Three butterfly cases
by Enna Stellinga
Case 3: Limenitis bredowii California
The patient is a young woman of 18, who arrives completely dressed in black. She comes due to anger, which she sometimes suppresses and sometimes expresses towards her boyfriend: “I go into defence.” She prefers to stay at her boyfriend’s place than at home, because at home, her father is always shouting at her. She feels his negative energy. Her boyfriend’s house feels like a temple of peace and quiet.
Current physical complaints
She is nauseous in the mornings and cannot eat. Sometimes, she vomits. She has severe blood loss with her menses, and feels down and emotional premenstrually.
Muscular complaints: stiff muscles of legs and back in the morning. Cramps in the neck / headache from the neck.
Sleeping problems, difficulty falling asleep.
Frequent colds and flu.
Easily bruised.
Medical history
1-4 years: developmental delay, extremely dependent (supposed deafness), had special schooling.
16 years: gout in one finger, left hand.
Family: her mother was 10 years old when her own mother died.
Observation: Light build.
Mind
Sensitive and creative. She outs her emotions through drawings. She loves horror films and thrillers. She is very afraid to lose her boyfriend. She feels small, like a slave: “I am at the bottom.” She feels forced to do housework. She has a poor relationship with her sister, who is good at studying, and who is seen as perfect, like a holy child. This hurts her deeply. She sometimes has nightmares of accidents, where she is wounded or missing a piece of her face or paralysed. She dreams of accidents, where she loses her way. “I don’t do things of my own volition, I need help. I ask too often if I am doing it right.” She loves dark clothes. She was teased at school; “I was different than the rest.”
Generals
Desire sweets ++, spinach +++, meat. Thirsty: “I need fluids more than food.”
Aggravations: Olives, fruit.
Aversion to coffee.
Menses: Profuse blood loss++, anaemia, Down, emotional before menses. Diarrhoea during menses.
Chilly+++.
Perspires easily+++ .
Sleeping problems, cannot fall asleep easily. Sleeps on stomach.
Nickel allergy.
Bombay method:
I am stuck, in a box.
Stuck with knives, crazy from pain. Butchered. So angry, and afraid.
Wrapped up like a mummie. Buried.
The light is receding farther and farther away.
Sharp colours.
Flies, freedom, caterpillar. Light comes to them, happiness.
Castle, temple, safe here.
Symbols of peace from all cultures pass my mind’s eye.
Festivities. They dance in a circle around my friend and me.
My friend puts his wings around me – safe.
A sort of mosaic of wings.
Peace and love. Brown and yellow colours (the colours of Limentis bredowii).
Prescription: Limenitis bredowii
A brown-yellow butterfly, which is almost invisible on the bark of the oak tree. The alkaloids of the oak trees, which the larvae eat, are poisonous for birds.
Symptoms recognised from the proving of Nancy Herrick:
Children feel unprotected by adults. State of unprotected adolescent. The eggs of this butterfly are laid in the open air and are not covered, so they are unprotected.
Children without guidance, feel anxious.
Anger, irascibility
Relationships are focus of life. Relationships are good, sweet and smooth.
Dead beloved relatives. Deep missing of mother who died some years ago.
Dreams sacred temple. Dreams of danger.
Dullness, difficulty of thinking and comprehending. Aversion mental work. Inability to think.
Oversensitive, picking up emotions of others.
Symptoms of case of Catherine Javelle, SSC nr. 2 2011 – Dutch homeopathic doctors journal
Nightmares, sleepwalking.
Chilly+++.
Making oneself small.
Vomiting in mornings.
Allergies.
Feeling under pressure, caught, trapped.
Fear of robbers.
Feeling unsafe.
Desire for sweet+++
Profuse perspiration.
Colours.
Follow-up
She became very ill and had the flu. Many emotions surfaced, then she was able to sleep better, and was more peaceful in the daytime. She says that as a child she used to flutter with her hands. She is not so concerned about her schooling and she is less angry. She realised that she is not reacting so strongly to her father. She was able to tell him what was bothering her, he became angry at her but she was able to ignore his outburst.
Her body is functioning better: she is less chilly and she is perspiring much less. She feels supple and lithe, and she has a lesser tendency towards bruising. She also eats fewer sweets.
Emotionally, she has made tremendous progress. She is overcoming her anxieties and can let go of things much more easily. “My sister and I have a better bond.” She is taking initiatives; she was the first in her class to have a training placement. She has let go of her gothic clothes, and feels happy. “I am where I want to be.”
Butterfly themes:
Sensitive, even highly sensitive. Antennas.
Fine build, slender. Small, or feeling small.
Strong need for sweets hypoglycaemia (need for nectar), especially fluid food (sucking up nectar with a hollow tongue).
Clothing, beauty, silk, metamorphosis: passion for dressing up.
Lack of guidance as a child, losing the way, unsafe, unprotected, taking on a caring role.
Great feeling of responsibility, trying to make the other feel safe, trying to guide the other.
Own world, dreamy, in a cocoon; other polarity: play, amusement, fun.
Creative.
Concentration problems+++ Emotions, not the mind. Inability to think.
Sensitive to noise, sensitive to changes in atmosphere, smog.
Theme of death: In Asia, moths are seen as the manifestation of dead souls who have returned to protect the living.
Dreams: of birds.
Allergies/bruises.
Summary
Limenitis bredowii: unprotected, relationship
Feeling unsafe is a strong theme (the eggs are not covered); dreams of danger/ dreams of buildings: the home represents the protection.
Parents who do not want to think about rules, they just want to feel love for their children
Aversion to responsibility.
Loving feelings; Relationships are focus of life
Emotions, not the mind; Inability to think
Sensitivity to environmental circumstances
Mutations of butterflies after the tsunami in Japan, Fukushima 2011, through exposure to radioactivity: smaller wings, damage to eyes. The larvae were hibernating in that area during the disaster.
Biography
Le Roux, Patricia. Butterflies, An innovative guide to the use of butterfly remedies in homeopathy, Narayana Publishers, 2009.
Jansen, Jean Pierre, A guide to the muse. A case of Apeira syringa, Homeopathic Links, Spring 2001, Vol.14
Herrick, Nancy. Animal Mind, Human Voices. Proving Limenitis Bredowii.
Javelle, Catherine. Vlinders: ‘Blue morpho’ a ‘Californian sister’. SSC Year 41, number 2, 2011 (Dutch homeopathic doctor’s journal).
Le Roux, Patricia. Lilac beauty (Apeira syringaria): case and proving. Interhomeopathy May 2010
Maher, Patricia. A case of Vanessa Atalanta, Interhomeopathy, October 2011.
Muller, K.J. et al. Sieben Schmetterlinge, die Homoopatischen Prufungen.
Sneevliet, Annette. Study in Sankaran’s Sensation Method.
Keywords: oversensitive, dreamy, concentration problems, abandonment, trapped, unprotected, allergies, bronchitis, urinary incontinence, asthma.
Remedies: Apeira syringaria, Inachis io, Limenitis bredowii.