Island of the Hidden Lanthanides

Teleosis School of Homeopathy provides students with a strong foundation in classical homeopathy for the first two years – then, in the Advanced Clinical Program, adds in the best of the new frontiers in homeopathy. By inviting guest speakers who represent varied approaches, Teleosis reinforces some of its fundamental values: the importance of homeopathic community, and respect for different methods both old and new.

Last November Jackie Clason presented a day-long seminar on the Lanthanides, the new series of remedies described by Jan Scholten in his latest book, The Secret Lanthanides. Lou Klein, one of Jackie’s main teachers, has further elaborated on the meaning of these remedies, which belong in the Gold Series of the Periodic Table after Barium. (They were not discovered until the 1940s, and they do not usually appear in place in printed versions of the Periodic Table, since they would make the diagram too wide to fit on a page. Hence the “hidden” or “secret” aspect of the series, themes which show up in the remedy portraits themselves.)

The idea for the seminar arose the previous summer when I met Jackie at her home on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, about two hours from Boston. (The Vineyard, as it’s fondly known, provides a quiet seaside retreat, a picturesque panorama of gray weathered cottages and white-pillared whaling mansions, sailboats and lighthouses, osprey and gulls, clay cliffs and rocky coasts.) Jackie mentioned that she was using quite a few Lanthanide remedies in her practice.

“That’s odd,” I thought. The top remedy in my practice, by far, is Carcinosin. Although I was intrigued by Scholten’s book and studied it carefully, I had rarely used the remedies in my practice. Why such a difference in two busy practices less than 100 miles apart? I raise this question to encourage readers to reflect on remedies for their own unique demographics – and to suggest one of many factors why different homeopaths can get such good results with quite different ways of using homeopathy.

For my practice near Harvard Square, Carcinosin makes sense. My highly educated and often self-employed clients have achieved academic and professional success by being self-disciplined, extremely hardworking perfectionists, demanding the highest standards of themselves, and reading voraciously from an early age, all Carcinosin traits. How else would they end up at Harvard?

Martha’s Vineyard, on the other hand, attracts a different type. Although Jackie says she uses a lot of Carcinosin in her practice (makes sense too – they are nature lovers and better by the ocean!), it also makes sense that the Vineyard would attract the Lanthanides. The metaphor of living on an island reflects Lanthanide themes:

·        They escape conventional society  . . .

·        to be independent and autonomous,

·        to join a community of free thinkers;

·        the Vineyard is known for being progressive politically, spiritually, in environmental concerns.

·        People can hide from their past …

·        and find ways to invent themselves on a deeper, more authentic level, searching for new self-definition

·        Life on the island is a struggle due to the high cost of living, and people patch together different creative ways to support themselves

·        They can move from isolation and self-reflection . . .

·        to compassion for humanity (typical themes of the Buddhist spiritual journey, and Jackie herself is a practicing Buddhist).

·        Independence and self-individuation are other Lanthanide themes which the Vineyard fosters

·        On the other hand, if they get stuck in isolation (the Vineyard can be a lonely isolated place in winter),

·        they can develop social anxiety and deep depression . . .

leading to an epidemic of alcoholism on the island. Jackie offered her own observation that addictions and especially alcoholism are a recurring theme in her Lanthanide cases. While this is not part of Jan Scholten’s or Lou Klein’s teachings on the Lanthanides, Jackie suggested it may become a Lanthanide theme if others share her clinical experience, although she noted that so far the Lanthanide remedies have not had a curative effect for her clients’ addictions in the way that, say, Amethyst has in a few of her cases.

Jackie’s seminar provided an excellent review with illustrative cases of the Lanthanide themes from Scholten’s book. She challenged us to identify not only the Lanthanide but also the salt for the cases she presented. She said her experience bore out Scholten’s observation that the Lanthanides work much better if the correct salt is chosen rather than using the metallicum (pure) form as he did at first.

A unique aspect of the seminar was the differential with other families of remedies.

Like the Compositae, Lanthanides have themes of

·        becoming a self, building an identity, a personality, so they may be

·        childlike or feel childish, immature, not yet individuated

·        boundary issues which shows up as problems with vaccinations, aversion to doctors and to intrusions, and easily feeling offended

Drug remedies have themes similar to the Lanthanides:

• feelings of being inward, disconnected or detached.
• and they can have sensations like electric shocks.

Lanthanides, like the drug and magnet remedies, have:

• “magnetized” as a theme; for example, television or Nintendo addiction, very suggestible to charismatic person or people, strong attraction to massage, hypnosis, recreational drugs
• the relationships of both groups have an attraction-repulsion theme.

Jackie is somewhat of an expert on hormone remedies (such as those made from pituitary, thyroid, adrenal or other glands, or from ovaries), having done a presentation on them at a recent NASH conference. Hormone remedies and the Lanthanide remedies both have:

·        control issues

·        “inward-directed”

·        spirituality

Bird remedies have the highest degree of overlap with Lanthanide themes, in Jackie’s experience. Both groups have:

·        eyes/observing

·        freedom

·        hiding

·        idealism

Jackie concluded with the observation that when she finds herself thinking about both bird remedies and hormone remedies for a case, the client is likely to need a Lanthanide. She summarized the Lanthanides with the key words self, deep and hidden. She noted that a Lanthanide person may move into isolation and self-reflection, or self-attack on the physical plane in the form of an auto-immune disease, for which the Lanthanides are becoming noted.

For further information: Jan Scholten’s The Hidden Lanthanides

To order the remedies: Remedia in Vienna, www.remedia.at. For those serious about incorporating these remedies into your practice, we recommend starting with the kit of the 99 Lanthanides (and their salts) in a 30c potency.

Jackie graduated from Lou Klein’s Master Clinician Course, Jeremy Sherr’s Dynamis School US Course, and Paul Herscu’s New England School of Homeopathy. She continues to study with Lou Klein, Jan Scholten and Rajan Sankaran. She served as Master Prover for the proving of Carbon Dioxide and presented a seminar on hormone remedies at the NASH 2003 Annual Conference. In addition to her practice on Martha’s Vineyard, she does long-distance supervision and mentoring. www.clasonhomeopathy.com