The 9^th column: cobaltum, rhodium, iridium

The individuals in the 9^th column have no doubts about their capacity to perform, and are no longer taking on a challenge for the purpose of testing themselves.  Rather, they’ll persevere to the end, confident that through the sheer force of their will they’ll eventually arrive at completion of their task.

Cobaltum: Discontented, displeased, dissatisfied with himself

Iridium: Dreams of being at a banquet; Dreams important person; Dreams she is noble; Dreams about palaces; Dreams about processions; Dreams rainbows spanning the sky; Dreams spiritual wedding

The 10^th column: niccolum, palladium, and platina

The 10^th column marks an arrival at the peak, but that also includes never-ending finishing touches. ‘People don’t appreciate, recognize or acknowledge how amazingly difficult a task it is for me to”polish” every last detail.’ (Note: palladium and platina—delusion not appreciated; palladium—keeps up brightly in company, exhausted afterwards).

Niccolum: Disposition to contradict; Intolerant of contradiction; Contrary; Dreams of falling from high places; Dreams quarrelsome strife; Dreams of bruising himself

Palladium: Ambitious; Contemptuous; Intolerant of contradiction; Delusion criticized; Delusion not appreciated; Dictatorial; Egotism, self-esteem; Flattery, desires; Haughty, wounded, wishes to be flattered; Ideas exaggerated; Longing for the good opinion of others; Obstinate, headstrong, tries to appear amiable; Social position, concerned about; Talk, inclination to talk forcibly, Talk, indisposed to, desire to be silent, taciturn; foreign language which at other times he speaks fluently

Platina: Affectation: words and expressions, in; Ambition: much, ambitious: means, employed- every possible; Boaster, braggart: squanders through ostentation; Casting off people against her will; Contemptuous: hard on subordinates and agreeable or pleasant to superiors or people he has to fear; Delusions, imaginations: appreciated, that she is not; Delusions, imaginations, diminished, everything in room is, while she is tall and elevated; Delusion, imaginations she is disgraced; Delusions, imaginations disgraced: family, she disgraced her; Delusions, imaginations, humility and lowness of others, while he is great. Delusions, imaginations of superiority; Dictatorial, domineering, dogmatic, despotic; Haughty, intelligent, but very; Importance, feels his pompous; Offended easily; Religious affections, general, penance, desires to do, wishes to live in order to mitigate her eternal punishment, in sadness; Religious affections, general, taciturnity, haughtiness, with voluptuousness and cruelty; Social: position, concerned about; Unworthy: life, for, feels; Vanity.

The 11^th column: copper, silver, gold

There’s no longer any question of one’s standing, it’s only a matter of maintaining one’s position—’how long can I hold out at the top’? There’s no further doubt: one has established oneself as a leader, as fully competent, and others have recognized that truth. It’s just that the performance standard is so high there’s no room for error, no allowance for slipping.

Cuprum: Compulsive disorders; Conscientious about trifles; Disposition to contradict; Delusion he is a general, a great person, an officer; Dictatorial; Fear failure; Fear falling; Monomania; Prostration of mind from over-study or night-watching; Seriousness; Quarrelsome.

Argentum: Conscientious about trifles; Handle things anymore, cannot, overwhelmed by stress, when events are happening fast; Ideas abundant, clearness of mind; Loquacity; Seriousness, earnestness; Starting, startled as from electric shock.

Aurum: Delusion neglected his duty; Dreams falling from high places; Egotism; Fear to neglect her duty; Haughty; Strong responsibility to others.

The 12^th column: zincum, cadmium, mercury

The hold at the top now faces a threat: there’s a crack in the foundation, and one must work overtime to avoid further breakdown. The restlessness of zinc and the compulsiveness of mercury demonstrate the feeling of losing one’s grip. It’s as if one’s a hamster on the wheel, that one could avoid further loss by running harder, or that one might maintain one’s hold by “gilding the lily”—furiously polishing what’s already polished.

Zincum: Answers, Question, repeats, over and over, in a singing tone until interrupted by another, which he repeats like the first; Anxiety, driving him from place to place; Delusions, imaginations: falling: he is; Dreams: falling: high places, from; Dreams: persistent. Fear falling headlong with vertigo, as if he would have apoplexy; Gestures, makes, grasping or reaching at something, picks at nose or lips or one spot until they bleed; Prostration of mind; mental exhaustion, brain fag: over-study or night watching, from; Talk, talking, talks: sufferings, troubles, constantly of his; Torments everyone with his complaints.

Cadmium: Dreams: looking for someone and failing to find him; Mistakes, makes talking

Fear: cancer, of.

Mercury: Anxiety about future

The 13^th column: gallium, indium, thallium

The individual clearly recognizes they’ve lost some of their previous standing, yet “what was”—ie., peak performance–seems so recent they make attempts to return.  There’s a sense of alternating between fighting to return and some doubt as to whether “what was” may ever be experienced again. There are similarities between the 13^th column and 5^th columns, except that each experiences their state from a different starting point.  In other words, if the aspiring 5^th column experiences 2 steps forward, 2 steps back, then the declining 13^th could be characterized as attempting 2 steps to return to peak, and 2 steps back into decline.

Indium: Dreams of fruitless efforts of escaping from danger; Work seems to drive him crazy due to the impotency of his mind

The 14^th column: germanium, stannum, plumbum

Here the person is functioning in form only. Germanium has a sense of “going through the motions”, and stannum experiences emptiness in the chest. These are metaphors for the sense that one participates in title or position only, and that any previous influence has been lost.  Nevertheless, the person hangs on as if their title or position translates into influence, when in fact they have little or none.

Germanium: Repetition of thoughts; Talks, repetition of same phrases

Stannum: Emptiness of the mind

Plumbum: Dreams of distant loved one; Weary of life; Memory loss of, for expressing oneself

The 15^th column: arsenicum, antimony, bismuth

Arsenicum has been described by Vermeulen as having the twin themes of “preservation” and “distintegration”.  Arsenicum, antimonium and bismuth are known for “clinging”, and antimonium and arsenicum are also listed in the rubric “sentimental”. Here one experiences the loss of hope for any return, including title or position, and yet one clings to the pieces reminiscent of one’s glory. One polishes the plaque they received from the company, while their severance package is dwindling to nothing. One holds onto the pictures of partners or spouses who have moved on, with fewer and fewer reasons for any further interaction.

Arsenicum: Anguish with restlessness, driving from place to place; Anxiety about health, despair of getting well; Anxiety about his salvation, excessive religious scruples; Delusion cannot be helped; Despair with restlessness; Gestures, grasping or reaching at something; Lamenting, bemoaning, wailing; Rest, cannot when things are not in their proper place.

Antimonium: Anxiety with weariness of life; Dreams of one’s native country; Dreams of old friends; Dreams of meeting old schoolmate; Delusions of fancy; Delusion- errors of personal identity.

Bismuth: Delusions of fancy; Fear, driving him from place to place; Lamenting, bemoaning, wailing; Dreams calling out for help

(Note: The early scenes in the movie “About Schmidt” starring Jack Nicholson convey some sense of the feelings related to the 14^th, 15^th and 16^th columns).

The 16^th column: selenium, tellurium, polonium

All that is left now is persistent identification with past memories, as if the memories still hold some relevance to the present. ’50 men worked for me’; ‘I filled the auditorium when I sang’; ‘The entire town depended on me’. In other words: ‘At one time I was important, and my ongoing recollection of those memories creates a ghost of relevance today’.

Selenium: “lascivious but impotent”  (Note that these remedies lie in the same column as sulphur).

The 17^th column: bromine, iodum

While this column represents an end stage–a state of complete break-down–one can still revolve in vestiges of past memories. The memories of “what was” are fading, and one either accepts the loss of those memories, or restlessly fights to hang on to the fragments–or what one recalls to be fragments. Now even the relative truth of those memories has become suspect.

Bromine:  Dreams of dying; Dreams of funerals; Sits still, silent; Staring, thoughtless.

Iodine: Memory, weakness, loss of; Dementia in old people; restlessness, nervousness;

The 18^th column: krypton, xenon, radon

More easily understood when viewing the periodic table in a spiral format, the noble gases of the 18^th column mark a transition between the element before and the element after. In other words, they mark the end of one period of life and the beginning of another—a state of dormancy, a state where the seed is waiting to sprout, a state of holding (or a sort of “limbo”) before one moves into the challenges reflected in the next series. The noble gases are unique in that, as gases, they have no boundaries, and as such the person getting such a remedy may easily feel energies from others.  But ironically, they don’t easily bond with others, as the outer shell of electrons in noble gases is complete.

See Sholten’s Periodic Table Below:

In summary, the 3^rd through 17^th column remedies can be understood as stages of performance, with the 18^th column a state of transition. These remedies are chosen not on the basis of a person being engaged in a performance per se (because to some extent all of us are engaged in a performance!) but on whether some conflict related to performance becomes the main emphasis of the history. In choosing one of these remedies, one would want to:

1)   perceive a “structure or order” to the history.

2)   determine the theme of a self-directed performance (copper, silver or gold)

3)   recognize where the person perceives themselves in relation to peak performance (anywhere between (3^rd through 18^th)*.

4)   be attentive to the “meaning” or “significance” attached to the performance.

*The first and second columns may include performance themes, but the emphasis is not self-directed performance. The emphasis instead may include performance conflicts related to relationship to others and/or external structure.

Moving another step beyond the concepts above are use of lanthanide remedies, which Scholten described in his 3^rd book “The Secret Lanthanides”. Lanthanides begin at the 3^rd column of the gold series (lanthanum), but then form a subset of remedies between the 3^rd and 4^th columns. (With most periodic table charts, the row of lanthanides is listed below the main table).  The fascinating use of lanthanides in homeopathic practice occurs when a client describes her attempts to apply her “silver gifts to a golden ideal”, and yet she is stymied in that manifestation. This sense of being stymied reflects the confusion of the 3^rd column, but then the homeopath also has to assess the client’s relative degree of confidence re: whether their latent potential will ever be manifested. This determines the choice of the particular lanthanide, which needs to be aligned with the elements above it known for the same level of confidence. (In other words, lanthanum should be aligned below scandium and yttrium; cerium below titanium, zirconium, hafnium; praseodymium below vanadium, niobium tantalum, etc.). Finally, one needs to determine whether there’s an extra significance or meaning attached to one’s “eventual” performance—is it related to self-worth and value (eg., carb?), avoiding persecution and being blamed (eg., brom?), etc.

In recognizing a lanthanide theme in practice, one may first perceive mineral language, then a performance theme, then silver “abilities” which the client would like to manifest in a “golden way”, and finally  he may describe the significance he attaches to his performance. A client might say ‘I want my poetry to make a difference in the world, but it seems like only friends and relatives show up at my poetry readings—it makes me feel worthless’ (carb?), or ‘I want my vision of enlightened economics and fair trade to someday change the world—I feel frustrated that people aren’t listening–I don’t feel acknowledged or appreciated’ (sulph?) or ‘I want my music to inspire children to see music as a universal language of peace—yet as hard as I work at it, I’m not any closer to realizing my dream—that makes me feel deeply disappointed and alone’ (mur?).

http://hpathy.com/casesnew/johnson-Praseodymium-bromatum.asp

In conclusion, the remedies derived from the periodic table have become indispensable in my practice. Although Scholten’s progressions are an important aid in choosing remedies from the table, they’re not the only way. At this point, many of the remedies at the right side of the table may be more easily discerned through other routes of analysis.  However, I’ve been able to use hundreds of compounds from the left and middle of the table–as well as the lanthanides–and have been amazed by their usefulness. Nearly every week some new facet of the periodic table reveals itself, and shows me how precisely a performance history can be matched with one of nature’s remedies. I hope this article also helps you to begin unlocking the wonderful potentials of the periodic table.

Visit David Johnson at his website: http://www.classicalhomeopathywisconsin.com