Calcium
carbonicum Anhängsel
[Rajan Sankaran]
A mineral remedy belonging to the psoric miasm. It also has some sycotic
traits. The main feeling of Calcarea is the need for stability and security.
Calcium offers protection not only to humans in the form of bone but also in
earlier forms of life in the form of shell, exoskeleton, etc. The central theme
of the Carbonates is of a vital reaction.
Thus the main theme of Calcarea carbonica is a need for protection. But
in order to get this protection the person does not need to make any effort –
all he has to do is show
a vital reaction. There is a feeling of being too weak to face the
cruelty and roughness of the world. So we have the rubrics: “Delusion, that he
is weak” and “Delusion, that
he is small”, as the main delusions.
Tries to build a protective wall of defence around himself which will
ensure that he is safe, secure and covered like a developing embryo within an
egg. He seeks the protection he needs by expressing a lot of fears.
He surrounds himself with a lot of people who protect him. The Calcarea
carbonica persons are people who don’t go out much, don’t want any adventure in
life. Rather they choose for themselves friends and partners who are protective
and on whom they can depend.
This protection may be in the form of money, and the dependence causes
the “fear of poverty”. There is a desire to be magnetized, that is to allow
one’s will to be taken over by another person: “Doctor, tell me what to do, I
will do exactly as you say.”
A Calcarea carbonica patient relies completely on another person. I have
seen this especially in children and young people who are usually accompanied
by their parents for the consultation and never answer a question directly but
whisper the answer to their parents. Even a coped up Calcarea is usually
accompanied by some relative. I have seen them use the expression: “I am happy
when everybody is around me”. This represents the need to have people around
them for protection and security.
The situational Materia Medica of the uncompensated Calcarea carbonica
is that of a woman completely protected first by her parents during childhood
and now by her husband. The need to cope up does not arise. I have seen girls,
cozy in the protective environment of their parents’ homes, hesitate and fear
to get married, unable to trust that they will find the same security
elsewhere.
They remain unmarried as long as is possible, till they suddenly realize
that their parents are getting old too, and will not be always there to protect
them. The same can be seen in young men much dependent on their parents, who
remain bachelors till late and then try to find a mother substitute for a wife.
In the coped-up state, Calcarea carbonica is a home-builder. Home
represents the protective shell he needs around him. He has to cope when he has
to face responsibilities and there is no protection.
Calcarea carbonica children can be very obstinate and can even get
aggressive, but this behaviour is confined only to within their home and is
directed especially to their parents. Outside, they are quite timid and
fearful, well-behaved, sensitive to rudeness and admonition.
When, despite showing a vital reaction, a Calcarea carbonica person
cannot manage to get the protection he needs, he develops intense fears and
“Talks of nothing but murder, fire and rats”. This rubric represents his fear
of human (murder), animal (rat) and natural (fire) elements.
I have seen that besides the dreams of animals, snakes, etc., Calcarea
carbonica also has dreams as if watching a murder. Calcareas also get anxious
from watching or hearing about cruelty. On watching scenes of fighting or of
horror on TV, the Calcarea carbonica child either leaves the room or closes his
eyes.
There is also intense fear of pain and suffering, fear of the physician,
especially dentists, fear of injections and of surgery which is even seen in
adults.
When all attempts to seek protection fail, they become indifferent:
“Sits and breaks pins the whole day”, “Indifferent about recovery”. When the
life situation of a Calcarea carbonica person changes and he loses the security
of his home, he feels as if left alone in the wilderness, thus going into a
Stramonium state which is that of an unprotected person out in the dark night,
wanting to come home (in contrast to Calcarea carbonica who is the one inside
the house and not wanting to get out).
If the Calcarea carbonica woman coming from the world of security
happens to marry a violent drunkard, she can develop a Rhus toxicodendron state
very easily.
She can become tense, nervous and can feel the threat of being killed
inside her own house. Rhus toxicodendron is complementary to
Calcarea carbonica.
When a Calcarea carbonica person comes to the doctor from an unprotected
environment at home, she may weep and ask for his protection, seek support and
reassurance –
so you have: “Narrating her symptoms aggravates”. This might seem like Pulsatilla,
especially if we were to only notice the weeping and the seeking of
consolation, while ignoring the nervousness and edginess at home.
A Calcarea carbonica woman may look like Hyoscyamus or Thuja
or Lycopodium,
as explained in “The Substance of Homoeopathy”, depending on the way she has
to cope with her situation.
Bryonia and Calcarea carbonica are similar remedies. Both have the aversion
to movement and the need for security and stability, and the “Fear of poverty”.
They are incompatible remedies.
Physical symptoms:
Physically usually obese but
can be thin.
Profuse perspiration.
Desire: eggs, ice-cream,
sweets, chocolates, meat and chicken, indigestible things like, sand, slate,
pencil.
The pathology of Calcarea
carbonica generally includes affections of the bones and joints.
White spots on nails.
The main modalities I have
noticed are: <: Ascending (breathlessness, weakness)/Pressure of clothes
(cannot tolerate tight clothes)/Exertion of any kind.
Dryness and chapped skin in
winter (feet)
Rubrics:
Anticipation, dentist,
physician, before going to.
Anxiety, cruelties, after
hearing.
Delusion, confusion, others
will observe her.
Delusion, murdered, sees
someone.
Delusion, smaller, of being.
Fear, dogs, of.
Fear, ghosts, of.
Horrible things, sad stories
affect her profoundly.
Magnetized, desire to be.
Obstinate children, inclined
to grow fat.
Talks, murder, fire, rats, of
nothing but.
Kent:
Vertigo when ascending an
eminence.
Vertigo from high places.
Face: greasy.
Hair, growth of, child’s face.
Desires eggs.
Metrorrhagia from fright.
Pain, mammae, menses, before.
Skin: cracks in winter.
Phatak:
<: Ascending
Calculi.
<: Clothes pressure
<: Hanging limbs
Mammae before menses.
Religious ideas, in children.
Squatting aggravates.
[??]
‡ Pharmacology
of calcium ‡
Calcium used to treat allergic conditions since 1996. The discovery was primarily
connected with serum treatment of diphtheria. In the early years, it caused
exanthemata,
as the serum had not been adequately purified. Wright in England was the
first to treat such patients by giving calcium by mouth.
Calcium treatment soon found its way to the Continent, with the
originally weak doses progressively increasing. Calcium was also given
intravenously for severe allergic reactions including anaphylactic shock and
angioneurotic edema. Intramuscular injections were given to get a depot effect,
and long-term elevation of serum calcium levels.
Capillaries were believed to be the main point of calcium attack, and
this led to the idea, which is still around, that calcium sealed the
capillaries (though pharmacologists
do not find it adequate).
It is interesting that the early users of calcium spoke of a
"long-distance astringent action," so that even the terminology
established a parallel to the astringent quality of tannins. Calcium also
played an important role in the treatment of hemorrhages - certainly a
plausible indication in view of the central role calcium plays in the
coagulation cascade. Increasingly massive doses of calcium caused local
reactions with parenteral use, and the search for more easily-tolerated calcium
compounds held center stage
for years.
Professor Hugo Schuiz of Greifswald (1853-1932), the only German
pharmacologist showing interest in homeopathy (low potencies) and attempted to
give it a scientific
basis, advised caution with calcium dosage, actually believing high
doses to be counterproductive. Evident from his lectures on inorganic medicinal
substances that he had
a real idea of the "boundary-forming" quality of calcium and
was therefore skeptical toward the unending efforts to increase doses even
further: We also encounter calcium under very different conditions, when it is
a kind of protective against tissue irritation (vascular tissues). Chronically
inflamed vessels have the peculiar and interesting tendency to deposit often
auite considerable amounts of calcium in their walls. We also see such calcium
deposits elsewhere. Let me just remind you of the calcification
of old tubercular nodes, the forming of calcium deposits in chronically
inflamed lymph glands, in the walls of old abscesses. Another highly
characteristic phenomenon occurs when Trichinae penetrate into muscle and
become encapsulated there. This happens because of the peculiar reflex action
evoked by their presence in muscle tissue.
Composition of Calcium carbonicum/Cortex Quercus designed to combine the
active principles of calcium and tannin, creating a new whole.
Oak bark goes through intense decoction to release tannins (are not
easily soluble).
Bark is heated to incandescence (= Weißglühen) to obtain pure calcium
oxide (CaO). This combines with carbon dioxide from the air to CaCO2 (= calcium
carbonate).
The tannin extract and the calcium preparation are then potentized
together up to the D 6.
The idea for this preparation may have come from the 5th lecture in
Rudolf Steiner's Agriculture course where he spoke of oak bark as one of the 6
compost preparations.
He said emphatically that the calcium must remain within the sphere of
life if it was to have "healing qualities." Nothing could be done
with ordinary calcium carbonate.
He spoke of oak bark as the source of such "live calcium."
Goethe's perception of the beginnings of a dying process in bark
correlates with Steiner: And it is, above all, the bark of oak which is a kind
of intermediate product
between plant nature and living soil, wholly in the way I have spoken of
concerning the relationship between living soil and the earth. With reference
to the calcium
principle that shows itself here, the calcium structure found in oak
bark is the most ideal.
A transition from living to dead matter is created to match the
situation in which oak bark develops. The "composting" and,
therefore, partial mineralization of oak bark
is taken to a higher level in pharmacy by ashing. If one lives for a
time with the image of a skull wintering over in damp, "muddy" soil,
it can become the counter image
of the allergy sufferer who is flowing apart under innumerable sensory
stimuli in Summer.
Calcium Carbonicum /Cortex Quercus is available in 1 and 10 ml ampules
and impregnated globuli.
10 ml ampules: effective in controlling acute allergic reactions, which
is in accord with experience gained in conventional calcium therapy. Highly
positive results have
also been seen with marked pruritus of non-allergenic origin
(pregnancy). Mothers-to-be tolerate the injections well, as they are highly
effective.
Calcium carbonicum/Cortex Quercus may also be considered for acute
hayfever attacks when Citrus/Cydonia (Gencydo) on its own proves insufficient.
The 1 ml ampules and globuli serve mainly to continue the treatment of
acute conditions and for more chronic situations. More recently, the solution
for injection has
been used in inhalations to treat asthma, also in combination with
Levico D 3. This merits attention in view of growing advocacy of
anti-inflammatory basic treatment
for asthma. It needs systematic investigation and development, as do all
inhalation treatments using anthroposophical medicines. The use of 10 ml
ampules of Calcium carbonicum/Cortex Quercus to treat hemorrhages also requires
closer investigation, and work needs to be done on differential treatment (as
alternative/complementary
to Stibium met. prep. D 6).
It is interesting to note that the styptic (= blutstillend)properties of
calcium were discovered on the end of the 18th Century, while its
anti-allergic properties were noted
by Wright 100 years later. Apart from the "external" aspect of
serum treatment, this no doubt also has a deeper reason. The allergy problem
appears to have become genuinely topical around the turn of the century, with
the term "anaphylaxis" first used by Charles Richet and Paul Portier
in 1902. Clemens Pirquet introduced the term "allergy" in 1906,
having interpreted serum sickness as an antigen-antibody reaction a year
earlier. ‡
Calc-p.
predominates in the head of a bone, Calc. in the shaft.
R.S.
once said Calc-p. active in round-shaped bones/Calc. in the long parts. The
head and shaft of a thigh bone should, therefore, show a difference in this
respect. Calcium in the head of bone 87,87%/Phosphate in the shaft of bone
10,18% ‡
[S. K. Banerjee]
Puffy, pale, devoid of contour. Old looking expression. Swollen upper
lip. Pale with deep seated eyes, surrounded by dark rings. Formication.
Huckles. Greasy. Hair. Whiskers, falling out of. Heat. Expression, facial
absent.
Idiotic. Sickly. Anxious, old looking, sickly appearance.
Anxiety; Worry; Fearful; Independent; Night terrors; Stork - bite; Late;
Good organizer. Badly behaved child à Temper tantraum:- Screaming & moaning
(soft voice - loud shrill voice, Chamomillla). Disobedient. Gets upset by
criticism. Gets upset from hearing
horrible/sad stories (e.g. accidents).
Hand-shake: No firm responding grip, clammy hand. Flabby and have a
boneless kind of hand-grip. Clammy hand. No bone, no firm responding grip.
Slide down. Anxious & scared. Insecure. Cold hands. During
consultation: switches off à withdraws à does not co-operate à obstinate
Short limbed. Fair, fat, flabby, freezing and pulp. Jiggles like jelly. Sit
in a chair and slides down because she is so flabby. Good planners and
organizers. Late in attending social gatherings. Tears just drip down silently.
Damp head may smell mildly of cottage cheese. More strongly of old
cheese. Slides down because she is so flabby. Trust-worthy, reliable, loyal,
dedicated, hard-working. Have damp hands and heads. Loose firmless garb, socks,
floppy shoes, hats, no constriction around middle. Dislike tightness around the
waist. Can be quiet stubborn resistance. Behave like a dunce (= Schwachkopf),
jaw hangs, uncomprehending looks, pretends to be slower - defends himself by
"switching off" in various ways.
Capricious appetite. Principle defensive action is to withdraw and
protect - close off the world and ignore it. Visibly upset by criticism and
takes umbrage at the least little comment. Strong willed, obstinate, toddler
often difficult to distract from his desires. upset by horrible things,
stories, events in the news, by terrible tragedies happening
to others.
Dressed: Light colour. Loose, no constriction around middle. Floppy
shoes. Doesn't tie the lace of the shoes.
Reliable, reserved; Fearful; Dutiful, compassionate; Anxious; Sensitive;
Shy.
Invites criticism. Pressured Calc. turns peevish, grumpy, querulous or
childish, but is rarely nasty. Stubborn. Self-assertive. This non-aggressive
but determined obstinacy.
[Peter Morell]
Just as the earth consists of hard and soft material, such as rocks,
water and air, so too does the human body consist of the liquid, racing, iron-filled
blood, the sulphurous
skin and hair and the hard, rock-like, calcareous skeleton. The legion
correspondences that really exist between earth, minerals, remedies, body and
disease-states are endlessly fascinating and profoundly enriching for the
natural therapist to consider. These patterns, when exposed and explored in
detail, also point to deeper, more meaningful psychological insights about our
remedies, health and disease.
Calcium manifests in the mineral world chiefly as chalk and limestone,
as ossified deposits, layers of white or grey material consisting mainly of the
compacted shells of dead microscopic organisms that lived in oceans millions of
years ago and which then accumulated over vast periods of time to be changed
into rock. Limestone and chalk contain fossils or fossil imprints, often in
abundance, or are actually composed of fossils. More than any other rock, they
seem to contain the most complete, the most detailed and the best preserved
fossils. Shortly, we shall see their relevance and importance to our
understanding of the Calc. mentality.
Calcium manifests as shells (Molluscae/some marine worms/corals/many
crustaceans/bryozoans/crinoids/sea-urchins/spicules of sponges). Many of the
molluscs, corals and worms are (like the typical Calc.) profoundly immobile,
while the crustaceans (crabs) use their calcareous shells merely as
armour-plating with which to protect themselves from change and in the wars of
existence. Very few of these animals are adapted for swift movement. Nor must
we forget the calcareous shells of birds' eggs. As with all other vertebrates,
in the human body, calcium manifests as the skeleton and teeth, but it is also
important in fat metabolism (linking to Vit. D).
We can identify certain Calcium subthemes like ossification, time,
depos-its, layers, roundness/plumpness, hardness, enclosedness (refuge),
white-ness, immobility and alkalinity. These subthemes are found not only in
the minerals, but also in the body, in the provings of calcium salts and in the
Calc mentality.
In the birds' egg, we see the roundedness, the layering, the smooth matt
whiteness and the inward enclosedness (refuge) of the Calcium type. Likewise
there is a clear link between calcium as a medicinal agent and its use in
cement, concrete, house building and an agent of defences and protection.
Again, we see that the theme is one of laying down defensive structures, hard
ossifications, stubbornness, hardness, immobility, unwillingness to change and longevity.
Limestone and chalk are both porous and permeable rocks, that are not very
soluble in water, though they do render water `hard' and calcareous. These
rocks also become hollowed out by the erosive action of water and contain vast
interconnecting systems of underground caverns. Lime is also used in
agriculture to render more permeable the heavy clay soils of the eastern
counties. Calcium has the same saturnine slowness typical of lead, trees,
mountains and the earth itself. It has slowness to develop, longevity,
sluggishness, obstinacy, stubbornness, inability or unwillingness to change and
the lumbering immobility (mentally/physically) of molluscs. `Dull lethargic
children who do not want to play' (Phatak, p126). They live as if
in a different time-frame from the rest of creation. Little wonder then
that the classic Calc type is so often described as overweight, pale, cold,
slow and breathless!
Related remedies are Silica (silicates)/Plumbum/Aluminium/Lyc. All these
remedies have broad parallels with the Calc. state: slowness, as briefly
outlined above.
Rocks can be broadly grouped into 3 major categories of calcareous,
silicious and aluminicious. The 5 major remedies here are Calc. Sil. Alum.
Calc-sil. Alum-sil. Plb-sil.
Is it really a coincidence that Hahnemann chose the Oyster shell,
Calcarea ostrea, as the basis for the remedy we call Calc.? Maybe he dimly
sensed that the calcium of the Mollusc is the archetypal Calcium per forte of
the living world, as opposed to the more inert limestone or chalk of the
mineral world that was his other major Calcium source. In strictly Steinerian
terms, the Calc. of molluscs is the calcium that has been absorbed, processed,
and metabolised `through' the tissues of a living organism and thus we might
believe it has been transformed somehow into a partially organic form and
thereby rendered more suitable as an agent of healing in medicine. Certainly,
Steiner (1860-1925) held the view that a mineral or element is subtly altered
(`retuned') when it passes through an organism, and in different ways according
to the particular organism it passes through. He also avowed that it thereby
becomes stamped with a subtle `fingerprint' of features that typify the
organism concerned. Thus according to this view, crabshell, eggshell and
oystershell (even from the same beach), would all differ from each other and
from chalk, limestone or calcite, in spite of their overwhelming chemical
similarity.
Calcium also has links with Phos./Zinc-o. and luminescence where we may
witness their use in luminous gas mantles (the `limelight') and cathode ray
tubes (TV/VDU's). Containing the notion of `after-image' or afterglow. These
relate to the light absorbing quality and the memory trace ideas close to
Calcium itself. Peculiar glow-worms only live in limestone and chalky areas.
This theme of bioluminescence is further carried by its link with Phos.
as an element. There are also links between calcium and architecture, struts,
bones and buttresses as revealed in the detailed micro-structure of bones
(ribs/cranium/head of femur) and in the architecture of churches and
cathedrals. And how such churches glow in the golden sunshine!
Calcium closely allied to Mg. Sr. Ba. in the materia medica and in
minerals. With Mg think of Chlp., the light-capturer, which is unquestionably
the single most important chemical on the planet, as without it there would no
photosynthesis/no other life. And through Mg think of Mag-p. and Calc-p. With
magnesium we might also think of the softer minerals Dolomite and Gypsum and
thus the mighty Alps.
Finally, Chlp. and Mag-p. might leads us on to reconsider the
light-capturing, the glow-worms and the link between the oily
vitamins A and D and the Rhodopsin (= visual purple/= roter Farbstoff) in the retina that enables us to
see the world around us and record and store our visual memories.
More distantly cognate with both are the nervous and photographic
Argentum salts.
Think of chalk: cheese, both rich sources of Calcium. And that brings us
back to Phos., fish, the brain-food and the nervous system yet again. Chalk is
also used for writing.
Think chalk, think white cliffs of Dover and that links in to the Romans
and how those cliffs must have appeared - like huge defensive ramparts as old
as time itself and repelling wood-be invaders perhaps?
Calcium also links with vitamin D (Calciferol) and the fats, to the
breast and milk feeding and thus to the nutrition of the infant and the
problems of nursing mothers.
Links in with Rickets, a calcium deficiency-disease and also the general
medical problems of milk, breasts, infantile milk intolerance, female
reproductive hormones, fibroids and the other diseases of the female
reproductive system. Milk, which is white like marble, is rich in Ca. P. and
fats (Lacs allgemein). The typical Calc patient being milky white, breathless,
malnourished, well-rounded and sensitive to cold. The strong link between
calcium, reproduction and fats is further reinforced in birds' eggs, which are
reproductive structures, contain high fat levels and have a calcareous shell.
Like Lead and trees, Calcium is linked to the time-god Chronos, for it
is in the minute sculpturing of seashells that we find the records of the
days/weeks/months/years of their lives, etched minutely into the patterns of
the layers of calcium carbonate. This also applies to snail-shells, where each
twist of the shell represents a year and the finer serrations mark out the
days, weeks and months. Time and the life of the animal, is recorded and
`stored up' in the shells, just like the rings in the wood of treetrunks, the
fossils in the rocks or the files in an archive or record. These can all be
seen as aspects of Saturn.
or Chronos, the god of time and history. Skeletons and fossils are also
like histories, memories and records of lifetimes and often lurk in our deepest
cupboards! Heaping up or collecting the days, weeks, months and years in this
way is typical of the sense of memory and history common to both Plumbum and
Calc. And the keeping of records requires writing, say with chalk on a board or
slate, or with a piece of lead (Plumbum). The god of time counts and records
the passing of the days and records events, obsessed with history and the
minutiae of life. So similar to the remark about Calc patients: `sits and
thinks about little affairs that amount to nothing' (Phatak, p127). Witness
also the intense clarity of their memories, dreams and visions! As if their
recordings are so perfect.
We might also see fossils as collected memories, records and histories
that the Calc rocks have accumulated and retained in incredible wealth and
detail. They are recorded with great faithfulness.
This magpie or squirrel tendency to absorb and collect, record and store
in detail for very long periods might be seen as a feature of the Calc
mentality. It is like a mental equivalent of the afterglow on the TV screen
when it is switched off. And in Plaster of Paris the Calc habit of making
copies, taking impressions, of being a mould or template comes to the fore and
is cognate for example, both with fossils and with cenent for joining walls.
Plaster of Paris is also for setting bones!
Sammler:
Mensch
Pica pica = Elster Aves
Sciurus vulgaris = Eichhörnchen Mammalia
Another important aspect of Calc is that the two main mineral forms of
it - chalk and limestone - were formed by accumulation of calcareous particles in
the oceans or in shallow seas.
This links it as a remedy to sea remedies (Nat-m./Sep). In the case of
certain marine worms (Sterculids), if you look at their twisting and convoluted
calcareous tubes, they very closely resemble veins in the body. Maybe that
particular form of Calc. could be used as a specific for varicose veins and
clogging of arteries, heart attacks? There is not only a physical similarity
here, it also operates on a functional level, as the tubes are being
sclerotized, as the worm hardens its mucilaginous tube until it becomes
hardened and limey. The close parallel between the condition and this
particular form of Calc. is very interesting and worth further investigation
clinically. In the case of a common tropical form of Calc. Diploria
labyrinthiformis (= brain coral), we can see a direct physical similarity to
the brain.
Maybe this should also be proved or investigated clinically as a
separate form of Calc to discover if it has any specific usefulness for brain
disorders of a sclerotic nature, such as apoplectic strokes due to hardening of
the arteries or even Alzheimer's disease.
Psychological aspects of the Calc type: introverted/too
sensitive/defensive/insecure/want security in shells and deposits/security of
the womb/egg/mother's milk (which disagrees), seek refuge in castle-like
interiors protected by vast shell-like stone ramparts; relate badly to
cold/water/winter, want to be immobile; eat uncontrollably and compulsively,
without knowing why and hate activity as they sweat easily and become
breathless and flustered.
They appear to be locked in a heavily protected, stone-like shell of
armour that greatly reduces their mobility, a crab-like carapace or shell. They
seem to 'clam-up' and 'go into their shell', become agoraphobic, turn inwards
to the detailed phantasmogoria of an inner world of visions, dreams and
nightmares, where they seek refuge and security from the transient,
unpredictable and painful events of the outer world. They seem to prefer the
greyness of their refuge to the stark unbearable contrasts of black and white
outer reality. They fear change and resist change. Even their recording of time
is like a clinging on to things and not wanting to let them go. It is like a
form of attachment.
They are disappointed and constipated people. There is the constipated
mentality, just described. There is also an air of failure and withdrawal to
this mentality, a sloping off to lick one's wounds in a private refuge. They
are stuck in a peculiar limbo-land which is neither one thing or another, which
hovers in fact between night and day, an eternal twilight. They follow the
moon, suffer menstrual irregularities for the same reasons and also
reproductive problems and problems related to the link between outer
world-cycles and inner world constancy. They retreat into the greyness of their
shell as they dislike change of day-night, high-low rhythms of move ment of
planets, change of cycles, highs and lows and attempt to regulate this outer
change into a vastly attenuated realm of stillness, greyness, no change and
their precious secret dreams and visions. There is ossification of emotions and
inner-outer world, thoughts and aspirations as well as the outer processes of the
body. Sluggishness is a very good general rubric for Calc., as it bridges both
the Molluscan features we have explored and the general slowness.
Important to remember that we all contain a bit of this mentality. We
must resist the temptation to stand in judgement over the remedy archetypes, as
we all have skeletons and must acknowledge these qualities of the Calcium in
ourselves. We are all stubborn and resist change to some degree and we all at
times find difficulty of going with the flow or want to control the outer
world's more painful twists
and turns. We all contain the Calc archetype, but clearly it finds its
ultimate expression in the imbalances of the typical Calc person. Then these
inbalances become pathological in their immensity.
Turning finally to the materia medica we can see a repetition of many of
the above themes we have listed about Calc = fat/chilly/congested/sensitive in
every possible way/has boney
growths/ossifications/encrustations/polyps/cysts/warts. Exostoses and peculiar
deformities of bones, skin and nails. Weak/lack stamina, have an inclination to
sit rather than work, get breathless and sweaty very easily. Get gouty and
rheumatic, joint problems and arthritic. Then there are the generals like
slowness and weakness, dullness and great debility and tiredness. These are
typical. The symptoms of eyes, ears, nose and throat are also typical, showing
congestions and catarrhs, loss of smell, dimness of sight and hearing, as if
the consciousness would prefer to withdraw from the sensory world altogether.
Stomach and digestion are impaired and the bowels very sluggish and
constipated. There is marked love of or aversion to eggs. In general they adore
eggs and hate milk, which disagrees.
The Calc urge is more of a pausing, a rest, a putting down roots,
leaving traces and keeping records, collecting memories, dwelling in matter and
time and making deposits. This tendency seems to represent a deeper attachment
to things and life and surroundings and thus a desire to keep a record of one's
life. So the link with the past/time/matter/records/traces/memories/the old.
Cognate animals are those that are sessile, have reduced motility, which put
down roots or attachments to rocks or which have large shells, calcareous
deposits around them or which leave a hard skeleton. The fact that they leave
these hardened or sclerotized parts behind them after their death is evidence
of their strong plant-like urge.
Also in the Calc mentality (molluscs/marine worms/corals/bryozoans) we
encounter the most plant-like animals, those that must keep records and build
up traces of their life. This desire to keep a record, to leave deposits,
shells, bones and traces of one's existence is a plant-like drive that is much
more diminished within the animal world. It manifests in the plant by the
layering of tree-rings, which is an expression in the lignified cellulose of a
record of the years. The tree rings are records of the passing years and
represent the life record of that tree.
Yet in all plants the record-keeping or sclerotizing tendency is very
strong. While it is true that plants push out green shoots, like to grow and
expand, they also tend to consolidate such gains by sclerotizing, hardening,
making into wood and laying down harder tissues, thorns and spikes both for
protection and to demarcate owned territory. Thus plants are the natural
record-keepers and deposit makers of the living world.
In its more extreme forms, this plant-like Calc. force manifests as
shrunken, withered leathery, thorny and spiky plant stems as seen in the
Cacti/succulents (Lithops = stone plant), in trees.
But even amongst trees, it manifests most typically in the dry, thorny,
withered, hardened and emaciated kind of tree that has adapted to extreme
aridity.
In spite of many differences between Calc. and Sep., it is useful to
compare them. In the Sep. the calcareous external shell of other molluscs has
been greatly reduced and internalised to produce the `cuttlefish shell'. Going
back to our previous analysis of the molluscan nature of Calc., we can see that
by reducing and internalising the shell, Sep. has achieved a much greater
mobility and has hidden away inside itself the basic Molluscan problem of being
`insecure and defensive and needing a shell for protection against hostile
forces in a painful world'. In exchange, Sep. has the ink-jet, the agility, the
brilliant and mesmerising stroboscopic skin colour-changes, the improved
stereoscopic vision and the aggressiveness of a marine predator. It has moved
from the sessile and slow but secure life of a limpet or clam and out into the
sea as an active hunter.
Sep. tried to solve the ancestral Molluscan problem of defensiveness and
insecurity by reducing and internalising its shell. It is only partially
successful in this. It is still very weird and unstable in its behaviour -
evasive, jealous, emotion al, angry and callous. It has exchanged the
'femininity of submissiveness and immobility' (clam/limpet) for a mock male
mobility and assertiveness that still appears incomplete, forced and imbalanced.
The parallels here pathologically are too obvious to require further emphasis.
So we could also extend this discussion indefinitely to all the other Molluscs and then take a look at the Peter Morell Crustaceans and Insects, who present similar problems, solved in different and novel ways. But that must wait for now.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum