Materia Medica Homeopathy Papers

KEA – Nestor notabilis – The Birth of a Homeopathic Remedy

Written by Nora Pal

Homeopath Nora Pal discusses her proving of the bird remedy Kea (Nestor notabilis), the only Alpine parrot in the world that lives in the mountain forest regions of New Zealand’s Southern Island. She has summarized its symptoms in nearly three hundred rubrics of RadarOpus.

Homeopathy is the art of healing with the power of similarity. We compare the symptoms of a patient with the characteristics of the homeopathic remedies we know, and when we discover a likeness between them, we make the match and the chosen remedy helps to restore the balance in the person on all levels of her/his existence.

The homeopathic remedies come from the material world that surrounds us and affects all earthly creatures, whether they are of mineral, plant or animal origin, or even of an imponderable nature.

When a homeopathic remedy is born, all those involved in its creation and its proving have the unique opportunity to experience the miracle of the transformation and rebirth of the original substance.

With the birth of a new homeopathic medicine the world becomes richer with a new healing energy. Hahnemann expresses his thoughts about provings in the Organon as follows;

“… the certainty of the whole art of healing and the health of generations to come depend on them…” § 122

One day, at an inevitable moment, the Kea (Nestor notabilis) offered itself to me to become a homeopathic remedy. My journey began with my fateful encounter with a Kea, to be followed by several stations at which I prepared the homeopathic remedy, established the methodology of the proving, organised it and conducted it and then finally arrived at the Materia Medica of the Nestor Notabilis remedy through a joint and personal analysis of the proving meetings and diaries.

This conclusive analysis places great emphasis on the history of the original substance as it serves as an explanation to all that was experienced in the proving of the remedy.

My proving was based on the guidelines of Jeremy Sherr (The Dynamics and Methodology of Homeopathic Provings) and Peter Fraser (Using Provings in Homeopathy). My aim was to obtain objective, controlled, detailed and descriptive results on the basis of the Hahnemann proving.

I decided to create a prover team that was observed and supported by supervisors. Based on the experiences of Peter Fraser, I designed my proving for an active period of 8 weeks with three proving meetings to give it structure.

The meetings were not only important for enhancing group dynamics but gave increasingly sharp contours to the picture of the remedy through the joint analysis of the symptoms.

All participants of the NP Proving (Nóra Pal Proving) code-named remedy trial had homeopathic experience and knowledge, 90% of them being either practicing homeopaths or students of homeopathy.

Number of participants: Total 17 +1 active participants: 9 provers and 8 supervisors. One of the supervisors supervised two provers.

Gender: Three out of nine provers (30%), and one of the supervisors were male. Of the total number of active participants, 22% were men – 78% women.

Age: Out of all the participants, 88% were aged between 39 and 52. As such, the team consisted of adults in their forties mainly. The youngest prover was 24, the oldest 63 years old.

Regarding the question of placebo, Jeremy Sherr and Peter Fraser are on the same opinion saying that “placebo often produces similar symptoms to the proving symptoms” and so this not only leads to confusing results, but thus makes them irrelevant, which is “an unnecessary waste of valuable provers”.

My decision was that the NP Proving would be a double blind experiment. However, two supervisors became an exception to this, as one of them accidentally found out what the remedy was, while the other was my partner in the trituration proving of the remedy. More importantly though, none of the provers knew neither the remedy nor its potency.

The number of provers was the determining factor in the choice of potency. Since Hahnemann himself tested his own remedies in C30 potency and Fraser’s advice was to do similarly, I decided to do the NP Proving with this potency.

This potency is capable of producing strong physical symptoms as well as mental ones, and I thought it would be more valuable to see nine people respond to the same potency than to risk that a low potency does not bring enough symptoms or that the mental symptoms of a high potency become impossible to grasp.

The remedy used in the proving was prepared by the renowned English Helios Homeopathy Ltd. (The Nestor notabilis remedy is available at Helios Homeopathy since.) Moreover, with the help of my homeopath companion we also performed the trituration proving of the remedy from the same feather serving as the starting material of the remedy.

We potentized the remedy up to C30 potency. In this way, the Nestor notabilis remedy came to be understood through two different proving methods. The conclusions of the two different observations and experiences reinforced, supplemented, or emphasized certain manifestations, thereby giving a focused and clear picture of the Kea remedy.

To enforce the credibility and professionality of the proving I invited a Medical Supervisor – a doctor homeopath, to give support in analysing and discussing any physical symptoms occurring during the proving from a medical point of view. Moreover, an Independent Analyst completed the team. With his work in analysing the anonymous proving diaries and no previous knowledge of either the remedy or its potency, the proving documentation received a completely objective focus. Having had no preconceptions of any kind and yet observing similar symptoms and reaching conclusions coinciding with my own I am delighted and reassured that my analysis and the resulting Nestor notabilis Materia Medica is thus confirmed and clearly validates the results of the proving.

The full documentation required for the “NP Proving” was prepared by myself based on various sources. This included a:

  • Basic Case Taking Sheet for supervisors to have thorough knowledge of their provers’ condition prior to taking the remedy,
  • Prover Instruction Manual and Supervisor Information Manual to give clear instructions about how to observe symptoms and how to note these down in the diaries so as to have uniform and clear documentation,
  • Dosage Instructions for provers and Dosage Guidance for supervisors to assist their provers in recognising when to stop taking the remedy.

I organised and managed the supervisor-prover pairs and kept them informed by email about their duties up to the First Proving Meeting.  At the meeting we discussed the obligations and tasks in detail.

Then provers received their vials labelled by Helios with the corresponding prover codes. The last moment of the meeting was the taking of the remedy by provers. On 26th August 2016 at 18.59, the “NP Proving”, that of the Nestor notabilis – Kea remedy officially began.

At the second and then the final proving meetings the Proving Team met to share experiences so as to call attention to and focus on symptoms and to classify and note them down as a basis for the Materia Medica that was completed by the analysis of the proving diaries.

These were collected at the closing session on 23rd October, which is coincidentally the celebration of the 1956 Revolution in Hungary, signifying an attempt at gaining freedom.

About the Kea

The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is the one and only Alpine parrot in the world that lives in the mountain forest regions of New Zealand’s Southern Island. It is approx. 50 cm long, olive green in colour, with a splash of orange and blue under its wings.

)

The Kea is a bird of paradox in several senses of the word. On the ground, the swaggering and bouncing, clumsy looking greyish green Kea is an unremarkable creature at first glance. However, in a ray of light its feathers will glitter with a metallic shine and then, when it raises its wings, an unexpected bright orange colour flares up.

Soaring in the sky, its spread wings replace the Sun’s shining rays and the glowing blue makes it one with the blueness of the sky. There, it is an incarnation of freedom.

https://itsnature.org/air/birds-air/kea/

https://cleangreen.co.nz/wordpress/?m=201409

Like in all parrots, its beak is large, narrow and hooked. This beak is multifunctional, by which the kea becomes so skillful and ingenious, that it is capable of finding solutions to any problem that may come its way.

Adapting to the ever changing natural conditions of the island the Kea switched from vegetarianism to an omnivorous lifestyle and turned even to scavenging. In the beginning, the Kea’s main diet was the southern beech (Fagales plant family), the seasonally accessible parts of the tree. Another favourite is the orange berry of the Coprosoma Bush (Rubiaceae plant family) which is unique in that it only grows on islands.

https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/kararehe-kino/kararehe-kino-issue24/non-market-valuation-of-new-zealand-biodiversity

At times of dearth the kea was forced to leave the safety of the foliage and forage on the ground, digging up roots and adding insects to its menu for survival.

Food on the ground had to be shared between many hungry mouths -the numerous flightless birds’ only plate- and so the Kea learnt to take advantage of the eating habits of the birds of prey and started to feed on their left-overs too.

This diverse diet meant that through thousands of years the Kea was able to survive the many changes that affected their environment and doomed many other species to extinction.

It was the white man’s appearance on this far-away and undisturbed land that brought the greatest change in the lives of the Kea. The indigenous Maori people did not intrude on their high altitude living space.

The settlers, however, made space for their sheep by expanding grassland and fencing off runs but when that was not enough to feed their increasing numbers, they simply let them roam free.

The inquisitive parrot decided to take a closer look at this creature that resembled the fluffy looking plant, the tasty fruit of which it ate. And the Kea was not disappointed.

Plucking out the wool and digging into the skin of the sheep it discovered nourishing tallow. The sharp claws and beak caused such injuries that many sheep died of the consequent wound infections.

In the eyes of the settlers who were struggling for their living, the Kea became an enemy to be destroyed and they implemented methods that were already proven to be effective in Europe against pests; they added strychnine to the carcasses collected in open pits, erected traps and grabbed their weapons.

A government reward was offered for every Kea head. The result of this cruel devastation was that the number of Keas decreased from the several hundred thousand in 1970 to approximately 5000, until it was declared protected. Although the Kea continue to annoy people, they cannot be hurt anymore.

Inspired by the saying „You are what you eat” I observed a relation between the character of the Kea and its food and thus special attention should be given to the Fagales and Rubiaceae (eg. Coffea) plant families and their remedy pictures as well as strychnine poisoning because of the parallels between them and the Kea remedy.

The home of the Kea, New-Zealand, is incomparable to any other place on Earth. The reason for this is that it is part of an ancient continent that was separated from the rest of the world by the vast oceans 80 million years ago and could thus remain secluded and untouched until the 19th century.

Here, on an island separated since the time of the dinosaurs the unique vegetation gave home to even more unique bird species – many flightless – that lived and developed and became extinct. Terrestrial mammals, which define the ecology of the other continents, were unknown to New Zealand until the appearance of humans on the islands.

The “ecological holocaust” of the island was marked by the uncalled arrival of these animals and that of man. New Zealand’s animals became easy prey to these intruders and unknown predators.

As is typical of New Zealand bird species, and which meant the extinction of several species, the Kea bird also nestles in crevices between the roots of the trees. The female broods for 3 weeks (pregnancy).

After hatching, she begins to feed the chicks, with the food the male – spouse and father- provides. During this time, the mother bird leaves the nest for very brief periods (full-time maternity). The “father bird” is a classic “breadwinner”, a responsible husband and father.

The chicks develop slowly. For four weeks only the female nourishes them (breastfeeding) and starts to venture out of the nest only after that. At this point, the father bird takes over the motherly duties completely.

It is only he who feeds and parents them until they reach maturity (early separation from mother). The female offsprings get special attention from him even in young adulthood; he feeds and adores them up to their pair finding (Daddy’s girls).

Their lives can be seen in four age groups: fledgling, juvenile, subadult, adult. The colour of their eye ring and beak vary according to the four age groups (bright yellow to dark brown), whereas the difference in gender is only indicated by a nonsignificant difference in body size.

It is important that their society is not governed by hierarchy; it is their maturity and the life-experience of age groups that determine their relationship to each other.

The Kea is famously intelligent. They are capable of solving logical puzzles, such as shifting objects in order to get food. They are able to cooperate for a certain purpose.

If, for example, only two birds are able to access food, one of them is willing to help the other to get it, even if he or she remains hungry because he knows that the one he helped will return the favour in the next such situation. The problem solving of one bird will be imitated by those observing. These skills are on the level of intelligence of a three year-old child.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLjZS-cWzmk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxoCuRuHlt8

They are able to play with each other in a way never observed in any other bird species. They wrestle, chase and tussle each other and toss objects to one another like children in the playground. At the same time, they are capable of aggression without any apparent reason.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/10171460/Kea-make-pests-of-themselves-in-beach-townKaiteriteri

In the same way as they observe each other, they watch man and his habits and copy them. They open dustbins, look into the backpacks of hikers, take things apart and steal all kinds of objects.

https://sydkab.com/2012/01/29/keas/

https://cleangreen.co.nz/wordpress/?m=201409

https://sydkab.com/2012/01/29/keas/

Their behaviour is judged controversially. On the one hand they are admirable for their creativity and are entertaining with their curiosity but on the other hand they can be very annoying and destructive in the humans’ world. They damage cars, antenna, lamps and ski lifts, make a mess of rubbish bins and appear on terraces to disturb a peaceful five o’clock tea party.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMLpPoOeays https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGtWxq7aH9Q&t=91s

As the Romans said, ‘Nomen est omen’: the name says it all. The two words in the name of the Kea in Latin: Nestor notabilis, both have their roots in the past and suggest an interesting meaning to this unique bird.

Nestor, as a public name, refers to man who is the oldest in experience in a certain field like the eldest priest in the old days. The earliest Nestor, the king known from the Greek mythology, was said to have been “threatened by perils at an early age but always escaped them in miraculous ways”.

He was an excellent leader famous for his great experiences of warfare, his wisdom, righteousness and eloquence. According to myth he lived an old age reigning for three generations which earned him the respect of a God.

The meaning of Notabilis is memorable, striking, notable, pronounced. .. Just like Hahnemann’s “153” unique, striking and peculiar symptom. Just like the Kea itself.

https://sydkab.com/2012/01/29/keas/

A tale of two Kea – by Martin Curtis

Now I’ll tell you a tale of a kea

That I met in a high mountain hut

This clown of a bird was rather absurd

In fact a bit of a nut

I’d been out all day on the mountain; the descent to the hut was quite steep

So I boiled up a brew

Had a cuppa or two

And retired to me bed for a sleep

It was four or five in the morning

Long before the first light

As I slept the deep sleep of the weary I heard a loud ‘clunk’ in the night

Then a pattering sound on the iron

And a galloping down the ridge

Then he opened his beak, let out a loud ‘shriek’

And slid right down to the edge

Then he climbed back up to the roof-top

And he started all over again

My what a din, up and down on the tin Like the whole All Black Team

Well at last I could stand it no longer

So I jumped from me bed in a fit

Grabbed the broomstick that stood in the corner And the ceiling proceeded to hit

All at once there was nothing but silence

Ten second silence ensued

Then a pattering sound down the iron And a feathered face came into view

Hanging upside down from the gutter

With his beak pressed into the pane

‘What was that, that just rattled me talons?’

You could see going round in his brain

I hid really quiet in the corner

So he ran back up to the top

And he started again on his little refrain So I banged to see if he’d stop

Once again there was a brief silence

As I thumped on the tin with the broom

Then a ‘squawk’, and the sound, of feet pattering down

And a face peering inside the room

For more than a half hour or longer

We continued with our little game

I’d bang on the ceiling, he’d run down the tin

And look in the window, in vain

Each time I would stand so quietly

He couldn’t see what made the noise

The poor bird was getting quite flustered He was really loosing his poise

But at last there was nothing but silence

Ah, the kea’s flown off in a tiff

So I went back to bed and lay down me head

And I was sound asleep in a jiff

It was only another few minutes

When I awoke to a sound that I knew

‘Clunk’ on the roof, then a ‘clunk’ once again Oh no, now I think there’s two!

They proceeded to dance the fandango

And a jig and a polka as well

So I leapt from the bunk, and I grabbed up the broom

And I started to hammer like hell

As I banged away at the ceiling

With the noise going on up there

The hairs on me neck started prickling And I felt a cold, icy stare

I stopped in the midst of my efforts And behind me I took a peek

There, upside down in the window Two beady eyes and a beak

At that, the parrot got quite excited

With shrieks and squawks in full flight

Gave a few flaps like a great feathered bat And flew back up to his mate

And with that, curiosity satisfied

They decided to call it a day

With one very last run down the roof, just for fun And a squawk the clowns flew away

https://cleangreen.co.nz/wordpress/?m=201409

https://cleangreen.co.nz/wordpress/?m=201409

The feather of a Kea – The story of the starting material  ‘All I need is a feather’

“Nature also forges man, now a gold man, now a silver man, now a fig man, now a bean man.”says Paracelsus. The essence of homeopathy is that with the guiding principle of similarity one adapts to its environment and may thereby draw energy from it.

It follows, therefore, that, as Paracelsus believes ‘The art of healing comes from nature, not from the physician. Therefore the physician must start from nature, with an open mind’.

So it happened to me that one day as I was with an “open mind” that I learned from a documentary that there are two peculiar parrots on the other side of the world in New Zealand that are incomparable to any other parrot or any other bird in fact. The Kakapo and its relatives the Kea.

Initially, it was the Kakapo’s very unusual story that raised my attention. This owl parrot has been brought back from the verge of extinction and they are now so protected that they live on two small islands off the shores of New Zealand which were transformed back to their original state.

They were freed from predators to reestablish the original habitat of these birds. Here they are unreachable by anyone but the team that watches them on a daily basis, following their every step. The Kakapo now lives a comfortable and carefree life again.

In its secluded and safe environment and with the ‘extra’ pampering they can live exceptionally long years without making much effort to survive, leaving that to their caretakers.

I wondered how this unusual situation would be reflected in a remedy made from this bird and what kind of patient it could help.  I was determined to somehow get a feather or a piece of eggshell from a Kakapo.

I contacted at least ten different people asking them for their help in this but eventually I received a final letter of rejection in which they explained that it would be against the law to grant my wish.

I was devastated.

How could it be that despite all my efforts, communication and attempts at contacting so many people and with such perseverance I cannot reach my goal? That it is law that stands in my way, unconquerably.

I thought I gave up but a couple of days later it so happened that I was visiting the zoo with my five year-old daughter.

By this time I had almost completely forgotten about the Kea, however, the Kea hadn’t forgotten about me. I already knew that there were Keas in the Budapest Zoo and so we went to see them too.

They were busy cracking peanuts open, while some were tossing empty plastic bottles for fun. Nearby a big sign showed pictures of an Australian expedition and among the names of the team I spotted a familiar one.

As I child we lived in Africa and we often had guests in the house, once a Hungarian expedition team just like this one. My mind was still set on the Kakapo and so I saw a sparkle of new hope just when everything seemed totally impossible. I started making phone calls on the spot, hoping to contact someone who might have better chances of negotiation.

Enthusiastic and cheerful with the prospect of another chance we went to see my daughter’s favourites, the Ara Macao. We were walking down the steps from their cage when in the distance, in another cage, I spotted a bird watching us. It was a Kea! But how it could be, I wondered. We had just come from the Keas’ cage elsewhere.

However, it certainly was a Kea. He was, by his official Maori name ‘Haki”, lovingly nicknamed Big ‘Beak”, as we came to know later on.

It seemed as if he were waiting for us. He stood still, looking at us.

We went closer and he pressed his cheek against the tightly woven wire. I stuck my finger through the small hole and he let me caress him. Every now and then he tugged at the wire to get it out of its way. His incessant attempts showed everywhere.

Big Beak climbed higher where he could stick his beak out better and he started to clown around. He picked up a fruit peel and pushed it out through the wire. We pushed it back in, he pulled at it. He seemed to find this so amusing that he repeated this several times with a flower bud, then a dry leaf too.

When we moved along the curve of the cage leaving, he hopped along and brought new objects to play with. He seemed to want to make us stay. He played, he communicated and in the meantime, he kept opening his beautiful wings showing us its orange flush. I do not know whether I said it out loud or just thought “I wish you gave me a feather”.

We went back to where we were first reached him for a caress to give him more. Then all of a sudden he started to walk away, hopped off the ledge and began to forage for something and when he turned around he was holding a feather in his beak.

He hopped back onto the ledge and put the feather down just on the other side of the wire. I can hardly believe it myself, but it happened, I had the feather to prove that I wasn’t hallucinating.

The feather from which the Nestor notabilis remedy was made. It wouldn’t be a proper Kea story if everything went smoothly from here onwards. The wiring was so thickly woven and the space underneath so narrow that not even a finger could squeeze between the ledge and the metal frame.

And Big Beak was hopping around the feather with growing excitement, sensing ours and the increasing joy, frustration, hope and determination with which we attempted to reach the feather that he seemed to have meant for us.

I was in a feverish search for something to reach the feather with. There was no bush or tree anywhere nearby to get a branch from, however, totally out of the scene, unusual to the environment, there was bamboo and its dry curled up leaves.

I tried to reach in with one of these. Big Beak was delighted with what he thought to be a new game and willingly tugged at the leaves and pulled them in. The feather was drifting further in the meantime and I was anxious it would fall from the ledge onto the ground on the other side.

Eventually, it was real teamwork that lead us to success. My daughter lured Big Beak away engaging his attention with some of the bamboo leaves while I tried whatever I could to scrape the feather my way. I didn’t really see how I finally managed it but the feather fell from the ledge on our side.We were shrieking with joy, all three of us, a little girl and her mother and a very special Kea bird.

Big Beak hurried off to fetch something new to play with. He was tossing a very rugged looking plastic bottle up and down jumping around it. To thank him for the feather we went to get him some bird feed and fed him and his friend who had appeared from somewhere. I wrapped the feather in tissue paper and put it in my bag carrying it close to me as if I were guarding a treasure.  Which I was.

As I wrote in the introduction, the Kea – Nestor notabilis seemed to have offered itself to be transformed into a homeopathic remedy. I was deeply honoured to be chosen for this noble task.

In retrospect I realized that all that I had done until then to make a Kakapo remedy, the perseverance, determination, communication, cooperation, the overcoming of numerous obstacles and the repeated attempts were in fact a reflection of the unique image of the Kea.

From the beginning the Kea was present while the Kakapo stayed isolated and unattainable just as it really is.

In order to receive the feather that the Kea was offering to me I even had to make a device just as the Kea does. The words of Paracelsus echo; „Nature also forges man, now a gold man, now a silver man, now a fig man, now a bean man.”… and sometimes a Kea man.

Big Beak’s feather

This was my first and most significant encounter with Big Beak, but it was not the last one. This was the invitation, the official beginning for Nestor notabilis to become a homeopathic remedy. The agreement between Big Beak and me had been made.

However, again, it wouldn’t be a Kea story if it weren’t full of challenges, complications and many obstacles, which require great perseverance, determination and ingenuity.

The homeopathic transformation of the Kea involved concepts such as legitimacy, officiality, ethics, morality and issues of what is lawful and what not and during the proving it became clear that these were all of great relevance in the image of the remedy.

While the Kakapo had been unattainable because of its strictly protected status, I was faced with difficulties because of the origin of feather that I had received from Big Beak. However, I was determined to get the official approval of the zoo to use it to my purpose.

Firstly, indicating my intention of “adoption” (sponsorship) I requested a meeting with the caretakers concerned, which I was granted after another series of emails.

My plans and my request to make a homeopathic remedy from a Kea feather were received with a cautious and skeptical half smile and eventually I was given the diplomatic answer that I should first prove my dedication by making several visits to talk to the caretakers to get to know the Keas and let them better understand my strange motivation. In the meantime, I could also support their work by adopting Big Beak and only then they will consider giving their consent to my plan.

Fulfilling their condition, I became the mother of Big Beak – „Haki” by his official name. Knowing what we know about the Kea and with the knowledge of the proving results perhaps it is not surprising that the meaning of Haki in Maori language is „truth” (according to the adoption document).

According to their request, I went to the zoo on several occasions and I talked with the main caretaker about Big Beak and his friends and observed them during the feeding time. On the last occasion I escorted another caretaker to the feeding.

The two caretaker’s attitude and the way they related to the Keas was strikingly different.  It reflected the controversial way that people generally relate to these birds.

One of them spoke with admiration and affection. She highlighted their intelligence, perseverance, and curiosity. The mutual sympathy between her and the Keas was apparent. They seeked her attention, invited her to play, acted like naughty, yet affectionate kids.

The other caretaker presented them from a different angle. He considered them to be destructive, harmful, annoying birds, and spoke about how they ruin things and are generally cheeky.

I learnt that Big Beak and his friends come from a parrot breeder. The fact that the feather from which the remedy was made came from a captive bird that was born into captivity as were his parents and so has not known the freedom of the sky for generations is very important from the homeopathic point of view.

Freedom and soaring is the central picture of bird remedies. Could this Nestor notabilis remedy be true to the real Keas of New Zealand who fly high above the mountains of the Southern Island today and are the survivors of a difficult past? The experiences of the provers answered that question.

KEA – The Nestor notabilis homeopathic remedy

The KEA – Nestor notabilis – as a bird – is basically a Tuberculotic remedy. Both the desire for freedom and the euphoria of the ease of soaring are characterized by the mental and physical manifestations of the remedy.

The Nestor notabilis made from the feather of Big Beak preserves the tragic memory of captivity and oppression and is thus Carcinotic among the bird remedies.

“Rereading my diary I realise that I do not sense any restriction anymore, I am starting to feel free. It seems as if it wasn’t even me who wrote it, it is quite strange and interesting at the same time… The other day I commented to someone how wonderful it is that one can feel better than the moment before”- Prover”…I would describe the argument as an emotional dam waiting to break through, and it did.

It wasn’t loud, more like setting free what is inside. Complete calm, safety as I broke free from the grip of the trap and stood up for myself. This is true for other things too, which is an interestingly contradiction because usually I don’t like to speak and write about myself because this forces me to halt and it even pulls me back often.” – Prover

On the other hand the Kea is a true survivor with its constant struggle to reach set goals and its keen efforts to overcome obstacles that hinder his progress unexpectedly. In this one sees the relentless Psoric miasm at work.

The breaking of fragile objects with broken bits and pieces scattered around and the dysfunction of gadgets seems to be a reflection of the foraging Kea and its inquisitiveness when encountering something new.

Yet another face of the KEA presents Nestor notabilis as the remedy of the person who is most likely to react with anger and irritability to any form of limitation, violence, the questioning of his truth, excessive stimuli, and relationships that draw his energies and exhaust him.

His burst of anger may be aimed outward but can be turned upon himself, which might indicate that the remedy is effective in the treatment of autoimmune diseases.

“If anyone tries to restrict me, at the slightest feeling of limitation my hand begins to itch. My eczema comes out. I haven’t had it in a while, it is really annoying.”- Prover

‘”Early morning I am already pissed off. I haven’t even got myself ready for it, I haven’t even had my coffee, right on an empty stomach I am already getting all the problems dumped on me. The clients’ attitude is really infuriating. I am tired of all the problem-solving. The client comes in with an idea and insists on it without any compromise.” – Prover

“The losing of my yoga venue: I am raging mad, they took over my place. Then I woke up grumpy this morning with my allergy gone crazy…: why did they take my yoga place away?”- Prover

“My blood pressure is 166/107, there is rage, I am going to blow up my holiday schedule and spend my time with my son, not with him, no matter what, I don’t care.” – Prover

The inner conflict between holding on and letting go manifests in painful cramps, muscle tension or a sudden stabbing or piercing sensation like in a sudden trauma or a poisoning.

“My bones were aching, my foot, my ankle, my knees. My thigh muscles at the back of both legs are in a cramp.”

“ ..the right wrist is hurting, a dull but piercing feeling. Then my shoulders too, the pain radiates to my arms – a new kind of cramp. Twice, for a few seconds a cramp gripped my right thigh, stabbing, then it stopped but it forced me to stop moving.”

“…ankle pain, stabbing, radiating round the whole foot in all directions. I did have an injury there when I was around seven, a big iron fork stabbed me to the bone.” – Prover

“Today it was a rose that poked me, but I am not angry with it. Then it was the pine tree on my head… And today I stepped into a thumbtack in my slippers with my right foot. It poked… And then the raspberry bush poked me when I was collecting the pruned twigs.”

The place of physical trauma is most apparently, the head. During the proving head injuries occurred with surprising frequency. Most commonly it was either a blow to the head or a vehicle-related accident or participants of the proving were witnesses to such accidents.

Although the accidents seemed frightening and dangerous by some miracle or luck, the injuries suffered were light or recovery was fast and easy. The involvement of the head and neck is understandable in the case of bird remedies, because this is the most exposed and most vulnerable part of the birds.

The speed of flight means an increased risk and might be analogous with the speed of a person in a vehicle. In such cases, when an unexpected obstacle appears, it is often only thanks to good luck that collision may be avoided; otherwise the impact will mean fracture or other serious injury. This kind of injury; breaking, fracture, bruising, cuts seemed to “spread” to objects too, fragile things broke or cracked.

“ I had a bicycle accident. I was crossing tram tracks and my wheel got stuck. I fell on my face. The cut on the right side of my chin had to be stitched. The skin came off both my palms. I had concussion with amnesia.” – Supervisor

‘”Yesterday, something really shocking happened. We were coming home on the motorway when the car in front of us swerved and then flew off the road, it spinned in the air, hit the fence, everything was in a cloud of dust. Just like in the movies.

I have never seen anything like it. It was unbelievable. We pulled over, I called the ambulance and ran back towards the car to see what happened to the passengers. Luckily several other cars stopped. It looked so bad that I was sure they were dead.

Thank God, both passengers got out with a few scratches. The girl might have broken her arm, but that’s it. The car was severely damaged, the windows had broken, all the luggage was all over the place….In the evening when we got home I had a bad migraine. I am sure it was because of what I saw, it was very stressful…I keep seeing the accident like a film rolling in my head.” – Supervisor

A dream about something breaking: I am going towards Remeteszőlős on foot. A car is coming from the opposite direction; I jump aside to avoid it hitting me. It speeds past me and in the bend not far it collides with another car.

One of the cars breaks into two, both end up in the ditch by the side of the road. I knew that no one was injured because I heard them shouting at each other, they were really angry. The cars were broken to pieces.” – Prover

“I was in my workshop and I broke a few things again.” …” The small ceramics containers came out from the oven cracked. This happens sometimes but not often. I had put different enamel on the outside than the inside and the two together cracked the clay. I had done a trial, which had not cracked…” – Prover

“ My head ached in the morning, the way it has been aching for days because of these globules. I took another four globules. I thought it can’t be too strong a potency, it acts on the physical level.

I thought that if it increased the pain, I could at least note down the symptoms more accurately or if it takes the pain away, that is good too because I don’t feel well generally and I am dizzy.

The remedy must be some poison. The pain subsided slowly, it didn’t increase, so here it is: left temple, 4-5 cm area pressing pain, like a slight cramp in the veins. During the day the pain returned for a few minutes, pulsating, with vertigo.” – Prover

During the proving, the accidents occurred unexpectedly or were the result of inattentiveness. It is interesting to note that some injuries like the injuries of the fingers can be analogous to the physical traumas of the Kea when injured in traps.

“ ..I cut my finger when cooking. It was bleeding heavily. Left hand, middle finger, on the outside. The other day, I didn’t make note of it, I also cut my index finger on the left hand….I cut my finger in the evening. Left hand, index finger, middle, on the inside.” – Prover

“ Supervisor shut the car door on Prover’s hand – right hand, second, third and fourth fingers – Luckily they didn’t break, just bruised.” – Supervisor

Likewise, the parallels between the manifestations of other symptoms and trauma caused by deliberate attacks on the Keas are striking. In addition to the physical suffering of the poisoned, the feeling of the injustice of the attack also appears in the symptoms.

The Nestor notabilis can be paralleled with other poison remedies, most notably with strychnine-containing substances, such as the angry, ambitious Nux vomica or hysterically mourning Ignatia.

Among the symptoms of Nestor notabilis, we can discover the picture of Coffea, which is not surprising since Coffea belongs to the Rubiaceae plant family as does the Coprosoma berry that is consumed by Kea.

The main characteristic of the “Coffea person” is overstimulation, his senses are painfully oversensitive just like that of the Nestor notabilis.

“My own loud voice is bothering me. My hearing is acute. Everything is louder, the acoustics is different. I hear background noises better. I don’t remember what it’s like to hear normally.” – Prover

“I was very sensitive to noise – the neighbour was lawn mowing when I wanted to have dinner at seven in the evening. I got angry with the noise and was irritated by loud speech too and a rock band was playing not far away and I got really irritated and mad at this.”

Coffea, or to be precise, coffee, plays an important role in the Nux vomica remedy picture and thus the circle of correlation closes in in the light of the fact that Coffea is related to Ignatia, the other strychnine containing remedy, as well as to Aconite, the symptoms of which appeared in the proving of Nestor notabils in connection to the traumatic experiences.

The painful cramps that grip every muscle and tear at the nerves in strychnine poisoning could parallel Nestor notabilis with Cuprum and the Magnesiums. Furthermore, the relationship with the Carcinotic miasm may suggest a similarity to Carcinosin cum Cuprum.

The mother and child connection as one of those relationships that are most characterised by the conflict of holding on and letting go was central to the proving with the themes of the family nest, leaving its safety to fly or being cast out of it unwillingly.

“…That moment when you still want to feed your child, you want to tell him everything and to just hold him in your arms but you cannot feed him anymore because he is full and you can’t even talk because the drowned sobs are gripping your throat and if you continue to hold on, he will suffocate…

You see how nervous he is, deep in your heart you want to hold him back, but you must let go, let him fly, he is not yours anymore…I cannot continue writing because I can’t see through the tears.” – Prover

“ It seems like Mom has become more patient and so have I… fewer things annoy me at home than before.” … „ My relationship with Mom and the concept of ’home’ has totally changed, for the better. We don’t argue anymore, we are not as impatient with each other, we help each other. It’s like it used to be before, back then when things were ’normal’…but that’s enough said about this.” – Prover

“I don’t know if I have written about the time when I went over to my Dad’s and watched childhood home videos. I don’t want to go into detail but I saw ourselves from back then, how we were, how it was to be all right and to be safe. I cried happy tears for three hours after that, all my memories came back and I had a past once again. My whole life changed from then on.” – Prover

“I dreamt that it was my birthday but no one celebrated me. It was really bad

– not even my Mom called.” – Supervisor

The circle of Nux vomica – Sepia and Ignatia – Natrium muriaticum closes in. And so, it is no coincidence that the symptoms of the Magnesium “orphan child” also appeared during the proving. To begin with my first encounter with Big Beak quite soon lead to his “adoption”. The zoo, as his ‘”foster home” signed official documents to confirm our relationship.

Interestingly familiar from the Chocolate proving, the picture of the hedgehog, whose soft and warm inside is enclosed by a protective spiky exterior, and the hedgehog mother that weans its offspring early, also appeared in this proving.

Chocolate, which is a special homeopathic remedy with its four components forming a unity that carries one message. Theobroma Cacao – the tree that carries its fruit on its trunk and never lets it go; milk, the one that nourishes mammals; sugar that sweetens our lives and the theme of which homeopathically is self-love; and Blatta orientalis, the cockroach which is the homeopathic remedy of the person who longs to be good but with his self-disgust cannot overcome his delusion of rejection.

The four themes entwined draw a picture of a mother who released her child too early from her arms and the child who thus grew up incapable of attachment and love.

From among the bird remedies Nestor notabilis compares to Gallus gallus, the hen that is imprisoned by the expectation to lay eggs and her own weight enabling her to do so and her “counterpart” Buteo jamaicensis, the hawk that is hindered in its flight by the pressure of responsibility and caring for the weak.

I believe that in the way that Gallus gallus relates to Buteo jamaicensis so Nestor notabilis can be paired with the Kakapo. The latter is a flightless, chubby bird that can live an unusually long life thanks to the pampering hands that willingly care for him.

The Kea, on the contrary, owes its survival to himself only as he adapts to the ever changing circumstances that he lives in.

On the physical plane, symptoms of the respiratory system raised the possibility that Nestor notabilis may be suitable for the treatment of the atypical pneumonia caused by Chlamydia psittaci bacteria – Parrot’s disease – which can be contacted by inhaling the dust in the infected bird’s cage or by touch of its feather or being bitten by the animal.

“I began to cough today. A dry cough with expectoration stuck inside. It is putting pressure on my chest hurting my lungs. I don’t have any strength to get up in the morning, even less energy to work. All this mucus, this weakness worries me.

I need something to bring it up, my back hurts, it feels heavy and there is a piercing sensation in my chest, on the right at the same time. I am worried about all the work I need to get done. I received a big order and I am on my own to do it.”

In searching for a striking, singular, uncommon and peculiar symptom that could satisfy Hahnemann’s Aphorism 153, I would single out the epistaxis that takes over the bloodletting of menstruation.

One prover noted down this strange phenomenon. Compared to her usual and regular menstruation, during the proving her menstruation started earlier. On the second day in the evening, sensing some irritation in her nostrils she picked at it causing it to start bleeding.

Because her menstruation had been unusually strong, it was striking that with the nosebleed it seemed to subside. The strange connection was confirmed when about two hours later her nose began to bleed again.

Fresh, copious blood that she had trouble stopping. Then again, two more nosebleeds came within the next three hours, each time started by blowing the nose or by touch. She noticed that since the first epistaxis her menstruation flow had subsided and by the end of the nosebleeds her menstruation had completely stopped.

She noted that she had never had such a short menstruation or with such heavy bleeding. The strange hormonal dysfunction related to menstruation was experienced by several other provers too. In each case revolving around the theme of pregnancy, taking us back to the issues of the mother and child connection.

Finally, the general impression of the Kea as an inquisitive, intelligent bird, set on discovering objects around it, admirable for its persistence but often ending up as an annoyance when becoming overstimulated, consequently, overactive and eventually destructive raises the idea that the remedy may be useful in cases of ADHD.

The Kea’s proving and its consequent conclusions discussed here are only the first step in the understanding of this new remedy. I have taken it one step further with summarizing its symptoms in nearly three hundred rubrics of RadarOpus, which will be available in new versions coming soon but it will be its use in practice, its clinical verification that will confirm these and that will provide an even more accurate picture of the Nestor notabilis.

To perfect its Materia Medica, when finding a Kea among your patients and calling the remedy to their aid, please share your experiences with me. I would be grateful for further information about my favourite bird remedy. Please contact me at: [email protected].

About the author

Nora Pal

Nora Pal studied homeopathy at The Centre for Homeopathic Education (CHE) Budapest. Conducting the homeopathic proving of a new remedy put focus on the unique, individualistic and cooperative relationship between the homeopath and her patient and the chosen remedies, by which they reach the common goal of well-being.
With a language teaching background where communication and understanding is built up gradually, expanding from a few words to a complete and fluent interaction, Nora sets out to teach homeopathic thinking in a similar way.
The book published in Hungary about the proving of the Kea included the methodological guidelines for carrying out a proving, for other homeopaths to be able to experience homeopathy to its depths, while workshops are open to those who are ready to choose the homeopathic way for their healing.
Transgenerational, birth and childhood trauma is the main focus of her current work; gradually unveiling the roots of health issues in a long-term homeopathic therapeutic process guided by the symptoms that the body shows.

2 Comments

  • Could the author please clarify whether or not permission was sought from Kaitiaki (Maori guardians) to proceed with this experiment?

    Maori people of New Zealand have whanaungatanga (kinship) with all things animate and inanimate in their world, including people (living and dead), gods, plants, animals, mountains and rivers.

    This was officially recognised in New Zealand in 2011 by Wai 262 (commonly known as the “flora and fauna” claim) which addresses ownership and use of Maori knowledge, cultural expressions, indigenous species of flora and fauna – all known as taonga (treasures), and inventions and products derived from indigenous flora and fauna and/or the utilisation of Maori knowledge.

    Wai 262 recognises that culturally significant species of flora and fauna are acknowledged and protected and that future laws, policies and practices do acknowledge and respect those relationships and, that commercial use of taonga should occur only after consulting and gaining the consent of Kaitiaki.

    Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People states;

    ‘Indigenous people have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.’

    Kea is taonga, I sincerely hope permission from Kaitiaki was granted for this experiment as the ‘official approval of the zoo’ is insufficient and in breach of Wai 262 and Article 31.

    Investigation, consideration and abidance by national and international laws governing a prospective substance for ‘proving’ need to be diligently undertaken by persons wishing to experiment with taonga from any country; And, seeking the explicit permission of relevant Kaitiaki from the country of the prospective substance’s origin needs to occur before a ‘proving’ can be conducted – Article 31 of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People tells us so and applies to us all, including homeopaths, no matter how well intentioned – these should be mandatory requirements (where applicable) before any ‘proving’ is conducted.

    He taonga rongonui te aroha ki te tangata! (Goodwill towards others is a precious treasure)

  • Dear Sarah,
    May your questions of justice and issues of judgement (just the themes to be provoked by the Kea) be answered by those you value most to respond.
    Rest assured that I shall have to answer on my judgement day – but not in an Earthly court.
    Meanwhile I trust that the healing powers of the Nestor notabilis (and other precious ( homeopathic) remedies) will reach those in need of them.
    When that happens through the mediation of anyone goodwilling, there is oneness with nature, which benefits all.
    As you say „Goodwill towards others is a precious treasure” – a motto worth living by.
    Kind wishes,
    Nora

Leave a Comment

Subscribe
Homeopathy for Everyone
Learn homeopathy with the world's greatest experts every month - for FREE!
World's No.1 Homeopathy e-Journal - for the community, by the community.
No Thanks!