Lac caninum Anhängsel

 

[Rajan Sankaran]

A sycotic remedy. It is prepared from the milk of the dog (bitch). This remedy has in it the nature of the dog, an animal that has been totally controlled and civilized so that

it has to suppress its basic animal nature and can only express its controlled, civilized side. It is dependent on its master for food and so it is out to please him. Its survival depends upon keeping its master happy by its performance, its affection, etc. It has to perform or it won’t be wanted anymore and its master will kick it out.

This need to please is the animal side of Lac caninum, but the dog knows that no matter how much it tries to please, it will never be equal to the human. It feels inferior,

knows that it is at the bottom of the hierarchy. The animal side is also malicious (if you pull a dog’s tail, it will bite you).

Very passionate, very lascivious. They can be quite aggressive and defensive.

The main theme in Lac caninum is dominance (the bigger dominating the smaller) and who is going to be on top. Can be irritable and ferocious, but if someone is more

irritable and ferocious, they give up,

they submit. Then arises the conflict within themselves: “Do I want to be what I am?” Develop a feeling of low self-worth: “I am not good enough. I feel dirty and horrible”, and become contemptuous of themselves. This dirty feeling is also common to animal remedies, and it is similar to the feeling of Ambra grisea (prepared from the sperm whale). But while Lac caninum feels: “I am not good enough, I am despised and looked down upon”, Ambra grisea feels “like shit”. Lac caninum patients suffer by comparison with others. They try hard to please, to be liked, cared for and accepted because they feel left out and rejected. They can develop malice and hatred because

they hold somebody else responsible for their condition. These feelings can sometimes be accompanied by a history of sexual abuse.

The Lac caninum situation is that of a dark-skinned girl child in an Indian home. Her sisters are fairer than her. She tries hard to get fair-skinned, but knows she will never

be fair-skinned. She is constantly being compared to her “better looking” sisters, she soon begins to hate herself. People bring clothes only for her sisters. Nobody listens to

er; she is just not clever enough – everything she says is stupid and foolish. She feels she is uncared for and neglected because her body looks bad. She starts feeling dirty,

and washes herself frequently. People disturb her almost as if they were snakes and vermin

(“Delusion snakes in and around her”). She starts lacking in confidence, becomes totally irresolute and believes that all that she says is a lie. She loathes life and goes into tremendous depression, and nothing can be done to make her feel better. She feels worthless and is disgusted with herself, thinks she matters little, feels unimportant, like

an untouchable. She is sure she has an incurable disease and she will die. She wants to commit suicide and put an end to her suffering. She blames others for her condition

and can get angry with them for treating her the way they do – she can develop hatred, and become revengeful. She feels she has been given a raw deal, and she becomes mean (“Writing meanness to her friends”).

Jurgen Becker tells me that a common expression amongst African-American blacks is “Mofo” (mother fucking son of a bitch) – surely a Lac caninum expression.

The feeling of a black person in the U.S. even today must be: “I am unlucky, I have been born with a black skin. I will try to perform, but I know that ultimately I will still

be black”. This is also a Lac caninum situation.

Rubrics:

    Contemptuous, self, of.

    Delusion, despised, is.

    Delusion, dirty, he is.

    Delusion, diminished, short, he is.

    Delusion, looked down upon, she is.

    Delusion, thinks all she said is a lie.

    Delusion, snakes in and around her.

    Malicious.

    Moral feeling, want of.

    Rage, fury.

    Rudeness.

    Writing meanness to her friends.

    Anxiety, success, from doubt, about, of.

Phatak’s Materia Medica:

    Thinks himself of little consequence.

    One’s own body seems disgusting.

    Imagines he wears someone else’s nose.

    Every symptom seems a settled disease, which is incurable.

Phatak:

    Craves condiments.

    Dirty, he is.

    Fear of falling downstairs.

    Lactation, milk absent.

    Mammae before menses.

    Self loathing.

    Taste salty, only salty food tastes natural.

    Thinking himself too little.

Kent:

    Desires highly seasoned food.

    Pain, mammae, menses, before.

 

Related

In "Homeopathic Drug Pictures by M.L. Tyler"

Lac caninum [Lac-c]

 

In "Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica by J.H. Clarke"

The Milks As Homoeopathic Agents

 

In "Leaders in Homeopathic Therapeutics by E.B.Nash"

Lac Caninum [Lac-c]

 

In "Materia Medica of Nosodes by H.C. Allen"

Lac Caninum

 

In "Lectures on Homeopathic Materia Medica - James Tyler Kent"

About the author

Rajan Sankaran

 

Dogs evolved from wolves who are part of the canoidea family. Thought to have first been domesticated in the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia.

They are pack animals, with one leader. To ancient civilisations the dog was associated with death/afterlife.

The ancient Egyptians worshiped the dog-headed God of Death - Anubis.

The Old Testament scorns the dog as “unclean”. Islam associates the dog with all that is utterly vile in creation = symbol of greed and gluttony.

mbiguity arises with the more common perception of dog as man’s best friend. The alchemists used the analogy of the dog devoured by the wolf for the purification

of gold by antimony, the penultimate stage of the “Great Work”.

Themes in the Remedy

    * Dogs

    * Disconnection/hovering

    * Restlessness and anxiety/guilt

    * Self destruction

    * Failure

    * Sensitivity

    * Low self esteem - thinks that whatever she says is a lie

    * Hypersensitive amounting to hysteria

    * Forgetful

    * Aggression and rage

    * Fears and excitement (fainting/falling/snakes/spiders/insects/ghosts)

    * Constant desire to wash hands

    * Hypochondria and fear of disease

    * Dependent victim

Physical Symptoms:

    * Warm patients

    * Alternating sides

    * Ravenous appetite

    * Des pungent things (pepper) and salt

    * > Cold applications

    * < before and during menses

    * Parts glistening/shining

    * Vertigo/“As if floating in the air“

    * Genital organs easily excited from touch

    * Painful, swollen breasts before menses

Clarke: “This remedy represents a state in which the organism does not have the resources to absorb and contain stress and teeters on the brink of collapse”. Anger and rage directed at the self.

They can be introverted, exhibit excessive daydreaming and can seem as if in a daze.

Active type: great sensitivity.

Passive type: hysteria.

 

 [M.L. Tyler]

 All drugs of very special and unique action, are easily studied, and well worth learning. Polychrests (= "the common drugs of many uses") serve us ordinarily; and when we have mastered Sulph. Sep. Lyc. Calc. Nux-v. etc., etc.

But the less universally-useful drugs, of very peculiar and distinctive features, are less frequently, yet amazingly helpful. Once mastered, they come in brilliantly every time, and make prescribing an excitement and a delight. Generally they do not "work out", unless for one who has mastered the secret, that the best work is done with a few of

the "strange, rate and peculiar symptoms", fitting the case, rather than with a host of somewhat indefinite general symptoms, which, if politely given precedence, will often only suggest severe al remedies of the polychrest type, and perhaps completely miss the one brilliant and indispensable.

But, we must hark back to our subject, the peculiarities of Lac-c.: Fears and terrifying imaginations (snakes) loom tremendously. The tissues it can severely annoy and successfully comfort are: skin [ulcerations red and glistening on mucous membranes (throat as in diphtheria, where it has been found prophylactic as well as specifically curative), gland troubles, nerve troubles and mental troubles.

The Lac-c. throat is very sensitive to external touch (Lach.), as well as internally-terribly sensitive. If feels as if it were closing/wants to keep the mouth open, lest he should choke. Swallowing is difficult-almost impossible, yet with constant inclination to swallow, when pains shoot up into ears (Phyt.). Feeling of a lump in throat which goes

down swallowing, only to return (Ign.). The worst pain is when swallowing solids. Throat feels dry, husky,

“As if scalded”. Lac-c, is not only one of the great remedies of diphtheria, but of syphilis when that attacks the throat; the throat has a shiny, glazed, red appearance, or characteristic patches, that "look like white china".

Pain: fly about/change from side to side and back again. Pain may be neuralgic/rheumatic/ovarian.

[Boger] (Synopsis) gives its special regions as "NERVES/THROAT/female generative organs“. It not only affects the ovaries, but inflames and conjests the uterus, haemorrhages bright and stringy. (dark and stringy = Croc.) They come in gushes, but and clot easily. "Its sore throats are apt to begin and end with menstruation“.

ammae: full, lumpy, sensitive to the least jar, very painful and must be supported when going up and down stairs. . . required to dry up milk". In this, and in its sensitiveness

to jar, it reminds one of Bell.

      Lac-c. is an uneasy sleeper. Cannot get a comfortable position. "There is no way she can put her hands that they do not bother her: falls asleep, at last, on her face".

      ALLEN sums up more of its characteristic. For nervous, restless, highly sensitive organisms.

      Very forgetful, absentminded, makes purchases and walks away without them.

      In writing, uses too many words and not the right ones: omits letters or words: cannot concentrate to read or study.

      Despondent, hopeless: nothing worth living for: her disease is hopeless: has not a friend in the world. Could weep. Cross and irritable: child cries and screams all the

      time (at night). Attacks of rage; cursing and swearing. Intense "ugliness".

      Coryza: one nostril stopped up, the other free and discharging these alternate. Discharge acrid: nose and upper lip raw.

      Cant eat enough to satisfy; as hungry after meals as before.

      „As if breath would leave her“ when lying down, must get up and walk.

      When walking, seems to be walking on air: when lying, does not seem to touch the bed.

      Intense, unbearable aching of spine: aches from base of brain to coccyx. Very sensitive to touch and pressure.

      His other important points, we have already indicated.

      "Like Lach. and many other well-known polychrests in the Materia Medica, this remedy met most violent opposition from ignorance and prejudice. it was for years looked upon as one of the novelties or delusions of those who believed in and used the dynamic remedy; yet its wonderful therapeutic powers have slowly but surely overcome every obstacle.

      It was successfully used by Dioscorides/Rhasis in ancient times. Sammonicus and Sectus praise it in photophobia, otitis and other affections of the eye and ear.

Pliny claimed that it cured ulceration of the internal os.

It was then used as an antidote to many deadly poisons.

      The use of the remedy was revived by Reisig, of New York, who, while travelling in Europe, heard it lauded as a remedy for throat diseases, and on his return used it successfully in an epidemic of malignant diphtheria.

      Reisig potentized it to the C 17. from which the potencies of Swan and Fincke were prepared. The profession is indebted to the fatigueable labour of Swan for its provings, which were made from the C 30, C 200 and higher. The provings of this remedy have placed it among the polychrests of our school and verified and confirmed the clinical accuracies of the observers of ancient times.

      Dr. Allen gives striking cases of its power even in what we have ventured to call "Chronic Diphtheria".

      NASH tells that he had thought it disgraceful to try to foist dogs milk on the profession, as a remedy, but after accumulated evidence, he tried it on a case of rheuma wandering from joint to joint, that had resisted Plus., and where it not only wandered, but crossed to and fro, in the manner of Lac-c. And the case cured very quickly. Then a case of scarlatina with side-to-side-and-back pains and throat trouble, and again Lac-c. scored over

Rhus-t., which had seemed indicated. Then a bad case to tonsillitis, choking and struggling in effort to swallow, where alternate sides were worse, and again Lac-c. cured within 36 hours.

      He got 3 clerks in a store to prove it: in C 200, taken two-hourly. They all got sore throats, one with patches on both tonsils.

      Nash finds it especially useful not only for the inflammatory affections that alternate sides; but also for breasts and throats that get sore at every menstrual period: and also in mastitis, the great indication being, they cannot bear a jar; has to hold them up stepping and going down stairs.

      KENT: All the milks should be potentized, they are out most excellent remedies, they are animal products and foods of early animal life, and therefore correspond to the beginnings of our innermost physical nature.

If we had provings of monkeys, cows mares and human milk, they would be of great value. Lac-d. has done excellent work and so has Lac-c. Lac-c. is in its beginnings yet, although it has made some marvellous cures . . .

It is deep acting and long-acting; the provers felt its symptoms for years after the proving was made. It abounds in nervous symptoms . . . The mental symptoms are prolonged and distressing. It makes ulcers very red, and has cured such ulcers: ulcers are dry, glistening, as if covered with epithelium. An important remedy in complaints following badly treated diphtheria, in paralysis and other conditions dating back to diphtheria . . .

oversensitive violently hysterical, and causes all sorts of strange and apparently impossible symptoms. For example, a woman lay in bed with fingers abducted, and would go wild if they touched each other: not < hard pressure, but she would scream if they touched . . . This state is difficult to cure outside Lac-c. and Lach.

      A strange and peculiar vertigo: as if floating in mid-air, or not touching the bed . . .

      Then, the changing sides: in throats, rheumatic affections, headaches and neuralgias . . . Ambulating erysipelas attacks first one side, then the other, then back again . . . inflammation sore throats do the same.

      Full of imaginations, and harassing, tormenting thoughts. No reality in the things that be: thinks that everything she says is a lie. (Alum.) . . . she is not herself, and her properties not her own, „As if wearing somebody

elses nose“. And so on: we have already emphasized most of the points. Putrid mouth. Wherever there is mucous membrane, there will be exudate: a grey, fuzzy coating, like that piling up on the tongue . . . We have already given the characteristic symptoms of throat, mammae, etc.

 

      BLACK LETTER SYMPTOMS.

      Swallowing very difficult, painful, almost impossible.

Soreness of throat begins with a tickling sensation, which causes constant cough; then a sensation of a lump on one side, causing constant deglutition; this condition entirely ceases, only to commence on the opposite side, and often alternates, again returning to its first condition; these sore throats are very apt to begin and end with the menses.

      Tonsils inflamed and very sore, red and shining, almost closing throat; dryness of fauces and throat; swelling of submaxillary glands.

      Diphtheritic membrane white like china; mucous membrane of throat glistening as if varnished; membranes leave one side and go to the other repeatedly. Desire for warm drinks, which may return through the nose.

Post-diphtheritic paralysis.

      Serviceable in almost all cases where it is required to dry up milk.

      When walking seems to be walking on air: when lying does not seem to touch the bed.

      Erratic disposition of symptoms: pains constantly flying from one part to another.

 

[David Lilley]

For thousands of years, dogs and humans have walked the same path as intimate companions, in love and devotion, in kindness and cruelty, in work and play, in adoration and contempt and, oft times, in suffering and death. Their entwined destinies have etched shared emotions, experiences and images into the universal memory of the collective, canine unconscious, which reflects these parallels and are dynamically imprinted in the milk of the dog. Ancient medical tradition recognised the healing potential of bitch’s milk: Pliny and Dioscorides recommended it for the removal of the dead foetus and Pliny further claimed that it could cure ulceration of the uterine cervix and ease and quicken the birth process; it was also considered an antidote to deadly poisons, including snakebite. But, it is only a homeopathic potency of the milk, given for purposes of proving or cure, that can plumb the depths and play upon the keyboard of the deep unconscious of the human psyche to fathom all that lies in the heart of “man’s best friend”.

A portrait of inferiority and corruption

In a medicine derived from the milk of the domestic dog, we would expect a portrait of loyalty, courage, self-sacrifice, obedience, forgiveness and unconditional love to emerge from the provings: all those admirable and even heroic qualities that dog-lovers revere and extol. Instead we are faced by a testimony of degradation, ignominy and abuse, resulting in retaliatory resentment, rage and hatred. Yes, the nobler traits are there, but so recessive they constitute a mere glimmer in the surrounding gloom. The picture is threaded through with evidence of abject humility, a pervasive sense of inferior­ity, failure, guilt and shame and a feeling of being diminished and degraded. The self-denigration can reach such a pitch that it becomes revulsion, disgust and intense self-loathing. This was experienced by a female trialist who graphically reported the feeling as follows: “She woke at daylight feeling that she was a loathsome, horrible mass of disease; could not bear to look at any part of her body, not even her hands, as it intensified the feeling of disgust and horror; could not bear to have any one part of her body touch another, had to keep even her fingers apart; felt that if she could not in some way get out of her body, she should soon become crazy.” Such abhorrence can only be matched by the Thuja archetype, which experiences itself as soiled, tainted and defiled. Both archetypes may need to wash their hands compulsively to cleanse themselves ritualistically or to absolve themselves of some unconscious shame. This form of self-revulsion indicates that the sycotic miasm is dominant in the constitution, which may externalise in the pathological symbol of self-rejection: an autoimmune disease (the production of antibodies against one’s own tissues, for example rheumatoid arthritis).

A distorted hybrid

Prompted by the stimulus of the potentised milk, from the abyss of the canine unconscious comes the anguished cry of the abused, a cry that stills protestations of reciprocal love and companionship and asserts the truth of accumulated violation, humiliation and suffering experienced by a species, now far removed from its wild, ancestral mould and exposed to the manipulation and exploitation of humanity. The collective imprinting is not an image of friendship and sharing, but one of domination, deprivation and bondage. The free, proud and fiercely independent grey-wolf, the superbly efficient and far ranging progenitor of all dog breeds, has been largely transformed by the Frankenstein-like manipulations of breeders into an unnatural species -a distorted hybrid- a mutant wolf! Due to disadvantaging, anatomical changes, some breeds are scarcely able to breathe, others to conceive, give natural birth or care for their young, natural instincts are blunted or lost, and most are beset by diseases as diverse and as destructive as those of the masters who warped them. The genetic destinies of two species, that have escaped the purify­ing and ennobling influence of natural selection and survival of the fittest, are forever bonded. It is not surprising that we find mirrored in the remedy picture of Lac caninum so much that reflects human suffering, deprivation and abuse in a “dog-eats-dog” world; a world of harsh and extreme polarities where affluence and want exist “cheek by jowl”.

 

A disfigured identity

Bearing in mind the transformations required to change from wolf to dog, while still possessing the same DNA, one can imagine the shock and horror of a wolf, wishing to admire itself in a mirror, being confronted by the visage and physique of a chihuahua or a bulldog. Significantly provings of bitch’s milk reveal: “aversion to herself”; “contemptuous of self” and, most telling, “feels she has somebody else’s nose”. Lac caninum subjects are known for “errors of personal identity”, often, like Thuja, seeing themselves in a distorted way. In practice, both medicines have proved valuable in the treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia (the individual perceives herself as fat even when dangerously emaciated), especially when there is a history of abuse or victimisation. When the physical identity has been traumatised by severe injuries to the face, by multiple operations (often orthopaedic), or by procedures involving the reproductive organs, which leave the patient feeling disfigured, mutilated or diminished, especially after mastectomy and hysterectomy, Lac caninum, or Staphysagria, may be indicated for the emotional consequences, even many years later. Likewise, we always need to bear Lac caninum in mind when a person is obsessively dissatisfied with some body part, often the nose or breasts, and needs to “improve” their looks by cosmetic surgery.

A metaphor of contempt

Contrary to our personal experience with our canine friends, and in conflict with our love and esteem, it is startling that inherent in our unconscious, archetypal evaluation of the dog, invariably expressed

in our idiomatic, language patterns, is the same image that emerges from the provings: an image of inferiority -  something to be scorned, disparaged and vilified. Habitually, in our day-to-day vocabulary, we link the dog to negative connotations. We speak of “a dog’s life”, of being treated, feeling and working “like a dog”, of food “not fit for a dog”, of being in “the dog-house”, a worn book is

“dog-eared”, a place that has fallen upon bad times has “gone to the dogs”, we are “dog-tired”, and, indeed, who has ever heard of being “dogged by good fortune” or “hounded by success”? We are also inclined to associate inferior human qualities with dog-like characteristics: “hangdog” describes someone who is downcast and despondent or furtive and guilty in appearance or manner; the craven coward cringes and cowers, crawls on his belly, ears down, tail between his legs; the fawning sycophant “licks the hand that beats him” but may also turn on his master and “bites the hand that feeds him”. Even “puppy-fat” and “puppy-love” are often derisory expressions, and who can doubt that “dog” and “bitch” become extreme forms of insult, particularly when barbed with a sexual expletive.

Despised and rejected

It is not surprising to find in Lac caninum symptoms which evidence terrible feelings of inferiority: “feels despised, diminished, smaller”; “feels insulted; as if she is being looked down upon by everyone” (unique to Lac caninum); “he is dirt”; “he is dirty”; “despondent, hopeless, thinks her disease incurable, has not a friend living, could weep at any moment”; that they feel incapable and incompetent: “everything is doomed to fail”; “he is a failure”; “doubts her ability and success”; “want of confidence”; that they fear life and those in it: fear of violence, abuse and rape; “fear and mistrust of people”(humanity); certain people, men, authority figures, strangers; “fear of ridicule and humiliation” and “fear of rejection, abandonment and separation”. What a sad litany coming from the deep repository of canine heartache and what a sad commentary on the distorted pattern of human think­ing, both unfortunately stemming from life experience. From constantly enter­taining such ideas of mediocrity and powerlessness, depression and despair are never far away, and are vividly portrayed: “chronic, ‘blue’ condition, everything seems so dark that it can grow no darker” and “heavy dark clouds seem to envelop her”. It is a heaviness of spirit; even “the clothing seems too heavy”. This despondency is increased by the short days of winter and by grey, dismal, overcast weather, especially if it appears interminable.

 

A symbol of duality

In myth and symbolism, the dog is also portrayed as a metaphor of extreme duality. Christian and Celtic traditions revere the dog as the embodiment of fidelity, unswerving devotion, compan­ionship, protective vigilance, nobility of spirit and love that survives death. In Semitic iconography, however, it accompanies the scorpion, serpent and other baleful reptiles, and is evil and demonic; in Judaism the dog was held in contempt as an unclean scavenger, an eater of vomit, associated with “whoremongers, sorcerers, fornicators and idolaters”. Islam sees in the dog all that is vile in creation, a term of opprobrium for unbelievers, the very symbol of uncleanliness, greed, gluttony, and gross materialism – the sole exceptions being the saluki and the greyhound, which were used for hunting. On a profounder level, the dog shares in the ambivalent symbolism of its ancestor, the wolf. Its image in the human psyche is essentially dark. It is equated with the devil – fierce, insatiable and evil. As incarnating all the dark, destructive aspects of nature, the wolf, when wor­shipped, becomes one of the dread deities, embodying ferocity, cunning, greed, cruelty, and wickedness. How­ever, its fierce, noble qualities can also be protective, loyal, courageous, and victorious, and therefore venerated. Lac caninum, the remedy, covers the entire spectrum of these great contradictions and opposites, all of which lie within the sphere of sycosis. This duality, or double­sidedness, is symbolised in the wagging tail, hallmark of both the wolf and dog, which is carried forward in the cardinal modality of Lac caninum: symptoms and signs move from one side of the body to another (often commencing on the left – the side of the emotions, creativity and imagination). But, the starkest paradox and duality of all lies in the capacity of the dog to either heal or kill. In Hellenic times, the ill and infirm would travel, in search of a cure, to the shrine of Asklepios, the God of Medicine, at Epidauros. At the sanctuary, sacred snakes and dogs were used to lick the wounds and ailing parts of the sick and many instances of healing were recorded. Yet, it is the domestic dog and its near relatives that are particularly responsible for propagating the dread disease rabies.

Wotan – the god of wolves and dogs

In Norse and Teutonic mythology, the wolf is sacred to Wotan (Odin), the king of the gods. Two ravens and two wolves, Skoll and Hati, repulsion and hatred, always accompanied Wotan into battle. He is often depicted riding a huge wolf. It was believed that these wolves persist ­ently pursued the sun and the moon attempting to swallow them so that the world might be plunged into primordial darkness. They achieve partial success at the eclipses and it is said that they will finally succeed at Ragnarok, the Norse Doomsday, when Wotan will close in mortal combat with the monstrous wolf Fenrir, his own dark aspect, and die.

Although primarily a god of war, Wotan was a multifaceted deity with a rich diversity of roles. He displays multiple personalities and was capable of seemingly endless transformations, revealing a complex and often contradictory nature. In keeping with its ruling deity, Lac caninum can be indeter­minate and fluctuating in behaviour, emotions and character, showing a lack of fixed identity; a tendency surely due to the selective breeding methods that have produced such glaringly different breeds that they could easily be confused as different species. Certain Lac can­inum types are able to don different personas to suit the company and circumstances they find themselves in – people of many faces and many masks, human chameleons – able to be what­ever and whoever the other person would like them to be, or what would ingratiate and profit them best. They are often troubled by an inability to sense who they truly are. Others are very susceptible and over­impressionable, easily influenced by dominant individ­uals, even to the point of adopting their identity, personality traits and manner­isms (Pulsatilla). These role models may be idealised even when intrinsically wicked or evil. This resonance is an important quality of the archetype, further evidenced in the frequency with which a breed is unconsciously and pref­erentially selected as a projection of some dominant trait of the owner, so that owner and dog look alike.

God of wisdom and frenzy

Most important in the mythology of Wotan was his great initiation, when, pierced through his side by a spear, he hung suspended on Yggdrasill, the World Ash Tree (the Norse Cosmic Tree – like Thuja, an arbor vitae) for nine days and nights without bread or water.

He was rewarded with a vision and understanding of the runes, which embody the esoteric knowledge of the northern tradition, enabling him to access the wisdom of the underworld (the Shadow) and travel freely through the dimensions of spirit. He became a necromancer capable of summoning the shades of the dead in order to obtain arcane knowledge. Myth also relates that on another occasion he sacrificed an eye (the eye of intellect) in order to attain wisdom. Wotan’s sacrifice on the tree echoes the passion of Christ on the cross. He, like Jesus, became a fount of all wisdom, which he sourced from the realm of the dead. But, at the opposite extreme, swinging from the sacred to the profane, Wotan was also God of Frenzy and Lord of Ecstasy. In 1936, Carl Jung wrote an essay Wotan in which he prophesied the return of the ancient god, re­activated “like a dormant volcano” from the collective unconscious of the German nation under the Nazi party, which was soon to lead it to a disastrous war. He saw the frenzy of Wotan manifest in the rabid ravings of Hitler, delivered whilst seemingly in a state of possession.

 

Artistic, religious and hedonistic rapture

It seems impossible to reconcile these contradictions of the god and the arche­type, either morally or logically, unless one understands the contrasting energies of the sycotic miasm and of Lac caninum. The “frenzy” of Wotan, and therefore of Lac caninum, is not just the battle fury of the Viking Beserks, which rendered them invincible, it is also the passion of the creative mind: of the poet, the artist and the musician. In the pagan world, myths, heroic exploits and noble deeds were extolled by bards at the courts of kings and chieftains through the medium of poetry and song and re­enacted through dance. These were as important vehicles of communication and knowledge as the media are today. Religious and magical fervour was also connected to Wotan, often assisted by chanting and dancing and the use of psychotropic substances and alcohol. The priests of Wotan were known to carry a leather pouch that contained hallu­cinogenic herbs used in the rituals asso­ciated with the god to induce psychic states and vision of other dimensions. Chief amongst these was black henbane (Hyoscyamus), the anti­rabies acute of Lac caninum. Both recreational drugs and alcohol can lead to licentiousness, promiscuity and sexual frenzy, none of which are foreign to either Wotan or Lac caninum. The Lac caninum subject is hypersensitive to touch, especially to the throat, breasts and pelvic region, all of which are powerful, erotic zones. They are very sensual and easily aroused, even to excessive levels of sexual transport and rapture: “hysteria and madness during sex – worse at the height of orgasm”.

 

Heightened senses; intense emotions; powerful urges

Lac caninum is hypersensitive and over­reactive on all levels. Their desires and impulses can be canine and therefore inordinate in a human being. Like the wolf, all their faculties are keen. They are intensely alert to their environment and the people in it, gifted to pick up instinctively on “vibes” and atmosphere, their sixth sense enabling them to apprehend thoughts, emotions and motives. They are intensely passionate and the emotions they experience are excessive and extreme, out of propor­tion to circumstances and context and too prolonged, lasting even a lifetime. Their fear is terror, their dislike is detestation, their anger is rage and their love is adoration. They can hate with an alarming intensity and a vengeful­ness that is dogged, vicious and fright­ening. They gnaw at their grievances, their hatred and their desire for revenge, like a dog gnaws at a bone, never satisfied until they have destroyed the object of their enmity or vented the energy transpersonally on society or by scape­goating others (Hitler). Their fears and phobias are intense, often dominat­ing their lives. Snakes, spiders and dogs, particularly large dogs, terrify them and they are haunted by fear of disease, especially cancer, and the dread of dying. Thunderstorms petrify them, the flash of lightening and the crash of thunder causing them to cringe with fear. They are so imaginative that the images born out of their fantasy assume reality, appearing before them, threatening and terrifying. They have only to think of their ailments for them to be intensified. Even their natural urges tend to excess: insatiable thirst, often for milk; craving for salt and spices; an appetite that cannot be appeased; and an insistent, sexual hunger.

 

Repressed traumatic memories

Sometimes a history of sexual abuse is responsible for their fears and phobias. In both Thuja and Lac caninum, this may have been suffered repetitively and over an extended time, often at the hands of those who should have been protective care­givers. In some Lac caninum victims, the memory of the abuse may have been repressed in amnesic response to experiences too terrible for the young mind to hold in the light of consciousness. Only dreams and imaginings remain: “visions of creeping things”; “horrible visions; afraid they will take objective form”; “dreams of snakes in her bed” and most significantly – “feels she is lying on a large snake” and “sees faces in the dark; the face that haunts most is the one she has really seen”. This unconscious repression of unwanted memory may impair normal recall, causing them to make mistakes when speaking or writing, and to become absent minded: leaving behind items they have bought in a shop, or forgetting to retrieve their credit card after a purchase.

 

The homeopathic guide dog

Lac caninum is a remedy of indispens­able value to the practitioner of “depth homeopathy”. The ancients quite rightly understood the dog to be guardian of the underworld (Cerberus), guide of souls from one realm to another, and the intermediary between different levels of consciousness. When a patient’s emotions and feelings are deeply repressed, when dreams have ceased or never been, when the personal shadow is heavily burdened with unresolved emotions and experiences, it is often the dog that leads the physician into the deepest realms of the unconscious and releases the pains of the past. Lac caninum can rescue the wounded child in the depressed adult. When in doubt, give Sulphur we are taught, but more frequently, when we stand non­plussed, before a complex, emotional state due to past or present trauma, a severely repressed state, a paucity of symptoms, an ever shifting presentation, or a con­stitutional picture simulating various polychrests and revealing the influence of more than one miasm, Lac caninum is often the remedy which, true to its canine nature, will open up the case and guide the physician with devotion and fidelity out of the darkness into the light.

 

 

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