Apis and the Doctrine of Signatures

[Charlotte Gilruth]

Joy wrote, re "APIS and the case of exploding genitals":

"So in my opinion it is extremely worthy to look towards the natural
substance, the natural state of our remedies in order to gain a better
understanding of them and to know how and why the remedies produced the
symptoms/rubrics during the provings."
Dear Joy,
I agree wholeheartedly with this idea. In looking for the truly
characteristic expressions that will lead me to the remedy, often, though
not always, the Doctrine of Signatures can be a real pointer. All
substances create an energetic state in the provings that brings out the
innate consciousness of that substance, if there are sensitive provers whose
symptoms are carefully drawn out and noted. Then the person who matches
that state will be cured by that remedy. It is far beyond coincidence or
mnemonic device. It is a state of being, the real basis of our particular
brand of science, the only one based on the Law of Similars.

I still don't have time to write up my whole Apis case (the one I asked for
help with posology earlier, as this client is extra-sensitive). However,
the Doctrine of Signatures was extremely helpful for me in finding her
remedy. I'll list the expressions that came up in the initial consultation
that seemed "bee-like" and led me to look at Apis. I wouldn't rely on
signature symptoms by themselves--I want to see confirmation from provings
or materia medica.
Recurrent dream: "I'm really SMALL, TINY and something really big and grey,
like an elephant, is sitting on me, SUFFOCATING me, I can hardly breathe.

"I'm either realy tired or I'm ZOOMING AROUND."

"I have headaches all the time, STINGING pain."

"I'm always being STARTLED."

"HAVING CHILDREN is more important to my husband than I am. They are more
important to me than he is."

"I'm very COMPETITIVE."

"IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO BE THE QUEEN." and "IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE A SAFE
HOUSE." (She went on to describe that having ONLY ONE WAY IN to her house
made her feel safe. She also mentioned several times the importance of
TIDINESS in her home. These expressions came out when she was doing a sand
play, working with a shallow tray I keep im my office with many tiny objects
clients can choose from to place inside the tray. Unconscious feelings
aften surface in this way, that can be very useful in leading me to the
simillimum."

Again, I won't list all the materia medica symptoms that confirmed the
choice of Apis in this case, but there were many symptoms in Clarke's
Dictionary that matched hers, including almost all of the mind section. In
addition she had the following symptoms confirmed in other sections of
Clarke:

Characteristics: The well-known effects of a bee's sting--burning, stinging,
lancinating pain with excessive swelling.....Great restlessness and
fidgetiness...Some difficulty in breathing, especially in inspiration.

Head: Giddiness....Sudden stabbing and stinging pains.

Eyes: ...photophobia

Face: Jaws stiff....

Teeth: Grinding of the teeth; sudden and involuntary biting them
together....

Throat: Sensation...of constriction.--Paralysis.

Stomach: Thirstlessness

Urinary organs: Frequent desire, with passage of only a few
drops...Incontinence of urine fromcoughing and other circumstances.--Urine
suppressed.(Interestingly, as a child she was not allowed to drink and
urinate when she wished.)
Her overall state has improved over the past year to the extent that all her
deeper state symptoms have improved dramatically, including her nightmares,
feeling she can't breathe, an obsession with death, startling easily,
headaches, anger and rage."
I just noticed that in the Sleep section of Clarke, these interesting dreams
are listed!: "Dreams FULL OF CARE AND TOIL; OF MAKING LONG JOURNEYS; OF
FLYING THROUGH THE AIR OF HOT STONES; OF WALKING OVER HOT FLOORS; OFWALKING
A LONG WAY OVER WET ROADS."

Especially since participating in provings myself, I have become more
attentive to reading materia medica and proving symptoms, asking myself,
"What is the state of being that these symptoms indicate?"

We can avoid the tiresome abstract arguments about whether use of the
Doctrine of Signatures of valid, if we just read between the lines of
provings. If signature symptoms in a case lead to a remedy that can be
confirmed by materia medica and proving symptoms, we're also justified in
choosing that remedy, right?

In the proving for Musca domestica (housefly) published in the 2001 issue of
The American Homeopath, "there was a lot of talk about putrefaction, rotting
garbage, maggots, corruption, excrement, toilets, sewers, tunnels, and dirty
water."

"But what does a master prover do with the symptoms from one really
sensitive prover? After much deliberation, we decided that every one of his
symptoms was valid. Even before he took the remedy he was having sensations
(he smelled the remedy and it smelled like "quite ripe peaches"). He was
drawn to garbage and the brackish water in the subway; he constantly used
language like "being surrounded by corruption and decay," he saw garbage
"moving," in fact he said he believed the remedy was about garbage and that
the remedy was degrading and decomposing. A week into the proving he opened
a new book to a random page and it was about maggots cleaning pearls--and he
knew this was important enough to write up in his journal. His wife (who
got a bit fed up with all his new symptoms from the proving) tells him that
it is a sea worm or a fly....Our 'magic prover' felt like an 'animal with
his eyes darting about,' and he had visions of a 'dead squirrel with beetles
and wasps burrowing into its collapsed eyes.'....Every symtpm that he
mentioned seemed relevant--and that became clear to us immediately at the
extraction meeting. It was clear that he enjoyed the special proving
experience. You could tell that by the way he made his report. He seemed
to feel that he had been possessed temporarily and it was an interesting
trip. He enjoyed being a fly."

Especially with the animal remedies, many correspondences can be seen
between the substance and the symptoms. The provings for the bird remedies,
for example, are full of images of lightness, freedom and flight.

To those who challenge the validity and applicability of the Doctrine of
Signatures in homeopathy, I issue the challenge that has gone out from this
list to other sceptics: Participate in more provings before dismissing the
idea. Even if you are not a sensitive prover yourself, if there are any
sensitive provers in the group, their testament cannot be dismissed, as it
came out in a truly scientific way, by taking a potentized substance unknown
to them.

A whole realm of greater depth and beauty opens up when we step out of the
confines of the "box" created by the conventional medical and scientific
thinking. Marianne Williamson says, "In medicine, as elsewhere, a
renaissance in higher consciousness is beginning to take hold in America.
It awakens us from our collective enslavement to an overly materialistic
bias, and herein lies our greatest hope for the healing and renewal of the
Western world."
Blessings,
Charlotte Gilruth
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Soroush Ebrahimi]

This makes very interesting reading/learning.

However it seems that at times with some colleagues on this site that unless
one is in agreement or silent, then any attempt to state any point to the
contrary gives rise to great upset which is reflected either privately or on
list. (CONTRADICTION AGG)

What I wish to establish is that there is sufficient evidence to show that
one cannot JUST use the doctrine of signatures to predict the properties of
a homoeopathic remedy or select it on that basis. The selection must be on
the basis of symptom similarity and from properly conducted provings.

There are articles published already to show this simple fact.

However, if a particular remedy shows in proving a strong signature, then by
all means use it. But how many colleagues know the basis of the remedies we
use?

As long as we agree that DOS does not have UNIVERSAL application in
Homoeopathy, then I think we have general agreement on this issue.

Sorry to be DRONING on!
Soroush

[Wendy Howard]

Charlotte wrote:
objects

Fabulous idea!! Can you tell us a bit more about this?

Incidently, I'm fully in agreement with you about DOS.

Regards
Wendy

[Joy Lucas]

Dear Charlotte, Wendy, I too quite like this idea. When our clients come to
see us we expect (or hope) that they will tell their story uninterrupted and
in detail with little prompting. I have witnessed some homeopaths who say
absolutely nothing during the case taking - they might use a quizzical f
acila expression to prompt. I rarely experience this in my practice though.
But it would be a wonderful experiment to substitute verbal questions with
non-verbal questions to elicit all the information we need from each client.
Does anyone else have contributions on this. Best wishes, Joy
Joy

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