March 28th, 2020
These last few weeks, for the world at large, and also for our
homeopathic community, have been a time of exasperation, urgency,
confusion, conflict, grief, all together mixed with clarity, cooperation,
introspection, and most of all, a desire to “fulfill our high and only mission,”
as homeopaths, “to restore the sick to health, to cure, as it is termed.”
Homeopathic teachers and leaders from around the world have generously
dedicated their time and energy to share their ideas and experience of what
is working and what they think might work. Conversations abound of Genus
Epidemicus, the constitutional approach, the nosode, all with the ardent
passion that one would surely expect from our tribe.
I must admit, alongside the concern, exhaustion, and gravity, there is
new energy stirring for us as homeopaths. We prepare our whole career for
something like this. With the world facing an infectious illness without a
vaccine nor barely any effective allopathic medicine, we are experiencing a
rare window of opportunity in our modern times to show the world what
homeopathy can do. Many people are waking up to the hard fact that not
their doctor, their medical system, nor their government may be able to
come to their rescue with their health. The convenient illusion of placing our
health in someone else's hands has shattered, and the fact that each person
must ultimately be responsible for their own health has become crystal clear.
With this realization, people are realizing they need to take better care of
themselves - improving their nutrition, resting, spending time outdoors,
looking to herbs and other natural supplements to boost their immune
system. And, people are reaching out for homeopathy in unprecedented
numbers, as homeopathy is a medicine of self-empowerment. I’m sure that I
speak for most homeopaths when I say that I have been working round the
clock these days, and not just on the epidemic - people are clamoring for
homeopathy. Many homeopathic pharmacies are so backlogged that they
have stopped taking orders until they catch up. Remedies that have been
broadly recommended (like Arsenicum album ) are out of stock completely
throughout India and Europe. I remember I used to hear this line a lot when
I first started practicing over 25 years ago - homeopathy is the medicine of
the future. It seems that finally, our time has come.
As homeopaths, we are doing our best to rise to the occasion. We
have been tuning in to webinar after webinar, all of our homeopathic stars
giving it their very best. And we are all incredibly grateful for the guidance.
Yet, each of us homeopaths, at the end of the day, must ultimately decide
for ourselves how to approach this challenge in front of us - philosophically,
theoretically, and practically. It is ultimately our own wisdom that paves the
way for the remedy needed to come alive, as Hahnemann says, in the
Organon, Aphorism 102. The following is a snippet of my own process from
the last few weeks, and I share with the hope that it may inspire you to
have confidence in your own inner wisdom.
The most fundamental question in homeopathy… What needs to be
cured? In analyzing a case, it is the first place we start. In all the webinars
and remedy suggestions, I am not hearing this question being asked very
much. Many of our remedies seem to be working for this virus - Camphora
officinarum , Squilla maritima , Arsenicum alb, etc - yet the acute states that
these remedies are addressing, respectively - shock, excluded/pushed out,
anxiety, etc. are acute manifestations of the deeper, chronic disease state of
our human collective. So, again I ask, What needs to be cured?
Personally, I believe that the most fundamental derangement of our
collective vital force is our skewed relationship to the Divine Feminine. In
ancient times, the Sacred Feminine was honored as the mother of life,
growth, decline, death, and rebirth , intricately woven into life and the
mystery of life itself. Human beings were deeply in synchronicity with the
rhythm of the planet. We knew that the feminine aspect of life was
necessary for our ability to live in harmony with the world, the key to our
very survival. What needs to be remedied, for both males and females, is
our collective remembrance and restoration of the Feminine. Hahnemann
says, in Aphorism 6, that we must “perceive the changes in the body and of
the mind…the deviations from the former healthy state.” One of the
challenges we face is the fact that the Divine Feminine has been suppressed
for so many generations that we have largely forgotten what a healthy state
looks like. Remedies like DNA, RNA, Placenta humanum, Folliculincum, Lac
humanum and Sanguis menstruationis may help us to retrieve that
information that is stored within us. While treating people with remedies
indicated for this acute pandemic, we may also hold the totality of the
chronic picture in mind during this epidemic and consider remedies before,
during, and after the acute epidemic that may touch upon the deeper
disturbance. As we reconnect with feminine aspects, Yin-rising, we will
naturally nurture and heal the greater collective and establish a healthier
way of living on Earth. With this restoration, the Sacred Feminine and
Sacred Masculine are united in the dance of life, and we are free from the
duality of Psora.
In our homeopathic world, we are blessed with many esteemed
teachers that have come forth as the leaders during this pandemic, offering
webinars, statements, suggestions. I am deeply grateful for every master
homeopath sharing their expertise and guidance. It is striking to me that
almost every single one of them is male. How is it that, with a profession in
which roughly 75% percent of our practitioners are female, and 75% of our
patients are female, the voices that are all being heard during this time of
crises are male? Where are all the great female voices of homeopathy? I
know they’re here, but we must turn to them, make a space for them.
Rather than just racing to the finish line of the chosen Genus Epidemicus, we
need the collaboration and wisdom of the feminine, we must dig deep and
have the courage to say what really needs to be healed.
It seems that the world is now somehow suspended in time; we have
been suddenly plucked from our everyday lives, into a new temporary,
liminal reality. Only in hindsight will we know what this unique moment in
time will mean for us. When this is all over, will we go back to our regular
lives, as if it never happened? Will this acute have served a purpose? As
homeopaths, we know that an acute illness is an opportunity to heal the
deeper chronic state, that with the help of the Simillimum, we may jump
over the obstacle of the acute, and be healthier for it, or…it will kill us. The
question remains, will we jump over this hurdle, or not?
This virus has given us an opportunity for a deep healing, a shifting of
course, a paradigm leap. And goodness knows we need one! Scientists tell
us that if we continue our ways, we are headed for a crash course with the
beginning of our own extinction, within the next 8 years, due to climate
change. And, that is not the only existential threat in our midst. There is the
possibility of nuclear war, the ever increasing number of vaccine injured, the
dangers of 5G, biological warfare, and, with it all, the cloud of confusion and
fogginess of an age of “alternate facts” and an ever-elusive relationship with
the truth that weighs heavy in the air around all of us. We question how this
virus started, was it engineered, and if so, by whom and for what purpose?
There is no clarity, only a fogginess of endless questions.
As we stare at the face of mass climate migration, possible global
systems collapse, and the real possibility of our own extinction (as just one
more extinct species on this planet), human beings are reacting in different
ways.
Teens, for example, who are coming of age at a time, often imagine a
grim future. I was told by one 14 year-old client who used to love science
that she no longer does, because “All we are taught is that the world is
heating up and that it is up to us to fix it. I just want to learn chemistry and
be a kid.” Many are very angry and unmoved by apology! [Nitricum acidum]
And who can blame them? Some feel a tremendous grief and longing for the
home that they are already missing [Phosphoricum acidum] or for a world
they never knew, and some feel a sense of urgency to make it better
[Sulphuricum acid]. Teenagers often do say the truth that no one else wants
to acknowledge.
As for remedies for Covid-19, it seems like the remedy states migrate
not only from region to region, sometimes even within one state. While
speaking with a colleague a few weeks ago, I said to her, I feel like this is
like a piece of glass that has been shattered into millions of pieces. She
replied, 'Interesting , I’ve had numerous cases of sensation of glass in the
throat.' So, we looked it up this SRP:
Throat, pain, splinter, as from a glass: Ozonum
Throat, glass were in throat, a piece of: Nitricum acidum
Ozonum repertorizes well with the following rubrics:
Continuing with the glass theme, ground glass opacities of the lung are
a prominent symptom of Covid-19. Anne Shadde’s proving of Ozonum
reveals symptoms that seem to address many of the Covid-19 symptoms,
including pain in the lungs as if beaten and difficulty breathing.3 Ozonum is
the single remedy for the rubric: Respiration, difficult, water in lungs, as if.
Also, Anxiety about the future, with sadness; Feeling as if wandering
beneath a glass dome, separated from others. Fear and panic, heaven has
turned against me. One patient writes, “I could barely move sometimes, and
the pain in my lungs is excruciating. I’m not coughing a lot, but just to
breathe in and out is like shards of glass in my lungs and knives in my back.
No matter what position I lie in, there’s no relief.”
“The proving of Ozonum thus depicts the attenuation of direct
ultraviolet light or truth in our earthly world.” The time of Covid-19 is a time
of us stopping and getting real with the truth of what we have done to our
mother earth, to ourselves as we are on the brink of possible extinction due
to climate change. It is a time in which many people are trying to find what’s
real through all the fog and smog of our news outlets, contradicting
information, trying to lift the veil to see the truth. ”In the stratosphere,
Ozone protects us from the truth, but when it's dark and smelly energy
descends onto earth the result is a toxic mix of pollution and lies.”6 We have
been living in a fog of concealed truths, not knowing which way is up. Are
we ready to know the truth? Are we ready for more light?
With the motions of the modern world having come to a screeching
halt, the earth does seem happier. In a short walk in my suburban
neighborhood today, I saw two red-tailed hawks, a family of deer, and many
plants starting to peek through the ground.“ The European Space Agency
posted a satellite video of the skies above Venice, which reveals a decline of
air pollution, specifically nitrogen dioxide emissions, since January. Another
ESA video posted Thursday shows a drastic reduction of nitrogen dioxide
emissions above the Chinese cities of Beijing and Shanghai, since December.
Nitrogen dioxide is a harmful emission produced by burning fuel at factories,
power plants, and driving vehicles — activities that have dramatically
decreased since countries instituted shutdown measures to stop the spread
of the COVID-19 virus.”7 I imagine the ozone layer has also benefited.
To date, I've used Ozonum 30c for only one case so far, with
immediate improvement, in a patient's breathing and lung pain. Am I saying
that Ozonum is the Genus Epidemicus? I am not. However, I do think the
remedy can do well and play a role.
Another remedy that I would like to consider as we ask what needs to
be cured is Placenta humanum. Just as we of the modern world have treated
our goddess Gaia with disrespect, as a dispensable object, to be used for our
self-serving needs, so too is the Placenta humanum the most
under-appreciated organ in the body. As we grow from an ovum to a formed
baby, the placenta holds, protects, and nourishes us. It enables us to take
oxygen and nutrients from the maternal blood, forms a barrier against the
transfer of infection to the fetus, and is the place where antibodies are
transferred. It provides our very source of life. The placenta serves the same
function of the kidneys, lungs, and intestines after birth - these are the very
organs that are susceptible to Covid-19, due to the Ace-2 receptors sites, to
which the Covid-19 virus binds. Unlike many traditional cultures around the
world who honor the placenta through various types of ritual, in our modern
world, once the baby is born, the placenta is typically disposed of in the
hospital trash and never considered again. Indeed, it is a wonderful remedy
for mothers who feel unappreciated and like their sole purpose in life is to
make the meals and keep the children and family nourished and their needs
met. They may become depressed, hopeless, apathetic, and depleted. There
is an imbalance of energy flow, all in one direction, just like our relationship
to our Mother Earth. Without the core strength and radiant health of the
Mother, of the Earth, and of the Divine Feminine, we are susceptible to
collapse. Like Ozonum , Placenta humanum is a Universal remedy that may
help us remember who we really are on the deepest level.
Alize Timmerman teaches that Placenta humanum is a remedy for
deep home-sickness and abuse.8 (other remedies with homesickness that
have come up for Covid-19 are Phosphoricum acidum and Carbo animalis . I
have used Carbo animalis at the end of the Covid-19 illness, during
convalescence, to help regain appetite, strength and vitality). The following
symptoms of Placenta humanum are from the proving by K. Biggs:
Sensation of a band around chest
Chest tight and wheezy - difficulty breathing, like old asthma
Lungs tight and painful on breathing deeply with tiredness in chest
Gripping, pressing pain as if a band around the chest with shallow, restricted
breathing leading to hyperventilation
Tight, suffocative feeling in chest < emotion
Tightness of the lungs in waves
Themes of being excluded/separated and connection, nostalgia, sense of
being an outsider, removed from my own family.
Like any acute disease, this pandemic has the potential to help in
healing the deeper state, but, as we know, a remedy can help bring
awareness, to give us an opportunity, an open door, but each of us still
needs to make the choice to walk through it - to make the lifestyle choices,
to shift our belief pattern that no longer serve our highest selves, to heal the
miasms at play. Perhaps the acute shock of Covid-19 will shock us awake,
jolt us into remembering who we really are, to a world that is so beautiful
that we would do anything to preserve her.
Based on so many beautiful pieces of writing, inventive ways to make
music together, and acts of compassion and kindness that we are all seeing,
along with a move towards better self-care and care of each other, spending
time being, not only doing, giving priority to family life, and the richness of
family itself...I do believe a paradigm shift may be happening. Philip Robbins
considers Ozonum one of his “universal remedies,” meaning a remedy from
Robbins calls the Universal Kingdom. “Universal Kingdom remedies are
universal in their distribution, in their symbolism, as well as in many of the
themes they manifest when proved. These remedies have similar themes
which contain everything by definition, infinite. The universal kingdom must
contain within it all the other kingdoms.” Ozonum has the potential to
deeply shift our consciousness, back to “health and vital harmony”
[Aphorism 16, Organon] with ourselves, each other, and our world, clear
the smog into the clear blue light of truth, so that we may each clearly make
choices every day and every moment that are in alignment with our highest
self, for the benefit of our children, grandchildren, and many generations to
come. This pause from business as usual gives us the needed opening to go
more inward, to listen closer to the whispers of our inner knowing, to realize
our rich inner source of being, so that we may harmonize, not only with
nature, but with this virus and what messages it may have for us. This is our
opportunity and our challenge.
Robbins, Phillip (2003). Evolving homeopathy: Towards a developmental approach to
homeopathy P. Robbins Lismore [N.S.W.]
Hahnemann, Samuel, and Wenda Brewster. OReilly (2010). Organon of the Medical Art .
Birdcage Books
Timmerman, Alize (2012). Treatment of developmental disorders: From pregnancy to old age. CollectedArticles 1996-2012
*I would like to thank my friend and colleague, Gabriella Calvi-Rooney, who has collaborated with me on the ideas and editing of this article.