Re-Igniting Your Spark with Helleborus Niger

Reprinted courtesy Elizabeth Adalian from: https://www.adalian.uk/blog-1

When lockdown starts to take its toll in the context of the Covid19 pandemic, it is inevitable that a legacy of despair (if not disappointment) may remain which taps deep into the psyche. This means that remedy pictures can later emerge which hitherto have never been experienced in cases which currently present for treatment. I therefore feel remedies which were ‘proved’ in very different times need to be re-appraised through this new lens because of the extreme times we are living through today.

What is becoming increasingly apparent at this time is the growing lack of autonomy which is starting to take its toll in society at large – Aurum Metallicum is especially sensitive to this among other remedies, as well as Helleborus Niger – one which is lesser known in this context.

Both the remedies are easily affected by disappointed love but, of course, Aurum Metallicum has more ambition in its picture. Both remedies can feel suicidal. In the case requiring Helleborus Niger, after a period of intense anger, there is a resulting shutting down of the emotions which can render the sufferer unable to function.

Both remedies are better for occupation, they both suffer isolation, low self-confidence, absence of enjoyment combined with a feeling of worthlessness and powerlessness. However, Aurum Metallicum does not lose energy in the same way as Helleborus Niger or give up the fight encountered within this context. (1)

This is despite the fact that, of the two remedies, it is only Aurum Metallicum which is in the rubric – ‘resignation’ (and in black type). I would certainly add Helleborus Niger to this rubric – also in high definition. In Helleborus Niger, shutting down is the only way of resisting the degree of pressure which is felt. This results in the blunt and dull insensitivity known in its picture.

An interesting rubric from the Complete Repertory (2) is ‘anger, excited easily, consolation aggravates, does not want to be disturbed’. Here, one sees elements of other remedies such as Bryonia and Natrum Muriaticum. According to Rajan Sankaran, Boenninghausen includes Helleborus Niger in the rubric ‘mind, trifles; vexed over’ in his repertory. (3)

At times like this global crisis, it is easy to become submerged in the bigger story as a way of escape from that which is unresolved in the individual. Examining the triggering emotion – often a familiar one which runs deep – in this case – anger – brings the focus back to the core issues which need healing in the individual.

Helleborus Niger is an example of a remedy where the fight/fright/freeze response is played out as a reaction, as described above. Unless addressed at source, the organism could progress to an early onset of Alzheimer’s disease where the patient becomes completely locked down to both their internal state, as well as the external one playing out around them.

Pathological states can be easily hastened in not only their onset, but also their progression after such a pronounced collective trauma as the global pandemic which has been wreaked on humanity at this time in our history.  I already touched upon the remedy – Helleborus Niger – in my last blog ‘Reconciling the Longer Term Impacts of Social Distancing upon Young Minds’. (4)

When considering the Doctrine of Signatures, the pattern of disease development in this remedy would indicate that there is rapid growth in the beginning with later sudden depletion and decline. The black part of the plant (summed up in the name) involves the roots alone – this indicates how embedded the tendency to destructive forces is rooted in the pathogenesis of this remedy picture. (5)

References:

1. Adalian, E., 2017, ‘Touching Base with Trauma: Reaching Across the Generations – a Three-Dimensional Homeopathic Perspective’, Writersworld.
2. Van Zandvoort, Roger, 1994, ‘The Complete Repertory Mind’, Institute for Research in Homeopathic Information and Symptomatology.
3. Sankaran, Rajan, 2002, ‘An Insight into Plants, Volume 2, Homeopathic Medical Publishers.
4. Blog, 3.6.20., Adalian,uk, ‘Reconciling the Longer Term Impact of Social Distancing on Young Minds’.
5. Linnaeus, Carolus, ‘Species Plantarium’, Volume 1, 1753, Stockholm.