Plant theory explained with a case
Introduction
The Plant theory as explained in "Wonderful Plants" is new and complicated, although not as complicated as the Plant kingdom itself. The Plant theory can be difficult to apply in the beginning, especially in situations were the knowledge of plants is still lacking. An example can make things clearer. The case as presented below is a good example where we can see both the old homeopathic knowledge and the Plant theory explained.
To understand the case taking and analysis one has to know the Element theory as explained in "Homeopathy and the Elements" with the Series and Stages. Added to that one has to understand the Phases and Subphases as explained in "Wonderful Plants". The Phases are similar to the Stages with the difference that there are only 8 of them as is in the Carbon and Silicon series. The Subphases are basically the same as the Phases. The difference is that the Phases express more how the situation is, whereas the Subphases express more how the situation is felt. The Stages in contrast express more how the situation is handled.
Plant Theory
In the Plant kingdom the situation is more complex than in the Mineral kingdom, where there is one Series involved, 1 Stage and a salt. In a way the salt also gives an expression to another Series and Stage. But in the Plant Kingdom the Series are built up, stacked on each other. This is expressed in the numbers that are given to the plants in the Plant theory. The first 3 digits each refer to a Series.
Then there is the complexity of the Phases, Subphases and Stages. They all refer to a stage in a development, but all 3 in a different way. In the beginning that makes it difficult to differentiate them. The Stage can more easily be differentiated since this refers to how the patient handles the situation, it is what he does. The Phase and Subphase are more subtle, the Phase being the situation and the Subphase the feeling about it.
Case taking
Case taking is an essential aspect in the homeopathic practice. This is even more so in applying the Plant theory. With the example below it can be shown how to handle the case. A very important theme is the life situation where the problem arose. How did it happen, what did it do the the patient, how did he feel and how did he handle it.
The case below is also described in "Wonderful plants", in a condensed form.
Woman, 50, bladder cancer.
Doctor: What is your problem?
Patient: I have bladder cancer. A year ago I had the idea that I had cystitis and the general practitioner prescribed antibiotics a few times. But the cystitis kept returning and so I was sent to the urologist who diagnosed the bladder cancer. The tumour was removed and turned out to be It is a non-invasive, malignant cancer, high grade PTA. 6 weeks later the tumour resection edges were free from cancer. I was treated 8 times with chemotherapy, mitomycin, locally in the bladder. I never thought that I could get cancer as I had a healthy diet and lived healthy. The diagnosis has given me much emotional stress. It was difficult not to go to my work, as I am the manager. But I lacked concentration and strength to do my job well. I love my job. I have built up the company. After half a year I was very tired from the process and the chemotherapy.
Two months later I had 15 recurrences of the cancer in the bladder, low grade. I felt bowled over as I had never expected it as I even held a better healthy diet. I changed to a new doctor as the former one did not tell me very much. I was treated again with mitomycin, locally, once a week and a resection of the tumours.
Analysis: Her detailed description of all the facts of the disease makes one think of a remedy from the Mineral kingdom.
The cancer indicates strongly Stage 12.
Doctor: What does your job mean to you?
Patient: I started the company 20 years ago, from very small and had to struggle for a long time to let the company develop well. Now I have very good employees and we do a wonderful job. We organize for big companies employee support like care for children or grandparents and parents when they are ill. This way the employees can do their job well because they know the family members are well taken care off.
Doctor: How did you come to it?
Patient: I am pedagogue. I have worked long time for woman to find a job after having stayed home for about 10 years for the children. I found it impossible that women had to stay home after a few children and later cannot go back to work. It is a waste of their talents and their education.
Doctor: Can you tell more about your work?
Patient: It is a company that I have set up and build out and we are now working with 20 employees. We help women to get back to work after having had children, to get them on track with training and restoring their old level of education so that their capacities and talents do not get lost. It is a wonderful job.
Analysis: Her ideal of helping women and ameliorating society is a theme of Gold series and Lanthanides.
Her story shows that the building up of the company didn't give much problems, so it is not in the Stages on the left side, before Stage 10. The problem is when is needs to maintain her position, a theme of Stage 11 till 14. The full fight is then typical for Stage 12.
Doctor: Did you have problems or stress a few years ago?
Patient: A very bad stress was that someone tried to take my position away. It was an enormous breach of trust. She fought with all means, lying about me, setting up all employees against me, being an intrigant. She did everything behind my back and I could not trusts anyone. She tried to set up all the employees against me and they didn't dare to talk to me anymore. I had to fight for a time to keep my manager position. The atmosphere at work was terrible. I had severe fights with her for almost 2 years. It took me a few years of fight to get her away. Now it is okay again and I am the manager of the company.
Analysis: The fight to keep her job is typical for Stage 12. All the aspects of Stage 12 are present: fighting, everyone is against her and she cannot trust anyone.
Doctor: How did you feel about it?
Patient: I felt wounded and abused, by her lies. My trust in myself was shocked as I had the idea that I had a good feeling about how people are, but I erred myself in her. I started doubting myself. I felt as if the bottom under my feet was torn away. I felt something had collapsed, that what carried me did not exist anymore. I felt as injustice that someone tried to take something away that was mine.
Analysis: The wounded feeling is an expression that can be found in Asteraceae. The used feeling is something of Oxygen and Phase 6, which is confirmed by her feeling of injustice. The shock in her self knowledge is typical for Lanthanides. That someone tries to take something away that is hers is typical for Stage 12 till 15.
The collapsed feeling can fit Asteraceae, but is a less typical expression. The same is true for the feeling that the the bottom under my feet was torn away. This last feeling could remind one of Boron and Phase 3. But that is not confirmed in general, she is too grounded to fit Phase 3.
Basically the consultation is finished now. We have the disease with all her aspects and we have the cause with all the aspects.
The strong Lanthide theme leads to Asteranae and more specifically Campanulidae.
Her stable and ground attitude leads to Phase 4, which in Campanulidae is Asterales.
The phase 6 quality of abuse and injustice leads to the Senecioidae subfamily of the Asteraceae, Asterales.
Stage 12 in the Senecioideae is Packera aurea, in homeopathy known as Senecio aureus.
The consultation can go on to see conformations for the homeopathic diagnosis.
Doctor: Did you have similar situations in your life?
Patient: No. My father once has beaten me for something that my brother had done. It shattered my trust in him, it was terrible. He never had hit me before.
Analysis: Here we can see several aspects that are similar. The strong connection to her father was without doubt, obvious to her, which is an aspect of Phase 4. The unexpected beating and the shock of it fits with Asteraceae. The effect that is was for something her brother had done fits with Phase 6, the injustice quality of Oxygen.
Patient: I have always had good luck in life.
But I often had the feeling of being treated injustly. My brother made a lot of problems and so I had to be the nice daughter.
Doctor: Did you have other diseases in the past?
Patient: As a child I had recurrent throat infections, tonsillitis till my tonsils were removed when I was 12.
Doctor: Can you describe the symptoms you had with the tonsillitis?
Patient: I had severe throat pain, worse from drinking and swallowing, had high fever and had to stay in bed for 2 weeks. But I also enjoyed it because i was spoiled by my mother who was sitting a lot at my bed and reading out stories.
Analysis: The tonsillitis with high fever is an indication for Asteraceae. The Asteraceae are in the Class Asteranae, which have a Lanthanide quality and in the Subclass Campanulidae, which have it as the main theme. So Asteraceae is confirmed.
Doctor: Other diseases?
Patient: Later I developed side strand angina with severe pain that made me cry. It was treated with antibiotics. I has children's diseases like chickenpox, rubella and mumps. My teethe were always in a bad state.
I have a tendency to constipation and have stool once in 2 or 3 days. As a child I mostly had diarrhoea, especially when I was nervous or excited.
Analysis: These aspects have no connection with Packera aura. They probably belong to other remedy states in her.
Doctor: Can you tell about your family?
Patient: My father was weak, but I loved him. I was his favourite.
I have a good contact with my mother. But in puberty we had troubles because i needed her and she was not there for me. She is ambitious and proud of me of what I reached. She likes titles, like that of doctors, but for me that has no meaning.
Analysis: She has no interest in titles. This leads the analysis away from Lamiidae, that have a Silver series quality.
Doctor: Can you tell about your husband and children?
Patient: My husband is wonderful. But my mother had problems with him in the beginning. We have 2 children and they are doing well.
Doctor: Does the weather influence you?
Patient: I cannot stand it when it is too hot. I get a sunstroke from being too long in the sun, so I search for shadow. I had a sunstroke 4 times. But I like the sun and a blue sky. I hate rain and wet weather.
Analysis: The sunstroke fits with Asteraceae. The desire for sun and blue skies is typical for Lanthanides
Doctor: What kinds of food do you like and dislike?
Patient: I like sweets and healthy food like lettuce and vegetables. I also like dairy products like milk and yoghurt.
Doctor: What do animals mean to you?
Patient: I fear animals, especially dogs. I have been bitten twice by them as a child. I fear horses, rats, mice, I think they are awful.
Doctor: What do plants and flowers mean to you?
Patient: They mean a lot to me the last 25 years. As a child I grew up in the city without a garden. A friend taught me to love plants. I love especially Hypericum, Primula, small flowers like wild Viola.
Analysis: This confirms the Plant kingdom. She does not have a strong connection with animals and there is not the hierarchical aspects of the Animal kingdom. The fighting could be attributed to the Animal kingdom though, but that is a confusion in this case as the fighting is coming from Stage 12 and can be found in any kingdom.
The mineral kingdom seemed to be indicated in the beginning with her factual description of her cancer. But immediately afterwards her emotional side comes more to the front. in her expression of feeling bowled. Her general expression is more that of emotions and sensations, feeling compassion and sympathy. It fits with the Plant kingdom.
Prescription: Packera aura MK, one dose every 2 weeks.
Follow up
Within an hour after Packera aurea MK she fell into a deep sleep in the train. The first days she has a lot of flatulence. Gradually she starts feeling better. Her digestion gets better and she has less constipation. Psychologically she feels better, more content. Homeopathy and the remedy feel like the right therapy. She feels as if something inside her has been sorted out, as if things have been put in the right place.
She still gets chemotherapy which gives burning pains in her bladder, as if from broken porcelain.
Three months later she has more the feeling that something has been put right in her abdomen, as if it is healed. She recognises that she swallowed her anger and resentment away. She realises that she has a tendency to be too diplomatic and she has become more direct, also in expressing her irritations. She is still tired, but less than before. There is no tumour to be found in her bladder.
After 5 months she feels good, has more energy and feels healthy. Her aphthae are gone, her digestion is okay. She still has flushes of heat with sweating. She had a dream that much dirty mucus came out of her lungs. She regained some weight that she had lost. Her energy is good, she can work with ease.
After a year she is doing well. Her tumour has not come back. Her energy is good. Every time she takes the Packera aurea MK she feels something in her is getting straightened, in order. The last months she has that feeling especially in her chest, under her sternum. It coincides with getting in order innerly, as if things get into the right place. When she feels out of order she takes the Packera aura. She had dream where she dies, but that is not bad; she is lying and her soul tries to tune out of her body in order to rise like an airplane and then things will become light; but then it changes, something new comes and she does not have to die; life is beautiful; it feels like a decision to go back into life.
Analysis: The feeling that things get straightened, in order and into the right place is a very good sign, especially because that feeling is experienced both physically and internally. It is a quite immediate reaction to Packera aurea.
The dream is a very good sign. It expresses that she is living, made the decision to live.
Literature
Scholten, Jan; Homeopathy and the Elements; Utrecht; 1996.
Scholten, Jan; Wonderful Plants; Utrecht; 2013.
Case as described in Wonderful Plants
She had a cystitis with painful urination that did not react to antibiotics. It turned out that she had a malignant, not invasive bladder cancer. The tumour was surgically removed and she was treated with local chemotherapy which gave burning bladder pains as from shards from broken porcelain.
It started after a period of two years where a colleague tried to push her out of the company that she had build, by manipulating employees and clients. She felt wounded, abused, as if the ground was pulled away from under her, as if things had collapsed. Her self-confidence was shocked and she did not feel carried anymore. She felt that her possession was taken away. She had to fight for 2 years to keep her company going and hers. She is the manager and partly owner of a company with about 10 employees that help women to find a job after they had been raising children. She has built up the company and always done it as something that had to be done, with self-confidence and without doubts. She felt that a lot of talents and training of women are wasted if they cannot return to work after raising children
Her elder brother was a difficult person. She had to be nice and sweet, which felt as an injustice.
In the past she had often tonsillitis with high fever, throat pain from swallowing and drinking and had to stay in bed for a week or two.
She has constipation.
Plants: she likes them, especially john’s wort, primula and violet.
Animals: fears them, especially dogs.
Analysis
Lanthanides: responsible for women’s rights; self-confidence.
Phase 4: responsible; self-confidence and without doubts.
Asterales: high fevers; wounded; broken.
Subphase 6: abused; betrayed; wasted; injustice.
Stage 12: cancer; keep going with fights.
Packera aurea, Senecio aureus: cystitis.
Follow up
Direct after taking Packera aurea MK she fell into a deep sleep and woke content with the feeling the Packera aurea was correct. A month later she feels more order and clearer, as if something has been put straight.
In the course of a year she is doing better and better and after that year there are no tumours in her bladder anymore. Her energy is much better and she feels happier. Every time she takes the Packera aurea she feels something is straightening and clearing, especially in her chest.