Author:
Marguerite Pelt
Book:
Wadstories 1
Type:
Case 1
Chapter:
KREOSOTUM
KREOSOTUM
Creation, Preservation and Destruction
By Marguerite Pelt
Kali Ma, Mother Kali
Release me from the illusions of separation and ego Free me from the bonds of attachment
Give me the power to transform my anger
And frustration into clear and powerful action, That I might create healing changes
In myself and the world
(The heart of the Goddess Hollie Iglehart Austen)
Creation
Personal encounters with Kreosotum.
My first publication in S.S.C. (Dutch homeopathic review) in 1992 was a Kreosotum case. A violent and contrary four-year-old girl received the remedy because of the keynotes
- Caries in children
- Swelling of gums
- Shrieking during stool (children)
The difficult search for a similimum was described, as well as a differential diagnosis with Chamomilla and the deep reaction that is much more fulfilling then in a clinical mullet-therapy with four or more different remedies. The case was a perfect example of the children type suggested by V. Ghegas in his seminar in Crete in 99.
In nearly 5 years of practice I hardly recognised Kreosotum until summer 999, when the deeper meaning of the remedy dawned on me. A forty five year old woman then consults me complaining of sleep disturbances and a vaginal itch. She awakes at least six times a night, and sometimes fifteen times. The itch is worse at night and she scratches until it bleeds. Both complaints started –but less severe- in childhood. The patient is smartly dressed, very present, hard working and creative. She is with a psychotherapist because of sexual abuse by her father. But during the first consultation she is angrier with her mother who has known about the incest all the time. She feels betrayed and unprotected, has no sense of maternal love. Her mother’s reaction now is only: ’what have you done to us to rake up all these old memories’. Later on in therapy it appears that mother has participated in the sexual abuse. This patient reacted well to Kreosotum D2 and 200K. She wakes three or four times a night, is more energetic, is less stiff and crampy (these complaints were only mentioned in a later consultation) after the remedy. She stops homeopathy although the vaginal complaints have not decreased. But a year later I hear she is much better with psychotherapy, Bach blossom and foot sole reflex therapy (or has the homeotherapy continued to work?).
After the consultation I was confronted with my own chaos of uncertainty, old pain and anger and realised I had not come to terms with my mother’s share in my own sexual abuse.
Tünde Bärwulf from England advised me to take Kreosotum and after some time I noticed I became softer, more flexible and I was hiding my own pain less.
Preservation
What is Kreosotum?
In general tar is the product of dry distillation of an organic material leading to volatile oils like phenol (used in chemicals) and a remainder used as protection against corrosion. In the case of Kreosotum beech wood is cooked up to 200 degrees or 230 degrees and the volatile parts are condensed to a lighter oil (Eupionium) and a heavier oil (Kreosotum). Why on earth would you want to cook beeches? Because the smoke is an excellent preservative. Reichenbach, an alchemist in Moravia, discovered this at the beginning of the 9th century and introduced the remedy: a flesh preserver. The principle is used in smoked beef, smoked bacon and the delicious Dutch smoked eel.
The Greek word for flesh is kreas and for preserver is soter.
By the way, Moravia is an interesting place too: Mors (dead) and Vita (life) are combined in one. Likewise Kreosotum symbolises destruction and preservation, life and death, white and black.
Chemistry
Kreosotum is a mixture of phenols: guajacol, creosol, methylcresol and phenol itself. It is a colour- less or yellow oily liquid with a penetrating smoky odour and a burning, caustic taste. It is slightly soluble in water and mixable with alcohol and soap. A phenol is a benzenering with a OH group. The simplest phenol is carbolic acid (or hydroxy benzene) with one OH and 5H on the benzenering. In guajacol there is an extra OCH3. In Kreosol this happens twice. In Picricum acidum (NO2) 3 is added, and in Salol salicylic acid is added. Thymol is also a homeopathic remedy, a phenol distilled from Labiatae (Thymus Zigis) or Umbilliferae (Carum copticum).
Associations
The preservative Kreosotum symbolises • Purification: it is an antiseptic
- Volatility: of the smoke
- Transformation: qualities of fire
The aromatic hydrocarbon stands for
- Preservation: the putrefaction is slowed down
- Odour
- Flavouring
- Solvent
We can relate some symptoms of Kreosotum to these qualities
- Antiseptic: gangrene, syphilis, tuberculosis, bronchitis, scorbutic gums
- Smoke: desire smoked meat, cloudy vision ‘as through a veil’, blackness of teeth
- Fire: delusion of fire, burning pains, burning foot soles, burning as of a hot cole in chest
- Putrefaction: decaying teeth, gangrene, soreness labiae, excoriation between thighs, reopening of
old ulcers
- Odour: offensive lochia, menses and leucorrhoea, offensive smell before the nose, < bad smells
- Flavouring: mouth odour putrid, teeth odour
- Solvent: urine copious, urging bladder frequent, salivation during pregnancy, agglutinated eyes The colour I associate with the remedy is black: black teeth, the black bacteria of pulpitis.
black leucorrhoea, black urine.
Beechwood
Traditionally the beech is the queen of the woods = feminine, secure, safe and reliable and evoking a sense of motherhood. She represents the lioness protecting her cubs. Virtuousness, tradition and alliance are qualities we associate with the tree, as well as patience and the possibility to organise and enhance creativity. Advice is given by the wise counsellor the beech represents and unselfishly people are assisted and a goal is reached. These beautiful words I found in books about the meaning of trees. This is partially confirmed in the short proving by Jorg Wichmann in Links and the Gilde- group in 995, and two cases I know from Frans Maan and Enna Stallinga. On the physical level Fagus is for stiffness, stomach complaints, sinusitis and cold feet.
Destruction
Classical homeopathic symptoms
The target organs of Kreosotum are: the mucous membranes of the digestive tract, the female (and male) genitals, the blood and glands. Ulceration and destruction of tissues is prominent (cancer, haemorrhage, gangrene, abscess, marasmus, decay of teeth). This gives offensive and acrid discharges and burning pains. The modalities show a desire for motherly warmth and an aggravation from female hormonal changes: > warm, motion, hot food; < cold, rest, pregnancy, menses, before menses, sex, postmenopausal, left side
The mind symptoms are mostly destructive.
Grandgeorge summarises the Kreosotum patient as eaten away. ‘The aggression is turned inward: the child doesn’t bite, is not aggressive and autonomous. He is eaten away from the inside.’
There are violent dreams of pursuit, murder, poisoning, falling from heights and fire.
Interesting is the desire for purification in dreams wanting to make water and dreams of being in a snowstorm or urinating. The most specific symptoms are: dreams of men following to violate her and dreams of the glans penis breaking of. I have a feeling this has to do with the fear to be woman i.c. man in essence with all the vulnerability concerned. All the power and richness that is in woman i.c. man is not accepted.
Differential Diagnosis
Tarproducts
- Eupionium: also for female sexual organs, burning pain and vomiting but more perspiration and
cramps of calves
- Carbolic acid: phenol
- Carboneum sulphuratum
- Cresol: Kresolum (Julian) for epilepsy
- Pix liquida: a distillation of coniferous woods
- Ichtyolum: prepared from a bituminous mineral of Tyrol, rich in fossilised remains of fish (0%
sulphur)
- Terebenthina: distillation of various species of pinus
- Thymol: phenol distilled from plants (thymus or carum)
- Guajacol
Benzenes: benzoicum acidum, benzene, benzinum, benzinum nitricum, benzinum dinitricum, ani- linum, naphtalinum, paraffinum, T.N.T., acidum picrinicum, salol, phenacetinum.
Carbons: think of fuligo ligni (soot) and other carbon combinations.
Lac caninum (Swan): polyuria and waking finding an immediate necessity to urinate.
Platina (Mathur): sensitive vulva, cannot endure coitus.
Staphysagria (Choudhury): black and decayed teeth, in Kreosotum the decay comes as soon as the teeth appear.
Sepia, Murex, Lilium tigrinum (Clarke).
Thuja, Prunus (Clarke).
Cases
I have seen eight cases that responded well to Kreosotum in the past year. I will shortly describe my experiences. Known symptoms of the remedy will be in italics.
Case 1.
A thirty-eight-year-old woman consults me because of weariness and chronic tendinitis giving rise to cicatrices and calcium deposits. The pain is worse from wet weather and snow air and better with warmth. She has had a hernia in the lower back and hypermobility of the joints. Other complaints are gastritis (stone sensation in stomach), earache, dysmenorrhoea, vomiting and diarrhoea during menses and frequent urination. She wakes up frequently at night.
After Abies nigra LM6 there is no reaction. She ameliorates after Kreosotum M supported by D2: her energy rises, her sadness, stomach and tendon complaints lessen and leucorrhoea worsens (elimination). After Kreosotum 0M (four months later) she realises that her energy decreases when she doesn’t express her emotions, especially anger. She has never learnt to deal with emotions. Her mother was caring on the materialistic level, but didn’t hear the needs of her children. Mother died when the patient was 0 years old. The eldest of seven, she took over her shores. Her stepmother cannot talk either: she is afraid to say the wrong things, has no identity and only pays attention to the facade. The patient has compensated by being a hard working teacher (in social health and hygiene), in full control, taxing herself to the utmost. The golden retriever she recently acquired now gets the love she would have liked to give children (she is a lesbian).
Case 2.
A forty six year old woman has post menopausal complaints of flushes, lumbar pain worse from wet weather and cold. Side complaints are waking frequent, painful spastic colon, stiffness when sitting, axilla glands swollen < premenstrually. She is cold-blooded, desires meat, salt, fruit and vegetables. Her nails are brittle and her gums bleed easily. Her hearing is impaired.
I give her regeneratio endocrinotox (M.M.R.), followed by Aurum 30K weekly and vit. D. In a year time she ameliorates about 50%. At the end of this time she starts experiencing burning pains in the vagina after coition. This is the result of a latex allergy (rubber is made from benzene).
Slowly it dawned on me she needs Kreosotum 200K and all complaints disappear in three months even though her father is dying of M. Kahler. This woman is assertive and a perfectionist. She also likes to be alone and quiet and cannot unwind easily. She is a Kindergarten teacher for special education and used to work in refugee camps overseas. She has been without partner for a long time (has been abused by a man once) and now starts to enjoy a new relation. Her mother was ‘unstable’ and hit her so badly she would be afraid to die. ‘I ‘ll. beat you to death’ or ‘ I’ll beat the devil out of you’ were expressions she would spit out. One cannot talk with the mother because she is very obstinate and inaccessible.
Case 3.
I saw this fifty five year old woman three years ago because of heat flushes, waking frequently and difficult concentration. I note an aversion for meat, desire for vegetables and yoghurt, and an aggravation before menses. She co-ordinates children’s’ day-care and is a fanatical jogger. So Sepia ameliorates the symptoms. This year she complains of pain in the left thumb (bold symptoms for Kreosotum) and slight anaemia. I now give Kreosotum 200K and inquire about her relation with her mother. The band is poor because mother cannot show emotions and fends off all comments. Mother is a hard person and not motherly and has suffered in her marriage. As in the other two cases I am surprised how dedicated this patient is to children. The band with her own two children although they live abroad is very good, and it hurts her to miss them.
I will not elaborate on each case, but I gave the remedy twice (see the case in the introduction) where the mother participated in the sexual abuse/incest. Only once did I prescribe Kreosotum to a man. He didn’t complain about the death of his father in his youth, but of his mother who talked about nothing and paid no attention to him as an individual. She means nothing to him. He is now in a phase in life where he wants to encounter his anima: develop his femininity and emotions.
Creation
New perspective
Kreosotum seems to be for people who have not experienced safety and protection from their mother. In practice they have not learned to talk about their emotions, and have not been respected as an individual. In extreme cases their mother has literally abused them. In spite of this, they are virtuous and independent and often seek jobs with children. They do not react in the ‘muriaticum’ way by caring and claiming but by controlling themselves and by becoming inflexible, which is visible in complaints of the locomotive apparatus. In summary they are sturdy, stout, stiff and strong. When they learn to incorporate the womanly and wise aspects of the beech energy, they become more warm, soft, smooth and supple. If they miss this opportunity, I suppose their complaints aggravate to the point of destruction that is described in homeopathic literature, but that I have not seen in my practise. In terminal diabetics and cancer patients the remedy is probably indicated more often. Some symptoms can lead you to the remedy:
- Pain thumb left
- Head pain before menses
- Caries as a child (as soon as they appear)
- Voluptuous itching of vagina
- Pain coccyx rising from a seat ameliorates, extending to vagina.
Before ending with some words on the goddess Kali who symbolises Kreosotum in my view, I would like to emphasize that in the above I have illuminated an aspect of Kreosotum that stands alongside the destructive side of the remedy. There may be many more facets to Kreosotum that have yet to be unveiled.
The Hindu goddess Kali.
Kali, Kali Ma, the black mother (Conway) is a dual god exhibiting traits of both gentleness and love, revenge and terrible death. She governs every form of death but also rules every form of life. She is a trinity manifested in three forms, the three ‘guano’s’ or threads of Creation, Preservation and Destruction and embodies past, present and future. Her karmic wheel devours time itself. She is pictured with black skin and a hideous face smeared with blood, four arms and bare breasts. She wears a necklace of skulls and is draped with snakes. Her brow has a third eye. Her four hands hold weapons and heads. She forbids violence against any woman.
Joseph Campbell writes about Kali (and Shiva) in comparison to yab-yum (or yin-yang): the male figure symbolises the initiating principle, the method and the female denotes the goal to which initiation leads. The goal is Nirvana (eternity), so both male and female are to be envisioned as time and eternity, alternately. The two are the same and an effect of illusion. The goddess Kali is shown standing on the prostrate form of the god Shiva, her spouse. She brandishes the sword of death i.e. spiritual discipline. She protects her children. The pairs of opposites of the universal agony are not what they seem, good and evil is but a reflex of the mind, and the goddess herself, though apparently trampling down the god, is actually his blissful dream.
Literature
In reference works I consulted Allen, Blackwood, Boericke, Choudhury, Clarke, Julian, Mathur, Murphy, the Pharmacopea and Swan.
Campbell J.; The hero with a thousand faces.
Conway D.J.; Magic of the Gods and Goddesses.
Ghegas V.; Seminar Crete 99 by Fons Vanden Berghe.
Grandgeorge D.; The spirit of homeopathic medicine.
Pelt M.; Kreosotum S.S.C. 2/1992.
Rambaran H.; Hindoeisme binnen ieders bereik.
Sonneberg P.; De spirituele kracht van bomen.
Wichmann J.; Proving of Fagus sylvatica Links 2/3 (1999).
Wieringa G.; Een vergelijking van middelen in de benzinegroep S.S.C. 23/3 (1993).
Marguerite Pelt