Hahnemann's heavenly rose

This article serves as an introduction to a larger article of the same title, which was initially written as a thesis for the British Institute of Homeopathy, and upon request was expanded into its present version[1].

The theme of the Rose was chosen to illustrate the value, validity, and necessity of including a spiritual understanding in the overall practice of Homeopathy.

Whilst it may be true that good results can often be obtained using various methods of Homeopathic prescribing such as keynote, epidemic, simple repertorizing, etc., this article addresses the fact that it would nonetheless be useful to develop a spiritual perspective within the scope of one’s practice.

At present, our repertories regard most spiritual experiences of provers and patients under conventional psychological terminology. Examples are analysed, such as ‘delusion’ if a patient or prover experiences being “in the presence of God”, or as “arrogance” if a person perceives oneself as being “above others, all others appear diminutive,” as Hering once described a type of experience he had.

The first chapter of the full article reviews the history of Homeopathy. Hahnemann’s own spiritual affirmations are explored, such as his claim that Homeopathy is a gift to humanity from our Heavenly Benefactor, his descriptions of disease as “a spiritual dynamic mistunement”, his advice about how to conduct provings from both an inner and an outer perspective, etc.

Examples are given depicting how spirituality was inclusive with a scientific and philosophical understanding, during and before the times of Hahnemann, as well as for many prominent homeopaths since the times of Hahnemann.

Many examples are given both historically and in modern times, blending eastern and western spiritual wisdom, enlightened poetry from spiritually advanced or perfected masters, and prominent homeopaths over the past two centuries, as to the validity of a spiritual understanding being applied to the overall practice of Homeopathy.

The second chapter analyzes the data from numerous modern provings of Rosa species, using a spiritual understanding, thereby demonstrating the insufficiency of a conventional psychological point of view when interpreting proving data. This would naturally affect the application of this same proving data in clinical practice.

Further, a conventional psychological interpretation as given in the published proving data is presented in tandem with a deeper spiritual understanding, analyzing the modern Rosa proving data, using three major aspects of personality: ego, heart, intellect. This analysis continues in an exploration of the effects of spiritual life upon the provers of Rosa spp, using both psychological and spiritual terminology.

In this analysis, the psychological interpretation is generally found to be valid, yet often limiting and sometimes not accurately reflecting the provers’ actual experiences. For example, synchronicity, preening, and transformation are three topics analyzed as perhaps being less adequately understood from a psychological perspective, while being more readily interpreted from a spiritual perspective.

Both the Abstract/Introduction and the Conclusion serve to summarize the intent of this paper. Two supplements are added to further enhance a deeper understanding, along with a more than ten page bibliography for further reading.

[1] To read the full version of the article, click on this link: http://www.scribd.com/doc/108948863

Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Bildnis von Therese von Lisieux; Moros