Calendula Trituration proving
Wed. Aug. 25, 2004
Participants: 6 women aged 35 – 56.
INTRODUCTION:
For multiple reasons our study group decided to conduct a trituration proving of Calendula officinalis. Calendula is such an important remedy for physical ailments, but it seemed to us too little is known about the mental/emotional picture. We went searching in the Materia Medica and found little tidbits indicating there was some mental/emotional symptomatology, but mostly the ‘Mind” section remains quite blank. Kent writes in his lectures:
“The proving of Calendula is so nearly worthless that we cannot expect at present to use it as a guide to the internal administration of the remedy. There are only a few things that I have been able to get out of it. In injuries, Calendula cannot be ignored, in cuts with lacerations, surface or open injuries. Dilute Calendula used locally will keep the wound odorless, will reduce the amount of pus, and favor granulation in the very best possible manner, and thus will assist the surgeon in healing up surface wounds. Calendula is all the dressing you will need for open wounds and severe lacerations. It takes away the local pain and suffering. You may easily see we are not now dealing with a condition that exists because of a state within the economy but because of something that is without [ital ours]. There is nothing that will cause these external injuries to heal so beautifully as the marigold. Some will say it is not homeopathic, but these are the individuals who, ‘strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.’ If there are constitutional symptoms, suspend all medicated dressing entirely and pay your whole attention to the constitutional symptoms.”
Our contention was: given the known external healing power of this plant, there should be a corresponding healing potential on the mental/emotional level. We also decided to triturate to the fifth level (C5) to determine if more symptoms or information would surface.
Calendula is in the Compositae family, along with other remedies for acute conditions, such as Arnica, Bellis perennis, Chamomilla, Echinacea, and Millefolium (Yarrow). It is a hardy, aromatic and easily proliferating plant which blooms from spring through summer. It can be an annual or perennial, its bright orange rays of petals surrounding an inner disc. It has a rich folklore which ties in well with what we discovered in the proving. It grows profusely in our area which depends our commitment to doing a full proving of it as we like to prove substances which grow and live around us.
The plant was freshly gathered from a local yard and included stem, leaves, flower, root and undeveloped seeds. The material was finely chopped in a blender and a small portion was put into each mortar. Each participant had her own mortar and pestle and was aware of the remedy being proved. We triturated each level for one hour, as specified in the Organon, using six minutes of grinding followed by four minutes of scraping and adding a third of the lactose powder at the first, third and fifth grinding.
Participants took notes throughout the process and were asked to record symptoms and dreams that might occur in the following days. We triturated through the C4 level on one day, planning to return one week later to complete the C5 level. However, during the course of the proving, the participants felt that the C4 level repeated much of the C1 level, as if the remedy had given all its symptoms up to that point, and it was decided to not go up to C5 with this substance. We did return the next week to discuss what we discovered.
The entire proving can be viewed on the website: www.HomeopathyWest.com.
In this article we relate the salient facts that arose during the proving and present our discussion and hypotheses about how much more inclusive this remedy should be among those remedies which address deep and hidden traumas; traumas that are ‘encapsulated’ somewhere within the system, often without the person’s knowledge, or only with vague knowledge.
Notes taken during the proving:
C1:
PROVER 1:
Face / scalp itchy. Bridge of nose itchy. Right side of face and ear itchy.
Slight mucus accumulation in pharynx at root of tongue desire to cough it
Up.
PROVER 2:
The rich overripe smell of the apple. It doesn’t smell just picked, it smells like late fall, early winter, rich and winy.
I feel serious, inward, affectionate.
PROVER 3:
The week prior to the trituration proving I was asked to supply the living Calendula plant so I knew then we would be proving it. This morning I plucked a lovely plant from the grave of my dear departed “Kitty Babes” (a sweet tortoiseshell cat) who died a year ago of a ripe old age. I didn’t mention this to fellow provers until well into the triturating and it was clear that there was a LOT of talk about cats going on among us. I put the still living plant with roots and a little dirt in water and brought it here, still very much alive. I had chosen a plant with each stage of plant form on it: open blossoms, never before opened forming blossom buds, green seed pods, leaves, roots. We used each representative part in the blender preparation
The day before the proving I learned of a shocking financial loss to me and I came to the proving feeling all shook up and wounded emotionally, and even somewhat physically. Also, I’d had my very first ever session of cranio-sacral work two days before and felt a lot of things shifting and moving around in me from that as well. I have been undergoing amalgam removal and mercury detoxing for some months now. I have one more row of old fillings to be replaced in September. In general, have been feeling that my system is sloughing off a syphilitic miasmic layer; of self-destructive, self-defeating behavior and awareness. This experience has been grounded by seeing the 18 month old L corneal ulcer begin to heal rapidly as the amalgams have been removed, after long months of the ulcer just sitting there unchanged and deep (The ulcer had developed as an ocular herpes eruption-response to a small scratch to my cornea I sustained while gardening and getting grit in my eye).
At the start of grinding, I noticed a nice chrysanthemum-type scent. Very peaceful to engage the grinding. Was worried how my body would handle the grinding but it felt smooth and easy and effortless.
Very focused, Noticed the sound of the grinding as the plant got ground down into the milk powder.
Thought of Rene Descartes quote: “We will torture Nature’s secrets out of Her.” From destruction comes creating a remedy. I didn’t like seeing the lovely living plant pulled apart and put in the electric blender, so I was comforting myself on the thought of its sacrifice to create a healing remedy.
At one point I jabbed myself in my thumb with the sharp nib from my ink pen: OUCH! But it did not bleed much and I did not need a Band-Aid or assistance.
Thinking about my beautiful silver Siamese tabby cross, “Fuzzy” who lost a LOT of jaw and facial tissue from a necrosing bacterial infection from a bite wound — and how beautifully it healed under the daily gentle wound flushing regimen of calendula lavage and giving Calendula internally as well. In my grinding, I gave silent thanks.
Grinding, like prayer flags and prayer wheels.
Got some powder on my hands. My eyes itch, especially L eye. Eye is tearing and skin near by is burning after I brush aside a tear.
Hearing about the trauma to a 16 year old dog that got severely stuck between a couple of buildings close together. He had severe abrasions and deep tissue loss. Hearing stories like this always break my heart and make me physically wince and hurt. But just now I feel protected from the usual emotional trauma of hearing this sort of thing. I feel that I have a little protective distance from it and don’t feel as “thin- skinned” as usual.
Talk of orange cats, litter mates. Pets, horses. A cousin who died in a wreck when she hit the horses who got loose on the highway. Trauma stories, yet I feel less sensitive to hear it, not vibrating with pain.
PROVER 4:
Immediately when sitting over the bowl I get very spacey and both ears get blocked.
Heat in the face.
Pain in joints on hand. Right side, especially the knuckles of the fingers.
Very sandy sensation in eyes, gritty feeling.
Ear ache right side.
Sneezing.
Sharp cutting pain R knee.
Very tight feeling in jaws, a deep ache extending from ears forward, can hardly move the jaws, tight and tense.
PROVER 5:
The color (yellow/green) looks like baby diarrhea or a green pus abscess.
There is both symmetry in it as well as rugged edges.
It has a wonderful, grassy, earthy odor.
The grassy odor is turning into a slightly rancid, not so fresh smell.
Odor is becoming a bit rotten.
The substance is smoothing out, like a plaster.
Fern-like patterns developing… does it have any relationship to Lycopodium I wonder?
Hard working seems like a quality of this remedy. Also dryness.
It is like a Kali; hardworking and a bit boring.
Very acrid smell.
I love the color green, but this keeps reminding me of infectious mucus (I wish I didn’t know what we were proving).
Frontal pressure in forehead (third eye area).
The notion of symmetry comes up again.
Right ear is itching
Right knee sharp stabbing pain
Left sinus and eye sensations (a kind of aching pressure).
PROVER 6:
I arrive late. The group is almost finished with the C1 level. I take up a bowl with some of the triturate and commence grinding. Immediately found myself humming.
L ear opened up; it had been stopped up upon arrival.
I have also been feeling very hot today (and it is hot out) and horribly thirsty. Drove to East Bay looking forward to blast of fog cooled air but it wasn’t enough to cool me off completely.
Very disturbed by all the talk of cats and death. Sadness over death. Near tears and wanting to leave. All I can think of is my last and favorite chicken taken a few days ago and torn to pieces by the bobcat. Seeing the pile of feathers and her torn body was horrible.
Intense “Radio signal” in L ear; unnerving. I was sent backward in my chair by the force of it; a very high and loud sound like someone tuning a shorthand radio and pressure coming at me into my ear.
C2:
PROVER 1:
Left hip pain, worse sitting, better change of position, must change
position frequently
Face itchy all over especially tip of nose
R ear external itchy
Need to clear throat
Feel tired eyes start to close
PROVER 2:
The Day of the Dead.
Bright, sunny, helpful. (I imagine a woman) She stands at the kitchen door with a clean apron.
I am so thirsty.
(I imagine) A grandmother’s face, apple cheeked, grey hair in a bun. Workhorse.
I am happy that the dog is sitting next to me.
I am thinking about connections. Does D know M? Does A know A?
PROVER 3:
Focused on color. Vibrant orange.
Talk of cat births, orange cats. The bright orange of Judy’s chicken’s eggs. Thinking orange and seeing orange all over A’s living room in bits here and there. My cranio-sacral womblike sensations – the therapist massaged my abdomen rhythmically and softly and it caused me to remember the sensation memory of my own body being massaged by rubbing against Mother’s internal organs, her peristalsis and digestion. The protection and comfort of the womb
Snacking on carrots and eating chocolate.
Dog farts.
Someone mentions The Brain Exchange, a women’s network that meets nearby, to empower women and provide mutual brain power to answer questions and solve problems. Three of us work with animals a lot.
PROVER 4:
Ear pain continues, both ears now, extending forward into jaws, still the tight feeling there.
Very strong desire for sunshine, wanting to be in the garden, to see colors.
There is something very gentle about his substance.
Jaws are not prickling and tingling (NOTE: perhaps remedy suitable for TMJ?)
Hyperacute hearing.
This substance is too gentle – it needs to be entered carefully and gently – it cannot be scraped too hard.
PROVER 5:
Becoming quite warm, especially neck and shoulders.
Feels like I’m sweating internally.
Notion of stubbornness, sticking to the task comes up.
Notion of dryness comes up (the substance is sticking to the sides in flakes, like scabs).
There seems to be a springtime quality to this remedy. I keep thinking “merry month of May” and “maids lightly tripping”. Schubert’s Mullerein songs. The group keeps humming which reminds me both of the regularity of the rhythm of a mill and young girls around it as we imagine in times gone by.
Right eye ache.
Yawning, fatigue.
Heavy lids but light hearted
Heat descends to the solar plexus (yellow heat like the sun)
This is a youthful remedy.
We begin to talk about family. Good looking men and good looking horses. Beauty and the Beast. Life and death. One talked about her father’s death and renewing her mother’s house. (Death and renewal? Springtime? Persephone?)
PROVER 6:
Nerves tense and tight. Not liking the sound of the grinding. Like a carriage coming at me to run me over. Felt the tension in the back and shoulders.
Someone else is humming.
“Grinding my bones to make my bread” Feeling of this while looking at the powder in my bowl. Worry, like anxiety? Distressed; disturbed. Feeling of going down the drain with the circular motion in the bowl. Horror.
Remembering the movie “The Ring” which I saw a few nights ago. The movie is a combination Bad Seed/the Omen and Night of the Living Dead and the most horrifying movie I’ve seen in years. It haunts me. Grinding in the bowl so much like the deep well the girl is pushed into and the circular pattern like the ring symbol.
More soothing to grind counterclockwise somehow. All of us are beating/scraping in rhythm like metal woodpeckers.
Pain deep inside both ears. Dull, pressing.
White, sharp patterns like snowflakes in the bowl. I go into the kitchen and see the dark red roses on the white counter, like blood on snow.
Pressing in at both sides of my head, above the ears and back from the temples.
Talk of stillborn cat and the little cat that “popped out” after the stillborn one. Talk of Day of the Dead in Mexico and marigolds used there to decorate the altars/graves.
Talk of cranial-sacral session and it’s subtle movements. I see general talk of birth/death themes.
Sudden sounds are shattering. Talk is nerve-wracking. I can barely stand it.
A real reluctance to do the grinding. Scraping is ok except for the sound but the circular grinding is too much.
Much talk of cats and dogs. A’s dog is loving the process and staying close. Talk of cat foods, horses, Cavallia show now in town, Art installations in different parts of the world.
“Scabbing over a wound.” Is the trituration opening old wounds? Talk of how cats heal so fast they abscess. Death? Left out? Isolation? I’m feeling out of sorts.
C3:
Everyone simutaneously starts humming as they begin grinding. Humming tunelessly, “like the buzzing of bees.”
PROVER 1:
Desire to jest, entertain and make funny comments
Need to talk to avoid feeling sleepy
Talk about animals cats horses dogs, unfortunate events
Visual images of long table of bible thumpers when joking about Helios’s long history of trituration
Not itchy anymore
PROVER 2:
Remembering a cousin and the horse. She hit the horse with her car and then she died.
I realize that I was itching when we started.
A woodsy, cedar smell.
PROVER 3:
Very aware of the singing bowl quality of the sound of the grinding now. Lovely to listen to. Very serene.
Talk of the Olympics and going for the gold. Golden calendula, the essence of healing the skin.
Hearing more trauma stories. Horses.
Talk of the four-story horse barn in NYC. Another story of a young handsome Italian on a scooter guiding a fabulous dark black horse back home through traffic – a horse that pulled a hearse for a funeral. The mane of the horse and the dark handsomeness of the young man. A vision of old Italy and village life.
PROVER 4:
Things are somehow becoming clearer – there is a structure and I am starting to recognize it.
Life is irregular –
I see so much structure now – How it all goes together.
PROVER 5:
Dry pain, right throat.
Life and Death: “Dark horse” stories start emerging from the group. Mention of a cousin who was killed after her car struck a horse. I tell story of beautiful black horse in Sicily that pulled hearses and the beautiful young man on the motor scooter who lead it back to the barn.
We talk about driving fast.
Eyes burning and itching.
PROVER 6:
Group humming at start of grinding. Much joking by one. (Her response reminds me of my Eucalyptus proving experience where everything was terribly funny for no reason.) Olympics talk; it’s happening now in Greece. Need to have a Parallel Parking event. Talk of Fear Factor TV show and the Vertical Driving event. Commercial has been shown of someone suspended in a car against the side of a building and she’s supposed to “drive” down the slope, essentially a free fall.
Lactose powder has practically welded itself to the side of the mortar.
Story of schizophrenia in one family vs. “the Beauty” of the family; the one gorgeous boy. Dark horse in Palermo, Italy; the hearse horse.
Talk of drivers being “walled in” in car. Oblivious. Driving too fast. Not allowing for accidents; not allowing for the universe to throw you a curve.
Window opened after someone felt need for air. We all like the cool air.
Lots of Art talk. Artists and art installations–Lightening Field in Arizona; Art Walk Center? in Sonoma; The Spiral Jetty in Salt Lake. The Jetty has recently resurfaced after being underwater since it was created as they are experiencing a drought.
Nose sensitive to smells; acute sense of smell, not a bother.
Conversation:
“I like being out; like out in the desert and how art can reframe those spaces.”
“I love an abandoned barn.”
“Or an abandoned farm. With traces of the foundation, apple tree orchards, etc.” Nostalgia. Comforting. Or not comforting but interesting, seeing earlier signs of human activity. Active curiosity about past inhabitants. Question: what is the root of nostalgia? We don’t know but we all agree there’s something intrinsically interesting in abandoned areas. I recall A’s set of kitchen pictures showing isolated houses within trees, fields. [Note: Nostalgia: from the Greek, meaning a return home. Homesickness; sentimental feeling, bordering on morbid yearning.]
One asks, “What is that Latin phrase for sins of the world?” I finally recall church Latin, ‘Agnus Dei, qui toli pecata mundi.’ Talk of trauma story with long consequences. Author of Seabiscuit having chronic fatigue following a very bad accident.
C4:
PROVER 1:
Very few symptoms, tiny itches, less joking, small pains in left hip.
PROVER 2:
There is a hullabaloo. Am I doing it right? Anxiety.
My mind wanders. I want to stop.
(I imagine) The grandmother, standing at the cottage door, calendula blooms.
I feel antsy, impatient.
Benign. When I thought to do a calendula proving, one reason I thought of is that it felt very benign.
Itchy face and eyes. I get up to walk around and my ankle feels very weak. [Prover notes she has a history of weak ankles.] Began walking and it nearly gave way.
PROVER 3:
Pot growing stories. One story of losing her whole crop overnight and another failed mushroom adventure. Discovering phosphorescing night-glowing mushrooms growing up a tree in rustic Maryland, not far from Camp David. In one case the crop failure was one of the luckiest failures of their life.
More stories of poor judgment: This time not of trying to grow pot, but of a horse trainer abusing a horse by nearly riding it to death during a distance endurance competition. I am still feeling protected somehow from the horror of these stories. Not detached exactly, but something like that. Not really numb. What is it? I feel protected and at ease.
It’s good to be with these women. I told them about picking the plant from my cat’s grave.
Someone tells the story of a kitten named “Cowboy” who was born without a foot on one rear leg, just a stump to hobble on.
Comments on our drugs of choice from those days. Someone says we are coming full circle. I start singing Joni Mitchell’s famous song The Circle Game. “. . .and the painted ponies go up and down. We’re captive on the carousel of Time. . .”
I am almost totally focused on the singing bowl sounds of grinding. So peaceful and smooth in me. A sense of pulling myself back together from the psychic wound of financial loss and my reactions to it. I’m trying to judge which note the grinding bowls are playing and I think its E above high C.
When the bell rings to signal the end of the last round of grinding and scraping I am shocked at stopping, I don’t want it to end even though I am hungry for dinner! It was soothing to keep going. Suddenly both eyes tear up a bit and burn a little. Jaws are very tight extending up to temples. Feeling suddenly fatigued now that the grinding has stopped.
We did come full circle.
PROVER 4:
Definite drug effect.
Very spacey feeling.
Everything is wide open.
I hear everything as if through a muffler.
Big aggravation of pain in left hip joint – it was there, but minor. Now it’s huge.
Peculiar that the symptoms experienced at the beginning of the proving return at the C4 level. Does this mean we have all the information there is? J very sensitive to this substance.
I like the conversation 3 of us have after dinner, speculating on what this substance has to give. It seems at first glance that this remedy is healing on a much deeper level than just tissue and that it could well address the trauma that is stored energetically when one witnesses some horrible event.
PROVER 5:
Horses talk and drug talk. Various drugs and experiences.
Summary of my Impressions:
Hard working
A bit dull
Energetic; persistent, even when bored
Heat producing
Youthful
Romantic (youth/death, Schubert)
Thoughts of animals (horses and cats).
PROVER 6:
“Mistakes were made.” Everyone starts making small mistakes. Lactose is added before the C3 powder is removed. Timing is missed.
There is a softer feeling. Desire to close my eyes. Yawning by many along with humming again.
We keep repeated the phrase “mistakes were made” whenever anyone does something wrong.
Remark: Lovely sound of grinding, like sleigh bells in the distance.
One prover’s story of seeing someone run over by a car last week. Took Aconite but no change so took Stramonium and felt much better. After the remedy, she had a dream of “Burning Man” festival where there was a huge toxic waste incinerator like a volcano and she was hauling a burning cauldron through a motel hallway. Glowing fire in dream
Notice by many that we are experiencing the same symptoms now as at the beginning. Is the cycle over?
Talk of skin granulation; the boundary between us and the outside.
Itching upper palate.
Story of pot smoking in Amsterdam. Shopping for pot there is like going to a well-stocked bar with a knowledgeable bartender. A “sweet and lovely” experience.
Smell of green, weedy smell. Story of growing pot to save other business. Story of trying to raise mushrooms and accidentally burning them. Story of neighbor who is self-flagellating, naked with candles all around. Murdered brother who lived there beforehand.
“Life is good.”
“Mistakes were made”
“Head will roll”
Circles going round. Cycles.
Very little symptom at this level. We drift off uninterested. It feels done.
SUMMARY:
There was much talk during the trituration process about animals, especially cats and horses. (Two provers had strong love of cats and one is a professional horse groomer.) Also a lot of conversation about art, and especially large art installations. There was also talk about accidents, seeing accidents or hearing about them often rather than accidents that had happened to us, but accidents that were deeply traumatic even so. One woman had seen someone accidentally run over. Taking Aconite helped her but didn’t hold; Stramonium finally brought her out of her shock state. For example, we got onto the subject of Seabiscuit, the race horse, the book, the movie and the author, who researched and wrote the story while lying on her back following a severe accident which left her in a state of chronic fatigue syndrome. Much talk about death and birth including a tale of R’s cat, which was born last–“popped out”–immediately following the stillborn birth of its littermate. We also noticed that the dog was extremely interested in the proving and the provers and hung around the table far more than she usually does. The dog is getting quite old, is pretty stiff and nearly deaf but still alert and affectionate.
Physically we noticed a lot of itchiness, especially of the eyes, ears and mouth. We also had pain in the ears, with stoppages created and unblocked. Certainly the senses of the head were focal points. Nervous symptoms came out strongly in one prover. We all felt hot internally with one prover remarking that she never dresses as lightly as she was without feeling uncomfortable. Sense of smell was acute and some were intensely conscious of the colors yellow, gold or orange.
The sense that the substance needed to be ground gently, or not at all, came up. The grinding being “a grind”; hard work. There is a sense of Calendula being a boundary or barrier; or of creating a wall between inner and outer. And of it producing a sense of structure and order, “like a Kali.”
In talking over the various symptoms and conversations directly after, we came to the conclusion that Calendula is one of those remedies, like Stramonium or Arnica, for “the trauma of trauma,” emotional as well as physical wound healing. Jane made the comment that Calendula appeared to be the glue that could put Humpty Dumpty back together again; healing the shattered pieces from emotional trauma in addition to its well-known physical wound healing. This aspect will need to have clinical proof but we offer it as a possibility.
POST TRITURATION NOTES:
Prover 1:
Dreams colorful
Pain in gall bladder area on waking. Gone by 9.30am
Recurrence of foot symptoms that originally came on after I had gone camping in Amazon 10 years ago. [Note: I think the original foot issue was the sequellae to the tetanus vaccine I received 2 days before leaving to go on that trip]. Left foot, itching; cracks formed in skin under the joints of last three toes. Itching along the tops of those toe joints. Must scratch till the skin was abraded and red. Note: the toes are dry, not moist like in athletes foot.
Prover 3:
I dreamt that night but could only hold a vague memory of it on waking. I wanted to remember but the seam between the worlds healed itself back together too swiftly! I only had a sense of a dream where I enjoyed a sense of belonging in a group of women where I felt a sense of security and freedom, and peculiarly, a sense of some sort of “intrigue”.
Few days later had an awful dream that President George Bush was sitting next to me and suddenly invaded my personal space — shoved and elbowed me aside and sat in my seat and took over my desk and pad of paper and began writing where I had been writing. I protested and scolded him but he took no notice and went on doing what he was doing.
I woke up from this dream with a severe stiff neck! This has persisted for 4 days now – and neck has been in severe spasm requiring remedies and chiropractic help!
Prover 4:
Vivid dreams with all kinds of symbolic things about transformations being possible. Very large birds, with tall crests or crowns of feathers, fly through the sky, hovering just above my head. Looking like a mixture of owl and falcon, they hold something, then swoop off and fly into another animal, a donkey and it becomes something different; this repeats twice. The donkey was distressed because he couldn’t go through a tunnel. After the bird flew into it and merged/morphed with the donkey, it could go through the tunnel. A good feeling with this. A transfortmation. The hovering bird is a signaler and when I follow it, I know what to do, easily.
Prover 5:
Dream last night: My sister had gotten a job publicizing a book. I was delighted at her seeming independent and doing interesting work. It seemed like hard work and she was tired. She lifted her slacks to take off her socks and I saw that she had a very nasty rash on the insides of her knees. There were wet pustules that looked like poison ivy, but she seemed not to be bothered by them, even by the socks that had been covering them.
Talking to my friend about the trituration and she related the following calendula story: “A friend of mine who does ayurvedic work made an oil from a bunch of calendula I’d brought from my garden. It had been in the sun for one month. One night I put it into my bath water. It never combined with the water and remained in the tub after the water was drained, staining the tub yellow. I had to call a plumber to unclog the drain. The oil just wouldn’t combine and go down. The tub is still stained yellow. I never got it out, no matter what I used or how hard I scrubbed.” This corroborated my impressions of the remedy having qualities of hardworking and persistence… also how strongly it bonds/binds together and to that which it comes into contact with.
Prover 6:
Dream this morning of a very large (twice normal size) mountain lion/cougar crouched vertically on one of the redwood trees near my house. [We’d just seen a bobcat here (in real life) who had taken out all of our chickens over the past month, so I expect some resonance of this may have influenced the dream.] But the cougar was afraid of us or shy; it kept trying to sneak down from the tree when I went back inside the house and would scoot back up when I came out to look at it. It was huge! Yet it didn’t topple the tree. I called for my husband and was a little afraid of it. But it seemed to intent no harm towards me and its position on the tree was like it was trying to camouflage itself by laying flat against the trunk.
Slight headache at noon. Pressing in along bony sutures of forehead, moving to sides. Pressing in. Headache continued the rest of the afternoon.
Went to dentist for replacing a filling. Warning me that he was about to inject the Novocaine, I stopped him forcefully with, “Do I really need to have that?” He seemed surprised but not shocked and said, “No” and we removed the old filling and put in a new one without the needle to the jaw. It was much easier and better than usual. I don’t usually stand up for myself that way, or make that forceful a request/decision. I usually argue with myself past the point of opportunity. It seemed like my inner self was both afraid of being stabbed with a needle and wanting to make a stand against it. It seemed quite instinctual rather than a mind decision.
Worldwide fasting this day for starving victims of Dafur. Unlike most other fasts, the desire for food did not permeate my entire existence. I also shopped at a megastore without overdoing it, also very unusual for me.
The tendons or ligaments in my right hand are very stiff and cramped; like a very painful “charley horse” feeling–as if the tendons are folded over in the wrong way. Maybe from the grinding and holding the pestle for so long. Usually we share bowls but this time did the whole thing.
8/30/04
Prover 6:
Another dream of a mountain lion around my house. The mulberry tree was dying and I was excavating the hole to see what was killing it. The hole filled up with clean, clear water. I had tapped into a well. Quite wonderful. The lion came after. I tried to reason with it about my chickens. At first I was afraid but it was able to speak to me, in English, and grew to be more human and less animal like as the dream went on, becoming very seductive and romantic and kind and articulate.
Wrap up Discussion One Week Later (8/31/04)
Provers 1 and 5 not able to attend. We decide not to go up to the C5 feeling that the proving had reached an end at C4. We talk about what is known about Calendula and find jewels in Prisma, in the myth of Helios, where he “ravishes” a king’s daughter who has fallen in love with him. When the king finds out, in a rage, he has the girl buried alive; the weight of the earth crushes her. We see this reflected in the first and most individuating mental note: lack of power to overcome a trauma. In discussing the whole plant, from Vermuelen quotes from Pelikan’s Healing Plants, “We discern a note of proliferative urgency. If the herb is touched, the smell lingering on one’s hands is in part aromatic, but in part a note of decay…. It is as if this herb, with its strongly proliferative growth, constantly under threat of proliferative decay, protects itself by embalming its living body.” We see this “embalmed grief” as deeply symbolic of trauma buried whole, not accessible but still influencing current life.
It’s known as an important cancer remedy, as its proliferative nature makes it homeopathic to rapidly growing tumors. The name Marigold, from Mary’s Gold, referring to the Virgin Mary as it blooms during May combined with a precious metal.
Prover 2:
She had the most interesting experience of urinating without any sensation of urgency. It came as a complete surprise to her, to find herself freely urinating as she stood in her driveway. Since that episode, she found herself having more urinary urgency in general and felt her bladder had been “activated”. In addition, this prover had suffered from a terribly stiff neck and body stiffness following a very bad car accident nearly one year ago. Her Traeger bodyworker said that she had “turned a corner” in the neck area as the mobility was greatly increased and also noted that her whole pelvic area was completely free of blocked energy, tension or inflammation. Prover thought it might have shown a weakness following the urination episode but it was the opposite. She did not associate this healing as part of the proving until our discussion today.
“I was totally shocked by the accident. I was stopped at a toll bridge when hit from behind by an SUV going 40. I thought it was an earthquake. Everything was tumbling into the front seat; the dog, all my stuff. The injury was from the seatbelt across my chest and neck muscles at the side. I had terrible TMJ with the muscle damage.” (TMJ = where trauma gets stuck.)
“Three days after the trituration, I bought a pack of cigarettes. The first pack since I quit smoking 9 years ago. I still have a smoke every now and then, bumming cigarettes from friends. Sometimes I even go to a local pub where you can buy a rolling paper and then the tobacco is free and roll one up (maybe every 6 months to a year). I still enjoy tobacco, I just don’t want it in my life. Anyways the Friday after we made the remedy I had a really strong urge for a smoke, went to the smoke shop and instead of buying a rolling paper, I bought a pack of cigarettes. I smoked a few and then put the pack away and it has remained pretty much untouched since then.
“Smoking is a pleasure. I think that I have been afraid to buy tobacco because I don’t want to become an addicted smoker, and buying cigarettes signified that, after all it is a slippery slope. There was no charge around buying the tobacco when I did it. I bought a pack, had a smoke or two, and now and again have done it again and a month later the pack sits in a drawer in my living room, much in the same way I might buy spirits. If I buy spirits I am not afraid that I will drink the whole bottle in one sitting, it might last several years.”
Prover 3:
Arrives “neck stressed” despite chiropractic appointment.
Case: Girl with bad burn injury quickly treated with Calendula gel, and giving Arnica and Aconite internally. Her hand was first put under warm/hot water before the gel. The gel was repeated over the next two days and her hand healed completely without any sign of injury or scarring. Now wonder if giving Calendula in potency would have been more useful in this case than the Arnica or Aconite?
In combining the trauma to pelvic areas and deeply unconscious trauma we spontaneously note that some of us were in utero when a deeply traumatic accident happened to our mothers: an ovarian cyst requiring surgery, two car accident and one ruptured spleen shortly after the mother had given birth, requiring total separation of the infant for a period of many months. These stories all had in common a very early (pre-conscious) injury where the mother was in fear that her baby might not survive the trauma and had to separate herself for protection.
We decide to take the C4 powder. Immediately we all become very sleepy, as if drugged. Drowsy. Calm. One of us just gets spacey; another has to lie on the floor even though she needs to leave, she is that sleepy (she did not do the trituration).
Feeling of a sense of protection from this plant. One prover did not want to wash the shirt she was wearing during the trituration. She noted that she got the plant from the “grave of a beloved cat,” so the graveyard connection again. One noted that the horror movies where dead people come to life are the most horrific; again the Embalmed Living Body of trauma. We also note the folklore about picking this flower in August, which we had done synchronistically without knowing.
Sunday, Sept. 12:
The woman, non-triturator, who took a taste of the C4 powder writes:
Yes, the calendula C4 took me totally by surprise and I am still struggling
with it: it ripped open a recent shocking incident that I thought I was getting over. The way I was ‘getting over’ it was like putting an ointment over a puncture wound. The C4 opened it up. Also most unusual, vivid dream on day 3.
I know you had finished putting together the material, and I doubt my
experience with it reveals any thing we did not know. It’s more of the same (Sudden shock) but truly very intense.
Outside Events, FYI (or food for thought):
Prover 6:
Alan Yurko’s Evidentiary Hearing began on Monday Aug 23., 2004. Alan Yurko is a young father accused of shaking his baby son to death and sentenced to life in prison in Florida. Baby Alan, who was born fragile and premature with multiple health issues, was given six vaccines from a now well-known “hot lot” vaccine source when he was only 2 weeks past true gestational age. According to calculations, those injections delivered into baby Alan’s already struggling body 100 times the EPA safe-allowable limit of mercury for one day. The case includes falsification of the autopsy, gross medical malpractice and will likely set a precedent for other vaccine damaged/killed babies and parents in prison under similar circumstances. Alan Yurko has been in prison for six years following the death of his son. He and his wife Fran have been tireless in rallying support and raising awareness of this issue. Fran is studying to be a homeopath.
I have been following and supporting the case of Alan Yurko for the past two to three years. I mention it because it seems to me to have some bearing on the proving, both from “the trauma of trauma” and because of the death of the baby from internal bleeding and infection from inappropriate vaccination. This case has been a living nightmare for the parents that is just now beginning to see some light as the higher court now reviews the entire case.
Additional info from Dr. Roy B. Kupsinel, MD:
During the week of August 23, 2004, the evidentiary hearing for Alan Yurko is taking place in Orlando, Florida at the Court House. He has a wide international following of supporters — both lay people and professionals in the health field. A large number of expert witnesses have come from far and wide to testify in Alan’s behalf. One is a long time friend and colleague of mine, Dr. Archie Kalokerinos, from Australia.
Dr. Kalokerinos has reasons to believe that there is a relationship between SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome) and the pathologies found in SBS (shaken baby syndrome.) Dr. Kalokerinos believes that the pathologies found at autopsy on many of these “shaken” babies, which include intracranial and retinal hemorrhages and bone changes that can be mistaken for fractures, are due to processes involving infections and toxins produced by the infections, along with an increased utilization of vitamin C. Dr. Kalokerinos’s work in the Australian outback in the 60s and 70s proved that vaccines were killing and injuring large numbers of Aborigine children. He discovered that, by injecting the children with vitamin C, adverse reactions were dramatically reduced.
From Sankaran’s ‘Insight Into Plants’ we see that Calendula is in Compositae family, and also in the Acute miasm,
It is listed as a remedy for acute injuries; skin, muscle, eyes.
In a broader picture of Compositae we have
Sensations:
Injured / insult, shocked, burnt, fear-touched or approached.
Passive reaction; numb
Active reaction; strike, insult others.
Compensation: I’m tough and protect others
Female – injury to pelvic organs, (post surgery)
Male – injury to penis, bladder, testis inflammation
General- disorder from injury and surgery
Compositae is in the heart of ACUTE miasm. The themes that are carried into the remedy:
CALENDULA presents picture of acute state; shock from sudden injury:
Shock, sudden injury
Delirium- burns
Fear – something going to happen
Frighten easily
Burns – superficial, in delirium, in sensation. Aesophagus
The symptoms point to acute miasm. The place where the acute miasm meets the Compositea family is where Calendula lives:
< Touch or sensitive to touch
< Pressure; bandage can bring about violent pain (burns)
Sudden shock or injury (physical, mental or emotional).
Allen: the wound closes and reopens. Tissue or mental distress leading to neurosis or scar. A place where the energy is stuck.