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Insecta
Year 2014, Issue 10, Article 8ReviewAuthor: Editor
Spectrum of Homeopathy - Insects - October 2014Have you heard of Anax imperator or Schistocerca gregaria? The first one is the emperor dragonfly, a particularly magnificent specimen from the dragonfly group, which comprises a total of 5,680 species. Like all its fellow species, it has sophisticated abilities technically equivalent to a combat helicopter – despite its dazzling beauty, it uses its hooked feet to snatch its prey in mid-flight.
A young lad with a developmental disorder and severe restlessness could unknowingly draw this species, as it strongly resembles his favorite Star Wars character: a robot with two hooked talons and four green-blue illuminated laser swords. The striking similarity of the boy's robot sketches to Anax imperator led Markus Kuntosch to the potentized but so far unproved dragonfly: the successful progress of the case indicated that his hunch was spot on.
What about Schistocerca gregaria, the desert locust, which can mutate from a strange loner to a swarm weighing several tons, able to strip whole landscapes bare? Only a few of you will have heard of this insect remedy but it has been proved just as thoroughly as the related Schistocerca americana. Despite the solid homeopathic data, Jonathan Hardy and Heinz Wittwer additionally make use of insect themes and the particularly “locust-like” nature of their patients when prescribing Schistocerca.
Themes and signatures in the sense of a species' biological peculiarities always play a key role in the homeopathic approach to this ancient and most species-rich class of animals. This is also true of such well-known remedies as Apis mellifica, Formica rufa, or Coccus cacti, as shown by the cases presented by Sigrid Lindemann, Rajan Sankaran, and Shekhar Algundgi. Ulrich Welte gives us a glimpse of the impetuous, erratic charisma of Cantharis vesicatoria, primarily known as a bladder remedy.
The work with themes and signatures also enables an initial homeopathic differentiation within the confusing kingdom of the insects. A fascinatingly original approach is taken by Peter Fraser with his contribution on the style of nutrition found in the insects. “You are what you eat” is his motto and, indeed, the differentiation between blood-sucking insects, cannibals, plant-eaters, coprophagous (feces-eating), and nectar-sucking insects is a rich vein of new homeopathic knowledge. The same is equally true of the question of parasitism, which Jörg Wichmann and Angelika Bolte address using Coccus cacti and Hirudo medicinalis, and Jean-Thierry Cambonie with Sarcoptes scabiei. Ulrich Welte supplements these observations with information on bugs, fleas, and other nuisances. The equally annoying housefly, Musca domestica, and the mosquito, Culex musca, are carefully analyzed in terms of their stress patterns by Andreas Richter.
Turning to the large crawling insects, we must not forget to examine the common cockroach, which is reputed to be so tough that it can even withstand a nuclear catastrophe. In her contribution on the Indian variant Blatta orientalis, Bhawisha Joshi first provides an overview of the general themes of insects, seeking overlaps with other remedy groups, such as spiders, rodents, or the fourth series of the periodic table.
For an ardent illustrator, the insects are obviously a real godsend, if not always terribly appetizing – see Fraser's remarks on cannibalistic and coprophagous insects. Disgust is an important theme of these animals, as is beauty. When in doubt, we have chosen beauty for the illustrations! Accordingly, we chose a butterfly rather than a cockroach to grace the cover of this issue. Lepidoptera represent this theme for the entire class of insects. Patricia Le Roux's book drew our attention to the use of butterfly remedies for hyperactive children who lack a sense of orientation. With the contributions of Jonathan Hardy, Alize Timmerman, and Jenna Shamat, we can see how these remedies are also connected to adult themes, such as love and metamorphosis, death, and rebirth.
Even this multifarious issue with its wide range of example cases can come nowhere near representing the stupendous breadth of the insect spectrum. For the moment, we have to accept that this is still largely unmapped terrain for homeopathy, in which themes and signatures can play an important role in orientation, but without replacing the need for new remedy provings. With this issue of SPECTRUM, we would like to give you a feeling for the special energy of the insects and encourage you to engage more closely with this intriguing kingdom.
A young lad with a developmental disorder and severe restlessness could unknowingly draw this species, as it strongly resembles his favorite Star Wars character: a robot with two hooked talons and four green-blue illuminated laser swords. The striking similarity of the boy's robot sketches to Anax imperator led Markus Kuntosch to the potentized but so far unproved dragonfly: the successful progress of the case indicated that his hunch was spot on.
What about Schistocerca gregaria, the desert locust, which can mutate from a strange loner to a swarm weighing several tons, able to strip whole landscapes bare? Only a few of you will have heard of this insect remedy but it has been proved just as thoroughly as the related Schistocerca americana. Despite the solid homeopathic data, Jonathan Hardy and Heinz Wittwer additionally make use of insect themes and the particularly “locust-like” nature of their patients when prescribing Schistocerca.
Themes and signatures in the sense of a species' biological peculiarities always play a key role in the homeopathic approach to this ancient and most species-rich class of animals. This is also true of such well-known remedies as Apis mellifica, Formica rufa, or Coccus cacti, as shown by the cases presented by Sigrid Lindemann, Rajan Sankaran, and Shekhar Algundgi. Ulrich Welte gives us a glimpse of the impetuous, erratic charisma of Cantharis vesicatoria, primarily known as a bladder remedy.
The work with themes and signatures also enables an initial homeopathic differentiation within the confusing kingdom of the insects. A fascinatingly original approach is taken by Peter Fraser with his contribution on the style of nutrition found in the insects. “You are what you eat” is his motto and, indeed, the differentiation between blood-sucking insects, cannibals, plant-eaters, coprophagous (feces-eating), and nectar-sucking insects is a rich vein of new homeopathic knowledge. The same is equally true of the question of parasitism, which Jörg Wichmann and Angelika Bolte address using Coccus cacti and Hirudo medicinalis, and Jean-Thierry Cambonie with Sarcoptes scabiei. Ulrich Welte supplements these observations with information on bugs, fleas, and other nuisances. The equally annoying housefly, Musca domestica, and the mosquito, Culex musca, are carefully analyzed in terms of their stress patterns by Andreas Richter.
Turning to the large crawling insects, we must not forget to examine the common cockroach, which is reputed to be so tough that it can even withstand a nuclear catastrophe. In her contribution on the Indian variant Blatta orientalis, Bhawisha Joshi first provides an overview of the general themes of insects, seeking overlaps with other remedy groups, such as spiders, rodents, or the fourth series of the periodic table.
For an ardent illustrator, the insects are obviously a real godsend, if not always terribly appetizing – see Fraser's remarks on cannibalistic and coprophagous insects. Disgust is an important theme of these animals, as is beauty. When in doubt, we have chosen beauty for the illustrations! Accordingly, we chose a butterfly rather than a cockroach to grace the cover of this issue. Lepidoptera represent this theme for the entire class of insects. Patricia Le Roux's book drew our attention to the use of butterfly remedies for hyperactive children who lack a sense of orientation. With the contributions of Jonathan Hardy, Alize Timmerman, and Jenna Shamat, we can see how these remedies are also connected to adult themes, such as love and metamorphosis, death, and rebirth.
Even this multifarious issue with its wide range of example cases can come nowhere near representing the stupendous breadth of the insect spectrum. For the moment, we have to accept that this is still largely unmapped terrain for homeopathy, in which themes and signatures can play an important role in orientation, but without replacing the need for new remedy provings. With this issue of SPECTRUM, we would like to give you a feeling for the special energy of the insects and encourage you to engage more closely with this intriguing kingdom.