Mitteln Trituration
[Alize Timmerman]
Homeopathic
trituration is a concept postulated by the German
pharmacist Withold Ehrler
in his book: Pearls of Pharmacognosis. The word Pharmacognosis refers to a divine knowledge of remedies.
Working with C4
triturations and the proving of several substances has been done by Jürgen Becker in
Ehrler
discovered that in the process of making a new homeopathic remedy by grinding
the initial substance in a mortar with a neutral substance, the person grinding
the remedy experienced "symptoms" of the remedy.
These
symptoms show to be rather consistent for a large number of people taking part
on a grinding session, although a certain variance in symptoms was noticeable
among the "provers". Furthermore, each
successive
step of
diluting the remedy, showed a specific set of symptoms, thus creating a
hierarchy of symptoms ranging from a mundane, physical level
via more
spiritual levels toward more esoterically levels.
Starting
point being the C0 level, diluting the initial substance of the remedy a
hundredfold and meticulously grinding for at least one hour so the initial
substance is thoroughly mixed with the
neutral
diluting material (i.e. milk sugar), one reaches the C1 level. Repeating this
process brings us to the C2 level and so forth. This process of diluting and
grinding H. named "trituration".
In the Hahnemannian Homeopathy one usually proceeds to the C1,
seldom to the C3 level. H. triturated the metals till the C#. Basically, till
about 1980 most remedies were triturated to C1 level
and
thereafter potentiated. Ehrler was the first to
explore levels beyond C3. Central in the trituration
hierarchy as postulated by Ehrler is the C4 level,
the hierarchy culminating in the C8 level.
H. stated
in the Organon (§ 9): "In health the life force
keeps all parts of the organism in harmony. The spirit-like life force governs
without restriction and keeps all parts of the organism in admirable,
harmonious, vital
operation,
as regards both feelings and functions, so that our indwelling, rational spirit
can freely avail itself of this living, healthy instrument for the higher purposes
of our existence".
Thus Becker
and Ehrler discovered that while preparing a remedy
by diluting and grinding it with a neutral substance, the intrinsic knowledge
how a remedy will work on human people
discloses
itself to the prover. The prover
takes part on a sharing of knowledge on a level transgressing the pure physical
world, coming to know the essence of a remedy: Pharmacognosis.
Key notions
here are resonance and the expression of a remedy on the different levels of
being. Trituration discloses the essence of a remedy
step by step. Each trituration step is in resonance with
on the one hand
the person
preparing the remedy and on the other hand with all people in a state similar
to the remedy at that specific trituration level. So,
when working with triturated remedies, the therapist experiences a journey
through the
layers of the remedy. The therapist working with triturations
will enter in a resonant empathy, with the full force of the remedy revealed
toward him or her and enabling the therapist to become also in
resonance
with the patient treated. When triturations are duly
used, the therapist will be the "knowing witness" in the healing
process of the patient, connecting the archetypical force of the remedy with
the actual
need of the
patient, truly making H.’s proposition "similium similia curentur" happen.
Theory of the Trituration
Hierarchy
Trituration
is a step by step process, each successive step with its own specific level of
influence and resonance and therefore its specific point of action in a person.
A very
concise listing of the eight levels takes us from the physical level (C1) via
the spiritual level (C4) and the archetypical levels (C5, C6) to the collective
levels for all humankind and transcendental levels (C7, C8).
C0 Material, substance, tincture
Represents the raw
material, the substance as such, things as they manifest themselves in nature, a
tincture.
C0 + C1 Earth Mineral, metal
C1 Biological / Physiological level
A look inside the
organism, into the biological, physiological level of being. The vital force,
the energy of the substance is revealed. The C1 level also relates to the
hydro-
carbonate nature of beings on earth.
C2 Sensations, Feelings, Emotions, Compensation
experienced in the body
It relates to a
different level than the pure physical level of C1.
Water Plant
C3 Mental, Thinking, Delusions, illusions,
Religion, Mythical, contrast Good and Bad
Exceeds the biological
organism/entering the realms beyond ourselves, connections between entities,
religion, level of judgment, weighting one set of values against the other.
Thinking in polarities.
Air Animal
C4 Acceptance, To be Buddha, Spiritual, Without
judgment, Destiny, Synchronicity
Central level,
representing the spiritual life beyond seeing, feeling. The "begeisterung", inspiration, the freedom of choice, the
path toward destination.
C5 Individual Archetype, The Source, Dreams
Refers to the individual
unconsciousness, archetype, dreams, shadows. The driving force of our
unconsciousness relates to a major part of our vitality, our Source.
When somebody repeatedly comes in a
certain situation for which a logical explanation fails. Coincidence or not?
Fire Human
C6 Collective Archetype, Vitality and vital
sensation, Energy
Not differing greatly
from C5, but reflects more the collective aspects of the Archetype, flows
working on mankind as a whole.
C7 Development of worlds, cultures
C8 Transformation of opposites
C7 and C8: those levels
basically go beyond the level of the understanding of individual persons.
Represents the relevance
of the substance on a global level
Creation of "oneness" the
transformation of opposites, the creating of comprehensive concepts.
The C4
level constitutes the core level, the essence. The lower levels connect with
the physical world, our mind, our conscience. The upper levels with the
individual and collective archetypes,
our
cultures, culminating in the divine level where opposites may shift positions;
the upper levels reflect the world outside ourselves.
Working
with triturated remedies brings the therapist to questions like: "what is
or should be the orientation of my approach of this patient.
As a
result, the therapist faces different sets of confrontations, but with the
resonance of the remedy as part of both the development of empathy by the
therapist and the interpretation of the expression of symptoms in
the patient
one comes to the proper similium for the stimulation
of the healing process in the patient.
We know
that, in a generalization, minerals and metals work more on the biological /
physiological level, plant remedies more on the level of feelings, sensations,
animal remedies relate to propagation, future, the mental
level,
while nosodes often work very well on the spiritual
level.
Similar to
C4 hierarchy: C1 working on functional pathology (muscles, bones etc.), C2 on
emotional pathology, C3 on delusions and feelings, and C4 on spiritual
problems.
De C4-homeopathie of manenteix homeopathie is een nieuwe ontwikkeling in de homeopathie, die aansluit op de klassieke homeopathie van Hahnemann. Hahnemann experimenteerde zijn hele leven met verschillende
potenties en merkte dat het werkte. Hij schrijft dat het voor een arts, mits gezond, goed is om te proven. Hahnemann streeft zijn hele leven naar een menswaardige behandeling van zieken.
Als een C4-middel een meer ‘soft and gentle’ resultaat zou hebben, zou hij het ongetwijfeld omarmd hebben. Hij stelde bijvoorbeeld de publicatie van de 6de editie van het Organon ook uit omdat hij dacht dat de tijd er
nog niet rijp voor was.
In de C4-homeopathie gaat het om het vrijkomen van de Levenskrachten van substanties door resonerende groepsverwrijvingen. Deze levenskrachten kunnen behulpzaam zijn bij het beantwoorden van (onbewuste)
levensvragen
van de patiënt en ze in liefde teruggeven aan de aarde om de geschiedenis
van de aarde tot een goed einde te
brengen. De
C4-homeopathie speelt zich dus af op het individuele niveau (van de
verwrijver),
het bijzondere niveau (van de substantie) en het algemene niveau (van de
Kosmos). Dit maakt het een vorm van homeopathie die moeilijk te verklaren is. Men kann hem het
best leren kennen door zelf stoffen te
verwrijven.
Ook de klassieke homeopathie boekt goede resultaten bij mentaal-emotionele problemen, maar de patiënt kan met een C4-remedie sneller en gemakkelijker tot een oplossing van levensthema’s komen. In tegenstelling
tot remedies
uit de klassieke homeopathie, zijn C4-remedies altijd handmatig verwreven, verdund en geschud.
Daardoor kan een passende C4-remedie genezen op een
dieper, spiritueel niveau. Door de potentiëring in drie opeenvolgende stappen zouden de hogere LM-potenties op hetzelfde niveau kunnen genezen.
C4-remedies zijn
meestal verder verwreven dan de in de klassieke homeopathie gebruikelijke derde trituratiestap. De C4-homeopathie heeft
mijns inziens een logische verklaring voor de kwalitatieve veranderingen in de opeenvolgende
stappen bij de bereiding van remedies (zie par. 3.4.).
In de verschillende verwrijvingstappen van Equisetum arvense zijn duidelijk verschillende ervaringen naar voren gekomen. Dit kwam ook naar voren in de sfeer bij de verwrijving van de plant bij het Hahnemann Instituut,
die bij
de eerste verwrijvingstappen
zwaar en tijdens de vierde (C4) en vijfde verwrijvingronde (C5) veel
lichter was.
De ervaringen
in de verschillende verwrijvingstappen
zijn als volgt te typeren:
- C1: Wat
is mijn opgave in het leven? Kijk naar het licht, wees onbevangen, vecht niet meer en onderzoek de verloren gegane kennis van de natuur;
- C2: Waar sta ik
in het geheel? Initiatieproces, ik verdwijn in het niets;
- C3: Een kwestie van overleven of dood. Ik kan niets doen;
- C4: Universeel gevoel van liefde en verbondenheid;
- C5: Een nieuw begin. Werk in je eigen krachtveld en ga mee in de stroom van alles.
[Hogland / Schriebman]
"The proving of Calendula is so
nearly worthless that we cannot expect at present to use it as a guide to the
internal administration of the remedy." J.T. Kent, Lectures
August 2004 we decided to triturate Calendula., a very common local garden plant.
We know Calendula well as an acute remedy, good for healing surface scrapes,
wounds, and burns. We hypothesized that this flower might have a larger scope
of influence and were curious to explore this further.
As a plant remedy, Calendula had not ever been triturated but instead
had only been potentized from the mother tincture.
Kent had lamented that it lacked a proper proving. We were not aware of any
more recent provings.
This plant grows prolifically in our area, giving us an additional opportunity
to test the precept that a substance commonly found in one's environment is
significant and often useful for healing the ailments that occur in
that region.
Our trituration revealed the deeper nature of
this remedy. Almost instantly, the conversation turned to the subject of death,
accidents and trauma. Yet there was also a gentle protection that emanated from
the bowl as well.
Clearly this remedy is deeply protective in nature. The core of the
remedy is that it heals the traumas deep inside, which have become sealed off
from consciousness, or which have occurred in pre-verbal times or even in
a person's ancestral line. The remedy gently opens up this sealed-off
trauma to allow for healing to occur.
Calendula still is a remedy for wound healing, as it always was.
Calendula will penetrate past the surface wound and enter deep within the system
if there are deeper wounds there. Calendula will dissolve these wounds
so that
they, too, can heal.
In Materia Medica we could now see
the hints pointing to this deeper picture.
Boericke:
"Useful for open wounds; parts that will not heal. As an intercurrent remedy for Cancer."
Prisma:
we have the myth of Marigold, the king's daughter who was buried alive.
The words
had been there all along but the meaning was buried.
The trituration gave us the experience underneath these words;
a core experience that both reflected the common usage of Calendula as well as
something much deeper.
Imagine the
state of the unhealing wound, the state of the part
that will not heal. Why does it not heal? We can see that it is not actively bleeding
or traumatized, but that for some reason the healing is stalled.
Why is it
stalled? It is inaccessible to the vital force. It has been sealed off.
Now we can
very easily see deeper resonances in the emotional realm. To be sealed off:
buried alive, like Marigold. What could be the purpose? We come to the
overwhelming trauma, the accident resulting
in death or
near death, the unfathomable shock. The organism seals it off, puts it away,
keeps it from the core so that the organism can survive. The initial trauma is
encapsulated deep inside the system,
able to be
known as a story but emotionally inaccessible: living, but not alive, like Snow
White in her glass coffin. (Could this remedy be useful in coma states where
there is no actual brain damage?)
This is the
etiological core of Calendula. Poor wound healing; sealing off an injury rather
than healing properly; burying alive a part of yourself. Psychologists know
that a sudden shock in utero or in the
pre-verbal
developmental stage can result in a child's sealing off an important part of
the psyche. This piece is carried by the individual like a walled-off tumor.
In the
post-trituration discussion, three of us revealed a
serious break in our relationships with our mothers as infants or in utero due to traumatic circumstances: a car accident, a
ruptured spleen, and a surgery for an ovarian
cyst. Some
weeks later, Diana shared that she also had a break in the relationship with her
mother in the first few days. She was damaged by forceps and they didn't take
her to her mother until the third day after her birth.
Her mother
actually thought she was dead ("buried alive in the womb"). These
incidents caused a shock and interrupted the bonding cycle during a critical
period of time, causing this kind of deep trauma.
A
walling-off is both protective and problematic, displaying the polarity of good
and bad in the same action. The whole is protected but now the part is
inaccessible and can become poisonous. Calendula contains the solution
to this
polarity as well. Its power at the higher levels of trituration
allows for a re-awakening to the trauma, in a protected way, for the sealed-off
part to be gently re-integrated, for true healing to occur.
In talking
over the various symptoms and conversations directly after, we came to the
conclusion that Calendula is one of those remedies, like Stramonium
or Arnica, for "the trauma of trauma," for emotional as well as
physical
wound healing. One prover made the comment that Calendula
appeared to be the glue that could put Humpty Dumpty back together again,
healing the shattered pieces from emotional trauma.
Anneke's
dog was extremely interested throughout the proving and hung around the table
far more than she usually does. The dog was quite old, very stiff and nearly
deaf. She died one week after this trituration.
Contact
with the Calendula might have provided the dog a large measure of comfort,
enough that she was able to leave life and her owners.
Physically
we noticed a lot of itchiness (eyes/ears/mouth), which we consider common trituration symptoms. We had pain in the ears, with
stoppages created and unblocked. We all felt hot internally. Sense of smell was
acute and
some were intensely conscious of the colors yellow,
gold, or orange. We also discovered subsequently in the folklore that August is
the best time to pick this flower. (We picked the flower and did the trituration
in August a
good example of synchronicity and resonance.)
It is also
worth noting that six out of the seven people involved with proving this remedy
experienced a serious trauma early in their individual existences. This would
confirm our secondary hypothesis that a common plant
will heal
the illnesses that occur within the region where it grows, or perhaps this kind
of trauma is just very, very common in life. Certainly further trials of
different common plants will be necessary to truly confirm this hypothesis.
Jane
collected the Calendula for us as she had an ample supply in her Berkeley
garden. She reports: "I was asked to supply the living calendula plant.
That morning I plucked a lovely plant with each stage of plant form on it:
open
blossoms, blossom buds, green seed pods, leaves, and roots. I put the plant
with roots and a little dirt in water and brought it in still very much alive.
We used each representative part in the blender preparation, mixed it
with enough
milk sugar to conceal it before presenting it to the group. I had picked this
plant from the grave of my dear departed 'Kitty Babes' (a sweet tortoiseshell
cat) who had died a year before at a ripe old age.
I didn't
mention this fact to fellow provers until well into
the triturating after it was clear that there was a LOT of talk about cats and
death going on among us."
Themes:
Death,
trauma, horses, cats, dogs (all three highly domesticated animals special related
to humans), young girls, the sun, apples, gentleness, abandoned areas, Snow
White, the movie The Ring, accidents, emotional
wounding,
sensitivity to trauma, decay, the trauma of witnessing a violent death, old
times, and beauty came up prominently. Notable physical symptoms involved the
ears, TMJ, sharp pains, and pains to the r. knee and l. hip.
Example: First
Round of Trituration (Cl)
Jane: Meditating
on the grinding, I thought of the Rene Descartes quote: "We will torture
Nature's secrets out of Her." Destruction creates a remedy. I didn't like
seeing the lovely living plant pulled apart and put in the electric blender, so
I was comforting myself on the thought of its sacrifice to create a healing
remedy.
Conversation
about the trauma to a 16 year old dog that got caught between a couple of
buildings that were close together. It suffered severe abrasions and deep
tissue loss. Hearing stories like this always break my heart and
make me
physically wince and hurt. But just now I feel protected from the usual
emotional trauma of hearing this sort of thing, that I have a little protective
distance from it and don't feel as "thin- skinned" as usual.
Jennifer: The
color (yellow/green) looks like baby diarrhea or a green pus abscess. It has a wonderful,
grassy, earthy odor. The grassy odor
is turning into a slightly rancid, not so fresh smell. Odor
is becoming a bit rotten.
Judy: Very disturbed
by all the talk of cats and death. Sadness over death. Near tears and wanting
to leave. All I can think of is my last and favorite
chicken taken a few days ago and torn to pieces by a bobcat.
Seeing the
pile of feathers and her torn body was horrible. Intense "Radio
signal" in left ear, unnerving. I was sent backward in my chair by the
force of it: a very high and loud sound like someone tuning a shorthand radio
and pressure coming at me into my ear.
Anneke: Very
tight feeling in jaws, a deep ache extending from ears forward, can hardly move
the jaws, tight and tense.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum