Author:
Jan Scholten
Book:
Homeopathy and the Elements
Type:
Remedy
Chapter:
6.14
6.14 Plumbum
‘Diplomat’
Plumbum is one of the oldest known remedies. Collins has recently thrown new light on the overall picture.
Signature
Pumbum is a Latin name for this metal that has been used for ages to make waterpipes and drains, hence the word ‘plumber’. It is one of the oldest metals, its chemical symbol is Pb.
It is very durable, heavy and pliable. It is used in car batteries and in shields to protect people from radiation. It is also used on weights, insulation against noise and vibration, roofing materials, bullets, pellets, paints, petrol, and in old printing presses (together with antimony and tin).
Leadtitaniumzirconate is piezoelectric, which means it creates an electric charge when it is put under pressure.
Concepts
Stage 14 Gold series
Empty Weak Leadership Management
Eliminating Organisation Structure
Diverting Responsible
Pushing aside Serious Heavy
Irresponsible Power Dictatorial
Indifferent King
Formal Distant Dignified Haughty
Covering up Alone Isolation
Mask Religion Sexuality
Ripe old age
Land
Eyes Vision
Analysis
A show of power: puppet.
A director who is there only for the show.
A director in the final days of his career.
No longer wanted as a manager.
Formal respect for power: diplomacy.
Failure through handing responsibility over to someone else.
An irresponsible king.
Hiding your power behind a mask: suspicion.
Elimination of arrogance.
Blasé and haughty.
Isolated through formal behaviour.
Diverting attention to retain power.
Emptiness in religious sense: immoral.
Formal and empty sex.
Empty look.
Picture of Plumbum metallicum
Essence: Looks powerful on the outside, but it is only show.
A show of power for the benefit of the outside world
At this stage their is really nothing left of their former powers, all that is left is the outer shell. The shell is empty but they pretend that there is nothing wrong and carry on as normal. This is the position of the director who is only there for the show. Nobody knows who the real boss is and anyway he disappears as soon as the police or the tax inspector called.
Or they get put into a position of director but are not allowed to make any decisions themselves, which makes them feel like a puppet on a string.
The director at the end of his career
The days of leadership are more or less over and they gradually withdraw from the scene. If they don’t volunteer to go someone else will make the decision for them. They get made redundant, pushed out of the way to make room for someone else.
Formal respect for power: diplomacy
Their greatest talent is diplomacy. They feel very much at home in diplomatic circles. They don’t have to make any decisions themselves but they are treated with the utmost respect by everyone. Diplomats often come from old aristocratic families whose days of real power have long gone, but who often had an excellent upbringing with private schools and all the social trimmings of the upper classes. What was lacking however was any real show of warmth and love.
Delegating responsibility
They don’t take any responsibility but delegate everything to other people. If they are only there for the show anyway why should they take any initiatives or take any responsibility? They might even get the blame when things go wrong, so it is much better to play the innocent leader. They let things run their own course and don’t risk sticking their necks out.
They are extremely good at pushing things aside and diverting the attention. ‘Pass the buck’ is their motto. Whatever comes their way is either passed on or tempered so that it looses its power. This is symbolically expressed in the ‘wrist drop’ in both hands and feet. It is the ‘drop shot’ as we see in tennis.
Hiding their power behind a mask: suspicion
They are unable to judge whether people have good intentions or not. They can’t ‘read’ their intentions, people appear to them as dolls. This is literally a rubric in the repertory; delusion people appear like dolls. This is similar to the final days of the empire. The king is still there, but in name only, because the real power has passed into the hands of other people. Everyone pretends the king is still in power, but in their hearts they know better. The take over is happening any moment now, any they won’t shy away from violence if necessary.
So the king is suspicious and doesn’t know who he can trust. What is going on behind the smiling faces of his advisor. They have dreams about having eyes in the back of their head. This is not surprising because there is a real danger of being pushed aside, even of being murdered and this is what they are afraid of. This sort of situation creates thoughts of murder in their own mind. They get impulses to kill people who are trying to get rid of them.
Blasé and haughty
They may be very arrogant and blasé. They find it impossible to play the role of the servant, they have the facade of being a bid, strong man. They also feel misunderstood. How could anybody know what they have had to endure? They might become quite decadent and decide to enjoy life to the full, going for materialistic pleasures. But it is all a show, they are not really interested any-more, they have seen it all before.
As far as sexuality is concerned they are only interested in experiments like swapping partners, homosexuality, incest etc. It is the only thing that can make them feel alive, a normal relationship is too dead boring.
Isolated through formal behaviour
The theme of isolation is very strong in Plumbum. They may feel all alone in the world. This is heightened by their formal attitude which doesn’t allow them to make contact very easily. Their relationships lack any deeper feeling. The isolation is also heightened by their arrogance and their irritating dictatorial behaviour. Nobody is really interested in trying to get through to them. So they decide it is better to remain single, although deep inside they long to have friends.
Failure through delegating responsibility
Their eventual failure is due to the fact that they don’t take any real responsibility. They don’t make any decisions to help the organisation, all they do is try to keep the rumour of impending ruin from leaking through to the outside world. They us all sorts of clever manoeuvres to keep going for a little wile longer. They keep an absolute straight face when they talk to their sponsors and their bank managers and convince them that everything is fine. When these tactics fail they get depressed and guilty about the way they have let things slip. Suicide may seem the only way out for them.
Examples
A typical example of Plumbum is Queen Elizabeth of England. The royal family has lost its real power long ago, but she pretends that she is still totally in control. The breakdown of the British ‘empire’ is symbolic for this stage. The formal behaviour that queen Elizabeth insists on is typical of this stage too. Even her children have to ask permission before they are allowed to come and see her or speak to her.
Another example is ‘The last emperor’ of China. Officially he was the man in charge of the empire, but the real power lay in the hands of his enemies. He wasn’t even allowed to leave the forbidden city to go ad meet his own people.
The decline of the Roman empire has sometimes been attributed to the use of lead beakers for drinking wine, which gradually poisoned all the elite classes. The decadence and intrigues, the murder and corruption amongst the Roman leaders is a well known piece of history.
Expressions
Fears: heights, falling, murder, death, suicide, heart disease, stroke, being poisoned, being locked up, insanity, people, crowds, enemies, religious, devil, God.
Dreams: heights, falling.
Delusions: superior, Christ, alone, everyone is a murderer, isolation; mania.
Irritability: angry and irritable, < offence.
Mood: haughty, restless, hyper active, bored, indifferent, rigid, gloomy.
suicidal with knives.
Mental: learning difficulties, late learning to talk and write, absent minded, confused, slow, rigid, imbecile, insanity, dementia.
Memory: being disturbed, words, > numbers, < changing numbers, appointments, what has been said, what should be done; monomania, very good at figures, can remember something very well as long as it is not changed (Collins, personal comment), time goes too slowly.
Religious: empty, immoral.
Professions: king, leader, director, manager, president, chairman, captain, mayor, bishop, top sportsman or woman, stewardess, model.
Causes: disaster, hurt, humiliation.
Generals
Type: male, dark hair, thin, old looking, expressionless.
Locality: right.
Weather: cold (2); > open air; < gloomy, cloudy < dry, > heat.
Perspiration: stinking, feet.
Time: < night, gradually coming and going.
Desires: alcohol, drugs, bread, sweet, fat, meat, salt, fried, cold water.
Aversion: meat, eating, vegetables, sour.
Food: < drugs, fish, egg, > warm food; > eating, < fasting.
Menses: < menses, < pregnancy, < during and after giving birth.
Sleep: sleeplessness (3), in strange positions.
Physical: < rest, < sitting, < lying, > walking, >< motion, < dark, > pressure, > rubbing, < touch, > massage, < exertion, > stretching.
Complaints
Weakness, nervousness and restlessness.
Pains: boring, contracting.
Sensations: swollen, blown up, heavy, full.
Glands swollen, inflamed, indurated. Abscesses and necrosis.
Paralysis (3), Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, stretching hands (!), stretching feet, feet drop, SLE, ALS, reflexes slow. late learning to walk; clumsy. Shocks and jerking, tremors. Encephalopathy, myoclonic.
Syringomyely, no cold or heat sensation, no feeling.
Epilepsy, clonic, tonic, tetanic.
Headache, face swollen. Trembling, < anger.
Dizziness.
Eye complaints: inflammations, opticus atrophy, sensitive to light, glaucoma, blindness, cataract; short sighted; narrowing of pupils.
Ear infections.
Loss of hearing.
Teeth: discolouration, black, teeth fall out. Gums edged with a blue line.
Throat infections.
Heart complaints: high blood pressure, infarction, failure.
Congestion of blood. Cerebral haemorrhage, anaemia, arteriosclerosis.
Pulse: too fast, too slow, full, weak, irregular, palpitations, < lying on left side.
Nausea after eating.
Constipation, ileus, colics, black hard little stools. Diarrhoea, stomach pains as if the navel is pulled back by a thread.
Liver complaints, jaundice.
Problems with testes and ovaries: inflammations, cancer, cryptorchism, sterility, amenorrhoea, metrorragia, impotency, atrophy of the testes, abortion, lack of milk, vaginismus.
Affections of the kidneys, hyperplasia, atrophy of tubuli, glomerulonenephritis, fibrosis, cancer; retention of urine.
Affections of bones: necrosis, inflammation. Contraction of hands (Dupuytren). Raynaud. Muscular dystrophy, - atrophy, of the ball of the thumb.
Inflammation of joints: swelling pain, stiffness, < beginning to move, < stretching; wrist, knee, elbow, neck, ankles and feet; gout, big toe; sciatica.
Skin: sallow, dry, yellow. Nails hard, brittle, thick; ingrowing. Hair dry, falling out.
DD: Gold series, Stage 14, Aluminiums, Agaricus, Cocculus, Lachesis, Opium, Phosphorus, Zincum.