Mythologie and Miasms
[Luke Norland]
Miasms and Mythologie
The miasms are, at their most basic level,
archetypal energy patterns ranging from very rapid, intense and generalised symptoms
to slow, insidious and pathological (acute to syphilitic).
The Acute miasm corresponds to the fight or
flight response, and is the body’s instinctive choice for defending itself
because it is highly effective at ensuring survival so long as the vitality of
the person can withstand and tolerate the intensity of the inflammatory
process. Somebody who responds to life according to this miasm is apt to fly
into panic, fear and anxiety over seemingly innocuous events,
to which they may respond by fleeing or
becoming aggressive. It has a very primal energy pattern, typified by the
remedies of the Solanaceae - Bell. and Stram. and
Lyssin. In the latter, the rubric
-anger followed by quick repentance- is a very good
example of the kind of reaction an acute miasm manufactures. First, there is
the exciting cause which brings about panic, even predicting the time
of death in the case of Aconite, then there
could be a reaction of trying to escape or facing and fighting off the danger.
When the threat has passed, the person can quickly return to their normal, more
balanced manner, unless the miasm has become so strong over the person’s vital
force that they get stuck in this heightened adrenal state all the time. This
could happen because the person is oversensitive to both external and internal
impressions, or that they are locked into a situation which repeatedly ‘pokes’
them on their area of susceptibility.
In the acute remedies, it can be easy to
confuse them with the syphilitic end of the spectrum as they can appear to have
similar themes of violence, fear, death and annihilation. The difference is
that the syphilitic miasm is much heavier, and the signs more pathological,
leading to actual tissue degeneration and necrosis. In the acute miasm, a
person will bounce from one extreme to the other, from light to dark, hot to
cold, and the states although highly polarised, are more fleeting rather than
of a chronic duration. One can see this as being reminiscent of Hermes, a
winged messenger and the Greek god who can move between realms, a god of
boundaries who can descend to the Underworld, where he takes mortals to their
death, carrying messages from Olympus to Earth. He can enter what appears the
syphilitic realm of Hades, death, decay and destruction, but he always returns
unscathed. This is similar to the nature of Acute episodes, which appear
life-threatening, intense and with sudden violence, but as long as the vital
force has enough potency, will usually result in survival. Acute remedies
therefore seem to oscillate between the heavenly realm of Fire and the Dark
forces of elemental Air.
The Typhoid energy pattern lies between the rapid
pace and shallow depth of the Acute miasm and the constant low grade struggle of
the Psoric miasm.
When the body is healthy and following its instinctive vital process, the Acute miasm
is the best way to deal with a stressor; it combats the problem quickly and
without sacrificing a particular organ to the inimical agent. It acts swiftly,
flying
into battle like the god of War; Ares, or the
Zodiac sign Aries. But, it expends a lot of energy and if somebody is
overexposed to situations that touch their sensitivity, their vital power will
diminish.
Then they will move into another miasmatic
expression that represents a partial retreat from the frontline, sacrificing
the first line of defence and erecting a protective barrier to ensure survival
of the
most important parts of the kingdom.
“Also known as the subacute miasm. Remedies in
this miasm were originally used for typhoid fever - that is high, unremitting
fever often associated with prostration from violent diarrheas or other
infections. The infections are slightly less rapid in their onset (like all our
descriptions of Bryonia) than the remedies in the acute miasm… The patient
feels himself to be in an urgent, life-threatening situation requiring his full
capacity to survive. The patient is willing to use any means to return to a
secure position: Violence, scheming, flight, lying, etc… The feeling is, “If I
can just get through
this crisis, I have it made and I can rest.” He
seeks rest and a secure position.” Roger Morrison
I find Nux-v. very useful remedy with which to characterise
the Typhoid rhythm. Nux works very efficiently to achieve their goals; they are
driven and ambitious, using stimulants to keep themselves going. Eventually all
this effort (the Psoric component of struggle can be seen here) leads to anger,
irascibility and brain fag from having too many irons in the fire and not being
able to switch off from thoughts about their tasks. They become hurried, quick
to anger and have the delusion that someone is in their bed and there isn’t
enough room for them in it. They want to reach a position of comfort,
as does Bryonia who also prattles about work,
but their place of repose has been stolen. When the sub-acute pattern relapses,
there is a sense of crisis that has to be dealt with right now, it will require
a lot of effort.
Sankaran mentions crisis management as being
very much of the Typhoid essence. As one patient put it, “to keep pushing
project manager keep managing myself. Right, did that, what’s the next thing?
Quite fast and busy, hectic, it’s a lot of pressure- so I’m spinning loads of
plates- and I’m consumed by it. I’m one of those people who appears calm and
capable so I get asked to do more, feeling overwhelmed with life- I’m not
managing it all. Generally I feel a bit racy inside; there has been a niggling
feeling like after a roller coaster ride. It’s not really severe; it’s
exciting, scary, thrilling, fearful, not sure what to expect, like the thrill
of being out of control, that jump in your stomach- going really really fast”.
The Greek god Ares is a good counterpart for
the Typhoid miasm. He is very eager to fly into battle, full of blood lust and
violent rage. He is the god of War. His nature is simple, and he is driven by
the more primitive urges of sex and violence. He was caught in the act with
Aphrodite, ensnared by a golden net forged by Hephaestus, and ridiculed for his
rather unsubtle approach- warmongering and debauchery being his two well known
attributes. This is very similar to the Choleric Pole on the Mappa Mundi.
The Psoric miasm, Hahnemann’s gift to the
Homeopathic community, lays the foundation for all the other miasms. In this
way, it can be seen as the bedrock of human suffering, so it can be useful to
look at mythology here as well. Prometheus
is an interesting figure relating to the Psoric miasm. He was a Titan god,
whose love for humankind led to mischief that would bring down the wrath of
Zeus; he stole fire from
Olympus and gave it to the human race. In his rage, Zeus offered mankind by Epimetheus
the gift of Pandora’s box, out of which came all the sufferings and toils of
mankind,
and at the bottom of which lay hope. This ties
in rather nicely with the hopeful struggle of Psora. Prometheus himself was
banished and chained to a rock where an eagle would come and peck out
his liver by day, and by night he would
regenerate owing to his divine immortality. The theme we can take from this
story is that there is always struggle and toil for those with a Psoric miasm,
but there always remains the possibility of
hope lying at the bottom of Pandora’s box. Mankind and Prometheus are both
punished, but they will both still survive.
The miasm expresses itself in the form of
hypofunction, or lack and in this way it has an opposite quality to sycosis.
The ability to properly assimilate becomes impaired, leading to a lack of
nutrition and delayed development, as in the case of Calc. and Lyc. Psor.
represents the heart of this miasm and has a strong delusion of poverty, a
feeling that everything will fail. He feels so poor that even his body parts
don’t belong to him! There is of course great itchiness, and crawling
sensations with weakness, debility and a sense of being unwashed or polluted.
Sankaran describes Psora as an “intense struggle with a problem from the
environment. This problem is nonspecific in the case of psorinum; it can be a
religious problem, a problem about money, a problem about love… It has an
undifferentiated character.”
It is the situation of a simple peasant, who
toils the land ceaselessly for scant financial reward, and yet he is that ‘salt
of the earth’ type who has few concerns about wealth and status (as would the
sycotic person). Psora is like the first line of defence after the power to
throw an acute has diminished. There is a resignation to the fact they must now
struggle on with limited capacity, but it has not got so bad for them to lose
hope of overcoming the problem by maintaining their efforts. They can still see
the hope offered at the bottom of all the hardships inflicted by Pandora’s box.
With Psora comes the illusion of separateness;
Kent equated it with original sin. As the
manifestations of the disease itself are on the boundary of the self, the skin
and mucuous membranes, the formation of the ego and the illusion of being
separate
are contained within the myth of Psora.
According to Plato, human beings were once complete, spherical individuals,
containing both the male and female anatomy- they wheeled around happily until
Zeus became angered and split them asunder. This illusion of being separate leads
to the desire to form bonds with others in order to feel complete again. It is
the absolute bedrock of the human condition, and feeds the delusion of the
egoic mind. In this way, Psora can be seen as having something in common with
the mineral kingdom; lacking completeness by oneself so needing to form a bond
to compensate for that weakness. I think this correspondence demonstrates that
both Psora and Minerals are the building blocks of more complex natural
structures. I can see a relationship between Psora and the Earth aspect of the
Mappa Mundi, where there is a drying up or solidifying process- wanting to find
a place within the structure. Ailments manifested in the Earth realm are less
serious than the Fire / Air polarity.
The Sycotic miasm impels the individual to keep
up appearances, maintain the facade or veneer of their image. They don’t like
others to see the shameful aspect of themselves which is being kept under
wraps, like the Conifer that grows so abundantly on the exterior that the interior
is starved of light and goes into a state of decay. This brings the other theme
to light; that of over-growth and excess, which can be seen in the extremes of
behaviour in Medorrhinum, from piety to partying and performing. Zeus (Jupiter)
was the patriarchal God who ruled Olympus, whose reign was benevolent, and who
was a symbol of masculine strength. He was an extremely unfaithful partner to
Hera, and who had many sexual conquests with both mortal and divine women,
giving rise to the birth of a plethora of different sons inhabiting the earthly
and godly realms. There are some overlapping themes here with Sycosis, which is
connected with the fig-wart growths of gonorrhea, the disease you get from an
unprotected sexual encounter. Jupiter is also a massive planet which ties in
with the Sycotic trait of growth, excess, overdoing it. This tendency to overgrowth can also
be seen in physical attributes, such as excessive hair, full lips and big
facial features generally, with the tendency also being to put on weight.
Sankaran adds the idea of accepting the situation as it is, because they know
they cannot struggle against it anymore. In psora there would still be a
struggle, but with sycosis there is a hiding away of the inner weakness (guilt,
shame or ugliness). As long as they can cover it up, the coping mechanism is
more or less working. They do this by compensating. E.G, there is a fixed
feeling inside of being fragile and sensitive to external influences. They
cover this up with bravado and confidence (medorrhinum). In Thuja, they imagine
that nobody can love them if they knew the ugly person they feel themselves to
be. They compensate by maintaining a very fixed image of themselves as being
very honest, caring and kind. This becomes brittle and fragile the longer it
goes on for, and there is a feeling of being split-antagonism with oneself.
Sycosis seems to have a broad spread across the
Mappa Mundi where one can see aspects of the Phlegmatic temperament in the
fixed idea of weakness in himself that makes him of a yielding disposition;
opposing the Choleric aspect of masculine strength and bravado to cover up his
inner weakness.
Malarial miasm - between the Acute and Sycotic.
Like the Typhoid miasm, there is a periodicity to the Malarial miasm as it oscillates
between the fixed phase (of sycotic origin) and the acute flare up, which feels
tormenting, as if the person is persecuted and harassed as by a mosquito.
Sankaran says it goes between excitement and acceptance, and these can be seen
as the more positive expressions of
the acute and sycotic. Migraine headaches fall
into this category, with periods of acceptance, covering up the weakness or
fragility through habits and routines, making sure they don’t eat or drink
things that might trigger the migraine. If they overdo it (sycotic) or eat the
wrong food, or have a stressful day at work, these trigger off the acute side
of the miasm to vent off some of this build up of tension.
In this period of flare up, the person is
utterly overcome, they often have to lie motionless in a dark room to avoid
aggravating the intense disturbance of the migraine. The situation Sankaran
gives for this miasm is like the employee of an irate boss- you’re stuck and
dependant (sycotic) on the job, but also feel persecuted, harassed and
undermined by them.
Nat-m has this experience in the realm of Row
3; issues of the relationship. Natrum has a stage 1 expression of feeling as
though they absolutely need the other person to make them feel secure and whole
(acute), whereas muriaticum has a stage 17 expression of feeling betrayed, let
down and used by their partner. They react to this by withdrawing, brooding,
hiding the turbulence of their emotions, and seeking a tumultuous ocean, or a
wild love affair with which to excite/ rouse themselves again (sycotic).
However, the drama inside will eventually seek an outlet that could be
somatised (E.G. migraine) in order to vent the pent-up emotions inside. The
myth of Aphrodite’s forced marriage to the lame smithy god Hephaestus has some resonance
with this miasm. As a dependent upon Zeus, she was forced into this dull
marriage (fixed, acceptance); but she had many passionate liaisons (excitement)
with Ares to make up for this boredom.
The Ringworm miasm is characterised by an
unequal struggle, whereby despite all your efforts to overcome the problem,
eventually you realise it is bigger than you and you resign yourself to
succumbing to its greater power. Sankaran goes on to say “I have understood the
main feeling of this nosode to be that the task at hand is just beyond where
the person can be sure of success. The main action of the prover or the patient
is therefore trying to do something, trying to accomplish a task. He starts
with a kind of lack of confidence, becomes hopeful, tries to accomplish the
task and struggles at it. At some point however he decides that it is not going
to work… So he gives it up, and accepts that he has to live with it… the
pathology and symptoms all come and go in phases. There is often a history of
fungal infection… The symptoms never
really become acute or destructive, and the person feels that he will have to
live with the problem, although it would be better to try and get rid of it. He
struggles periodically but when he fails, he just accepts it.”
The ringworm miasm is evident in almost
everybody; it is ubiquitous where there is a tussle between striving toward
one’s goals and giving up in the face of hardships that feel too strong to
surmount. We’re all able to identify with this pattern, and it seems to be very
fitting for the generation dubbed ‘the millenials’, a group now in their 30’s
who are often still living with their parents, unable to earn enough money to
get onto the property ladder and establish themselves fully in the adult world.
They were born into an era of growth and possibilities, were told they should
all go to University to get a good education and be guaranteed a good career,
but the economic crash (a force much bigger than any individual) has put an end
to these expectations, bringing things to a standstill. Within this pattern,
one can see the initial period of hope and struggle and effort to get good
enough grades to enter University. The struggle continues during this period as
one tries to establish themselves in the wider world, proving their acumen and
diligence to their course of study. After university, there is often a period
where the individual returns home whilst they search for work, and there may be
periods of striving to get job interviews- competing with many others- before
accepting defeat and resigning themselves to a job that doesn’t really test
their capacities or bring satisfaction. The resignation comes after the initial
period of hopeful striving has run its course; when the limited resources of
energy have been used up.
The Ringworm experience is of a striving
towards a goal that is almost within reach but not quite. You never quite make
it before your capacity runs out (Dreams- unsuccessful efforts). There is an
obstacle in the way which is bigger than you, so unlike the Typhoid type- who
has the strength to make a really big effort to overcome the problem, the
Ringworm type has to accept his limitations and periodically give up on his
goals. It is impossible to sustain the effort. Here we see that the vital force
is diminished further than in the Typhoid or Malarial miasms, both of which
have an acute element, representing the highest level of health; it is the
body’s front-line defence against attack and doesn’t sacrifice any parts of the
organism to the disease. Instead, the energy of this miasm lies between Psora
and Sycosis- alternating between struggle and resignation, between hope and a
fixed feeling of weakness that one has to cover up and hide.
There is a correlation between this miasm and
the waxing and waning phases of the moon- each month you have the hopeful
beginning of the journey towards the completion of full moon, and then you have
the period of introspection and looking back when one recuperates and attends
to the need for nurture of the lunar self. During the waxing phase, the person
feels more hopeful as they move towards completing their task, this correlates
with the taking up of new projects, having the energy to get things going,
being motivated, sowing the seeds. This phase is associated with the goddess
Artemis. She is a youthful goddess of the hunt, who has a bow and arrow- a
weapon that enables you to meet your target from a great distance. This is like
seeing your goal, and then having the energy and purpose to get straight to it,
as would an arrow fly through the air to pierce its target.
“As soon as Artemis was born, she helped her
mother give birth to her twin brother, thereby becoming the protector of
childbirth and labour. She asked her father to grant her eternal chastity and
virginity, and never gave in to any potential lovers; devoted to hunting and
nature, she rejected marriage and love.”
(https://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Artemis/artemis.html)
After this follows the period of the waning
moon, when all the efforts need to subside to allow for rest and recuperation,
and looking longingly to the past that was so full of promise. The goddess of
witchcraft- Hecate- is associated with this phase of the moon. She was
Persephone’s escort to and from the underworld as marking the shifting of the
seasons. When a person’s vital energy cannot make a sustained effort (shifting
like the seasons) and is perceived as holding them back, they can become
indifferent to their environment- resigned to their failings and give up what they
once began so hopefully. This correlates with the pace, depth and intensity of
the ringworm miasm. It is an everyday kind of miasm- it frustrates the sufferer
but does not lead to such isolation and despair as the heavier miasms, because
it is not life threatening.
This role of Artemis also seems to fit in with
the Lac-humanum picture very neatly, given the very direct link to the source
of the bond between mother and child following birth. Problems at this early
stage of connecting with one’s mother may indicate the remedy so long as it
fits the totality of the case. With the connections to the Moon it seems
appropriate that the Mappa Mundi placement for this miasm should be in the
realm of Water, with its tides controlled by lunar phases. It is also opposite
the fixed and durable quality of Earth (relating to Psora) followed by
exhaustion and giving up (Sycosis)- there is no sustained effort within the
changeability of elemental Water.
There is a typical family environment where one
can paint a Ringworm miasm situation. There’s the Dulcamara mother, who is
domineering and obsessive over little details especially with her Calc-silicata
son’s progress at school, whose grades keep getting worse. A lot is expected of
him and yet his achievements probably don’t amount to all that much. He goes on
living with his parents well into his 30’s. It is like the situation of the
“millennial” I already mentioned; they’re unable to get on the property ladder
due to limited success in their careers and the discrepancy between wages and
house prices. It’s more like snakes and ladders (Sankaran). Calc-sulph is
listed under fear of snakes!
A lot may be expected of these young people, as
they were born in the go-getting atmosphere of the 1980’s. Within Calc-sil, there
is the desire to achieve success according to his family’s principles,
maintaining the image and reputation of his good family (Sil.) combined with
the hesitancy of Calcarea in the workplace- feeling unsure of oneself and
staying passive, inert and observing others before feeling sure enough to give
it a go oneself. The father in this scenario could be Kali-Sulph- a combination
of the upright dogmatism of the Kali sense of duty to the family, combined with
the scorned and rejected Sulphur, who needs to make a lot of effort to keep up
appearances and compensate for his bruised ego.
Another situation of this miasm is like the one
Sankaran describes of joining weight watchers- trying so hard for a period of
time to change your diet and lose some weight with exercise, before eventually
relapsing and bingeing on a load of cakes and chocolate. Sankaran also places
several Sulphuricum salts into this miasm- Calc, Kali and Mag-s are all equated
with Ringworm. He mentions appearance, ego and effort to prove oneself as being
key themes of suphur- “The Magnesium sulphuricum woman has the feeling that in
order to get the support that she needs, she has to make a big effort, do many
things, appear proper, etc. She feels the need for appreciation by those on
whom she depends for love, care and nourishment.”
Burnett mentions Sulphur and Tellurium as well
as Sepia (alongside Bacilinum) in the efficacious treatment of Ringworm (the
fungal infection itself). The ink from which Sepia is made contains a lot of
Sulphur, whilst Tellurium is in the same column as Sulphur in the periodic
table, corresponding to stage 16. Keywords of this stage according to Sankaran
are- No capacity, No energy, Incapable, Not possible to work, Indifference,
Neglectful, Forgetful. These really resonate with the waning phase of the
ringworm miasm, when all efforts have been exhausted, and the fear of not being
able to achieve the goal becomes overpowering, forcing the sufferer to give up
hope. This lasts until the next phase begins and their confidence returns- the
exuberance of the Sycotic miasm, or Jupiterian influence can re-ignite the
ambitions.
Up to this point, the miasmatic range has gone
from the sudden, intense panic and violence of the Acute, through the hopeful
struggle of Psora to the resigned acceptance of a fixed limitation belonging to
the Sycotic miasm. In between have been stops to the Typhoid, Malarial and
Ringworm miasms which are all compounds of these 3. I can see a correlation
between the personal planets in Astrology and these 6 miasms- namely:
Mercury- Acute- winged messenger, moves between
the underworld, earth & heavens.
Mars- Typhoid- flies into battle without
thinking of consequences. Rash, bold, impatient.
Sun- Psora, Apollo remained eternally youthful
Sun god. Prometheus stole fire and opened Pandora’s box, containing hope but
creating struggle and toil.
Moon- Ringworm, phlegmatic, waxing and waning,
connecting to feminine image: Lac-h.
Venus- Malarial, the excitement of love affairs
with Mars but stuck in boring marriage with lame Hephaestus.
Jupiter- Sycotic- Zeus- promiscuity, power and
cruelty # benevolence
The heavier, more isolated and increasingly
desperate and disturbing states belonging to Cancer, Leprosy, Tuberculosis,
Aids and Syphilis have more of a correlation with the outer “transpersonal” or
generational planets. Respectively, these pertain to the Underworld, the
previous Titan dynasty and the turbulent ocean in Greek mythology:
Saturn- Cancer, Kronos- hard taskmaster,
demands structure and imposes limitations.
Uranus- Tubercular- Creative, revolutionary,
erratic, sudden changes, idealism.
Neptune- Aids/ Leprosy- Dissolving of form,
self-sacrifice, no boundaries, addiction
Pluto- Syphilitic- Destruction of form,
Underworld, transformation, death, criminal, genius
The cancer miasm can be seen as being a
tri-miasmatic state, combining elements of Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis. There
is the Psoric element of struggle that has been amplified to such a level that
the individual feels as though they must make a superhuman effort to overcome
the task. They set themselves a goal that is so far out of reach it is almost
impossible to get to without a near impeccable performance, they are striving
for nothing less than perfection, and so they are pushed to great lengths, and
take on a lot of responsibility from a young age. We can see how this could
come about in a home environment that demands a certain standard of behaviour,
where the spontaneity of the child is suppressed in favour of manners and
achievement. The tumour itself is a result of a proliferation of cells (Sycotic
excess) that continue to grow, replicating themselves, ignoring the code of
healthy cells so they end up destroying existing structures (Syphilitic
destruction of form). This polarity between conformity and rebellion can also
be seen in the cancer miasm; if somebody is heavily suppressed for a long
period of time, either they will want to break free from this restrictive
structure, or their body will develop pathology that expresses this breaking free
from the structure such as when a tumour metastasises.
The Myth of Kronos, who castrates and
emasculates his own father, before becoming ruler of the Titans, fits with the
archetypal pattern of the cancer miasm. He is the youngest of Gaia’s (Earth)
children. Ouranus, his father, is deeply dissatisfied with much of their
offspring and thrusts them back into the womb of Gaia. Here we can see the
oppression of the paternal figure, and the ensuing rebellion where Kronos (the
youngest) takes up the (superhuman) challenge of overcoming his father and
taking his place. He goes on to a long reign over the Titans, maintaining
authority by eating his own children so they cannot overpower him the way he
did to his own father. Thus, the cycle is repeated, and the theme of
suppression is continued until Zeus eventually overthrows his father. The more
you exert a suppressive force, the more anger will be built up against the
oppressor, leading to rebellion and warfare. This is the battlefield of cancer-
waging war on your own body to defeat the revolutionary cells of the tumour.
There is a correlation between this miasm and
the waxing and waning phases of the moon- each month you have the hopeful
beginning of the journey towards the completion of full moon, and then you have
the period of introspection and looking back when one recuperates and attends
to the need for nurture of the lunar self. During the waxing phase, the person
feels more hopeful as they move towards completing their task, this correlates
with the taking up of new projects, having the energy to get things going,
being motivated, sowing the seeds. This phase is associated with the goddess
Artemis. She is a youthful goddess of the hunt, who has a bow and arrow- a
weapon that enables you to meet your target from a great distance. This is like
seeing your goal, and then having the energy and purpose to get straight to it,
as would an arrow fly through the air to pierce its target.
“As soon as Artemis was born, she helped her
mother give birth to her twin brother, thereby becoming the protector of
childbirth and labour. She asked her father to grant her eternal chastity and
virginity, and never gave in to any potential lovers; devoted to hunting and
nature, she rejected marriage and love.” (https://www.greekmythology.com/Olympians/Artemis/artemis.html)
After this follows the period of the waning
moon, when all the efforts need to subside to allow for rest and recuperation,
and looking longingly to the past that was so full of promise. The goddess of
witchcraft- Hecate- is associated with this phase of the moon. She was
Persephone’s escort to and from the underworld as marking the shifting of the
seasons. When a person’s vital energy cannot make a sustained effort (shifting
like the seasons) and is perceived as holding them back, they can become
indifferent to their environment- resigned to their failings and give up what
they once began so hopefully. This correlates with the pace, depth and
intensity of the ringworm miasm. It is an everyday kind of miasm- it frustrates
the sufferer but does not lead to such isolation and despair as the heavier
miasms, because it is not life threatening.
This role of Artemis also seems to fit in with the
Lac-humanum picture very neatly, given the very direct link to the source of
the bond between mother and child following birth. Problems at this early stage
of connecting with one’s mother may indicate the remedy so long as it fits the
totality of the case. With the connections to the Moon it seems appropriate
that the Mappa Mundi placement for this miasm should be in the realm of Water,
with its tides controlled by lunar phases. It is also opposite the fixed and
durable quality of Earth (relating to Psora) followed by exhaustion and giving
up (Sycosis)- there is no sustained effort within the changeability of
elemental Water.
There is a typical family environment where one
can paint a Ringworm miasm situation. There’s the Dulcamara mother, who is
domineering and obsessive over little details especially with her Calc-silicata
son’s progress at school, whose grades keep getting worse. A lot is expected of
him and yet his achievements probably don’t amount to all that much. He goes on
living with his parents well into his 30’s. It is like the situation of the
“millennial” I already mentioned; they’re unable to get on the property ladder
due to limited success in their careers and the discrepancy between wages and
house prices. It’s more like snakes and ladders (Sankaran). Calc-s. is listed
under fear of snakes!
A lot may be expected of these young people, as
they were born in the go-getting atmosphere of the 1980’s. Within Calc-sil,
there is the desire to achieve success according to his family’s principles,
maintaining the image and reputation of his good family (Sil.) combined with
the hesitancy of Calcarea in the workplace- feeling unsure of oneself and
staying passive, inert and observing others before feeling sure enough to give
it a go oneself. The father in this scenario could be Kali-Sulph- a combination
of the upright dogmatism of the Kali sense of duty to the family, combined with
the scorned and rejected Sulphur, who needs to make a lot of effort to keep up
appearances and compensate for his bruised ego.
Another situation of this miasm is like the one
Sankaran describes of joining weight watchers- trying so hard for a period of
time to change diet and lose some weight with exercise, before eventually
relapsing and bingeing on a load of cakes and chocolate. Sankaran also places
several Sulphuricum salts into this miasm- Calc, Kali and Mag-s are all equated
with Ringworm. He mentions appearance, ego and effort to prove oneself as being
key themes of suphur- “The Magnesium sulphuricum woman has the feeling that in
order to get the support that she needs, she has to make a big effort, do many
things, appear proper, etc. She feels the need for appreciation by those on
whom she depends for love, care and nourishment.”
Burnett mentions Sulphur and Tellurium as well
as Sepia (alongside Bacilinum) in the efficacious treatment of Ringworm (the
fungal infection itself). The ink from which Sepia is made contains a lot
of Sulphur, whilst Tellurium is in the same
column as Sulphur in the periodic table, corresponding to stage 16. Keywords of
this stage according to Sankaran are- No capacity, No energy, Incapable,
Not possible to work, Indifference, Neglectful,
Forgetful. These really resonate with the waning phase of the ringworm miasm,
when all efforts have been exhausted, and the fear of not being able to achieve
the goal becomes overpowering, forcing the sufferer to give up hope. This lasts
until the next phase begins and their confidence returns- the exuberance of the
Sycotic miasm, or Jupiterian
influence can re-ignite the ambitions.
Up to this point, the miasmatic range has gone
from the sudden, intense panic and violence of the Acute, through the hopeful
struggle of Psora to the resigned acceptance of a fixed limitation belonging
to the Sycotic miasm. In between have been
stops to the Typhoid, Malarial and Ringworm miasms which are all compounds of
these 3. I can see a correlation between the personal planets in Astrology and
these 6 miasms- namely:
Mercury- Acute- winged messenger, moves between
the underworld, earth & heavens.
Mars- Typhoid- flies into battle without
thinking of consequences. Rash, bold, impatient.
Sun- Psora, Apollo remained eternally youthful
Sun god. Prometheus stole fire and opened Pandora’s box, containing hope but
creating struggle and toil.
Moon- Ringworm, phlegmatic, waxing and waning,
connecting to feminine image: Lac-h.
Venus- Malarial, the excitement of love affairs
with Mars but stuck in boring marriage with lame Hephaestus.
Jupiter- Sycotic- Zeus- promiscuity, power and
cruelty alternating with benevolence
The heavier, more isolated and increasingly
desperate and disturbing states belonging to Cancer, Leprosy, Tuberculosis,
Aids and Syphilis have more of a correlation with the outer “transpersonal” or
generational planets. Respectively, these pertain to the Underworld, the
previous Titan dynasty and the turbulent ocean in Greek mythology:
Saturn- Cancer, Kronos- hard taskmaster,
demands structure and imposes limitations.
Uranus- Tubercular- Creative, revolutionary,
erratic, sudden changes, idealism.
Neptune- Aids/ Leprosy- Dissolving of form,
self-sacrifice, no boundaries, addiction
Pluto- Syphilitic- Destruction of form,
Underworld, transformation, death, criminal, genius
The cancer miasm can be seen as being a tri-miasmatic
state, combining elements of Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis. There is the Psoric
element of struggle that has been amplified to such a level that the individual
feels as though they must make a superhuman effort to overcome the task. They
set themselves a goal that is so far out of reach it is almost impossible to
get to without a near impeccable performance, they are striving for nothing
less than perfection, and so they are pushed to great lengths, and take on a
lot of responsibility from a young age. We can see how this could come about in
a home environment that demands a certain standard of behaviour, where the
spontaneity of the child is suppressed in favour of manners and achievement.
The tumour itself is a result of a proliferation of cells (Sycotic excess) that
continue to grow, replicating themselves, ignoring the code of healthy cells so
they end up destroying existing structures (Syphilitic destruction of form).
This polarity between conformity and rebellion can also be seen in the cancer
miasm; if somebody is heavily suppressed for a long period of time, either they
will want to break free from this restrictive structure, or their body will
develop pathology that expresses this breaking free from the structure such as
when a tumour metastasises.
The Myth of Kronos, who castrates and
emasculates his own father, before becoming ruler of the Titans, fits with the
archetypal pattern of the cancer miasm. He is the youngest of Gaia’s (Earth)
children. Ouranus, his father, is deeply dissatisfied with much of their
offspring and thrusts them back into the womb of Gaia. Here we can see the
oppression of the paternal figure, and the ensuing rebellion where Kronos (the
youngest) takes up the (superhuman) challenge of overcoming his father and taking
his place. He goes on to a long reign over the Titans, maintaining authority by
eating his own children so they cannot overpower him the way he did to his own
father. Thus, the cycle is repeated, and the theme of suppression is continued
until Zeus eventually overthrows his father. The more you exert a suppressive
force, the more anger will be built up against the oppressor, leading to
rebellion and warfare. This is the battlefield of cancer- waging war on your
own body to defeat the revolutionary cells of the tumour.
The idea of taboo practices is contained within
the miasm as well- someone who practices anal sex, or who injects intravenously
is much more likely to contract the disease. There is also a conspiracy theory
that Aids came about because of testing in Africa through vaccination that led
to the Simian version of the disease transforming across from one species to
another. This is a new age where boundaries even between species do not exist;
there is, as Peter Fraser has outlined, a correspondence with the technological
age- where all information and communication is in digital form and can be sent
without wires to anywhere in the globe.
National frontiers no longer have any bearing
on travel- people move freely between border controls. Immigration is huge.
Threats can get into the country incognito, in the form of rogue terrorist
agents who can bypass the normal defences (body’s immune system in Aids) and
blow up a bomb next to the country’s headquarters. Thus there is a feeling of
being defenceless from attack, shunned from society, but also having your own
group (the GAY community) where there is a free-flowing love and mutual
appreciation for each other. Neptune is the Astrological symbol for this miasm,
being the dissolver of forms. There is an idealism, with themes of
self-sacrifice, seeking oblivion through addiction and an overwhelming tide of
oceanic-feeling contained within the image of this planet. It connects with the
collective unconscious, where one escapes from the rational mind back into the
oneness of spiritual practice, as Aids dissolves all the boundaries setup by
the healthy immune system to maintain the physical container of the ego. But it
is easy to get lost in the great ocean, and losing oneself is a key theme for
Neptunian individuals- they can get very lost and alienated from society,
seeking solace in alcohol, drugs or day dreams.
Lastly,
the Syphilitic miasm- the final nail in the coffin. There is no last
chance now- basically the feeling is that they’re doomed, and if they’re going
down then it isn’t going to be without a considerable amount of fighting back.
This can equate to psychotic states, where there is an unfeeling kind of
maliciousness to the person, who can be cool and calculated in their revenge.
It is unlike the hot temper of Mars and more like the cool, subterranean wrath
of Pluto or Scorpio. Hades, lord of the Underworld, with whom there can be no
bargaining, when your time has come, he is going to take you to your death.
Astrologically, Pluto presides over the deepest periods of transformation in
your life- where everything seems to be taken away, where events are so strong
that you must submit to fate and let go of control. There is an element of
chaos, destruction and obliteration inherent in this miasm, but there is also
the polarity to this- which is that once everything material has been stripped
away, you’re left with an opportunity to be reborn without all the trappings
and attachments of having an ego. The form is destroyed, so you can now allow
the un-manifested, the no-thing to be part of your life. There is such a strong
power to Pluto and the Syphilitic miasm- it can be equated with a laser-like
vision, a narrowing, and refining down to the essence of the matter (as Jeremy
Sherr points out). There may be chaos surrounding the person, but in their
chosen area of expertise they can have a quality close to genius, a kind of
attention to detail that cannot be disturbed. This is like the effect of
Syphilis on the tissues of the body- slowly eating into the bony structures,
chiseling and refining rather than the growing outward action of sycosis. It is
a looking inward, and specialising in the oneness rather than the many, like
the way that Mercury amalgamates with other metals by eating it’s way into them.
Vorwort/Suchen Zeichen/Abkürzungen Impressum