Remedy of the Month (1)
SPIGELIA - in pain and drained
Spigelia is in a state of agitation and pain and is confused to the point of being cheerful when in pain – this is a very curious symptom because their pain is of the neuralgic type and a type that can drive to despair. They can feel excited after being sad and full of mirth after the heart has palpitated into action, as though the palpitation is a ‘shock’ factor necessary to bring highly tensed emotions to the fore. Something has happened that was sudden and shocking and they have been thrown into a state of agitation and anxiety. They have been shocked or concussed and feel that they will fall from their previous healthy circumstances of security. But there is still this strange mirth and cheerfulness that can accompany the pains. I think it has something to do with being confused initially – a confusion that takes on an intoxicating sensation and with a tendency to an alternating emotional state fuelled by a restlessness, then this strange symptom gets easier to appreciate.
Spigelia is also an intermittent remedy in as much as the state of anguish will subside into a gloomy dejection, where they just sit and stare as though lost in thought and then the heart will palpitate and they will be shocked back into action again.
The main affinity for Spigelia is the nerves and it is easy to see how the intermittent quality presents – neuralgia, an intermittent but severe pain that ‘runs’ through a nerve, up and down, back and forth, coming and going, coming in attacks suddenly, almost like electricity and during an electric shock, first you have the sudden and painful attack and then you have the numbing, pins and needles and then the shock that almost paralyses.
The entire emotional state mimics the neuralgic pain – pain that runs through the nerves back and forth, up and down, shooting and darting here and there, always on the move.
This is also seen in another characteristic symptom of Spigelia and that is a feeling of numbness and pins and needles – intense pain followed or preceded by numbness.
Pins, needles, sharp and pointed objects such as knives feature a lot in Spigelia. Not only are the pains described as electric like, or as sparks, or as knives or as if needles were thrust in but there is an intense fear of anything sharp or pointed such as these objects and this fear exists because these sharp and pointed objects perfectly represent the characteristics of the forceful neuralgic pains. Even being touched produces intense sensitivity. These pains can follow any nerve path but most often seen in the face, head, eyes, teeth, fibrous tissue and the heart.
With all this going on Spigelia becomes a remedy that is very needy, is ‘full of desires’ and apart from needing a release from the demands of the pains there is another reason for this being ‘full of desires’.
Spigelia and a number of other remedies in the rubric ‘full of desires’ are remedies that have a special affinity to worm conditions – Arsencium; Carcinosin; Cina; Ipecacuanha etc. It is precisely the presence of this ‘other’ that produces an almost constant status of capriciousness often seen in all the ‘worm’ remedies. This is especially seen in diet requirements – the appetite is either voracious or there is complete disdain for food. This can be recognized as bulimia and/or anorexia in some.
Spigelia even has the sensation as if a worm is rising in the throat. Forever having to please this ‘other’ as well as the ‘self’ there is always an uncertainty in their desires. Always picky, vacillating, changeable, never really knowing what they want and when they get it they throw it away (to the worm who readily takes it). Hence they are always full of desires, never satisfied and the ‘wanting’ is wasted on the worm.
But it isn’t just the ever present worm that can cause this. Not everyone who needs Spigelia has worms but there is a definite sensitivity in Spigelia that suggests they are being drained in some other way.
They are very concerned about their future, very serious, feel the threat of evil somewhere in their life (and as already written Spigelia is one of the remedies that has a profound fear of anything sharp such as knives, needles, pins – links in with the pins and needles theme), these sharp objects represent the threat. With this sensitivity they can become very timid and anti-social, easily offended and pushed back and a total indifference can prevail and this is what is draining them – worse than any parasite I can think of.
LEPIDIUM BONARIENSE – brazilian cress
Mmmm, mustard and cress, lovely food, spicy and very nutritious. All the cress plants are easy to grow making them readily available as a food. This also means that the plant is invasive to the point of ‘weed’ proportions.
Lepidium is the brazilian cress – paracress – and has a very peppery flavour to the point of burning which leaves a numbing sensation in the mouth, hence its use for toothache as it has a short lived anaesthetic action.
Here is a little from Boericke, “Left side of face, head, chest, hip to knee, all have lancinating pain. A streak of pain from temple to the chin, as if the face were cut with a razor; burning in the throat, roaring in the ears. Sensation as if a tight girdle around the chest, as of a knife, piercing the heart.
Not to be messed with then. The pains suggest a strong affinity to the heart – maybe pathology involving the pericardium (pericarditis) as this is the ‘bag’ that holds and protects the heart. Lepidium, being a cress, is part of the brassica family and Sankaran describes this family as being ‘obstructed, blocked and unable to flow’ and this suggests that the essential flow of the heart is obstructed by a hardening of the fibrous pericardium due to inflammation and compression rendering a life threatening situation.
This threat might be one reason why Lepidium has such a bundle of strange delusions and sensations:-
Delusion she is alone in a grave yard
Delusion he is in his grave
Delusion pursued by enemies or ghosts
Sees spectres, ghosts, spirits
Dreams she is talking with dead people
Feels as if suffocating at night
Imagines the floor sinking under her
Stomach feels as if sinking
It could also have something to do with the level of nitrogen within brassica plants – that which makes them rather smelly – and there would be huge amounts being produced in grave yards! Again these delusions and sensations resonate with an absolute obstruction and block = the permanence of death.
There is also mention that this remedy has an affinity to the solar plexus – hence the sinking sensations around the stomach region and this reference could also provide a ‘psychic’ link to the strange callings within the grave yards.
The solar plexus is associated with the functioning of the aura or psychic energy field and this might well be living on, after death.
The solar plexus is also a dense area of nerves, very sensitive, very busy. The pains are described as darting from place to place and possibly emanating from the solar plexus because there is a modality of being <<< from stooping, as if bending at the solar plexus worsens these feelings.
On a softer and more protective note this plant is high in alkaloids and alkamides that provide antiseptic, antibacterial and antifungal agents. One of these is spilanthol that is known to act well against blood parasites and so Lepidium could be of further use in Malaria, Lyme disease, many bacterial states that cause digestive problems and fungal conditions such as Candidiasis.
The ‘numbing’ sensation that this plant offers is also protective, albeit shortlived (in fact a sensation of numbness has been reported in the small proving that Lepidium has had).
Clarke reminds us that Lepidium needs clinical elucidation and so right he is, even now in the 21st century, this remedy is crying out for another full and thorough homeopathic proving.
Joy Lucas February, 2007
Other files to download
Bloodlines.pdf - Menstrual Moments
Gunpowder.pdf - The Gunpowder Plot
Argentum nitricum.pdf - In the Light of the Silvery Moon
Strontium carb.pdf - Point of the Fairies
