Perioden
https://books.google.de/books?id=KV4oDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT84&lpg=PT84&dq=Identity+row+of+the+periodic+table&source=bl&ots=y9ul8dkcVl&sig=F2Gl2VBw7B2cMCk4O8bUzlCZf0I&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiAwY6V5uPWAhXCtRQKHWT5BSwQ6AEIMDAA#v=onepage&q=Identity%20row%20of%20the%20periodic%20table&f=false
[Stepanie Nile]
There is a relationship between the rows of the periodic table and
development. Across the rows of the table various skills reach their peak at
Stage 10 then decline.
All
the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
[Ken
Wilbur]: “There is abundant evidence that some aspects of cognition,
morals, psychosexuality, needs, object relations, motor skills, and language
acquisition proceed in developmental stages, much as an acorn unfolds into an
oak through a series of process phases (Alexander and Langer, 1990; Loevinger, 1976; Wilber, 2000b). These stages or levels of
development are not the rigid, linear, rungs-in-a-ladder phenomenon portrayed
by their critics, but rather appear to be fluid, flowing, overlapping waves
(Beck and Cowan, 1996)“.
The
Seven ages of Man? What an interesting proposition! Lets see if we can take Ken
Wilbur’s statement apart and apply our own Homeopathic perspective …
Lets
think about the relationship between the rows of the periodic table and
development.
Across the rows of the table various skills reach their peak at Stage
10 then decline.
Row one, the Hydrogen Series is the beginning – a
world of sensation and instinct. On the
map this is described as Beige: Archaic-Instinctual
In row two, the Carbon Series, the child begins to distinguish
between Self and Mother. Boundaries start to become quite well defined. ~ Purple: Magical-Animistic
In
the Silicon
Series boundaries extend to the neighbourhood.
~ Red:
Impulsive power.
In
the Ferrum Series rules and
the norms expected by society are explored.
~ Blue:
Mythic Order imposed by others.
In
the Silver
Series the individual begins to express intelligence and creativity. ~ Orange: Scientific Achievement.
In
the Gold Series power and influence over the world
develops. ~ Green: The Sensitive and Humanistic Self
[Jan Scholten]
Serie |
Theme |
Sense |
Age |
Region |
Pilosophy |
Hydrogen |
Being Existence True, real |
Smell |
Unborn |
Spaceless Timeless |
|
Carbon |
Ego Individual |
Touch |
Child |
Body Vitality |
Ethics Value |
Silicium |
Friend Family |
Taste |
Puberty Teenager |
Home Neighbour |
Communication Love, Hate |
Iron |
Worker Task, Duty |
Position |
Adult |
Village |
Practical |
Silver |
Scientist Artist, Queen |
Hearing Voice |
Middle Age |
City County |
Aesthetics Beautya |
Lanthanide |
Shaman Therapist |
Vision |
Middle old |
Country |
Spiritism |
Gold |
Kind Leader |
Vision Eye |
Old Age |
Country World |
Politics |
Uranium |
Magic Intuition |
Smell? |
Ripe old Age |
Universe |
|
Series |
Theme |
Age |
Area |
Sense |
Tissue |
Hydrogen |
Being |
Foetus |
Spaceless |
Smell |
? |
Carbon |
I |
Child |
Body |
? |
Skin |
Silicium |
Other |
Teenager |
House |
Connective |
Tissue |
Ferrum |
Work |
Adult |
Village |
Muscle |
Blood |
Silver |
Ideas |
Middle Age |
Town |
Speech |
Nerves |
Gold |
Leadership |
Ripe |
Country |
Vision |
Bone |
Uranium |
Magus |
Old Age |
Universe |
Intuition |
Bone marrow |
The central words of these series are
Altruism
This is to be recognised in individuals like
Mother Theresa: at a very old age she still cared for children and people who
are widely ignored in this world in their need for help.
Nelson Mandela as well is a man who gave all his
energy to change the system in S. Africa; although he was in prison for many
years and suffered a great deal, he held onto his beautiful message for the
world. In his altruism his energy is never lacking. The only possible way to
live is by giving.
Communication, listening
They are very good at both verbal and non-verbal
communication. This aspect is also seen in children: the language they use is
not appropriate for their age. Whatever they say, they say it precisely. Thus a
child of five being sent to her room and filled with anger said: “However then
I’ll go to my room and I will never return, not to eat and neither to drink!!”
Catherine Coulter: Lach.: language of people
who need the remedy and she gives an example of a child with such harsh
language. The communication of the child needing Lachesis might resemble the
communication of the child described above but in the Actinides however, there
is no competitive element at all as there is in Lachesis.
Wisdom, (self ) reflection
They are wise, not in the sense
of being clever; they have a wisdom, which shows insight. The appropriate sense
is intuition. They are clairvoyant and sometimes they simply know.
They recognise if intuition is
coloured by emotion and know the truth.
Observe, perceive
They see through people and their actions. They
are adapted to several cultures and they will seldom be surprised by what
happens. They can imagine every life-event, even the most inconceivable. The
aim of living is to try to be at peace with each other. In the cycle of life
quality has different stages: we are victim, actor, indicter, judge, defender,
we are condemned and finally we regret. People who need an Actinide know these
stages and do not have any judgment. In observing that judgment is absent.
Overview, transparency
They observe as if everything is transparent. They
understand what is going on at the moment they see it. They do not filter. This
way of looking at things is like using a hidden camera.
Elderly people and little children observe the
world around them in this way. The similarity of elderly people and children is
that they do not react to the world they observe, they have no emotion about
it; they are objective and just watch. Observing is pure and objective.
Sensitivity, Sympathy, Compassion
Trust
Universal truths
Old age, grandparent
The old age belongs to this series. In old age it
is appropriate to be withdrawn while you are present. They do not intervene.
Physical complaints : Cancer, bone marrow
disorders, leukaemia.
7 "series" and 18 "stages". The "series" are the horizontal rows of the periodic table and named after their main members.
The 18 "stages" are the vertical
columns of the periodic table/= steps of development common to all series. They
seem to be a general principle of the development of self-confidence of the
human
mind in different levels and depict 18
archetypical stages of the rise and fall of the theme of each series.
Die Serien gliedern sich in maximal 18 Stadien. Die
Stadien sind die Stufen des Aufstiegs und Falls jeder Serie. Man kann es mit
einem Schauspieler vergleichen, der in verschiedenen Dramen
auftritt. Die Serien sind die Dramen, und die Stadien
sind die Akte der Dramen. Der Held der Geschichte beginnt das Drama als
blutiger Anfänger, entwickelt sich durch Schwierigkeiten,
erreicht den Gipfel und muss dann lernen, das erreichte
Ziel wieder abzugeben, sich von seinem Erfolg innerlich zu lösen, um
schließlich am Ende der Serie ganz frei zu werden für die nächste Ebene.
In its common versions, the periodic table
arranges the elements in seven rows which Scholten
calls series. Each of the seven series indicates a new level of development.
The series are named after
their most prominent elements: hydrogen series,
carbon series, silicum series, iron series, silver
series, gold series and uranium series. In each series from left to right, a
new outer ’shell’ of electrons
gets filled, along with the corresponding
increase of ’heaviness’ by incorporation of core protons and neutrons. In the
atoms at the right end of the row, the outer shell has got its fill of
electrons,
and thus the mission of this series is
completed. Then the next series starts one level below to the left with the
first electrons in a new outer shell, which is again filled up with electrons
in the same
manner. The evolution of elements begins with
the lightest element and the simplest form of matter: hydrogen. From hydrogen,
the evolution continues in successive steps. With each step another
element is born, gaining in atomic mass by
adding more and more core protons (and neutrons) and thin layers of shell
electrons, until the atoms become so heavy and complex that their inner
stability
begins to deteriorate in the form of
radioactivity. This loss of stability indicates the end of (the) matter in the
incomplete 7th row or the uranium series.
1e Serie, die Wasserstoffserie: mit zwei Elementen noch
undifferenziert und könnte als Prolog bezeichnet werden.
2e Serie, die Kohlenstoffserie: mit acht Stadien relativ
einfach strukturiert, und man kann sie mit einem Märchen in acht Kapiteln
vergleichen.
3e Serie, die Siliziumserie: mit ebenfalls acht Stadien,
könnte man mit einer Familienserie o. Seifenoper im Fernsehen vergleichen,
deren Spektrum eigentlich auch mit 8 Folgen erschöpfend ausgelotet wäre.
4e Serie, die Eisenserie: mit 18 Stadien erstmals voll
differenziert. Sie könnte mit dem Eintritt ins Berufsleben mit all seinen
Aufgaben und Pflichten verglichen werden (die
Lehre/Gesellenzeit/Meisterprüfung) weiter
5e Serie, die Silberserie: in 18 Stadien unterteilt. Man
könnte sie mit den Biografien vieler Künstler vergleichen.
6e Serie, die Goldserie: vergleichbar mit einer von
Shakespeares Machttragödien wie Macbeth, die in 18 Stadien seinen Aufstieg und
Fall als König von Schottland beschreibt.
Anfangs möchte Macbeth die politische Macht am liebsten
vermeiden (St.2) und wird nur von seiner Frau dazu gedrängt, doch nachdem er
diesen Weg offiziell eingeschlagen hat (St.4) und sein Ziel,
die Königswürde, tatsächlich erreicht (St.10), wird er
bald zum Tyrannen (St.12), und sein Fall beginnt (St.13) bis zum bitteren Ende
(St.17-18).
Innerhalb der Goldserie kommt ab
dem Stadium 3 noch die parallel laufende, ergänzende Sequenz der Lanthanide hinzu, die der Entwicklung innerer Macht und
Autonomie entspricht.
7e Serie, die Uranserie: unvollkommen ausgebildet und
endet quasi im Nichts, weil ihre Elemente durch die zunehmende Radioaktivität
immer kurzlebiger und instabiler werden. Sie entspricht einer Altersweisheit,
die um die Brüchigkeit aller Existenz weiß und einen siebten Sinn für
übernatürliche Dinge entwickelt.
[Rajan Sankaran]
The remedies of row 6 differ from row 5 that
while the feeling of row 6 is of being hated with row 5 of the periodic table
it is more like the feeling of being criticized, like being insulted.
The seven series
In its common versions, the periodic table
arranges the elements in seven rows which Scholten
calls series. Each of the seven series indicates a new level of development.
The series are named after their most prominent elements: hydrogen series,
carbon series, silicum series, iron series, silver
series, gold series and uranium series. In each series from left to right, a
new outer ’shell’ of electrons gets filled, along with the corresponding
increase of ’heaviness’ by incorporation of core protons and neutrons. In the
atoms at the right end of the row, the outer shell has got its fill of
electrons, and thus the mission of this series is completed. Then the next
series starts one level below to the left with the first electrons in a new
outer shell, which is again filled up with electrons in the same manner. The
evolution of elements begins with the lightest element and the simplest form of
matter: hydrogen. From hydrogen, the evolution continues in successive steps.
With each step another element is born, gaining in atomic mass by adding more
and more core protons (and neutrons) and thin layers of shell electrons, until
the atoms become so heavy and complex that their inner stability begins to
deteriorate in the form of radioactivity. This loss of stability indicates the
end of (the) matter in the incomplete 7th row or the uranium series.
The themes of the seven series:
1. hydrogen. series can hardly be called a series, because it
consists of only two atoms, Hydrogen and Helium. Instinctive. This is the
initiation of the evolution of elements. Hydrogen is the lightest and the
simplest atom is like the first born in space. This series of ’only one or two’
represents the dualistic principle, the pairs of opposites. Therapeutic
hydrogen helped in severe forms of cyclothymia, even
after Lithium had failed (pronounced forms of megalomania # devastating
feelings of nothingness). In this series there is only yes or no, to be or not
to be. With hydrogen as the affirmative, helium represents a futile negation of
existence by cutting off any communication, as in autism, in which it has been
used successfully.
2. carbon. series: Impulsive. 8 elements from Lithium to Fluor.
These light and small, ’young’ elements represents the development of the body,
of simple self-confidence and physical vitality as in childhood.
3. silicium. series: Magical. ’ripening’
eight elements from Natrium to Chlorum
represent the level of adolescence in the family, relationship, and love
affairs.
4. iron. series: Roles and Rules: ’grown-up’ 18 elements from Kaliium to Brom stand for duty
and teamwork as in schools ("non scholae, sed vitae") or factories, for rules and regulations.
This series
is ’grown-up’ also in the sense that for the
first time it spans the fully differentiated number of 18 stages.
5. silver. series: Achiever: 18 elements represents creative
genius, show and performance in arts, scientific publications, and the position
of mediators in middle management.
6. gold. series: Authority. leadership, responsibility, power
and politics. Incl. the Lanthanides, with an emphasis on development of inner
power and autonomy.
7. uranium. series: Integral self. May stand for a kind of ‘sixth
sense’ or attempted intuition. Most of our Radium and Uranium cases were obese
people who also felt psychologically ’heavy’.
This series is indeed falling apart, emitting
energy, for reason of having become too heavy. Correspondingly, there is a
sense that life is too precarious, with death always present as its antipode,
but with a full and radiating quality. Unstable
wisdom. Incl. Actanoiden
[Jan Scholten]
Hydrogeniumseries: being, fetus, space.
Carbonseries: ego, child, body.
Siliciumseries: friend, family, teenager.
Ironseries: worker, adult, village.
Silverseries: inventor, performer, middle age, city.
Goldseries: leader, ripe age, country/world.
Central words for the Uraniumseries:
Altruism
Communication
Wisdom
Observe, perceive
Overview, transparency
Sensitivity, Sympathy, Compassion
Universal truths
Old age
[JJ Kleber]
In Gesundheit hat jeder Mensch Qualitäten von allen
Serien, mit Schwergewicht je nach momentaner Lebens-, Arbeits-,
Tages-Situation; der Wechsel zwischen den Serien muss möglich
sein z.B. bei Ärger in Reihe 2,
bei schwierigen Entscheidungen
Reihe 3,
bei der Steuerklärung eine
Situation aus Reihe 4,
bei der Mathearbeit in Reihe 5,
bei weitreichenden Plänen Reihe
6;
Nur wenn festgefahren in den Reaktionen auf eine Serie
liegt eine Krankheit vor [z.B. Mag-m. braucht bei
Prüfung einen Rat (Mg) den er aber nicht annimmt (Cl)].
Hydrogen Being Smell Unborn Spaceless
Existence Timeless
True/real
Carbon Ego/Other Touch Child Body Ethics Skin
Individual Vitality Value
Silicium Friend Taste Puberty House Connective Tissue
Family Teenager Neighbour Communication
Love/Hate
Iron Worker Position Adult Village Practical Muscle Blood
Silver Scientist Hearing Middle
age City Aesthetics Speech Nerves
Artist Voice County Beauty
Queen
Lanthanide Shaman Vision Middle old Country Spiritism
Therapist
Gold King Vision Old age Country Politics Vision Skeleton
Leader Eye World
Uranium Intuition Smell? Ripe old age Universe Intuition
Magician Bone marrow
Vergleich: Siehe: Stadiums + Elementen
[Iain Marrs]
Chemical Algebra: Enjoying the fruits (and
salts) of Jan Scholten's invention: 1/4
‘Scientific revolutions are, in fact,
metaphorical revolutions.’ Michael Arbib and Mary Hesse, Constructions of Reality, Cambridge, 1986.
‘Perhaps every science must start with metaphor
and end with algebra - and perhaps without the metaphor there would never have
been an algebra.’
Max Black, Models and Metaphors: Studies in
Language and Philosophy, Cornell, Ithaca, 1962
Part One: Exploring the Algebraic concept:
At some point prior to 1993 Jan Scholten invented (re-invented?) an activity with which
James Tyler Kent’s name has at times been associated disreputably - the
algebraic combination of themes
to comprehend mineral remedies. Such teachers
as Paul Herscu has lately been teaching how to
observe combination salts (I will reproduce a 1992 quote from Herscu in a subsequent section of
this article) and then Jan Scholten
expanded radically the whole universe (hydrogen!) of mineral combination for
which we, who now rely upon this approach, remain in his debt.
It would be a caricature of Jan Scholten’s work to think of it as 100% systematic. The
order followed in all of Scholten’s text is more
artful than that, but that is the aspect with which we begin.
The format of each book thus far is the
exploration of a systematic and thematic reading of the Periodic Table.
Accordingly, the head of each chapter and sub-chapter offers some ‘algebra’ and
only after that do we come to any cases of the
element or element-combination in question.
Although Jan Scholten
introduced a largely two-term system, this is not a limit inherent within the
approach. In accord with the chemists and their uses of the Periodic Table, his
first book, “Homeopathy & Minerals”, Scholten
also welcomed in such substances as "ammonia’"(in chemistry, NH4 and
in homeopathy, Ammonium causticum). A combination
that goes on to combine
with other elements. Just as NH4 acts as if it
were an alkali (some chemists accordingly place it in between potassium and rubidium)
at an interposed octave of stage 1; so do the inorganic
chemists add in another pseudo-element, CN and
place it at an octave in between chlorine and bromine. Scholten’s
move in Homeopathy and the Elements) of aluminum over
to the scandium
group (his "stage three') has precedent
and was also proposed by a metallurgist, F. Habashi
(as Scerri informs us, The Periodic Table, p.278,
along with the other information just cited).
For all that it is a "metaphorical"
move, following the spirit not the letter.
If we then read Scholten’s
remedy descriptions we find two distinct types of information (even though one
category can be sparse at times it becomes more common with Secret
Lanthanides).
The first type of data derives from the logic
of themes algebraically crossed together. The second type of data derives from
the cured cases that follow in his text. The latter is given a setting
by the former. If one simply read the header
text as proof of the descriptive power of the themes as given, then one might
easily miss these additions derived from clinical practice and/or from
a proving. The latter are not exhaustively
explained (they are not ‘emptied’) by the themes as given, they offer
individual particulars which develope (on the best of
occasions, we might even
say that they "provoke’") those
algebraic themes, though we would likely use such phrasing only if we had spent
too much time at stage 16.
The proving is the other pool drawn from. In Scholten’s Neon for example, we find "flood",
"keyhole" and "Down’s syndrome", each drawn from Jeremy Sherr’s proving of Neon. The proving selection anchors,
tests and illuminates the algebra. Thereafter, other teachers; for example
Louis Klein, Clinical Focus Guide, (Neon, Volume 1, 2003, pp.205-11) or Jacques
Echard’s case of
Neon in Sankaran’s
Structure (2008, pp.114-23) - confirm and further develop such themes
(regardless of whether they are extracted from proving or foreseen by algebra)
within clinical practice.
The interaction between these two forces (on the
one hand, the deductive and on the other the experimental from clinic or from
proving) may lead to a new theme for a given element or mineral
salt or again it may lead to a re-reading of a
theme already given. This is a cycle of development, application, extension and
review. In sum; Scholten’s work generates further
material that may
in any one instance transcend his algebraic
terms for this or that remedy. From which point the story then continues on.
The paradigm is further unpacked by the entrance of; for example, the case
of Nat-s. from Rajan Sankaran (see below) or by Roger Morrison’s extension of
algebra to the organic groupings of the carbon-based remedies each group
replete with specific themes; major and minor.
Alongside chemo-phobia, blocking some people’s
path forward in the further exploration and usage of this material there is the
"problem" of systems. There are those who abhor systems and those who
adore them. There are some fleet-footed homeopaths, dancing with the tao, who almost seem to evade systematizing what they
teach. There are others who offer tools that are, precisely systematic. These
two groups always co-exist, the clinical practitioners who are dancers of
experience and the clinical practitioners who are organizers of experience and
the forces that they exert
both work in conjunction on the rest of us who
watch the two aspects and gradually try it out on the dance floor, learning to
tango for ourselves. The combined effect is that we evolve in our ability to
welcome and to comprehend greater ranges of experience; for a homeopathic
practitioner this means we can help arrange things so that God and patient
willing, more unwanted ‘stuff’ (polite word…) can be annihilated by the
Annihilator of Disease.
Chemical algebra has evolved swiftly within the
culture of homeopathy, as is evident from the entrance of Roger Morrison’s
immense book on Carbon remedies (Carbon: Organic and Hydrocarbon Remedies in
Homeopathy, 2006). It also evolves, as ever, one case at a time and an example
of such a case is presented by Rajan Sankaran in his Structure. Both these instances, as well as
Jayesh Shah’s “Into the Periodic Table” for example,
comprise a second generation of work, all developing from the foundations laid
by Jan Scholten.
First, an aspect from Rajan
Sankaran’s case of Nat-s. (Structure, 2008, volume 1,
p.368, author’s bold type):
“But how do we understand the issues of row 2
which comes up so strongly in her case? Then I looked in the internet and
studied Nat-s. The chemical formula of Natrum sulph is Na2SO4!
This was almost like cracking a jackpot!!! And
very promptly the whole mystery seemed to straighten out. Then I understood the
occurrence of all the features of row 2 (Oxygen) in a case of Nat-s., which is
due to the predominance of the Oxygen element.”
The implication is straightforward, if a little
unwelcome for those of us who are lazy: thematic lists for “Nat-s.” have
previously worked from the name of the remedy. The unstated rule thus followed
has been this; "if the common name doesn’t feature the substance, then
forget about it." That there is oxygen in “Nat-s.” or that there are both
oxygen and hydrogen in “Nat-p.”- this complicates matters. Indeed, it may be an
aversion to complexity that causes us elsewhere, to under-prescribe substances
with complicated names. (The naming-behaviour that we know from the world of
popular music implies that, if Methylium aeth. wanted to secure more cured cases it should maybe
make a call to Aether’s agent…) This state of affairs
is a relative of that fallacy (or a bridge to cross) named
"there are large remedies and there are
small remedies". This fallacy (or a bridge to cross) is called "there
are the simple named remedies and there are the complicated named remedies and
the former are simple". Complexity can be revealed and brought out from
behind any one of these too-simple names; revealed in homeopathic practice,
such as in the above example by Dr. Rajan Sankaran.
Our 2nd example is provided by Dr.
Roger Morrison. There have been many books that combine homeopathic materia medica while also
simultaneously offering an evolutionary leap forward for
the whole culture of homeopathy. For example,
Paul Herscu’s book on Stramonium
was subtitled, "with an Introduction to Analysis using Cycles and
Segments". Likewise, Joseph Reves’ title 24
Chapters in Homeopathy was completed by the phrase "with the addition of
Introduction to Systems". Jan Scholten, in his
revolutionary volumes, has offered a framework of theory by which to apply in
practice the combination algebra of which he is the pioneer on the ground of
the Periodic Table. Dr. Morrison offers another such development within his
book on the Carbon remedies (Carbon, 2006): he describes thematically the
various organic groupings within carbon-based chemistry. That is what he
offers. I say that we are "offered" this, advisedly. It is even more
disruptive
to those of us who want an easy life than is Rajan Sankaran’s Na2S04
jackpot...but as Jeremy Sherr has pointed out, some
cultures are not that fond of philosophy (theory) while others enjoy it
immensely. This pre-existing terrain tends to determine the reception given to
"theoretical" tools and instruments such as those accompanying all
the books I have just named. Roger Morrison’s
offer is assuredly being taken up by those who
perceive its potential. I do not as yet have the clinical experience to comment
in any depth on the whole, but one example did catch my eye - Hydr-ac. (pp.459-72). Simply put, not only is there now no
excuse not to know that this remedy is HCN but Dr. Morrison has also positively
encouraged us to read this chemical shorthand. For the thematic mind already
nurtured by Jan Scholten’s classes in algebra, Roger
Morrison gathers the evidence from chemistry that cyanide (CN) acts like a
halogen (stage 17-like); that parts of its toxicology
have likenesses to tetanus, to pertussis and to cholera (all miasms
which invite placement on the Stages schema and which find their places in, for
example, Louis Klein’s forthcoming work on such miasms)
that this acid binds selectively with gold, silver and copper (i.e., with three
metals of stage 11); that this chemical inhibits an enzyme system which
involves both iron and oxygen and that
in homeopathic preparation Hydrocyanic acid
acts like Iodum, as we can read again in the case
which Morrison selects from the practitioner and teacher Deborah Collins (a
case first published in Links), where the remedy homeopathic to the individual
(HCN) was able to cure what appeared to be the trauma of a previous life which
was destroying the patient’s present life.
Truly, we are living in a Golden Age.
Part Two
Evolving
All the while that we have being benefiting
from Jan Scholten’s books and from subsequent work in
this lineage, homeopathic practitioners have kept on practicing homeopathically - as well as sometimes taking some research
time off, all the better to assimilate the many developments currently on
offer. Accordingly, clinical results have continued to emerge. Teachers whose
practice is guided by other metaphors have, in turn, conveyed their insights
regarding remedies made from elements and from minerals. For example, in
Massimo Mangialavori’s Precious and Base Metals -
An Alchemical View (2005), we find an approach
that recuperates for homeopathy a variety of ‘esoteric’ approaches (alchemy,
anthroposophy and even a spot of tarot). In all such offerings there
are overlaps and differences to be noted
between the new work and that which is already on the table (for example, Mangialavori places his themes in a hierarchy, as does
Roger Morrison in Carbon). Each such work illustrates the practitioner’s own
version of chemical algebra. In Mangialavori’s work
we witness the recuperation of much material from ‘outside Homeopathy’ (a
meaningless phrase that self-destructs as soon as it is spoken: as a universal
science and art there is no ‘outside’ to Homeopathy) and this is a sign that
everyone also continues to draw ideas from every possible source in accord with
the only law (sic) known to the unconscious - to wit, ‘use whatever resonates…’
- so as to woo the alert practitioner into a homeopathic prescription. The
presence of such material in Mangialavori might also
remind us of the ‘door’ aspect in Jan Scholten’s
stage 4 and its resonance with the Hebrew letter dalet,
which has the numerical value of 4:
‘As we follow the clues - stars, numbers, colors, plants, forms, verse, music, structures - a huge
framework of connections is revealed at many levels. One is inside an echoing
manifold where everything responds and everything has a place and a time
assigned to it.’
Georgio de Santillana and Hertha von Dechend, Hamlet's Mill, Godine,
Boston, 1969
Given that resonance is the reality of how our
minds actually work (and how evolution works, how Nature works), and given that
experimentation and new discoveries proceed apace (after all, in homeopathy, we
are living through a golden age, a renaissance or period of cultural
evolution), the users of homeopathic algebra are thus faced with the continued
task (necessity) of also evolving
our art and science - along the Stages and the
Ages! (Seven Ages, with the Lanthanides and the Actinides as well…)
Such evolution surely pivots around one basic
idea which itself is a corollary of group or thematic thinking: if the themes
drawn out (educed) from substances can and must be combined somehow when those
elemental substances are combined, then the practice of such thematic combining
is not dependent on the themes stated by, say, Jan Scholten
or indeed by any one particular teacher.
It is not necessary to slavishly follow (and
has he ever asked it of us?) Jan Scholten’s theme for
a given remedy. Such rote copying or parroting of themes would merely show our
own fixed state
or stage, also making it impossible to have
such insights as Rajan Sankaran’s
regarding the remedy formerly known as Natrum sulph (see Part One of this article). Yet Sankaran’s insight confirms
the algebraic approach itself. This is how
things develop in science: an evolutionary leap is made and although numerous
details may be changed over time the leap itself remains incontrovertible.
As thematic (group) thinking has evolved,
through its application in clinical practice, we have necessarily seen a
cultural evolution occur within homeopathy. Considered as one whole, this is a
shift
of paradigm. It is not, then, the work of Jan Scholten and of Rajan Sankaran or of other teachers which has to be reconciled,
each with each: it is we who have to reconcile ourselves to the mutual effects
of the whole, and thus of what every such teacher offers us - we who need to
grow into these new clothes. Yes, some will continue to say that these are the
“Emperor’s New Clothes” - but
the human aspect within us named ‘pride’ will
often not allow us to express enthusiasm for the work of others - work which we
feel compelled to criticize before we can, begrudgingly, say yes to it.
(I should add that there are also other voices
which, conversely, always exclaim -like Elizabeth Taylor, regarding each of her
marriages- ‘This one is really the one!’)
Unpacking the import of thematic algebra
Simply put, I suggest that if we ‘unpack’
thematic algebra it potentially changes everything about the practice of
homeopathy. The most basic example is this: no item of data bequeathed to us by
the years of experience (via clinic,
toxicology, or proving) and included in that body of work called ‘homeopathic materia medica’ - no such item is
now solely itself. No item of data is exhausted (emptied) by simply being read
as applicable to the remedy to which it is nominally attached. To repeat, we
can no longer be assured, regarding any item of data, that the item belongs
uniquely and solely with the remedy to which it has traditionally been
attached. If a symptom is given ‘for Sepia’ or ‘for Lach.,’
yes, it may be “true of that remedy” but the truthfulness of this statement
pales in comparison with the dawning realization that it may also be true of a
whole class of remedies of which the individual remedy (Sepia; Lach.) is but one member. Given that a class may be as
large as ‘Animal,’ or as particular as Viperidae or
as newly mapped as Cat-like, this means that each item of data must needs find
its proper level in a hierarchy of thematic groups so that we realize the full
prescribing options implied once we identify a given thematic as actively
present within a given patient who sits before us.
A second facet of this example: If a
homeopathic practitioner teaches (demonstrates, illustrates by cured case,
convinces us of) aspects of a remedy that no-one else has noted before, then
for that practitioner who uses the algebraic method or who analyzes cases using
thematic group thinking, this discovery now awaits (requires) assimilation to
(reconciliation with) the current algebraic understanding of the remedy in
question. That is, if we think in thematic groups, we must endeavour to place
the newly discovered (or longstanding) aspect of any remedy under one of the
existing headings, or understand a conjunction of themes afresh, or supplement
the thematic aspects that we had previously gathered in regard to that remedy.
If we trust homeopath Y - who, it so happens,
does not practice a systematic approach to thematic algebra but is a
teacher/practitioner whose work we respect, then that thematic insight offered
by homeopath Y has to be capable of assimilation to our thematic understanding
of the remedy in question. It is no good saying, “Well, Y doesn’t agree with
our way of thinking so we need not form an interpretation to explain Y’s clinical
observation!” In the working out of such, one consequence may be that the
systematic frame which we have used to approach thematic work on the remedy in
question is altered, in this or that detail. If such is the outcome then we can
rest easy knowing that we, as homeopaths, are now practicing Thomas Kuhn’s
‘normal science,’ that phase which ensues after the ‘revolutionary science’
which itself instituted the new paradigm (Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific
Revolutions).
As new clinical evidence is produced, a ‘gap’
may open up between the established algebra for a remedy - let’s take as an
example, Merc-i.f. - and a fine case of that remedy,
a case where the patient’s behaviour and symptology
is clearly organized by the metaphor ‘tiger’ (as in a case by Mangialavori of this remedy) -
“I dream that I’ve got teeth like a tiger… But
I have to be careful how I close my mouth otherwise I’ll make holes in myself
and then I’ll get mouth ulcers…”
(9 year old girl, in Mangialavori,
Precious and Base Metals: An Alchemical View, p.84)
Such a gap - between algebra and case - may
continue to exist for many years (or only for a few months: after all, there
are lots of us whose practice may bring forth a solution for any particular
problem posed by algebraic metaphor) but eventually, unless the insight
(‘tiger’) can be understood by thematic (group) thinking, then our approach
will have failed to grasp this aspect of particularity and, accordingly, will
not have comprehended that which it is our task to comprehend (the particularities
of a case and of a remedy) for the purposes of enabling cure in our chosen
manner (that is, through the homeopathic algebra of metaphor).
The position taken in this essay, by the way,
is that thematic (algebraic, group) thinking is an inevitable part of our
engagement with experience. Likewise, metaphors and analogies share a condition
with homeopathy: not only do they work but their function is itself an
ineluctable part of reality. Given this fact, like everything else which wants
to survive, the algebraic approach must continue to evolve - which brings us to
a central task facing us.
The main problem that an algebraic approach
presents to the homeopath, I suggest, is the task of distinguishing (in any
given analysis) between that which is emergent and that which is constituent.
‘Tiger’ is emergent (given Mangialavori’s cured case
cited above) from the homeopathic action of Merc-i-f.,
the homeopathic constituents of which are mercury and iodine, each understood
thematically.
It is incumbent upon those who teach the
thematic approach that they keep reminding the homeopathic student not to apply
the method superficially, and such reminders are now an abiding presence within
this approach. In Structure we find Dr. Sankaran
warning the reader not to be triggered by the apparent arrival of an animal
theme in a case that, in fact, may require a mineral. These comments have the
same import as Jeremy Sherr’s wise old saw that
‘Helium looks like an eagle…’ Now, after Mangialavori’s
case, the next time we see what we think is a tiger we will have no excuse not
to consider Merc-i-f., alongside anything else that
might look like a tiger (tiger mosquito; tiger’s eye, a variant of crocodilite) and, sadly, everything else that may act like
a tiger but not have ‘tiger’ in its name (just as Merc-i-f
does not). Similarly, after Scholten’s Rubidium case
(H &E, pp.535-36), when we see lions (clinically!) maybe we should give a
look at some or all of the ‘Stage 1’ mineral elements - and in both these
examples I have not even mentioned the homeopathic remedies prepared from cats…
Massimo Mangialavori added Zinc-p. to the Snakes
because he clinically observed this remedy acting like one. Divya
Chhabra finds a thematic presence of lizards in
Strontium and related remedies. Vega Rozenberg’s
‘Plastic’ box is full of arsenic!
Not only are there countless clinical examples
that expand this point, there is also ample advice from elsewhere as to the
many and varied consequences of this one important, underlying fact - the fact that
there is no single fixed interpretation or translation for a given symbol or
metaphor - and such advice has traditionally been both negative and positive,
examples of which now follow to conclude this part of the article.
On Analogy
‘Thinking homeopathically
is thinking metaphorically. If we don’t think in metaphors we are lost.’
Misha Norland, ‘Some excerpts from Misha
Norland’s July 1995 Seminar,’ Homeopathy BC, volume 2
(1996), #2
‘There are a hundred thousand minerals and
plants and a hundred million animals and insects. Curing like with like is
about metaphor and analogy, not sameness, so there cannot be one simillimum and we don’t want there to be a simillimum either, just like there can never be only one
perfect poem for each person.
Homeopathy is poetry or music because it is
analogy. You don’t say to somebody, “Your eyes are beautiful, like eyes!” You
say, “Your eyes are like the lake in the spring and your hair is like the wind
blowing through the soft leaves as they fall to the ground in the autumn.” If
it is the right music, rhythm and words, it will touch. So, many poems touch
you and they will do so in different ways. Some poems will be better than other
poems, and they will touch deeper and longer and carry you further. And some
will be crap and not touch much at all!
We want to work “in the image of” and it is
better that way because it means that every level of practitioner can get
results. It allows practitioners the possibility of not being perfect.’
(Jeremy Sherr,
interviewed by Rowena J. Ronson)
‘Fast intuitions depend on the ‘undermind’ taking a quick look at the situation and finding
an analogy which seems to offer understanding and prediction. These unconscious
analogies surface as intuitions. Whether they are right or not depends not on
how “intuitive” they are, but on the appropriateness of the underlying analogy.
Often we are absolutely right. But sometimes the ‘undermind’
is fooled by appearances, and then it leads us off in the wrong direction.’
Guy Claxton, Hare Brain Tortoise Mind
‘We may note that, in these experiments, the
sign “=” may stand for the words “is confused with.” ’
G. Spencer Brown, The Laws of Form
‘Well, it must be acknowledged quite plainly
and frankly that the method of analogy presents many negative sides and many
dangers, errors and serious illusions. This is because it is entirely founded
on experience; and all superficial, incomplete or false experience is bound to
give rise to superficial, incomplete and false conclusions, by analogy, in a
direction parallel with the experience from which they are the outcome...
It must be concluded, therefore, that the
method of analogy on the one hand is in no way infallible but on the other hand
it is qualified to lead to the discovery of essential truths. Its effectiveness
and value depend on the fullness and exactitude of the experience on which it
is based.’
Valentin Tomberg, ‘The Magician,’ Meditations on the Tarot
‘The poet and critic Matthew Arnold, during his
time as an inspector of schools, used to tell of a colleague who boasted of
thirteen years’ experience - whereas, as Arnold would comment, it was perfectly
clear to anyone who knew the man that he had had nothing of the sort. He had
had one year’s experience thirteen times.’
Guy Claxton, Hare
Brain Tortoise Mind
Part Three
The combinatorial approach is not only the
basis upon which Jan Scholten’s books are founded and
the core of ‘analyzing the constituent parts,’ it arises as soon as we think in
chemical - or, indeed,
in constituent - terms:
‘The materia medica of the [mineral salt combination] remedy has been
presented as a simple combination of the symptoms of each original remedy, and
symptoms particular to the remedy itself.
But I think that if you look deeply into these
cases or have treated enough patients with each of these remedies, it becomes
clear that there are at least three subtypes of symptoms associated with each
of these combination remedies:
those nearer to one remedy,
those nearer to the other
remedy,
those more in the middle that
share equally from each parent remedy…
Many cases will look a great deal like one of
the remedies, let’s say Sulphur, and yet when you give the remedy it does not
act. That’s because the patient needed Nat-s. but has 90% of the symptoms in
the Sulphur pole and only 10% in the Natrium pole.
Even with most of the symptoms pointing to Sulphur, Natrium
sulph is the needed remedy…
[Homeopaths] often tell me that they missed the
remedy because they expected to find a 50/50 split of both remedies in order to
consider a combination remedy. It never occurred to them to look for a 90%
majority of one root remedy and a 10% portion of the other.
And, just to make things a bit more
complicated, Nat-s. is a combination of three root remedies: Nat-m., Sulph. and Med.’
Paul Herscu, 1992 IFH Case Conference, pp. 69-70
How could this mineral substance have caught a
sexually-transmitted disease - where does the Medorrhinum
aspect come from? We ask such (odd) questions in the attempt to assimilate Dr. Herscu’s clinical insights. We ask with the intent of
undoing certain prejudices in whose grip we may unconsciously be held.
One prejudice relates,
1st to whether the world will be
arranged ‘like my textbook version of it, with one list of themes on the left
and another list on the right…’ Dr. Sankaran’s case
(of this ‘same’ remedy,
Nat-s. - see Part One of this essay) extended
this challenge into a question of how many thematic columns there should be on
the page (answer: sometimes more than two, but Jan Scholten’s
inclusion of Ammonium already told us that).
2nd Paul Herscu’s
insights should remind us,
a), that ‘miasm
thinking’ was the first (and still, in part, contested) version of thematic
(group) thinking and,
b), that there needs to be a
‘column’ on the page for miasm grouping that is
neither on the left nor on the right of the page and may not even be aligned in
that direction at all… (The position taken up within Rajan
Sankaran’s algebra of ‘family crossed with miasm’ is, of course, related to the matter at hand. As has
been suggested elsewhere, however, the model drawn from the Periodic Table
following Scholten, of a precise and exclusive
intersection or crossroads, as of two axes at right angles, does not
necessarily describe the complexities of the natural world.
As many myths and some
musicians have warned us, more things happen at the crossroads than can be
predicted…)
The combining of themes is a form of
scaffolding from which, in every instance, various buildings, each particular,
can emerge. In chemical algebra, the themes of ‘Natrium’
and ‘Sulphur’ combine and one building emergent from this scaffolding is the
building we call “Nat-s.” which, it turns out, is an example of the sycotic style of architecture (as observed by Paul Herscu, et al) and which,
it turns out, also has an ‘Oxygen’ dimension (Rajan Sankaran). Who’d have
guessed it from the scaffolding? Well, fortunately it is possible, initially,
to practice homeopathy by looking at the scaffolding, at the ‘chemical
address,’ with a bit of help from Wikipedia! However, although helpful, this
can all play out merely at the ‘technical’ level (Technetium?). The combining
of constituent themes must gradually lead the attentive mind - one willing to
marry left and right brains, or perhaps ‘male’ and ‘female’ aspects - toward a
deeper understanding of that which is emergent and particular.
‘Emergent properties are ubiquitous in nature.
The classical example of emergent properties concerns the individual properties
of hydrogen and oxygen as atoms versus the unique properties that emerge when
hydrogen and oxygen unite and become the molecular system called water. The
unique properties of water expressed as a liquid at room temperature cannot be
predicted by studying
the behavior of
hydrogen and oxygen independently (i.e., un-united) as separate gases at room
temperature. ... [The] properties that are unique to water can only be revealed
(i.e. discovered) when
the particular components are allowed to
interact as a unique, integrated system.’
Daniel B. Fishman
et al, Paradigms in Behavior Therapy: Present and
Promise, Springer, New York, 1988
‘I don’t believe at all that if a remedy is
combined by two substances that you can take the symptoms of the one and the
symptoms of the other, mix them together and have the symptoms of the
combination. Knowing the single substances can give you good suggestions on the
mixture but not more. I remember my first cases of Ars
sulfuratum flavum: Every
time I had clear symptoms of
Ars- and clear
symptoms of Sulph. and I had very good results
prescribing Ars-s-f. But at the end, after six or
seven patients like this, I arrived at the point of having very good
information of the remedy itself.’
Massimo Mangialavori, Interview, Links, 1996, vol. 9 (4)
Within thematic homeopathy, then, what rules
can we apply to our combinatorial or algebraic thinking which might best allow
our thought to evolve, as Mangiavalori’s did
regarding Ars-s-f and
as Herscu suggests we
evolve, instancing Nat-s? The answers to this question are a work in progress
but, in addition to the systematic implications of Herscu’s
comment above, we have already
been offered some pointers:
‘… [The] basic theme that emerges in the
metallic salts is (like other salts already studied) the combined feeling of
the two components. This “combined” feeling has an intensity and depth which
lies in between the two, not greater - this is
my experience.’
Rajan Sankaran, The Substance of Homeopathy, Bombay, 1994, p.196
‘This alternation between positive and negative
is a sign of a salt. Being one way one time and changing completely is a salt.’
Rajan Sankaran, Structure, Mumbai, 2008, p.333
‘NH: So you’re looking for a structure in the
periodic table?
JS: A structure, yes absolutely, not emotional
pictures or something like that, but the deep inner structure, the verb, the
motion. It’s there, if you’ve got the end of each period you’ve got the key to
the grid, and if you’ve got all the nobles, you’ve got the key to what changes
from period to period, not only within the period but also how all the seven
develop from one to the other. But to do that, the way I work, I need to see
the proving, because I’m looking at the inner structure of what makes a remedy
tick. And that’s something that’s collected through physical symptoms, through
generals, through mentals, all the way along… But the
only way to find a common denominator is to go to the most simple element, you
have to go simple because complex will never be a common denominator. Like if you’ve
got 1/32 + 3/16 + 7/8, you can’t add them together unless you come to the most
simple. So it really means potentising the
understanding to simplicity.’
(Jeremy Sherr, interviewed by Nick Hewes)
‘Basic symptoms have three parts: the subject
part, the object part and the relationship or action part.’
(Jan Scholten, Secret Lanthanides, p.22)
Viewing all these statements together - just
those cited in this article from Herscu, Mangialavori, Sankaran, Scholten, and Sherr - we find
seemingly opposite intents, either implicit or explicit.
As the physicist Niels
Bohr observed, “The opposite of a correct statement is an incorrect statement,
but the opposite of a profound truth is another profound truth.”
The other voice to which we must attend is the
voice of our own experience. I know, for example, from my own clinical
experience, a), that there is a combination and an alteration of constituent
elements in the behavioural presentation of an individual for whom a mineral
combination remedy is homeopathic. And, b), I have also confirmed for myself
that particularity is an emergent quality - where the particularity ‘n,’ is not
exhaustively described by data at the previous level, ‘n-1’ - when striving to
understand many aspects of life, including one’s own behaviour or that of
another individual. Accordingly, from these two simple observations confirmed
by experience, I make a cognitive leap, as follows: the evolutionary flight of
metaphor, taking us to ever higher levels, must coexist with the runway of
algebra. As noted in the previous part of this essay, constituent and emergent
co-exist even though they pull in different directions.
‘A thousand years ago, the masters of the Sufi
brotherhood known as the Ikhwan al-Safa (Brethren of Purity) or Khillan
al-Wafa (Friends of Sincerity) were articulating the
same message. In their writings they tell the story of a disillusioned
worshipper who is brought to the point of attributing malice to God for
ordering his creation in this way. Seeing that he is pulled apart by opposing
forces, all equally embedded in God’s creation he cries out, “O God, Thou hast
brought together contradictory elements, mutually pulling and repelling forces!
I know no more what to do or how, lost as
I am between them!” God responds first by
pointing to the moral faculties he has given man that enable him to steer a
middle course in life. He then reminds man of the Namus,
the revealed law, which he has sent down to man through his prophets. But, as
for the deepest and most fundamental contradictions of existence, he instructs
man that they have been placed there not to be resolved but to be lived in full
consciousness of their contradictoriness.’
Jacob Needleman,
Consciousness and Tradition, Crossroads
Part Four
Not patched but whole
With the developments in thematic homeopathy
examined in the previous three parts of this paper, the contemporary
practitioner is not looking to revert to the mixology
of the medieval compounders and their modern pharmaceutical inheritors, the
purveyors of over-the-counter (OTC) ‘combination remedies’ (in that other crude
and senseless sense of the word ‘combination’):
‘[Medicine] lies in the knowledge of what is
inside and not in composing and patching up pieces to make it. What are the
best trousers? Those which are whole; those patched up and pieced together are
the worst ones. Who is so stupid as to believe that nature has distributed so
much of a virtue to one and so much to another herb, and then commissioned you
doctors to put them together?... Nature is the physician, not you; from her you
take your orders, not from yourself; she composes, not you.’
Paracelsus, cited
in Philip Ball, The Devil’s Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance
Magic and Science, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, New York, 2006
The homeopath must seek the emergent and
particular individuality of that pattern which currently rules the individual
(a pattern that can be approached by arranging together those themes that
revolve around its central verb). It is this pattern that seeks to displace the
patient’s human individuality with its own, riding it to ruin just as Louis
Klein paints a picture of Mancinella ridden by the
spirits of vodoun (Clinical Focus Guide, Volume 1),
turning a potential human into the behavioural semblance of something much less
so.
For these reasons, ‘combination remedies’ in
the senseless (OTC) sense are not part of the homeopath’s high endeavour.
Conversely, the use of combinatorial thinking, of thematic algebra and groups,
rightly occupies a central place within our current renaissance, a star that
has re-arisen within our contemporary vision.
With regard to the sales of OTC combinations
named for disease categories, we find ourselves currently competing with an
interest group that has a vested material interest in reading the practice of
homeopathy at a few octaves lower than actually homeopathic practice. Like
Hahnemann after him, Paracelsus (above) long ago focused on the crux of this
matter, as have others whose thought and practice were also to influence our
continuing evolution in understanding homeopathy:
‘Truth is... like a garment; when not being
worn, it is merely pieces of material adapted for a body, but when it is put
on, it becomes clothing with a human being inside it.’
Emanuel Swedenborg, Divine
Love and Divine Wisdom, paragraph 150, cited in Wilson van Dusen,
The Country of the Spirit, J. Appleseed & Co., San Francisco
Statements formulated according to the rules of
thematic group, or algebraic, thinking are garments but, when we witness the individuality
of a patient shining through these garments, such material becomes clothing.
The homeopath who prescribes a curative remedy does so with the intent of
enabling the patient to divest themselves of that which the patient may regard
highly (at the very least they are ‘attached’ to it) but which we view as mere
rags in comparison to what he or she, you or I, could be clothed in:
Rabbi Jechiel Meir of
Gostynin had attended the Festival of Weeks with his
teacher at Kozk. On his return home, his father-in-law
asked him,
“Well, was the Law received in
a different spirit where you were than elsewhere?”
“Certainly!” came the reply.
“How do you mean?” asked his
father-in-law.
“How would you here
understand, for example, the commandment ‘Thou shalt
not steal’?” asked Rabbi Jechiel in return.
“Well, naturally,” replied his
father-in-law, “one may not steal from one’s neighbor.”
But Rabbi Jechiel
responded: “In Kozk they interpret it as follows:
‘One may not steal from oneself!’ ”
Buber, Tales of the
Hasidim
The metaphor of clothes fits the subject matter
of this essay well enough: the difference that makes a difference is when we
learn to see, in our own practices, individuality shining through the
combinations offered by the scaffolding of the algebraic material.
There are, as ever, those who will say, “Oh, a
new fashion… You know what I’m like with new stuff…” (Generals, Environmental
allergies; Mind, thought, averse new) and thereby keep themselves the much
poorer - but it is only by actually wearing these new clothes that we manage
actually to enrich ourselves, our practices and our patients.
What, then, can go wrong? Jan Scholten can help us here:
‘Seduction through
presentation: clothes…
A game of fantasy: theorizing…
Another possibility is that they
start to pay a lot of attention to their appearance, dressing up in beautiful
clothes and parading in front of their loved one to try and impress them. They
love beauty and harmony and order….
The other side of the coin is
that they may neglect their relationship. They feel that is fine the way it is
and they don’t have to make any effort to maintain or improve it…
Sometimes their fantasies run
away with them and they lose all sense of reality. But they can also
philosophise about elemental issues...’ (Sulphur, in Homeopathy and Elements,
pp.296-98)
In sum, we are greatly aided by thematic group
and algebraic thinking but, as ever this is only if we dare to know its fruits
(and salts) in ourselves: thereafter we will be much better equipped to acquit
our responsibility to our patients. What behooves us,
also, is to continue to seek the most expeditious ways of using such tools (or
theoretical instruments). Once the idea of combining themes is ‘on the map,’ as
it indubitably has been for some time, then where one draws such themes from -
how one reads experience metaphorically to derive themes and how, thereafter,
one performs algebraic analyses upon those themes to form that runway which
allows or enables the flight of metaphor to take off on its trajectory toward
particularity - where one draws such themes from is not circumscribed by any
text but that of Nature. It becomes, rather, a matter of developing the art of
metaphor and algebra for oneself and then (by whatever means possible)
communicating it, as Jan Scholten has done in his
books and seminars, so that others may benefit and do likewise.
By way of concluding, some quotations on
combining, correlating and connecting
‘In fact, what is mathematical creation? It
does not consist in making new combinations with mathematical entities already
known. Any one could do that, but the combinations so made would be infinite in
number and most of them absolutely without interest. To create consists
precisely in not making useless combinations and in making those which are
useful and which are only a small minority. Invention is discernment, choice.
How to make this choice I have before
explained; the mathematical facts worthy of being studied are those which, by
their analogy with other facts, are capable of leading us to the knowledge of a
mathematical law just as experimental facts lead us to the knowledge of a
physical law. They are those which reveal to us an unsuspected kinship between
other facts, long known, but wrongly believed to be strangers to one another.
Among chosen combinations the most fertile will
often be those formed of elements drawn from domains which are far apart. Not
that I mean as sufficing for invention the bringing together of objects as
disparate as possible; most combinations so formed would be entirely sterile.
But certain among them, very rare, are the most fruitful of all.’
Henri Poincare,
‘Mathematical Creation,’ Chapter III, Science and Method on the Foundations of
Science, trans. George Bruce Halsted, Science Press, NY, 1929
‘If one studies the interconnections of living
processes in nature, one soon finds that one cannot stop short at the rigid
forms, nor allow oneself to be restricted by systems. Inner relationships and
metamorphoses must be sought wherever they occur, for life is a whole, and
illuminating connections are to be found even between the different kingdoms.’
Georg Grohmann, The Plant, Volume 2
‘The significant insights in therapy ... are
not solutions but connections - connections drawn between previously unrelated
events.’
Edgar Levenson, The Ambiguity of Change, New York, 1983
‘If one found a complex of, let us say, seven
ingredients in a man’s motivation, the Freudian tendency would be to take one
of these as the essence of the motivation and to consider the other six as
sublimated variants... The proportional strategy would involve the study of
these seven as a cluster. The motivation would be synonymous with the
inter-relationships between them.’
Kenneth Burke, ‘Freud and the Analysis of
Poetry’ reprinted in The Philosophy of Literary Form, New York, Vintage, 1957
[author’s italics]
‘The concept of science as fields of practice
also highlights the importance of skills and best knowledge, which are often
overlooked or suppressed when the purely theoretical is emphasized. Skills and
tacit knowledge are modes of knowing the world that exemplify Wittgenstein’s
forms of life. They depend on givens that cannot be spoken of, in the same way
that you cannot explain how to ride a bike. If we had to wait for a theoretical
explanation of bike riding, nobody would ever get on the saddle. If maps are
shared examples of practice, perhaps science can be thought of as a compendia
of maps, that is, an atlas, as an example of the way in which people have to
work to make the whole hang together. Ultimately maps and theories gain their
power and usefulness from making connections and enabling unanticipated
connections. Science is an atlas not because all its theories are connected by
logic, method and consistency. There is no such logic, method or consistency.
Science is riddled with contradiction and disciplinary division. Science is an
atlas because the essence of maps and theories is connectivity.’
David Turnbull,
Maps are Territories: Science is an Atlas, University of Chicago, 1993
‘The
divine model of the earth corresponds to the heavens: everything is just as
above. Rav Abba wept as he saw the fruit of a tree
turn into a bird and fly off. If men knew what these things meant they would
rip their clothes down to the navel - in grief, for having lost this wisdom.
Even more so in relation to the rest of creation…
All things in this world have a mystery of
their own. Since the divine one chose not to reveal it, he gave to each species
a name; he made them, however mysterious, discrete.’
Zohar 2: 15b-16a,
translated by David Rosenberg (cited in David Rosenberg, Dreams of Being Eaten
Alive)