In the past I have shared with you the value in having a small homeopathic first aid kit. Our late Queen carried one. Such a kit is useful for all sorts of ailments.
Over the next few weeks – around mid month – I plan to share with you some of the most commonly used remedies so that you get a feel for how they are used.
To open the series I want to share with you a recent personal experience.
The story begins in February of this year and you may remember I wrote a blog about some neuralgia in my face.
Probably a tooth…? But, a visit to the dentist revealed nothing untoward.
As you would expect I used homeopathy (and I confess Aspirin come 3am). The pain went in a few days, but it is impossible to say whether it was the remedy or just chance.
My regular dental check-up a month later was uneventful.
Bit of a mystery, then!
Come July, I travelled north to visit my elderly Godmother and Aunt near Aberdeen. I had booked into a local hotel, and was awakened at night with a rather sore and swollen index finger on my right hand.
Some weeks before, I had cut the knuckle (poor DIY skills), but it had healed nicely. So infection from the cut seemed unlikely.
In short another mystery.
I had my homeopathic first aid kit with me (always a good idea) and after a bit of consideration took a few doses of Rhus.tox., which in a few hours resolved the situation. This remedy helps with septic states, though it is best known for its value in muscular skeletal injuries (joints, tendons & ligament injuries, also arthritis). The pain eased quite quickly.
To add insult to injury, I was barely dozing off again when an almighty din started up. It wasn’t the alarm clock.
Peeking out the window I saw the problem. A row of swallow chicks…singing their little hearts out. Charming … but!
Here they are, still perched on the gutter, when dawn broke:
Fast forward to August, and I was off with my wife to Norfolk for a few days.
The neuralgia in my jaw started niggling again. And lo my finger swelled up once more. How bizarre!
Well, Rhus Tox didn’t hack it.
Now you can actually dowse for a remedy, just as you can for water. Though a pendulum is more useful indoors than dowsing rods.
(Dowsing rods like bagpipes are best out of doors).
The pendulum is a sort of amplifier to the innate ability to intuit energy.
Simple dowsing gives a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. For me, it is a rotation clockwise or anti-clockwise respectively.
Once you have a little skill you can, for example, ask ‘do I need this remedy?’ By the swing of the pendulum, then answer is either ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
Phosphorus was the remedy that came to the fore, all rather strange as the remedy has little relevance to swollen fingers. I took it anyway and the swelling went down over a day.
Two weeks later my six monthly dental appointment came around again. By this time it was apparent that the root of the problem – no pun – was a wisdom tooth. In fact it was cracked (old age, I’m afraid!).
A few days later it had to come out, fortunately without too much of a struggle.
Waiting for the dreaded day it was Phosphorus and Staphysagria that kept things calm – no analgesics.
As the dentist rightly said, neither antibiotics (had I taken them) not homeopathics would yield a long term solution. The tooth had failed – simple as that.
Ok, you understand the tooth, but what has the finger got to do with it?
Actually, everything.
Why? Because according to homeopathic philosophy the body works centrifugally.
Think about it from the point of view of the human body.
The tooth is rather close to the brain, a rather vital organ. With infinite wisdom the body acts centrifugally to drive the infection out to the extremities and as far away from vital organs as it can.
And that is why I had a swollen finger.
I already mentioned that in the small print, Rhus tox. is also a remedy for septic states. In contrast, Phosphorus, is a remedy for inflammation of the membranes (linings) of the organs, the nerves and bone – especially the jaw.
Not much to do with fingers, but teeth sit in the jaw.
Back in the day when young girls were employed in match factories where white phosphorous was used extensively, necrosis of the jaw was common – otherwise known as ‘phossy jaw’. I found a nice article (actually anything but) from the Royal College of Surgeons:
https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/library-and-publications/library/blog/phossy-jaw-and-the-matchgirls/
Many went on to die of Tuberculosis.
Interestingly in homeopathy phosphorous is an important remedy in respiratory disease.
The late Dr Donald Foubister (1902-1988) writes:
‘After the war (WW2) I successfully treated over three hundred cases of primary pneumonia in the children’s ward at the Royal London Homeopathic Hospital; in over eighty percent with homeopathy alone and the remainder with homeopathy and penicillin….By far the most common remedies were Phosphorous or Graphites….The correctly chosen remedy would be followed by improvement within 12 hours’ (Foubister D, Tutorials in Homeopathy, Beaconsfield Publishers 1989)
So, the mystery is solved!
Alas I am 25% less in wisdom. But then 25% of a small number is not much!
Disclaimer: I am a qualified professional homeopath and not a medical doctor. The NHS has many resources, and seeking the opinion of your GP is always of value.
Dibden Purlieu, Southampton