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Mary Gold is wounded By Joy Lucas RSHom. |
Positive qualities: Healing warmth
and receptivity, especially in the use of the spoken word and in dialogue with
others.
Patterns of imbalance: Using cutting or sharp words, argumentative, lack of
receptivity in communication with others.
The Calendula flower imparts a warm, golden light of healing for those souls who must learn to use "the Word" as a truly creative spiritual force. The Word (or Logos) is the source of all creation, ever renewing itself through the womb of Nature. Thus Calendula is also known as "Mary's Gold;" for the golden sun-radiance of the Word must be birthed through the receptive feminine matrix. In every human communication there is always this masculine and feminine polarity, of that which is spoken and that which is heard, or received. Calendula flower essence helps those whose innate creative potential to use the spoken word often deteriorates into argument and misunderstanding. It is especially indicated for personal relationship work, and for all healing and teaching work when the art of communication must be intensively developed as a soul force.
Calendula gives great forces
of warmth and benign compassion to the human soul, especially helping to balance
the active and receptive modes of communication. Flower
Essence Repertory, Part III. Flower Essence Qualities and Portraits - Patricia
Kaminski and Richard Katz.
Such are the expressive qualities of
one of our most well known homeopathic remedies, and maybe they are suggestive
of how powerful and deep acting this remedy could be.
There is creativity, birth, language,
receptivity, communication, spiritual forces and benign compassion - all
contained within the healing properties of this remedy.
Calendula was first used as a
deobstruent - to relieve the obstruction, to unblock, to let the free passage of
expression flow forth - not just of
speech but for the birthing of all ideas.
As Homeopaths we all know what can
happen when these acts of creativity are suppressed or thwarted, when our
natural inclinations are deviated into dis-ease.
It becomes the first instance of pathology.
My interest in Calendula is many fold -
apart from the wide and varied physical applications it is the lack of real
depth in the mental and emotional symptoms which are presented in the Materia
Medicas; the link this remedy has with Cancer and the fact that it has only been
partially proved, which really stir my imaginations.
There are many reasons why substances
have been chosen for provings and much has to do with how that substance has
been used historically.
Plenty of scope here for Calendula then.
The ancients considered Calendula to be
a deobstruent remedy, exerting a great influence on the circulation and
strengthening the heart.
It has long been used an an antiseptic,
stimulant and diaphoretic.
Dioscorides recommended it for Cancer, and
Fuchsius prescribed the juice for toothache.
Gerarde described its virtues for inflammations
of the eyes. According
to Westring Calendula was formerly in much request as a medicine and was used
more especially in carcinoma and scirrhus with great effect in the third stage
particularly in diminishing the pain and rendering the pus less corroding.
It was also used in chlorosis,
hysteria, epilepsy, jaundice and some kinds of dropsy.
Many found it of great efficacy as a lotion to
fresh wounds, inducing union by the first intention.
Zorn considered it of great service in throwing
out the eruption of measles and small-pox, and as an application to stop the
bleeding of haemorrhoids.
It was a favourite of Boerhaave who employed it
in uterine diseases and also diseases of the kidney and liver.
Also used for obstinate vomiting,
cardialgia, diseases of the glands, compound fractures, amputations, suppurating
abscesses, and violent pains of the uterus.
In its more 'modern' usage it has been
efficient in gangrene, fractures, sprains, herpetic eruptions, eczema, nasal
catarrh, blisters on tongue, syphilitic ozaena, gonorrhea, non-specific
urethritis, uterine subinvolution, engorgement of uterine walls, uterine
hypertrophy, suppressed menses, menorrhagia, chronic cervicitis, warts on the
cervix, swelling of the breasts without pain, gout of the spine, spina bifida,
one sided paralysis, coma, concussion, swollen glands, toothache, haemorrhages,
septicemia, injuries to the eyes, diplopia, insect stings (antidote to Apis),
open wounds, burns and life threatening injuries involving the skin, tendons,
cellular tissues and muscles - healing without leaving any scars.
"Calendula is the greatest
non-poisonous germicide, antiseptic, reliever of pain and healer of wounds that
has ever been brought into use". Dr. W. M. Gregory in Eclectic Medical Journal.
There are also some rather more unusual
symptoms worth noting - deafness, where one can hear better on a train, or hear
distant sounds better, cannot hear 2 people talking together - the pains are
excessive and out of proportion to the injury suffered - bulimia (and maybe
other eating disorders) - and stabbing pains from within to without, like being
stabbed in the back!
The modalities are subtle but to the
point:- >> perspiration (unblocking and free discharges), >> sleep, >> walking
about, >> lying very still, >> 9-3pm (when the flowers are open), << chill, <<
drinking, << damp, heavy and cloudy weather (it is a heliotrope and follows the
sun so the flowers will close if there is no sun).
Can be thirsty or thirstless.
But one of its chief uses, however, was
for Cancer - of the skin, breast, uterus, abdomen, nose, pharynx and larynx,
scrofulous and sclerotic tumours, fungus tumours, fribroma, and it was the main
ingredient of the famous Rust Pill which consisted of oxide of iron, Colewort,
and extract of Marigold.
It is the extraordinary successful application
of Calendula, in the use of wounds, which I would like to extend to those of
'wounded emotions and mental faculties' which might be involved in the history
of someone who develops one of the worst wounds of all - Cancer.
To get there, let's have abit more
history.....
Calendula Officinalis or, the common
marigold, is familiar to everyone, with its pale green leaves and golden orange
flowers. It is said to bloom in the calends of every month, hence its Latin
name. Many think it
was named after the Virgin Mary, but this came later and it is actually a
corruption of the Anglo-Saxon merso-meargealla, the Marsh Marigold.
Marigold was just one of the flowers
associated with Mary, the mother of Jesus - you will see her dresses adorned
with them and it was the flower used at the Feast of the Annunciation of the
Virgin, and she was honoured as the House of Gold because in her the Blessed
Trinity performed such great and wonderful things.
This may or may not be religious idealism and
regardless of one's own religious feelings the virtuous story of Mary, the
mother of Jesus, really is an idealism that is hard to live up to.
Pregnant before marriage, had several
children, one of which she had to witness exaltation of, intense prejudice and
suspicion towards and finally observed his painful execution and disappearance
of his remains.
Whether she witnessed this with silent dignity, humility or outrage we do not
know but she surely suffered one of the worse possible woundings - that of
losing a child.
Little is known about how Mary herself
died but my thoughts lead easily towards Cancer.
Maybe she experienced an overwhelming sense of
gloom and doom which is associated with this remedy.
And also that of separation, from her child.
This is another theme running through
Calendula. A physical
wounding involves separation of the tissues and an emotional wounding can leave
many scars and equally requires the reunion of harmonious forces.
It would also be very interesting to
know if she suffered any diseases of the reproductive organs (as Calendula has
such a strong affinity to these regions) and whether the so called 'virgin
birth' had any relevance in this.
(Calendula has 'sensation as if something alive
in the womb').
Suppression of emotions is a key factor
in the development of Cancer and this brings us back to the deobstruent
qualities of Calendula - that of being able to unblock, to let a free passage or
flow go forth. It is
this that gives Calendula its essential characteristics - to remove the
obstruction causing pain, to soothe and restore without any scarring,
physically, mentally and emotionally.
It restores the vision when we have
been blinded by false communication.
Cancer has been encumbered by many
boundless and unlimited metaphors.
It mystifies and arouses dread.
Just the confirmation of the diagnosis
can worsen the condition.
It is looked upon as a form of contamination;
the body is suffering an invasion and is under attack and thus requires a
treatment which provides an adequate counter-attack; evil and slow but
uncontrollable growths which one can either fight or succumb to; it is seen as a
form of punishment
"why me?"; cancer 'spreads'; tumours are usually excised leaving a mutilated
body; other treatments are often worse than the disease itself; people with
cancer are often lied to; rich countries have high rates of cancer; it is a
disease associated with affluence and excess; cancer is a judgement on the
individual as well as on the community - the mind eventually betrays the body.
In her book 'Illness As Metaphor',
Susan Sontag writes about the notion of disease fitting the patient's character:
"Disease can be challenged by the will.
'The will exhibits itself as organized body,'
wrote Schopenhauer, but he denied that the will itself could be sick.
Recovery from a disease depends on the
will assuming 'dictatorial power in order to subsume the rebellious forces' of
the body. One
generation earlier, a great physician, Bichat, had used a similar image, calling
health 'the silence of organs,' disease 'their revolt'.
Disease is what speaks through the body, a
language for dramatizing the mental: a form of self-expression."
But as Homeopaths we know all that
already, don't we?
Sontag includes Auden's cute poem about
Miss Gee, written in the 1930's (just 2 verses here):
'Nobody knows what the cause is,
Though some pretend they do;
It's like some hidden assassin,
Waiting to strike at you.
'Childless women get it,
And men when they retire;
It's as if there had to be some outlet
For their foiled creative fire'.....
Foiled creative fire is just one
obstruence that Calendula could heal, given the chance.
Sontag also concludes that "the cancer
personality is regarded with condescension, as one of life's losers. Napoleon,
Ulysses S. Grant, Robert
A. Taft and Hubert Humphrey have all had their
cancer diagnosed as the reaction to political defeat and the curtailing of their
ambitions. And the
cancer deaths of those harder to describe as losers, like Freud and
Wittgenstein, have been diagnosed as the gruesome penalty exacted for a lifetime
of instinctual renunciation.
Few remember that Rimbaud died of cancer)."
And so in Calendula we have, Delusion,
imaginations he is falling; Delusion, imaginations he is falling from a height;
Dreams, falling from high places.
When we lose our position in life, the safety
net - this reminds one of Veratrum, but Veratrum develops a highly delusional
state to compensate for the loss - Calendula becomes scarred and riddled with
Cancer.
There is a great sense of weight, of
burdens, of dark clouds hanging over, gloom and doom, a deep depression where
they cannot see the light.
An overwhelming sense that something bad is
going to happen. They
become easily frightened and startled.
With this there is a sense of dullness
and a dreamy state which can alternate with nervousness, anxiety and
irritability or of being morose and taciturn.
They carry with them a sense of separation -
when wounds cannot be healed, when union cannot be effected.
There is also a sense of being torn and
jagged, as if beaten. Exhaustion results and there is some relief from sleep,
but it is not a sleep of any great quality - restless at night, wakes screaming,
continual waking, general lassitude prevails.
Calendula contains much nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and iodine which might explain some of these disparate states.
Calendula also has:- "Pain is excessive
and out of all proportion" so the Materia Medica's say - so you can picture
someone who is almost hystericalwith the pain, who cannot tolerate being hurt,
so very sensitive to pain whether it be mental, physical or emotional.
It is very interesting that Calendula
has been used in the treatment of Bulimia - where the emotional hurt turns
inward and the individual 'chooses' to destroy themselves.
This is a good example of the mind
betraying the body.
Irritability is another strong emotion
- it comes down again to this extreme, 'out of proportion' sensitivity
It gets to be too much to bear so an
outburst of irritation sort of transfers the sensation elsewhere.
Being a Heliotrope, always moving with
the sun, you can see how they are relieved from this sensitivity by walking
around a lot - again it distracts.
They are also so much <<< for damp and cloudy
weather when they can't see the light, and so much >>> for the radiance of the
sun. The hearing is
very acute and sensitive so even the slightest noise can startle them - they
hear and sense everything acutely.
This extract is interesting....
Article by the Editor of the Hom.
World, in the Homoeopathic Recorder, May, 1891, Vol. VI, No. 3:
"The other day I was told by a friend
that he had, last autumn, chewed a Calendula leaf for a few minutes; the effect
was most marked and very
striking.
It entirely removed for some days the
difficulty in making water, with which he had long been troubled, and which is
so common in elderly people.
I have a suspicion myself that Calendula
affects the spinal chord, from certain unpleasant feelings which I have when
making it from the fresh plant."
- C.W. To the
foregoing the Editor of Hom. World appends the following note: In response to
our request for a fuller description of these feelings our contributor replies
that the symptom was very difficult to describe: "There was such a feeling as if
some overwhelming calamity was hovering over me as to be almost unbearable.
Three years ago, just after making the tincture, my old enemy, the gout, nipped
me in the middle of the spine, and in three days spoiled all my powers of
walking; and then the dreadful feeling became very much exaggerated."
As Homeopaths we really need to
prescribe this remedy to see for ourselves how broad is its application.
Then we can wonder at the results.
The trouble is - Calendula has only
been partially proved.
>From Kent Lectures.....
"The proving of Calendula is so nearly
worthless that we cannot expect at present to use it as a guide to the internal
administration of the remedy.
There are only a few things that I have ever
been able to get out of it.
In injuries Calendula cannot be ignored, in
cuts with laceration, surface or open injuries.
Dilute Calendula used locally will keep the
wound odorless, will reduce the amount of pus, and favor granulation in the very
best possible manner, and thus it assists the surgeon in healing up surface
wounds. Calendula is
all the dressing you will need for open wounds and severe lacerations.
It takes away the local pain and
suffering. You may
easily see we are not now dealing with a condition that exists because of a
state within the economy, but because of something that is without.
There is nothing that will cause these
external injuries to heal so beautifully as the Marigold.
Some will say it is not homeopathic,
but these are the individuals who "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel."
If there are constitutional
symptoms suspend all medicated dressing entirely and pay your whole attention to
the constitutional symptoms.
Sometimes there are no constitutional symptoms
to prescribe on, but when they are present resort locally to cleanliness and
nothing else. Do not
suppress symptoms that you will need to guide you to a remedy."
One might argue that we do have enough
of a full symptom picture for Calendula but I would like to encourage a new
proving, to absolutely confirm the symptom picture of Calendula and give it its
proper hierarchy in the Repertories and Materia Medicas - even if it is just for
wounded parents who have lost a child.