Everything can be blown away; a case of Campanula rapunculus

A forty year old woman comes in January 2011 with pain in her sternum and sternocostal-joints, as well as pain in the upper part of her spinal column. She has had a bicycle accident 10 years ago and feels it might be related to her problems. She also catches colds easily, with chills and coughing, and then she has to cough for quite a long time. At times, she feel stressed, and she is also quite tired.

She works as a physiotherapist in her own clinic and her special exercises are helping her with her pains; sport and  motion ameliorate her in general. She also mentions dry skin and white spots on her nails as signs of being out of balance.

She is a slim, medium sized, sensitive woman. She makes a very fine contact with me, presenting a kind of shyness and  insecurity in expressing things, trying to make me understand how she experiences the world. Her sensitivity makes me cautious about how to phrase my questions; I find myself speaking in a cautious, hesitating way, in order not disturb that fragile being. She is very affectionate when she hears that a child is sick.

She has had a stressful last year with a lot of post-graduate education on the weekends and a lot of  work in her clinic. Another theme is her 5 year old son, who is a little behind in his development and often suffers from an obstructive bronchitis. She is very attentive with him, tries her best to help him and has many appointments with therapists to support him in his development. When he gets bronchitis, he can be so weak that she has to carry him to the toilet. She is always sad about his health and his development, and all this costs her a lot of energy. When he is sick, she has to cancel her appointments, and that gives her a bad conscience. When her son catches a cold it is difficult for her not to  think in “worst case terms” and she is quite anxious about what the future will bring for him, worrying for instance if he will be bullied at school, etc. In general, she wants to do everything as well as possible, and she is very committed in her work.

When asked about her childhood she said it was normal, but she was not happy as a child. She realised this in recent years, having done courses on emotional training, which helped her a lot. In this training with her group, she felt so connected, they accepted me the way I am. I asked her what she meant and she said, it is difficult to be how I am. She is sometimes a bit afraid of people, that I do not do things well enough and then I feel unloved, because I don´t perform well. I used to get love if I lived an orderly life. I am afraid of being forsaken if I do not perform well, afraid of losing people when I don`t do things as well as possible.

About her father she said: “He is a nice man, but very moody; he has had stomach problems and if he did not like the food his wife made, he would get angry and say to her: “You can eat this by yourself.” Her mother doesn't like any fights in the family and easily gives in.

With her partner she feels loved. In an earlier relationship, she says that in the beginning she felt quite strong but as time went by she became more and more dependent on him, and this made her feel weaker and weaker. She says she only feels strong with a partner; being on her own is not nice.

She says she can eat large portions. She cannot eat mushrooms since they create a lot of flatulence. She likes chocolate, cheese, vegetables, sweets, and bread. When she is anxious, she has a lump in her throat. She has some agoraphobia. In general, she feels more cold than warm.

Hobbies: Traveling, reading, and cooking. She likes sports and does paragliding. She has fear of thunderstorms: “when I see lightning, I am scared to death. I don‘t like the wind, it feels like it carries me away, it can blow me from the mountain, it hurls me down. I feel like a leaf in the wind. This is my great fear, because once this happened to me when I was paragliding. “What is special for her in paragliding? “I like the mountains, the feeling of freedom, when I fly up high and I prove myself by doing this. I like the mountains very much; I like nature.”

Colour preference: 15c 2/3 b/c

At this point, I thought of a bird remedy given her fears and the paragliding, and considered that she would need something from the left side of the periodic table, somewhere between stage two and five, probably stage three. Her neck, sternum and shoulder problems and how she treats her son felt like the mythology picture of the pelican, which opens her breast to feed her young with the blood of her heart. I thought also about the core idea: “They suffer from the opinions of others as how they should be in the world.” Jonathan Shore’s book Birds fits the case.

Prescription: Pelecanus occidentalis MK

She came back in March: her pains in neck and shoulders are 50% better. She is more relaxed, PMS is better; she thinks she is more stable. She says that she does not worry about her son as much. She feels stronger in her relationship; it is easier for her to speak her mind. She also feels more confident in groups and does things according to her own timing, considering what is best for her. When mountaineering, for example, it is no problem to be slower than the rest, and she can communicate this easily to her partners. I took this as a confirmation of the core idea.

Prescription: Pelecanus occidentalis MK, once a month

Follow up in June: her son has had bronchitis again and she was very anxious again. Some weeks ago, her garden was completely damaged by a hailstorm and she got a shock. “In 5 minutes, everything in my garden was destroyed.”  She says that since then “I feel shaky; it does not take much to throw me off track.” How does she feel? “As if the wind is throwing me to the ground, as if the floor under my feet is not stable anymore.(DD Boron). Every day I have a different fear that something could happen, I fear for my life and I am afraid of death. I cannot enjoy life fearlessly. I cannot breathe freely.”

Prescription: Campanula rapunculus MK, once a month.

Campanulaceae according to Jan Scholten
They feel that they have to achieve in order to be loved, appreciated and seen. They do a lot of things for others; they are very capable people, very talented and sensitive, soft and sympathetic.
They are often quite insecure. They lack strength to cope with the world, a world that is often too hard for them. Sensitive and soft, an angel-like quality, as if they are not very well incarnated, as if they are not grounded.
They have a strong Boron-quality: no ground under their feet, shaky, unstable, unsure, affectionate (stage3).
They easily feel left alone and unloved. They feel that they are not seen, that they are not appreciated for what they do for others, that they are unworthy. They also have Lanthanide qualities: they desire freedom, are therapists, want to develop themselves, are sensitive, and are not seen for who they really are.
When you look at the flower in the wind you see the shaky, unstable quality, with the heavy bell-flower on its more or less small stalk.

Follow-ups
Two months later: she feels better and is more stable. The fears are 50% better, she has worked a lot, but still has energy. She has had a very nice paragliding flight right after the remedy. She realised that with her father not everything was nice – “he never praised me” – and she realises that she should stop trying to organize everything for him.

In his presentation of the Campanulaceae, Jan Scholten writes: “They feel that their father does not see them, their solution is to do what he asks in order to get his love, or to do what they think he expects from them. Their father is often too busy to notice them much and that make them feel worthless.

She was angry with him, because she was always doing physiotherapy for his back pain and then he started  lifting heavy things the next day, making her feel that she had to “fix” him again.

After the remedy, she feels: “It‘s your life and your business.”

Prescription: Campanula rapunculus MK, once per month

Three months later: she says she has not felt so good in years. She has reduced her working hours: she stops one hour earlier now to have time for her clinic protocol, so she doesn’t have to do it in the evenings. She states: “I come first!” She does more for herself. The fears about her son are different now. He was sick again, but she was not anxious anymore; she realised that he is old enough to manage and that this bronchitis is not a danger to his life anymore so she could take it easy. She feels more distance between herself and others and it is easier to say “no”; “I feel more self-aware and I am very capable in my work.” In the past, she used to always work longer with her clients to do the best possible for them, now she stops earlier and feels that it is fine.

About her parents, especially her father, she states that he gave her the feeling that she does not support her son in the right way; it was as if I did nothing. “I never dared to contradict, now I am able to say no.”

Conclusion

Pelecanus occidentalis helped her for her shoulder, neck and spinal problems; the pains are completly gone. Then, the picture of Campanula became more evident.
As I write this, I realise that it would have been possible to think of Campanula right from the beginning. The analysis could be: Lanthanide quality, therapist, wants to develop herself, etc. Boron quality: unstable, unsure, loses the ground under the feet. The statement “It is difficult to be how I am” could bring one directly to Boron with the central theme “Who am I?” From there, we could think of Campanulaceae as a differential diagnosis. Another possible line of thought could be: spiritual, quite evolved, sensitive. So, we come to Lanthanides, bird remedies or plant remedies, high up in Jan Scholten‘s botanical tree system. Then, we can think of Asterales, from there to Campanulaeae because of a soft, angelic quality, Boron, stage 3, Lanthanide quality.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Pelecanus occidentalis; Claire Powers
Campanula rapunculoides, Creeping Bellflower - Flower - Kerava, Finland; Anneli Salo