Day.
Investigating the Power remedies of the Holmium Group (Stages 12 & 13)
In the Lanthanide Series we're talking about the power to assert our autonomy. The kind of power coming from our sense of Self. Our inner strength.
On the right hand side of the Lanthanides we have lost some of our power. With Holmium it could be a sense of previously subdued Power coming to light - and subsequently the Wisdom of learning to deploy Power morally and responsibly. It could also be a sense of having been downtrodden and ignored to the point where we start giving in. Giving way in almost every case. We have just lost contact with the inner resources required to get back on top of things. It all starts to slide.
The power, once awakend can manifest as anger - and old anger turns to resentment. The repressed feelings come out as a rage against the machine... Its exact expression depends on the Salt:
In Holmium Oxy there is anger at injustice and a sense of being wronged.
In Holmiun Nit the anger could be caused by feeling second best. Like Nux-v they want the best - they put themselves first and are assertive, expansive and want to be admired. They dont want rules or limits.
In Holmium Phos the anger or frustration is caused by betrayal by friends and loss of contact. Phosphoricums define themeselves by these boundaries and fear loosing them. This is comparable to the spacey, boundless, gaseous state of the Nitricums (perhpas expressed in the 'polarity' Nitrogenium delusion - everything is meaningless). Phos wants to be earthed to some degree.
Im Holmium Mur the anger is about the grief from deeper relationships - broken trust, neglect or loss of security.
Without wisdom and compassion power gives you the ruthlessness of a dictator, which is traditionally associated with Mercury, in Stage 12 of the Gold Series, the realm of external power. Meurcury feels suspicious and threatened. Thalium, next to mercury in Stage 13 of the Gold Series, trys to hold on to his power by being stubborn and dogmatic. He needs to be stubborn and irritable to get his own way because he has almost lost faith in himself and, more importantly, his strength . He eventually withdraws into himself.
Similarly the pathological Holmium (also Stage 13) has lost faith in his inner self - his own being and is also on the back foot. The remedy brings back some of this lost power.
Looking at my own life I can see a contiunuum of very closely related states that goes:
Dysprosium -> Holmium -> Erbium.
Dysprosium, at Stage 12, feels independent but under constant attack. They are brave people who challenge the world with new ideals. Sometimes they can get such a battering that they feel like giving up. That point - giving up the fight - marks the transition to the next stage Holmium, where they can no longer preserve their autonomy and have to take a step back. This is felt as a heavy deafeat. Hence the bitterness.
In Erbium, (Stage 14) they have really lost the fight. They feel powerless. After that comes the despair of Thulium (Stage 15) a state so dark it would frighten you to even read about it! Beyond that lies dissociation and ultimately - madness :)
Refs: "Elements" (blue book) and "Secret Lanthanides".
