BOOKS

Birds, Seeking the Freedom of the Sky by Peter Fraser

This book offers a clear differentiation between the different bird species. If Bird remedies are relatively well known, the differences between the species have been difficult to establish. The book is well organised, following the scientific classification of order, family, genus, and species, which makes it easy to work with. Individual remedies are examined, drawing out their individual important aspects, enabling us to differentiate between the subtle differences of each bird remedy. In total, forty remedies are explored, from the familiar Falco peregrinus to the less known Pharomachrus mocinno. One down side to this otherwise interesting book is the lack of accompanying cases, which would have been welcome to complement the remedy pictures.
"Peter brings a fine focus that penetrates the outer veils to reveal the simpler and truer nature of things. This leads to brevity of expression as well as concentration of the material: an aqua vita from which we may sip and understand. The information given is really useful in practice, helping me to recognise similima. I have been eagerly awaiting this book." Misha Norland

Wonderful Plants by Jan Scholten

After many years of intensive research, Jan Scholten’s long-awaited book on the taxonomy of plants, Wonderful Plants, is now available in English. Jan Scholten’s previous works on the systematic classification of the elements of the periodic table as homeopathic remedies was the greatest breakthrough of the last ten years in homeopathy. His discoveries have been confirmed in thousands of successful cases. Yet, the main thrust of Jan Scholten’s research is not the Mineral but the Plant kingdom. This can easily be seen in the thoroughness and precision of the information offered in his monumental new work.

The same natural laws that can be seen in the series and stages of the periodic table also underlie the taxonomic system of the enormously varied plant families. The path to the required remedy is not as easy to recognize as with the mineral elements – indeed, it is still evolving! One of the timeless values of this work lies in the essences of the plant families.

Homeopathic remedy pictures for animals by Vicki Mathison

Sixty homeopathic remedies for animals, portrayed with delightful cartoons and trenchant keynotes - studying remedy pictures has rarely been such fun!
The New Zealand veterinary homeopath Vicki Mathison combines in this work a fine artistic talent with profound sensitivity for the nature of the animals and the remedies they require.

"What better way to study than to capture the essence of a remedy in caricature. Vicki knows the spirit of equus as only a horse-lover can, sensing from the most minute detail the disposition and mood of the horse before her. Dogs, too, occupy a special place in her heart and her household, their antics portrayed in cartoon form in such a way that one “sees” the animal more clearly than before.
Vicki not only has the ability to crisply draw the essence, she also paints a clear image with her words. Through her eyes, the remedies come alive and are no longer merely a list of symptoms. The sadness of Natrium muriaticum, the agitation of Arsenicum, the restlessness of Iodum all take on an easily recognizable form. As she says, it is so beautiful to watch an animal “show” her a remedy picture.

This book will surely find its way into the homes of many animal lovers, whether they are familiar with homeopathy or not, and into the practices of veterinary homeopaths, for even those with much experience can be inspired to see animals in a fresh way."

Homeopathic Mind Maps - Remedies of the Animal Kingdom by Alicia Lee

As the practice of homeopathy evolves the methods of case-taking, research, and analysis become simultaneously more simplified and increasingly more sophisticated.  Homeopaths need new ways of viewing the remedies, a linear model is no longer solely sufficient and an additional new integrated model is now imperative.

Mind maps are a multi-dimensional concept, which allow the homeopath to view the remedy in a holistic and visual form. Alicia Lee has created her mind maps using the key group analysis concepts of Rajan Sankaran and Jan Scholten in a unique structure allowing the picture to unfold in an intuitive, logical and natural manner. This gives us an alternative to the previous form of definition, with the old familiar pictures to which we are accustomed, and allows for key concepts to be highlighted and primary symptoms to arise from a central scaffold and unfold in a cascade. This form also allows a full view to be seen at a glance and the relationship of symptoms to emerge in an engaging and easily assimilated way.Images also assist us to give texture, tone, emotion, sensation and energy to the remedy picture and photographs are a simple and effective way of achieving this. The Images on these mind maps are vibrant and powerful and assist in bringing the mind maps to life.

Spectrum of Homeopathy - Insects - October 2014

Have you heard of Anax imperator or Schistocerca gregaria? The first one is the emperor dragonfly, a particularly magnificent specimen from the dragonfly group, which comprises a total of 5,680 species. Like all its fellow species, it has sophisticated abilities technically equivalent to a combat helicopter – despite its dazzling beauty, it uses its hooked feet to snatch its prey in mid-flight.

A young lad with a developmental disorder and severe restlessness could unknowingly draw this species, as it strongly resembles his favorite Star Wars character: a robot with two hooked talons and four green-blue illuminated laser swords. The striking similarity of the boy's robot sketches to Anax imperator led Markus Kuntosch to the potentized but so far unproved dragonfly: the successful progress of the case indicated that his hunch was spot on.

What about Schistocerca gregaria, the desert locust, which can mutate from a strange loner to a swarm weighing several tons, able to strip whole landscapes bare? Only a few of you will have heard of this insect remedy but it has been proved just as thoroughly as the related Schistocerca americana. Despite the solid homeopathic data, Jonathan Hardy and Heinz Wittwer additionally make use of insect themes and the particularly “locust-like” nature of their patients when prescribing Schistocerca.

Themes and signatures in the sense of a species' biological peculiarities always play a key role in the homeopathic approach to this ancient and most species-rich class of animals. This is also true of such well-known remedies as Apis mellifica, Formica rufa, or Coccus cacti, as shown by the cases presented by Sigrid Lindemann, Rajan Sankaran, and Shekhar Algundgi. Ulrich Welte gives us a glimpse of the impetuous, erratic charisma of Cantharis vesicatoria, primarily known as a bladder remedy.

The work with themes and signatures also enables an initial homeopathic differentiation within the confusing kingdom of the insects. A fascinatingly original approach is taken by Peter Fraser with his contribution on the style of nutrition found in the insects. “You are what you eat” is his motto and, indeed, the differentiation between blood-sucking insects, cannibals, plant-eaters, coprophagous (feces-eating), and nectar-sucking insects is a rich vein of new homeopathic knowledge. The same is equally true of the question of parasitism, which Jörg Wichmann and Angelika Bolte address using Coccus cacti and Hirudo medicinalis, and Jean-Thierry Cambonie with Sarcoptes scabiei. Ulrich Welte supplements these observations with information on bugs, fleas, and other nuisances. The equally annoying housefly, Musca domestica, and the mosquito, Culex musca, are carefully analyzed in terms of their stress patterns by Andreas Richter.

Turning to the large crawling insects, we must not forget to examine the common cockroach, which is reputed to be so tough that it can even withstand a nuclear catastrophe. In her contribution on the Indian variant Blatta orientalis, Bhawisha Joshi first provides an overview of the general themes of insects, seeking overlaps with other remedy groups, such as spiders, rodents, or the fourth series of the periodic table.

For an ardent illustrator, the insects are obviously a real godsend, if not always terribly appetizing – see Fraser's remarks on cannibalistic and coprophagous insects. Disgust is an important theme of these animals, as is beauty. When in doubt, we have chosen beauty for the illustrations! Accordingly, we chose a butterfly rather than a cockroach to grace the cover of this issue. Lepidoptera represent this theme for the entire class of insects. Patricia Le Roux's book drew our attention to the use of butterfly remedies for hyperactive children who lack a sense of orientation. With the contributions of Jonathan Hardy, Alize Timmerman, and Jenna Shamat, we can see how these remedies are also connected to adult themes, such as love and metamorphosis, death, and rebirth.

Even this multifarious issue with its wide range of example cases can come nowhere near representing the stupendous breadth of the insect spectrum. For the moment, we have to accept that this is still largely unmapped terrain for homeopathy, in which themes and signatures can play an important role in orientation, but without replacing the need for new remedy provings. With this issue of SPECTRUM, we would like to give you a feeling for the special energy of the insects and encourage you to engage more closely with this intriguing kingdom.