Zeus Soft

Tag: Plant Remedies

Remedies originating from plants

  • Nux Vomica — the archetypal choleric remedy

    Nux Vomica — the archetypal choleric remedy

    Competitive, forceful, explosive, impulsive, violent
    vs. Quiet, desires repose and tranquility

    Blog by Luke Norland  drawing upon a wide range of classical sources. Whilst the first set of slides in the gallery below introduce some more contemporary ideas about the plant kingdom. 

    Nux vomica – the substance (Gibson)

    Grows in the East Indies, the Malay archipelago and northern Australia.

    The fruit is an orange yellow globular berry, about the size of a large apple, with a hard rind, and filled with a soft, white, jelly-like pulp containing five seeds which are covered with a soft woolly substance.

    The dried seeds are used which are exceedingly bitter and contain, among other alkaloids, brucine and strychnine. Other constituents are a glucoside, loganin, caffeotannic acid, fatty matter and a trace of copper.

    They have been dubbed Quaker’s buttons, though anything less Quaker-like than the typical Nux Vomica subject would be difficult to imagine.

    Pharmacology (Gibson)

    The tissue affinities of the drug are largely associated with the action of the alkaloid strychnine, which has a marked effect on the nervous system. Its poisonous symptoms are only too well known as the result of its use as a homicidal poison and in connection with destruction of animal pests. 

    They are vividly described by Schenk

    Strychnine can lead to an atrocious death. Doses of 10 to 20 milligram lead to dyspnoea and unbearable feelings of anxiety (this is a marked symptom in the early stage of tetanus). Twitching and spasms gradually develop and lead to violent tetanic seizures in which the head is often bent right to the buttocks, so that the spine may be broken, as in insulin shock. Breathing may cease for intervals of one to two minutes at a time- in this event the seizures may also stop, only to recommence at the least excitation – a loud noise or a gentle touch – until death from exhaustion finally supervenes. No death could be worse than this and no man is likely to endure greater agonies. Despite the virulence of the poison, strychnine habituation may develop. Preparations of the drug may be taken medicinally for many years, until one day the patient is suddenly struck dead by convulsions. Strychnine is poisonous to almost all common animals and birds, but cats are remarkably tolerant to the poison and snails are unaffected by it. The action of the poison on the motor elements of the pons and spinal cord results in exaggerated motor responses to sensory stimuli; probably by lowering the threshold for impulse transmission through inhibition of the activity of choline-esterase, the enzyme which normally controls the flow of acetylcholine. The latter is responsible for the transmission of nerve impulses at synapses and myoneural junctions.

    Enhanced sensitivity to all stimuli, with abnormal acuteness of all senses, especially that of touch. The excessive excitability of the nervous system, while resulting initially in muscle spasm, leads to exhaustion and paralysis. This is an instance of the phenomenon of dual effect: two opposite reactions being brought about by one and the same drug, which at different stages, or meeting varying degrees of tissue susceptibility, can swing the balance of function in either of two opposite directions towards hyper-activity or towards hypo-activity.

    Pharmacologically, therefore, the drug suggests tension, increased tone of musdes, increased response to irritation. It is noteworthy that mental tension is accompanied by and associated with muscle tension – the one can scarcely be present without the other. Moreover, the increased muscle tonus affects not only the skeletal muscles, leading to clenched jaws and jerky limbs, but also involves the plain muscle in the walls of blood-vessels and gut. This is of great import, as the consequent disturbance of steady adequate blood-flow to every cell in the body, with resulting impairment of oxygen supply and inadequate removal of waste products, can be responsible for a wide range of physical disorders and distress.

    Physiological action (Grandgeorge) 

    The nux vomica seed contains strychnine. Recent neurophysiological studies show that strychnine is a neurotransmitter which acts in the human brain to excite the pyramidal (corticospinal) system, responsible for our motor functions (glycine, on the contrary, calms this symptom). This clearly confirms the homeopathic observation that Nux vomica is a person who is overexcited, on edge after excesses of any kind (rich food, drink, intellectual labor . . . ) without an adequate expenditure of physical energy.

    Sphere of action (Boger)

    • Cerebro-Spinal Axis.
    • NERVES.
    • DIGESTIVE ORGANS
    • STOMACH.
    • LIVER.
    • Bowels.
    • RESPIRATORY ORGANS.
    • Male Brunettes.

    Modalities (Boger)

    Worse

    • EARLY MORNING 4 a.m.
    • COLD OPEN AIR dry – drafts; seats; wind
    • UNCOVERING
    • HIGH LIVING COFFEE; condiments; liquor; drugs; debauchery; purgatives
    • Sedentary habits. Overeating
    • Mental exertion; fatigue; vexation
    • Disturbed sleep
    • SLIGHT CAUSES anger; noise; odours; light; touch; PRESSURE of clothes, agg. waist

    Better

    • FREE DISCHARGES
    • Naps. Wrapping head. Rest. Hot drinks. Milk. Moist air In evening. Warm room. Covering
    • After stool. Flatus. Warmth
    • Loosening the garments

    Mode of action (Cowperthwaite) 

    Acts on the spinal cord, including the motory and sensory centers at the base of the brain – affecting chiefly that portion of the spinal tract which presides over reflex functions.

    The condition produced is one of excessive irritation and excitability, giving rise to incoherent muscular action, which, on the extreme constitutes violent tetanic contractions, and which, finally, may end in entire cessation of muscular movement, paralysis.

    These tetanic convulsions affect particularly the limbs and trunk; the former being rigidly flexed, and the body arched as in opisthotonos, the respiratory muscles rigidly contracted, rendering breathing laborious, even to asphyxia, which at the same time there are present spasmodic conditions of the face, jaws throat, oesophagus and of the intestinal and urinary tracts.

    Sensations as if (Roberts)

    Mind and sensorium

    • Debauch – one had been up all night or after a
    • Fermenting, everything were
    • Interest in anything, he felt no
    • Revolving on axis
    • Someone – would get into his bed and there would be no room in it
    • Someone – had sold his bed
    • Stimulant had been taken
    • Stupefied – from night revelling
    • Wavering – and revolving, brain were

    Head

    • Brush something off from head, trying to
    • Cleft with an axe, brain were
    • Dashed to pieces, brain were
    • Driven – in vertex, nail were
    • Forced – asunder on both sides from without, skull would be
    • Large – as a church, head were

    Eyes and vision

    • Burst – eyes would
    • Water – hot, in eye

    Ears and hearing

    • Chirping – in ear, locust were

    Nose

    • Cutting into wound in nostril, someone were

    Mouth, tongue, taste, teeth, gums

    • Pierced – by needles, tongue were
    • Pricked with needles, tongue were
    • Smoky taste
    • Wrenched out, tooth were

    Stomach

    • Clawing – from a purge
    • Grasping inside of stomach, a hand were

    Abdomen

    • Fall – down, everything in abdomen would
    • Torn – and shattered on coughing, everything in umbilical region were being

    Rectum, anus and stool

    • Finished at stool, he were not

    External chest

    • Compressed – by a weight, chest were

    Respiratory organs

    • Choke, she would
    • Scraping – in glottis after heartburn

    Neck and back

    • Bruised – scapulae were
    • Electric – shocks on back
    • Lame – back were

    Upper extremities

    • Worked hard with her fingers, she had

    Sensations as if (Ward)

    Pathogenetic

    • Drastic nausea
    • Nates beaten
    • Obscuration occiput
    • Occiput asunder
    • Perineum pushing
    • Pincers scrotum
    • Rectal urge
    • Sick overeaten

    Clinical

    • Abdomen burden
    • Abdomen dragged
    • Axe brain

    These sensations can be summarised as in the gallery images below

    Clinical (Clarke repertory, italic type)

    Acne – rosacea • Alcoholism • Amaurosis • Amblyopia • Anger – effects of • Apoplexy • Bilious affections – attack • Bladder – affections of • Bone – nodes on • Brain – affections of • Breath – sour • Clavus • Colds • Colic • Convulsions • Cramp • Delirium • Emissions • Erotomania • Eyes – inflammation of – gouty • Gastrodynia • Gout • Hernia • Hypochondriasis • Impotence • Liver – disorders of • Locomotor ataxia • Lumbago • Muscae volitantes • Myelitis • Nightmare • Nose – affections of • Paralysis – spastic • Pregnancy – affections of • Pylorus – diseases of • Sleep – abnormal • Speech – disordered • Spermatorrhoea • Taste – disordered • Tea, effects of • Tenesmus • Tobacco – habit • Tongue – affections of • Trachea – affections of • Urethra – spasm of • Urination – frequent, too • Vertigo • Waterbrash

    Polarities of Nux vomica

    Choleric / Phlegmatic

    Someone has stolen his bed – he needs to rest and recuperate but some bastard has stolen what he has worked hard to call his own.

    Competitive, forceful, explosive, impulsive, violent VS Quiet, desires repose and tranquility

    Abrupt • Abusive • Ambitious • Ardent • Audacious • Competitive • Courageous • Cursing • Defiant • Determined • Dictatorial • Fear of failure • Firm • Harsh • Impetuous • Industrious • Quick to act • Rash • Violent

    vs

    Ailments from – discords & rudeness of others • Confidence – lack of • Cowardice • Discouraged • Held – desire to be • Lamenting • Longing – repose and tranquillity; for • Quiet disposition • Timidity • Will – weakness of

    Keynotes of Nux vomica

    • Addiction – tendency to overindulgence
    • Craves stimulants – coffee, alcohol, cocaine, cigarettes
    • Audacity – addicted to thrills and spills
    • Without his favourite stimulant his day feels incomplete
    • Boericke – produces an irritable nervous system; hypersensitive and over-impressionable
    • Kent – reversed action of functions – e.g. reversed peristalsis
    • Occupation ameliorates – business man; overworked. Driven
    • Seeks stimulation and warmth
    • Addiction – tendency to overindulgence
    • Craves stimulants – coffee, alcohol, cocaine, cigarettes
    • Audacity – addicted to thrills and spills
    • Without his favourite stimulant his day feels incomplete
    • Boericke – produces an irritable nervous system; hypersensitive and over-impressionable
    • Kent – reversed action of functions – e.g. reversed peristalsis
    • Occupation ameliorates – business man; overworked. Driven
    • Seeks stimulation and warmth
    • “Hard, zealous, ambitious, impatient”
    • Complementary to Sulphur – Nux is chilly, impatient, clean  
    • Quarrelsome and jealous  
    • Acute of sepia  

    Materia Medica of Nux vomica according to Kent

    Cannot be contradicted or opposed, if the chair is in the way he kicks it over. If a part of his clothing should catch on a button he would pull it off because he is so mad at it. A businessman has been at his desk until he is tired out he receives many letters; he has a great many irons in the fire he is troubled with a thousand little things his mind is constantly hurried from one thing to another until he is tortured. His mind is confused with the world of business and the affairs of the day crowd upon him, finally brain-fag comes on.

    • Produces Digestive Disturbances; partial congestion and hypochondriacal states.
    • Dyspeptic persons who always select their food for experimenting, that is digested little.
    • He is subject to spasms, convulsions, and fainting.
    • The patient seems to be always out of tune; The Action is Violent, often irregularly fitful or inefficient.

    Materia Medica of Nux vomica according to Hering

    • Suits very particular, careful, zealous persons, inclined to get angry or excited, or of a spiteful, malicious disposition
    • Irritable, Morose, sullen; quarrelsome if disturbed
    • Despondent and buoyant alternately
    • Melancholic in consequence of losing his position, morose, capricious, irritable, hasty; the least contradiction puts him out entirely; remains for hours without wishing to take part in conversation.

    Materia Medica of Nux vomica according to Phatak

    • Nux-v. is an every day remedy.
    • It corresponds to many diseased conditions to which a modern man is prone to.
    • It is useful to those persons who lead a sedentary life, doing much mental work; or to those who remain under stress and strain of prolonged office work, business cares and worries.
    • Such persons in order to forget their worries are apt to indulge in wine, women, rich stimulant food and sedative drugs; and ill effects from which they are apt to suffer.
    • The typical Nux. patient is rather thin, spare, quick, active, nervous and irritable. It affects the nerves, causing hyper-sensitiveness, and over-impressionability, mentally and physically.

    The theme of ambition in Nux vomica

    They are known to be ambitious, driven perfectionists who often excel at whatever they turn their hand to.

    In order to reach the heights for which they strive, there is often a reliance on stimulants to get them through their gruelling daily regime- one pictures the hurried dealings of a business executive/ stock-market broker / lawyer.

    Whatever timidity belongs to their character will not help them get through their day, so it isn’t logical or desirable to let that part of the psyche emerge.

    In other words, this side of their persona is likely to be denied or suppressed, so they can make the strides towards achieving their ambitious goals.

    “Nux is chiefly successful with persons of an ardent character, of an irritable, impatient temperament, disposed to anger, spite or deception” (Hahnemann)

    Highly strung – sensitive, emotional, responsive (Plant), excitable nature

    If they fail in reaching the targets they set themselves, then they are likely to work even harder, becoming more and more irritable, the blood pressure rising and the caffeine intake going through the roof until they reach burn out.

    This relentless energy is of the Typhoid miasm, combined with the spasmodic action of the poison strychnine. Paralysis and cramping, extreme chilliness, desire for rest and tranquility, reverse peristalsis are all attempts by the body to rebalance the constitution through allowing expression in the somatic realm. I.E. if the person denies these as psychical attributes, the vital force will attempt to express them in the physical realm.

    Audacity in Nux vomica

    Excess yang

    • Takes risks in order to achieve
    • Willingness to take risks
    • Arrogantly self-confident state
    • Synonyms: Adventurous, daredevilry, brashness, extroverted, forwardness, impertinence, gall, incivility…
    • Someone with an audacious temperament may be addicted to thrills and spills: life in the fast lane – climbing the social / business ladders and, as Del Boy (the wannabe yuppie from Only Fools and Horses) puts it- “he who dares, wins!”. Act first, think later could be this type’s motto. He might be fractious in his personal dealings, willing, as he is, to trample over other people to achieve his own goals.

  • China officinalis — the first remedy proved by Hahnemann

    China officinalis — the first remedy proved by Hahnemann

    He was earning a living by translating  medical texts when he decided to test material doses of China for himself – the rest, as they say, is history!

    In this blog article, Luke Norland synthesises information from a wide variety of sources to give an in-depth portrayal of Homeopathy’s inaugural remedy.

    Taxonomy (Cronquist)

    Plantae. Angiospermae. Dicotyledon. Asteridae. Gentianales. Rubiaceae

    Affinities (Boger)

    BLOOD. CIRCULATION. SECRETIONS. Digestive Organs. Liver. Spleen. Nerves.

    Clinical (Clarke, italic symptoms)

    Abscess / Amblyopia / Anaemia / Appetite – disordered / Back – weakness of / Bilious affections – attack / Constipation / Debility / Diarrhoea / Ear – noises in / Emissions / Erysipelas / Headache / Hectic fever / Hip-joint – disease / Intermittent fever / Jaundice / Labour / Lactation / Lienteria / Liver – diseases of / Ménière’s disease / Menstruation – disorders of / Muscae volitantes / Neuralgia / Peritonitis / Perspiration – excessive / Pleurisy / Pylorus – diseases of / Self-abuse / Spermatorrhoea / Taste – disordered / Tea, effects of / Thirst / Tobacco – habit / Traumatic fever

    Established General Keynotes (Lippe)

    • Oversensitiveness, low-spirited with aversion to all noise
    • Debility from loss of fluids
      • an excellent indication is debilitating perspiration
    • A/F
      • LOSS OF VITAL FLUIDS
        • Especially hæmorrhages
        • excessive lactation
        • diarrhœa
        • suppurations
    • INTENSE THROBBING HEADACHE, AFTER EXCESSIVE HÆMORRHAGE
    • Worse slightest contact, and relieved by hard pressure
    • One hand icy cold, the other warm
    • CANINE HUNGER, ESPECIALLY AT NIGHT 

    PERIODICITY

    • PAROXYSMS COME ON AN HOUR OR TWO EARLIER, EVERY DAY, OR EVERY OTHER DAY.
      • The three stages are sharply marked-chill, fever and perspiration.
      • The chill may be absent, but the fever and perspiration must be present
    • Attacks of pain, caused by the slightest touch of the body and then increasing gradually and becoming very severe
    • The parts on which one lies go to sleep
    • Restlessness of the affected parts
    • Intermittent fever without thirst or thirst only between the cold and hot stage
    • Aggravation at night, from the least draught of air, after milk drinking

    Acute application

    From Misha Norland’s Get Well Soon

    Like Carbo Veg. this remedy is useful for excessive bloating of the belly where bringing up wind does not bring relief. Often the troubles, of whatever nature, come on after loss of fluids, this could be from blood loss, excessive menstruation, prolonged breastfeeding or extreme diarrhoea, which cause exhaustion, weakness, headaches with bursting, throbbing pain, extending from the back to the whole head; stomach disturbances; anaemia. People needing China are worse for light touch, rubbing or caressing, but better for hard pressure. They suffe r from general oversensitivity, perhaps even from paranoia, feeling themselves to be harassed, unfortunate, thinking that the world is hostile. They may be sleepless from over abundant ideas and plans.

    Worse


    Loss of fluids; touch; regularly returning symptoms; alternate days; wind; cold; summer and autumn.

    Better


    Hard pressure; loose clothing; bending double; warmth.

    Chronic application

    China is considered a rare constitutional type…

    These passages are from Vermeulen’s Synoptic Materia Medica

    • Artistic persons – like beautiful colors, “feel the colors”; make verses, painters; strong SENSE of BEAUTY.
    • Reserved disposition; express themselves in writing poems, painting; find it difficult or impossible to express their feelings in ordinary words; only talk about themselves with confident persons, good friends.
    • Strong imaginative power, evening in bed [compare Nat-m.:], or daydreaming.
    • thinks about all kinds of positive and wonderful things, like being able to fly, relaxing on a warm day at the seaside, being the richest person of the world, etc
    • Rubrics
      • Absentminded – dreamy
      • Activity – desires creative activity
      • Art – ability for
      • Beautiful things – awareness of; heightened
      • Desires – full of desires – cheerful; desires to be
      • Foppish
      • Grounded – not grounded
      • Idealistic
      • Impressionable
      • Innovative
      • Naive – intelligent, but very
      • Philosophy – ability for
      • Sentimental

    Desires / aversions

    • Aversion to superficial contacts [agg. “slight touch”], only want deep contacts and friendships [amel. “hard, deep pressure”].
    • Desire to have the BEST THINGS [Mind: unworthy, objects seem [2/1]; unattractive, things seem [1/1]].

    Sensation and function

    Hering’s Guiding Symptoms

    • Fulness in head, sensation as if brain was rolled around, with great excitement, nervous susceptibility increased.
    • Sensation as if brain was balancing to and fro, and was striking against skull, occasioning great pain.
    • ¤¤ Sensation as if head would burst, with sleeplessness; agg from motion or any jar; amel in room and when opening eyes.
    • Sensation of constriction as if bound with a cord, especially on right side of forehead and occiput; agg by walking, when there are violent throbbings and head feels as if it would burst.
    • ¤ Sensation as if food pressed upon and hurt stomach.
    • ¤¤ Sensation in lower leg as if garters were tied too tightly, and as if leg would go to sleep and become stiff.
    • ¤ Sensation as of a band tightly tied around different parts of leg or arm.
    • ¤ AFTER CONTINUED OR REPEATED HEMORRHAGE (SUBACUTE), OCCUR PROSTRATION, NERVOUS AGITATION, ANXIOUS MANNER; CAN HARDLY RESPIRE AT ALL; VERY PALE AND GHASTLY; PULSE FAILING; HEMORRHAGE OF DARK BLOOD; SENSATION AS IF IT FLOWED WARM FROM THE HEART.

    Verbs (from sensations as if symptoms)

    Polarities – Sanguine  vs Melancholic 

    Click the links for Sanguine and Melancholic to explore the qualities of these temperaments or CLICK HERE  for an article on Mappa Mundi

    Sensations

    Contained, tightly bound VS Filled up, enlarged

    Beaten, hindered VS Unhampered, light and air

    Sanguine

    Affectionate / Amorous / Capriciousness / Cheerful / Extravagance / Fancies – exaltation of / Foolish behavior / Hopeful / Idealistic / Inconstancy / Irresolution / Libertinism / Mirth / Mood – changeable / Naive / Nymphomania / Plans – making many plans / Sensitive – sensual impressions, to / Vivacious

    Melancholic

    Antisocial / Aversion – persons – all, to / Censorious / Company – aversion to – desire for solitude / Complaining / Deceitful / Delusions – forsaken; is / unfortunate, he is / wrong – suffered wrong; he has / Despair / Discontented / Discouraged / Fear – people; of / Introspection / Loathing – life / Meditating / Monomania / Philosophy – ability for / Reserved / Suspicious / Taciturn / Touched – aversion to be / Unattractive, things seem / Unfortunate, feels / Weary of life

    Miasm

    Malarial (Sankaran)

    China is a remedy of the plant kingdom, and in my understanding it is the main remedy of the malarial miasm. The malarial miasm lies between the acute and sycotic miasms. Malaria is characterized by intermittent fevers – sudden acute attacks of fever with chills, followed by periods of relative dormancy. There is therefore an acute phase, which is characterized by a feeling of threat, followed by longer periods of fixed states of being that are of a sycotic nature, i.e. there is a fixed sensation of deficiency with the need to cover up.

    Malarial miasm  – between the Acute and Sycotic
    Click here  to read an in-depth guie to the Miasms through a mythological prism

    Like the Typhoid miasm, there is a periodicity to the Malarial miasm as it oscillates between the fixed phase (of Sycotic origin) and the acute flare up, which feels tormenting, as if the person is persecuted and harassed as by a mosquito. Sankaran says it goes between excitement and acceptance, and these can be seen as the more positive expressions of the acute and Sycotic. Migraine headaches fall into this category, with periods of acceptance, covering up the weakness or fragility through habits and routines, making sure they don’t eat or drink things that might trigger the migraine. If they overdo it (Sycotic) or eat the wrong food, or have a stressful day at work, these trigger off the acute side of the miasm to vent off some of this build-up of tension. In this period of flare up, the person is utterly overcome, they often have to lie motionless in a dark room to avoid aggravating the intense disturbance of the migraine. The situation Sankaran gives for this miasm is like the employee of an irate boss – you’re stuck and dependent (Sycotic) on the job, but also feel persecuted, harassed and undermined by them.

    Nat-m has this experience in the realm of Row 3; issues of the relationship. Natrum has a stage 1 expression of feeling as though they absolutely need the other person to make them feel secure and whole (acute), whereas muriaticum has a stage 17 expression of feeling betrayed, let down and used by their partner. They react to this by withdrawing, brooding, hiding the turbulence of their emotions, and seeking a tumultuous ocean, or a wild love affair with which to excite/rouse themselves again (Sycotic). However, the drama inside will eventually seek an outlet that could be somatised (E.G. migraine) in order to vent the pent-up emotions inside. The myth of Aphrodite’s forced marriage to the lame smithy god Hephaestus has some resonance with this miasm. As a dependent upon Zeus, she was forced into this dull marriage (fixed, acceptance); but she had many passionate liaisons (excitement) with Ares to make up for this boredom.

    Homeopathic themes of China officinalis

    Hindered, persecuted, tortured

    The feeling in China is:

    “I am weak – people attack, trouble and torture me“, a feeling of being persecuted. The patient feels he is weak, not good enough, that he is persecuted and hindered at his work by other people, that he is obstructed from achieving his ambition. So he fantasizes and in these fantasies he makes himself worthy and achieves his ambitions, and in this wayuses fantasies to cover up the inherent feeling of not being good enough … He is frustrated, being unable to achieve his ambition; so he starts planning, fantasizing, theorizing. Unlike Cannabis indica, who slips into his fantasy world automatically, China is ambitious and plans step by step.He achieves his ambition by building castles in the air. He feels what he possesses is not good enough and that he would have possessed better things if he had not been obstructed and hindered” (Sankaran)

    Teenage, daydreaming, air-castles, idealism

    “The combination of sensitivity, idealism and extreme touchiness makes China a useful remedy in teenagers. China has great excitability, sometimes described as “nervous erethism.” At night the patient lies sleepless with fantasies of heroic deeds or great plans for the future. He is embarrassed by these thoughts on waking the next day.” (Morrison)

    Strong imaginative power, evening in bed [compare Nat-m.], or daydreaming. Chin. thinks about all kinds of positive and wonderful things, like being able to fly, relaxing on a warm day at the seaside, being the richest person of the world, etc., after which they feel happy and satisfied and fall asleep. They usually think of nice stories in which they play the hero. The same pattern can occur during the day, when they are disturbed or embarrassed. (Ghegas)

    Violent, abusive, insulting

    Every external impression leaves deep traces. The intensity of China’s inner life can lead to exhaustion [“loss of mental fluids”], with the result that they become irritable and even violent, insulting and abusive. In this stage the world becomes hostile; they feel unfortunate, do not want to live any more but lack the courage to commit suicide. (Ghegas)

    Spiritual, creative

    She will approach you rather warily, and may remain wary until she knows you well, and even then, she will only reveal her true sensitivity if she is convinced that you are both understanding and sensitive. These are generally fascinating people who are principally interested in spiritual matters, and they are all the more interesting because their spiritual interests are based on direct experience, rather than intellectual attraction. (Bailey)

    A remedy of contradictions

    China is one of the most difficult constitutional types to come to grips with from the point of view of the personality. One reason for this is that it is a rare type, that is very poorly understood by most homeopaths. In fact, most homeopaths regard China as simply a local or acute remedy, not realising that it is a full constitutional type, with its own unique personality profile. Another reason for China’s obscurity is the existence of contradictory elements in the persona of the China individual, such as timidity and criticism, and a third reason is the ethereal nature of many China individuals, which is too subtle to be grasped by the insensitive. (Bailey)

    • Contemptuous – values of generally accepted
      • Interesting in light of it being Hahnemann’s first remedy proving and introduction to the philosophy of Homeopathy – something that absolutely stands in the face of generally accepted values.
      • Need for new ideas, creativity. Cf Silver series.
    • Excitement – hemorrhage, after
    • Fancies – lascivious – impotence, with
    • Fear – animals, of – domestic
    • Hysteria – loss of – fluids; after
    • Ideas – abundant – night – bed; in
    • Naive – intelligent, but very
    • Plans – making many plans – night – bed; in

    Mind constantly changing from one thing to another

    • She thinks she is very unfortunate and constantly harassed by enemies. ð Pregnancy.
    • Disposition to be alone.
    • An excessively anxious solicitude about trifles.
    • Maniacal condition, says and does foolish things and runs about. ð Intermittent.
    • During a cheerful mood, sudden transient screaming and tossing about bed, without any apparent cause.
      • Compelled to jump out of bed; wants to destroy himself, but lacks courage.
    • Dislike to all mental or physical exertion.
    • Disinclination to think; alternating condition of cheerfulness and gloom.
      • Indifference, apathy, taciturnity.
    • Indifference to his pains, great lassitude and weakness. ð Typhoid.
    • What usually appears to him bright and joyous seems now unattractive, unworthy and shallow.
    • Fitful mood; cheerfulness alternating with sadness.

    Thanks for reading – if you got this far, well done!

  • New Remedy Focus — Ficus macrophylla

    New Remedy Focus — Ficus macrophylla

    Angiospermae – Dicotyledons – Hamamelidae – Urticales – Moraceae (Cronquist classification).

    Proving – Alastair Gray – 1999

    Mappa Mundi diagram by Luke Norland – 2020.

    Below the main image, you can view a gallery of some of the important rubrics of this remedy + some of the additions made to Synthesis Adonis

    Gray writes the following regarding Tree remedy themes in the introduction to the proving:

    • Oldness and frail feelings (personally I can verify and confirm these observations – see the provings of Agathis Australis 1998)
    • Duality and feeling double (verified Ficus Macrophylla 1999)
    • Floating (verified Ag-Aus, Fi-my, Seq-g)
    • Inner emptiness (verified Ag Aus)
    • Forsaken (verified Ag-Aus, Fi-my)
    • Over production and Sycosis (verified Ag-Aus and Fi-my)
    • Death after life
    • Eating Disorders (verified Ag-aus, Pseud-m, Douglas Fir)
    • Drug like state and euphoria (verified Ag-aus, Thuj, Pseudo-m)
    • Fragility (verified Thuj, Seq)
    • Forgetfulness (verified Seq, Ag-aus)
    • Confusion (verified Seq-g, Ag-aus)
    • Reconnection to childhood (verified Seq-g, Ag-aus, Fi-my)
    • Exhaustion, Lassitude, Lifelessness
    • Deep rejection and yearning and loss (verified Ag-aus)
    • Mistakes in work
    • Loftyness
    • Durability
    • Regeneration


    Excerpt on Fic-m from an article in Hpathy by Linlee Jordan :

    “The woman who survives and does well at the job of protecting and mothering the family but suffers herself. Parents who live “on the edge of the cliff” and survive with little nurturing themselves. Sometimes they obsessively overdo the job of parenting by spreading out their area of compassion. They may be told they are “strangling” their loved ones with over-caring. Someone who suffers with back complaints from holding up the weight of their career and family. The person who becomes irritable, scattered and ungrounded from trying to do too much. People on their feet all day who develop tingling, aching varicose veins, and whose legs feel heavy especially around 2pm in the afternoon.”