Daffodils and Arnica

Just as daffodils symbolize Spring, Arnica montana symbolizes homeopathy. I saw daffodils for the first time this year and I knew that Spring was near; I saw Arnica prominently displayed in the wellness section of my local co-op and I smiled, thinking that this is the one homeopathic remedy accepted by almost everyone.

We can all agree that there are many other types of beautiful flowers in Spring, so why is it hard to accept that there are many other types of (beautifully valid) homeopathic remedies? It's as if the bridge from Arnica to all the other remedies is too difficult to cross, given the prevalent medical materialist philosophy. That leap from believing that Arnica helps with bruising, an acute ailment, to believing that homeopathy also helps with chronic depression or kidney failure or asthma or cancer—anything! —that leap is too great for some.

It's fascinating to me that plastic surgeons use Arnica to mitigate the effects of face lifts and rhinoplasty, but go no further. You would think these medically trained professionals would look more closely into this drug that helps their patients recover so well, but they don't. In fact, their voices remain silent when homeopathy in general is ridiculed. It goes against their medical culture in general to defend it.

The propaganda against homeopathy is intense, but why? It eats into Big Pharma's profits, but would pharmaceutical moguls hire slick marketing groups to defame homeopathy if it weren't a real threat? And what makes it a real threat? Could it be its validity?

You might argue that their marketing campaigns are keeping you "safe" from quackery, but what is the truth? Has the medical community's definition of safety ever been accurate, or is that term used by the propagandists to lull people into taking medications that have the potential to be harmful? Every drug has side effects, so the term "safe" should stop being used so flippantly. And the same goes for the term "effective." No one drug is effective for all people; we are unique individuals and one person's cure is another one's poison. Homeopaths understand this concept and recommend remedies based on an individual's total symptom picture.

In Love on the Vine  Lord Featherstone tells Fiona that she shouldn't argue with the medical professionals, but she doesn't listen to him. She has faith in homeopathy and thus prevents an amputation. My hope is that one day, hopefully sooner than later, our culture will shift into a clearer understanding and appreciation of homeopathy. This shift will bring a beneficial change to medicine.

A Burn Remedy: Spanish Fly (Cantharis)

Cantharis is the first homeopathic remedy mentioned in the Castlewood Trilogy. In Love on the Vine, Lord Featherstone says to Fiona Fairmmont, the woman everyone thinks he should marry, "I burned myself rather badly during my travels. A scalding cup of chocolate found its way into my lap whilst I was in Leipzig. Several of Hahnemann's students happened to be in the same café, and one of them gave me potentized Spanish fly—Cantharis. The hideous pain diminished miraculously. I couldn't believe it at first, thought it was mere coincidence. But then the pain returned after a few hours, and I took a second dose the student had left with me. Well, the pain disappeared in the same way and this time stayed away. I haven't questioned homeopathy's validity since. I stayed on in Leipzig to learn as much as I could about it and met Hahnemann himself. A fascinating man. A genius, really."

[Samuel Hahnemann was a physician in his day but stopped practicing when he felt he was hurting people more than helping them with the blood-lettings, the blistering poultices, and the large doses of poisonous substances. He is the father of homeopathy.]

Constantine Hering, a renowned 19th century homeopath (and also a physician), is famous for saying that all skeptics of homeopathy should burn their fingers and then immerse them in a solutions of Cantharides. He felt certain that their skepticism would be cured along with their burns. He was a skeptic himself until he got a dissecting wound that was cured by homeopathic arsenic.

Lord Featherstone teaches Fiona much more about homeopathy, but does he ever marry her? Read Love on the Vine to find out....

I hope you have no need for burn remedies, but it's good to have Cantharis in your First Aid kit, just in case. For milder burns, Urtica urens, made from nettles, is also curative.

Did Charles Poldark need Asafœtida?

In Winston Graham's Poldark book, Charles Poldark was the squire of Trenwith manor, the head of the Poldark household ... and he also had some significant physical ailments. He could not control his belching (which made dinners with female guests an embarrassment) and he had several 'heart strokes' which finally killed him. In Season One of the most recent PBS Poldark series, Warren Clarke (pictured above) did a wonderful job of portraying the squire. And if Charles Poldark had gotten Asafœtida, perhaps Grambler mine could have remained under his management and wouldn't have been lost in a card game ... but then Poldark wouldn't be Poldark.

In Lectures on Materia Medica, James Tyler Kent, homeopathic physician in the Victorian and Edwardian eras, writes, "There is one class of patient you will find who will trouble you. Those cases that come into your office with puffed, venous, purple faces ... It is a dark red, dusky face; such a face we shall cure sometimes with Asafœtida.

... (the face) shows more or less cardiac disturbance and venous stasis. The venous side of the heart will often be involved, or be about to be involved, when you have this kind of face. I never like to see them come into my office, for they are hard cases to manage.

... in the stomach troubles, if you have ever seen a typical case of Asafœtida, you will wonder where all the air comes from; it comes up in volumes ... it is a condition that the patient has no control over."

It's fun for me to think of characters (or real people) when reading about a remedy. It helps to firmly secure some of that remedy's key symptoms in my memory. I will forevermore connect Asafœtida to Charles Poldark and Warren Clarke's portrayal of him. Another way to remember a remedy is to learn more about the substance. What exactly is Asafœtida? It is a plant that has yellow parsley-like foliage and produces a gummy resin, from which the remedy is made. The plant grows high above sea level, mostly in Iran and Afghanistan, and has a sulphurous odor. In powder or paste form it can be used as a substitute for garlic (in Indian cuisine, 'hing' – as it's referred to – is frequently used in curries). The plant is used for digestive issues and asthma in Chinese medicine, which is similar to how it is used in homeopathy.

Charles Poldark had no access to Asafœtida and ended up dying from his ailments. The characters in my trilogy have access to homeopathic remedies that help to keep them healthy and happy! If you haven't read the Castlewood books yet, I hope you'll give them a try.

Best wishes,

Lucille