I feel trapped: a case of Emerald

The patient is a fifty-eight-year old ex-patriot, who is planning to move with her husband back to their home country on her husband’s retirement, meanwhile trying to buy a property for their return.

Presenting complaint: stress

Gemstone remedy themes in italics

Feeling trapped

Patient (P): “I’m feeling lost. We were out-bid on the property. I felt bruised. With this new chapter of retirement, I'm entering the unknown. I need a bolt-hole (a house to go to). I oscillate between optimism and pessimism, sorting out a new property. I feel trapped (Gesture: G) when we are living in the countryside."

Claire Stanford (CS): What is the experience of trapped?

P: “Clipped wings, restricted, entrapment. Loneliness. In the countryside you are not enclosed (G), you have the space (G), otherwise you are not able to move, arms tied (G), strait-jacket.”

Relationship difficulties

She talks about falling out with a friend, feeling hurt for years, and of difficulties with her mother.

P: “We accommodated my friend for years. She pushed me. With my mother, I snapped back. I can react too sensitively and defensively, being cutting, hard, I say things with a hard edge.”

Physical symptoms

Low back pain: “My hips are out of line. Stretching helps, it puts space in your spine, opens it up.”

Prescription: Bellis Perennis 200C, which alleviated her sleeplessness, but little else.

Follow-up

Dragged down

Her mood is “down”; she feels she has been “brought down” by a friend and by the imminent return to her country.

CS: Brought down?  

P: “Like an anchor, it drags you down (G). It's a muddy quagmire, quicksand, I’m not able to move freely. I hope it’s Spring when we return to UK, or I will go down (G: hands down).”

She said she finds trips to the supermarket very mundane.

P: “You lose your identity, you lose yourself, you lose your individuality.”

In a box

She talked about visiting a childhood friend in their suburban home.

P: “I felt so trapped (G). I felt… is that it? (G: gestures a bubble). It was too boxy, I was in a box (G).”

Colour

P: “I love colour (G). I don't want to lose that colour (G). At home, we had parakeets."

Analysis

Because of the sense of being trapped and her love of colour, I prescribed Bird remedies.

Prescription: Scarlet Macaw 1M and then Buteo Jamaiscens 1M; no further improvement.

Into the sensation of the senses

I decided to take her further into her experience by exploring it using only her senses, particularly in the area of childhood foods, a technique described by Divya Chabra.

Follow-up:

Organising the move had reached a frustrating block, she was very upset.

CS: What do you feel like when you are upset?

P: “So tense, brittle, you could snap and break. Not exactly that, everything is held in tautly, great strain, I clamp down, shut doors.”

Clear or murky 

CS: Could you imagine the opposite situation? 

P: “On a beach, beautiful white sand, roots of trees, big trees. The sand is not fine, it's soft, coarse, grainy, soft as you go in sea. The colour of the water… inner movement in sea… the water is clear. I can see through it. I don’t like murky water. I want visibility…”

Stone flat

P: “Straight but open, a gentle curve, a bit of movement, not stone flat. If it's stone flat it's boring, not a still flat (G) turquoise to blue.”

Sharp or smooth

CS: The sand?

P: “Not soft like flour, not like castor sugar, more like granulated sugar, coarser, bigger grain, not silky smooth, it's not rough.”

CS: Describe the feeling of walking in the rough sand through your senses?

P: “It hurts your feet, it's sharp. If it’s too soft, smooth, you can sink into it; when beaches have larger grains, it gives more support. It's nice to not be hard and have some support. The bay is nice, private, not completely open, the sun is not harsh. The bluish green colour of the sea merges with the sky. It’s very restful and calm, with a little bit of movement in it.”

Transparent

CS: Childhood foods?

P: “Coconut. It's quite large (Gesture of bubble) when young and fresh. The juice is not completely clear, transparent, it’s slightly milky. It's both ends of the spectrum, from watery right through to the dried flesh and the oil. It's got versatility, whether it's young or old you can use it at any stage.”

CS: Transparent?

P: “Being able to see, something clear, like the sea, clear water, not murky water.”

CS: Murky?

P: “Fogginess, fog hangs around, you can’t see through it (G) but you’re not enclosed or entrapped by it (G), you can’t see what’s around you (G). If you’re in a familiar setting you know what’s around you. If you’re in an unfamiliar setting, it's like a blanket (G), a muslin curtain (G). You see shapes beyond but it’s not clear. Something that’s murky is not a solid barrier, it's 70% murky, a sheet that’s in between.”

CS: Solid barrier?

P: “A wall, you can’t see through it or get through. You can have a reinforced glass wall, a barrier between two environments. French doors are a barrier, they keep cold outside. You can see through it, you can see the visual of the outside but there’s still protection from adverse elements like a storm. You feel safe inside. It's to see outside, have access to it, but you can control things inside, whilst nature controls outside; you can open up to it.”

Follow-up: at the next consultation, she was asked for a doodle.

Doodles

 D: Describe your doodle

P: “Colour (G). Fun. Colour from the West Indies, facets of diamonds, restrictive, confined, contained (G). Sharp edges. Cobwebbing. It's not a butterfly, it's geometrically a pattern. It's trying to have a reflective image (G).”

Glimmer and light

CS: How are you with gems?

P: “We live in a land of bling (cheap jewelry). I like simplicity, straight forward, a bit of colour, not too bright. I’ve had a green tourmaline ring made. I like pearl, different shapes, a misshapen pearl. They are very tactile, lovely to feel, to stroke, reassuring. They're flattened (G: hands clapped together).

“Gems are beautiful, the cut ones, glimmer and light, I don’t like garish colours, they’re too harsh. Citrine, you can have it beautifully clear, if it’s cut well, you get a lot of light playing. I wouldn't go for a diamond, it's too clear. I’d go for something with colour. I like greens and blues, I don't like them too bright. I don't like emeralds, they're not clear enough. I like my tourmaline.”  

I showed her a colour chart and asked her which colour she was drawn to: she pointed out 22c – a green. In Ulrich Welte’s colour repertory, Emerald immersion is the only gem listed for this colour.

Gemstone remedy analysis

At this point, I considered a gemstone remedy. She described most of the gemstone themes at sensation level:

Clear versus murky

Sharp, hard edged, smooth

Light, glimmer, reflective

Facets, contained, restricted, barriers, shut in versus open

Which Gemstone?

The main recurrent theme of her case was her delusion that she was trapped. I thought this would provide the key to her remedy. A search in Reference Works:

Delusion / dreams / fear / dread within three words of trapped / imprisoned / incarcerated brought up Adamas (Diamond) and Amethyst.

Mac Repertory using the Mirilli’s theme – imprisoned – revealed Emerald.

In Peter Tuminello’s book ‘Twelve Jewels’, Emerald has the strongest feeling of being trapped, the negative essence of Emerald was stated as being “strength is trapped” and for “those who feel trapped by any of the material restrictions of life.”

Prescription: Emerald 200C one dose

Follow ups

One month later: "I think Emerald is working really well. I am not a morning person normally, but I am feeling more energised, even if a bit tired, in getting going on getting things done. I feel much more composed. A floating calm with all there is to do."

Three months later: “We were away at our house overseas and had a great time while we were there. Since coming back to this country, we've both been good. Physically, I am feeling fine. I would say I am much more serene.”

Her husband has retired, and they have moved back to the UK and spend part of their time at their second home abroad. She has been given some of the remedy in 200C potency, in case it is needed.

Seven months after the first dose: “I have taken the remedy a couple of times, and when we are going to be abroad, I pack it just in case. I am aware we have been blessed by lovely and mild weather, and there is a concern with the darkness and grey cold of the winter to come back in Britain. We are looking forward to spending more time there with family. Overall, all is good.”

Emerald  

Emerald is composed of Aluminium, Beryllium, Silica and Oxygen – Al12 Be3 Si 6 O18.

The mineral components of Emerald correspond with her issues, according to Scholten’s element theory of the periodic table:

- Aluminium: yielding / accommodating to others’ choices, being forced, pressurised.

- Beryllium: fear of separation from mother / the unknown. Delusion of being trapped, a barrier that protects from outside influence.

- Silica: rigid, brittle, hidden identity, that is fragile, vulnerable, easily shattered.

- Oxygen: being neglected, discarded.

- Vanadium + Chromium: Emerald has traces of Chromium (stage 6) and Vanadium (stage 5) for its colour. She mentions “oscillating” in her initial consultation – oscillation is a theme of stage 5.

Emerald is a soft gem, not totally clear as it has inclusions, which relates to her description of “not totally clear” but “70% murky”.

Emerald themes

Family

Holding the family together, giving the family its self worth.

Trapped

Emerald has a huge feeling of being trapped. Stuck in a relationship, stuck in an unhappy marriage, they feel completely stuck in the situation. They become frustrated, angry, they feel tremendous irritability, proportional to their sense of incapacity within the situation.

They feel their potential is trapped, needs release. Unexpressed. Desire for expression.

Balance in a relationship

Power struggle, mismatch of emotionality vs rationality. Emerald is a remedy for balancing difficulties in relationships so that each person can come to strength without power struggles or emotional manipulation.

Physical strength

Physical strength, (whereas Diamond is in the head). Herculean strength, muscle power, radiating energy, driven, determination, ability to undertake tasks that seem insurmountable, desire to do strenuous physical things, shifting rocks, building a stone wall, physical exertion, carrying heavy weights, running a triathlon.

Mentally strong but deep depression seeping in over the years.

Green / wild

Likes green or aversion to green - lush greenery trees.

Dreams of green cats’ eyes in the proving, wild animals, lion rippling strength.

Not crystal clear

Emeralds are highly included - it is not crystal clear, murky rich green of nature. 

Image of clarity is division, sliced with a sword.

Physical symptoms

Emerald is a remedy for detoxification of heavy metal poisoning in people who are driven.

Affinity: heart, eyes, shoulder pain, joint pain, physical exertion, sciatica, migraine, sinuses, dry skin. Right sided remedy. Liver, in Traditional Chinese Medicine philosophy liver energy = heat anger, temperature triple heater imbalance.

Explosive diarrhoea and vomiting in a very driven person, particularly in a case where there is a relationship imbalance or power struggle.

Strange, rare, peculiar; oddity. Emerald case has a tendency to corns (dry round skin on toes).

Differential diagnosis between Beryllium and Emerald

Emerald feels trapped, needs to come into the light, need for masculine/ feminine balance in a relationship.

Beryllium feels content to be trapped inside, needs to separate but is in no hurry to do so.

Birth

If childbirth is overdue, some kits suggest Beryllium in the Carbon series: birth process, coming out of the womb and separating, becoming an individual.

Emerald is also a remedy for childbirth, to bring the baby’s soul into incarnation.

References

Peter Tuminello, Twelve Jewels

Julie Geraghty’s masterclass seminar on Jewels and Gemstone remedies at the Bristol Homeopathic Hospital

Photos: Shutterstock
Trapped business man; Angela Waye
Emerald; iliuta goean