Aromatherapy
Emotional Uses:

According
to Price (2000, p79) the use of essential oils with the emotions can be related
to the physical properties of the oils.  For example, if there is an inflammation,
like anger, then oils that treat physical inflammation may be useful in treating
the anger.  Some of the properties and corresponding emotions as they relate
to German chamomile are in Table 1.

Table 1: Associations between physical properties of essential oils and emotions,
specifically those of German chamomile

For emotional healing using German chamomile Worwood (1999, p202) suggests
the following:

Encouraging communication

Relaxation

Understanding

Organization

Empathy

Patience

Calm

Soothing

German chamomile, according to Worwood (1997, p412 – 414),  has a character
that is strong, peaceful, healing and cooling.  The personality is one where
in a negative situation there can be anger, frustration, emotional dramas,
irritability, sensitiveness, bitterness, resentment and indifference. These
can all arise from deep emotional “baggage”, typical of a “fly off the handle”
type of personality.  In a positive situation, the personality can be communicative,
understanding, patient, calming and organised.  Overall a real tower of emotional
strength.

Homeopathy Uses:

The homeopathic medicine chamomilla has detailed symptoms which can include
(Vermeulen, p425 – 428, Morrison, p115 – 117):-

Mind

Excessive irritability

Tantrums

Anger

Irritable infants or children,
may even strike or kick out at the parent

Women
before menses

Anger
results in congestive headache; redness and heat of face; toothache; spasms
of throat; indigestion; vomiting (of bile); adbominal pain; hepatitis; diarrhoea;
abortion; menstrual cramps, pain; asthma; cough; suppression of milk; palpitation;
sleeplessness; perspiration; jaundice; convulsions; faintness; tremor

Inconsolable children and
infants

Oversensitivity
to pain and external influences

Fear
of wind

Abnormally
sensitive to pain

Child
wants to be carried; is only quiet when carried or rocked

Cries
angrily if put down and parents must walk up and down to quiet him

Aversion to being spoken
to or touched

Unimpressed
with authority

Crying
in sleep, without waking up

Emotions felt in the stomach

Generals

A remedy for children and
nervous women

Over-sensitive
to pain

Over-sensitivity
of the sense organs to fresh air and wind

Convulsions
of children, after a fit of anger with the mother

Ailments
from coffee and narcotics

Coffee
causes anxiety and oversensitiveness; vertigo; headache; toothache; indigestion;
nausea; cramping or pressing stomach pain; retching and vomiting; cramping
bellyache; dyspnoea; cough; backache; sleeplessness; chilliness or heat.

Hot and thirsty or hot sweat
with the pains

<
(worse) after becoming cold

<
beginning of and during menses

<
motions of affected part

Pain with numbness of the affected part

Particulars

Swelling or redness of one
cheek, paleness of the other

Stools
hot, sour, grass-green, slimy, yellowish green or lienteric, smelling like
spoiled eggs

Diarrhoea
during teething.

Colic

Dysmenorrhoea with excessive
pain (despair from pain),  with cold shivers, vomiting, diarrhoea and faintness

Soles of feet burning at
night; puts them out of the covers

Toothache; < coffee, warm things, anger. > (better) for cold drinks. 
Painful or difficult dentition and teething.

Discussion

From the literature there appears to be a similarity in the basis of both homeopathy and aromatherapy.  This can be seen in the use of small quantities, the concept of being a vibrational therapy, using the oil or medicine based on what it can cause in a healthy individual, prescribing for individuals as they present in the consultation, how they appear similar to the oil or medicine and how the medicine or oil is delivered to the individual (olfaction, ingestion or through the skin).  All these factors have been shown to be present in both the homeopathic medicine and the essential oil.

The homeopathic symptoms however, appear to be more specific than those of the essential oil.   This could be due to the different approaches to establishing a list of symptoms that the oil or medicine addresses.  Is there an opportunity for a proving of an essential oil?

Overall, the effects of the essential oil and of the homeopathic medicine are similar in that they both address the following issues:

- digestive complaints, especially where there is much cramping and a sensitivity or intolerance to the pain

- anger, intolerable anger, deep seated anger, where there is a need to calm down

- menstrual aggravations, anger before, cramping, general need for calming

- toothache

- general inflammations

- skin, with redness, intolerance to pain

With these similarities, the reasoning behind not using essential oils in conjunction with homeopathics needs to be explored further.  There does not appear to be contraindications in the reasons for their use, they appear similar.

It also appears from Hahnemann that if the homeopathic medicine acts favourably on the patient, then dilute amounts, possibly <1%, of the medicine (essential oil) can be massaged or inhaled after it has been taken internally.  This would have the effect of supporting and complementing the homeopathic medicine by working on the vibrational energy of the body, probably at a differing level than the homeopathic medicine.

Within other vibrational therapies aromatherapy has already been used successfully as a complementary, or synergistically beneficial, therapy and maybe it should also be assessed in conjunction with this vital vibrational therapy.

Whether or not they can actually be used in conjunction with each other would perhaps be best considered within a clinical setting where a Chamomilla patient was treated in a supportive manner utilising German chamomile.  The next step in assessing the validity of using these two modalities in conjunction with each other will be to undertake case studies.

Ultimately though, the use of essential oils in conjunction with homeopathy
should only be undertaken by qualified practitioners, either working in conjunction
with each other, or a practitioner suitably trained in both modalities where
knowledge of the depth of both substances can be adequately ascertained.

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