Citrus nobilis: the Great Lakes proving of Temple orange

In choosing substances to prove, it is often productive to prove those things that are right under our noses. Oranges and orange juice are a mainstay of American food, considered to be an essential part of a healthy breakfast.  (“A day without orange juice is like a day without sunshine….) Yet this ubiquitous fruit was not proven until March 2010!  

History: 

The orange eaten all around the world was born a sour fruit, growing wild in China. Dating back thousands of years, the orange was cultivated by the Chinese by 2500 BC. It also found roots in the Assam area of India and in Myanmar.

Orange trees most likely were planted across North Africa by the first century AD.  By the 1200’s orange groves were features of an area extending from Seville to Granada, as well as regions of Portugal. The Saracens brought orange growing to Sicily, the island off the toe of Italy’s boot, at about the same time. 

In 1493 Christopher Columbus carried seeds of the orange, lemon and citron, or possibly young trees, from Spain’s Canary Islands to the island of Hispaniola.  At about the same time the Portuguese planted sweet oranges in their enormous South American colony of Brazil through the labor of enslaved Africans. 

The Spanish brought oranges to their settlement at St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and by 1579 the groves were flourishing. The native people of the area became enthusiastic about oranges, planting them in their own groves and also carrying them as food on hunting trips. Today 9 out of 10 oranges grown in Florida are processed into juice. California produces the most eating oranges in the U.S. 

Brazil is the world’s leading producer of oranges. One half of the entire world’s orange juice comes from Brazil, and it provides 80% of the world’s trade in concentrated orange juice. Brazil’s biggest customer is the Netherlands, and third is the United States. 

Political/cultural meanings:

The cultural meanings of orange reflect royalty, colonialism, and the effects of exclusion.  Throughout the Renaissance oranges were often used as symbols by royal houses and in Europe, orange groves were frequently planted around the holdings of royalty. In Botticelli’s famous painting Primavera, the oranges growing in the grove are symbolic of love and fertility.

William of Orange, the leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spaniards, defeated King James in Ireland and established Protestant (Orange) hegemony in Ireland for hundreds of years. 

More contemporary references in the US inextricably tie orange juice to Florida: Disney World, providing family and children’s entertainment, was built on a Florida orange grove. At Disney World there are Magical Kingdoms with queens and princesses, idealized family values and community, promoting once upon a time and ever after.

Sourcing and Taxonomy:

Temple oranges are actually Tangors; a hybrid that occurred naturally between oranges and tangerines. In 1896 a man named Boyce first discovered the fruit trees in Jamaica. Boyce sent bud-wood samples of the tree to Florida where W.C. Temple obtained a few and propagated them by grafting them onto other rootstock He recommended them to a friend of his, H.E. Gillett who owned a nursery. Gillett named them after his friend Temple, and began selling the trees in 1919. Cultivation took off in popularity in 1940.

The Temple orange is also known as the Royal mandarin. 

Proving:

This temple orange was procured from a small orange grove/apiary in Bradenton FL, the winter quarters of Barnum and Bailey circus. The proving was conducted at the Baylight School of Homeopathy in Portland Maine, director; Nancy Frederick, in March 2010.

Proving Dynamis:

There were 9 female provers between the ages of 30 and 60 and 4 female supervisors.

The trituration part of the proving was chaotic, playful and immature; one observer commented, “It’s like a three ring circus”. Provers sang songs of childhood, Disney songs and songs from The Sound of Music. There was prepubescent giggling, vulgar joking, cliquishness and teasing.  Provers called each other princesses and queens. During the trituration, provers spontaneously began to play a word game entitled “Aunt Sally” -- in which no one explained the rules of the game. Those who did not catch on were left out of the process. People felt judged, they made fun of each other and were relentless. This game dominated the trituration even though some people were clearly distressed and not participating in it. The most prominent feature of this remedy is that of superiority, inclusion and exclusion; healing the wounds created by rejection.

Also during the trituration one prover became quite ill with nausea and wrote “I feel like I am pregnant.” With her nausea, she drew a picture of a fetus inside the bulb of a plant.

Mental/Emotional Themes:

- Childishness: Playful, giddy, giggling, singing, teasing, joking
- Family/Marriage, desire for connection
- Inclusion/Exclusion Sharing/Not-Sharing
- Focus, attention, determination, order
- Royalty/Purple 
- Ocean, sea, seashore, underwater, swimming, flow, flowing
- Pregnancy
- Spacey; druggy, alone, isolated, detached, floating feeling/Clarity
- Self-pity, crying, feels robbed, and dreams robbed
- Anxiety; Dreams anxious, suspicious, paranoid, self-conscious
- Restless/Peaceful, calm, clear, blissful
- Energetic/Fatigue
- Aggression/Withdrawal: agitated, angry, irritable
- Double/Synchronicity
- The color Orange, the fruit orange
- Scary, anxious dreams
- Dreams and reality
- Dreams of friends, parties, dancing, laughter

There were also extensive physical symptoms, especially vertigo, gastric disturbances, extremity pain, skin itchiness and shingles, and sleep problems.

To read the entire proving and proving protocol please visit www.greatlakesprovings.com

This remedy is available at Helios pharmacy; www.helios.co.uk

Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Orange juice; Scott Bauer
Primavera; Boticelli