Lanthanides: homeopaths as patients

About 10 years ago, I started experimenting with the Lanthanides. It took five years to develop the picture of the Lanthanides to such a level that it could be published in a book, "Secret Lanthanides". Since that time there has been a lot of experience with the Lanthanides and many cases have been published, for instance in this journal, Interhomeopathy. The Lanthanides have become such an important part of homeopathic practice that I often wonder how I could have done without them in the past. In fact, we cannot do without them because they are essentially different from all the other elements in the Periodic Table. At first, I mostly used them in old, stubborn, unsolved cases but these days, they are very often prescibed as a first remedy.

Besides the fact that they have become invaluable, it is also the beauty of the pictures of the Lanthanides that makes them very attractive. One could say that the Lanthanides bring us as homeopaths back to ourselves. It is the quality of reflection of the Lanthanides that is also found in the homeopathic practice.

In this article, I will discuss the picture of the Lanthanides as a whole by showing the state of homeopaths in general; the qualities needed to become a homeopath can be found in the Lanthanides.

Serving
The first motivation to become a homeopath is the desire to help people. They want to make people better, healthier, and happier. This is a serving quality, the desire to serve people and humanity. It is not only a desire to help specific people but people in general, and even to make humanity better, as a whole. This aspect is very strong in the Gold series, of which the Lanthanides are part.

Understanding
A second motive is the desire to understand health and disease. They want to understand themselves, their body, psyche, and soul. By seeing how disease and cure work in patients day after day, they get an understanding of how it works in themselves. This is not only rational understanding but a very practical and emotional understanding.

Aversion to doctors
Homeopaths often have an aversion to conventional medicine and doctors. This aversion to doctors is known for certain remedies like Arnica. In Arnica, we see the symptom “he says he is well and sends the doctor away.” This attitude is a Lanthanide attitude. The Asteraceae, of which Arnica is a member, have a high content of Lanthanides and have the picture of the Lanthanides as part of their own picture. A strong motivation to become a homeopath is that one can treat oneself and is not dependent on conventional medicine anymore.

Freedom
This aversion to conventional medicine is strongly connected to an aversion to be taken over. Homeopaths and Lanthanides want to be their own boss, they want to decide for themselves and they do not want to be dominated. That is just what conventional medicine does, it takes you over. Doctors have a tendency to dominate patients and to overstep their boundaries. They fill patients with pills, give them injections and vaccinations, and in the most extreme form put their patients under narcosis and operate on them. The will of the patient is then completely lost.  This tendency to dominate is also seen in the way doctors often behave, as if they know better than the patient: they tend to decide for the patient rather than giving advice.

Homeopaths want to decide for themselves and do not want to be dominated or taken over. For the Lanthanides, freedom is a central word. It can be expressed in many ways: a word that is often used is ‘own’. They want to go their own way, they want to live their own lives, they want to do it their own way. And, of course, the opposite words are also very important: they do not want to be dominated, dictated to, told what to do or be limited by others.

Inner world
Another factor that contributes to this attitude is that homeopaths have a kind of knowing of their inner world. They have an intuitive understanding that diseases are coming from the inside and not from the outside. This in contrast with conventional medicine and doctors, where the cause of disease is seen as something coming from the outside world; they fight against external causes like bacteria, viruses and fungi. But when the cause is in the inner world then this fight with external causes is a useless and detrimental action. So there is a conflict of philosophy between homeopathy and conventional medicine. There is a tendency to go inside instead of acting in the outside world.

Secret
An important word in the Lanthanides is secret. This is connected to the former theme of the inner world. The inner world is a secret world and from ancient times, groups that were busy with the inner world and tried to develop that were seen as secret societies, such as the Rosicrucians and Freemasons. The homeopathic movement as a whole is not a secret movement as such, but it is on the side-lines of society. It is not mainstream and is often completely misunderstood, so it has some secret aspects. In some countries, homoeopathy has been forbidden even to this day, and thus has become underground and secret.

Philosophy
We also see a strong desire for philosophy in homeopaths. This is also a strong aspect of Lanthanides. It is connected to the desire to understand. The understanding is not limited to a technical understanding but has to do with the understanding of oneself, the world, the universe, and the essence of it all. It goes into the depth of life; it is the desire to understand what life is about, where it is coming from and where it is going to.

Deep
This is connected to another word that is frequently used, the word ‘deep’. There is a desire to understand things in the depth and not only superficially. It is the depth that we can find in philosophy and religion, albeit not in superficial forms of religion: it is more a spiritual experience of life. It is often seen in homeopaths and it is an integral aspect of the Lanthanides. Patients who need Lanthanides often use the word ‘deep’. Their pains are deeply located, the experiences are very deep.

Postscript
Looking back at the development of the Lanthanides over the last 10 years, one can see a tremendous expansion of the cases and knowledge. It fills me with great gratitude to have these remedies available in my practice. There are many cases for which the Lanthanides have given marvellous cures and for which I would not have been able to do much without them.

There is such a random beauty in the pictures of the Lanthanides. They are often so akin to the state of those who have chosen to be homeopaths. In the beginning of my practice, we homeopaths often commented about the contradiction between the success we had with our patients and the poor success rate when it came to treating ourselves: we joked that homeopaths were incurable! The Lanthanides have changed this situation and there is now much more that can be done for homeopaths themselves. It is as if homoeopathy is giving something back to homeopaths.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons
Gnothi seauton (Know thyself); Mladifilozof
Falun Dafa, fifth exercise; source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/14871980@N05/2482099283/in/set-72157605013738654