In this article Antonie Peppler, the inventor of Creative Homeopathy, discusses her finding that using homeopathic remedies is not just a gentle approach to treating symptoms and diseases but actually has a lot to do with psychology. From her perspective, this method touches the deeper layers of the psyche and spiritual dimensions.
The psychological significance
of homeopathic remedies
Homeopathy is becoming more and more modern. If nowhere else, this can be seen from the amount of homeopathic literature published to an ever-greater extent. The person looking for an alternative to conventional medicine is confronted with a nigh unsolvable problem – how should he find an orientation here?
There are several possible ways of proceeding. He can read all available books and digest them one by one. However, here he will already encounter the difficulty that several theories contradict each other or are not unified. Very often, the contents of homeopathic literature are hard to grasp and follow. It is said that one needs many years and much experience to master homeopathy, known as the “Queen of all Therapies.”
The Queen of all Therapies
This homeopathy image is unfortunate and does not keep up with the dynamic life of Samuel Hahnemann, who discovered and developed homeopathy over 200 years ago. Out of a sense of personal responsibility, the physician Hahnemann refused to practice the prevalent form of medicine to protect his patients from further suffering. His deepest desire was to find and practice a form of medicine, a genuine medicine that could help people.
As fate likes to fulfill deep desires, Hahnemann came across the translation of a report on malaria, which provided him with the key to homeopathy. Hahnemann was an exceptionally critical person who took nothing on belief but tried everything out himself and then took what he found good and perfected it. So it was that he took the substance Cinchona described in Cullens’ report, and to his great astonishment, his body produced the symptoms of malaria.
These symptoms appeared every time he took Cinchona and disappeared again after a certain period. The meticulous Hahnemann was so flexible in his thinking that he took this observation and tried it out on other substances. Many remedy provings come from his observations and those of others, which have been collected and collated.
Hahnemann’s basic principle
From this moment of inspiration, Hahnemann derived an essential law of homeopathy:
“Similia similibus curentur”
“Like cures like”
Samuel Hahnemann
This is a suitable formulation and correct, but only a few people have a concrete idea of what lies hidden here. Another translation might be that we recognize something familiar when we have the opportunity to experience it again or, more briefly:
“Awareness through repetition.”
Each of us has undoubtedly had the experience that a particular problem continually repeats itself until we understand it, and then it becomes solvable. One can observe that people whose relationship with a partner breaks apart often choose the same type of person as a new partner or that the son of a rigorous mother seeks out a friend or wife who has the same quality.
In his discovery of homeopathy, Hahnemann understood the application of a law of nature anchored in each of us. Every person repeats their patterns until they comprehend the experience this pattern brings and can use it to their advantage. It is not at all astonishing that psychotherapy operates according to the homeopathic law of repetition.
The hermetic laws in homeopathy
Homeopathy is unique, but it is based on the holistic laws of nature as in the principle of “As without, so within.” Everything that is present inside of a person, every single element, every substance, every condition, every soul situation, is also to be found outside of him in his surroundings and can be recognized in its symbolic meaning.
The example of Pulsatilla
Take the example of the Wind Flower, Pulsatilla pratensis, as it is called in homeopathy. This delicate plant is never found alone. It always has more of its own kind surrounding it. When the sun shines its golden rays upon it, it opens its flower as wide as it can. As soon as a cold wind or a storm passes, it closes its flower. But that’s not all. The stem bends, and the closed flower turns to face the ground. Interestingly enough, there are little barbs all along the stem.
The signature of Pulsatilla pratensis
Interpreting the signature of this plant, the flower corresponds to the personality of a person whose emotions are dependent on external events. In “good weather,” a friendly atmosphere among nice people that is stimulating yet relaxed, the personality becomes open and takes on a pleasant attitude. When “bad weather” approaches, that is, by pending confrontation and battle, this personality no longer feels good.
She avoids confrontation and danger by sticking her “head in the sand.” She does not want to battle, confront the situation, or straighten her backbone and take a position. She loves to step out of the way, hide, awaken gentle motherly impulses, and wait until the threatening situation has either been diverted or passed by.
The little barbs on the stem point to the fact that this personality type likes to hook onto someone or something for stability. At the same time, the hooks represent something threatening or repelling.
The psychology behind the homeopathic remedy
The personality symbolized by Pulsatilla pratensis, attempts to appear helpless, prefers to be alone, avoids confrontations, and likes to hold onto others for support.
This can all be read in the signature of the plant. The life situation of the personality becomes even more evident when we look at the symptoms of the remedy, which develop more closely during a remedy proving and unraveling their symbolic significance.
There are more than 11,000 symptoms known from the homeopathic remedy Pulsatilla pratensis. The following is just a tiny selection.
| Symptom | Symbolic significance |
| weeps easily | ›› wants to create an emotional distraction |
| ever-changing symptoms | ›› cannot decide what has priority, distracts |
| no thirst with nearly all complaints | ›› emotions are not allowed |
| better in cold air and from cold applications | ›› better with lack of emotion and distance |
| praying | ›› hopes that the unpleasant situation will soon be over; surrenders the responsibility |
| unconsciousness in a crowded room | ›› wants to fulfill all expectations but cannot and withdraws |
| fear, evening by twilight | ›› cannot lose control |
| mildness | ›› doesn’t allow himself anything special |
| ailments from fright | ›› a repressed conflict threatens to catch up with him |
| sits still | ›› doesn’t show what he would like for himself |
| weeping, when telling of her sickness | ›› creates an emotional distraction to avoid the confrontation |
| disgust | ›› feels dependent |
| doubtful of soul’s welfare | ›› has acted with full consciousness against himself, expects punishment |
| headache after eating ice cream | ›› doesn’t want to ruin things with others and tries to keep his emotions under control |
| sleeplessness through twitching of the limbs | ›› because the pressure from the problem is great, he refuses to work it through |
| stretching before urination | ›› first wants to reach his true stature before he opens himself emotionally |
| bathing the affected parts ameliorates | ›› wants clarity on his suppressed issues |
| milk, non-pregnant women | ›› offers nourishment in order to be further supported |
| diarrhea after the slightest indiscretion in eating | ›› fears not being able to fulfill the expectations completely |
The full range of the symbolic meaning, recognizable in an emergent form in the plant signature, can be seen in the symptoms listed above. Anyone who can understand symptoms in this manner is privy to the inner workings of the personality and/or the life situation in which it finds itself. This is an example of the fact that everything that surrounds us is also present within us.
Solving a psychological imprint
The personality that finds itself in a life situation that it in no way wishes to confront, but in fact, must needs the Wind Flower as a mirror. Using the homeopathic remedy, the subconscious recognizes the traumatic conditions that have created the actual situation that the personality sought to avoid. The previously unconscious theme can now be raised into awareness. This gives the personality the possibility and, ultimately, the decision to change its life situation.
By gathering an understanding of what a symptom is trying to say, we can apply this language of symptoms to the homeopathic remedies themselves. We can use the fact that everything around us carries a specific symbolic meaning. Two hundred years of homeopathic research provide the basis for a comprehensive understanding of the significance of homeopathic remedies. The prerequisite is, of course, that one understands the language of the symptoms and their practical application.
All matter is energy and information
Science today agrees with Albert Einstein that matter is nothing more than solidified energy. This is tantamount to saying that there is a spiritual principle behind every substance. This understanding has a precise application in homeopathy and can be comprehended best through images or metaphors.
When we have grasped the various factors operating in a particular context, this understanding creates a lasting transformation in the spiritual being of a person. When we, for example, begin to question a statement that was “implanted” in us in childhood by some figure of authority and recognize its inapplicability to us personally, then all of the fears and patterns of behavior that are tied to it are no longer needed and can be released. The basic pattern we have thought up to this point has now been altered.
Symptoms are somatized conflicts
The symptoms that came into existence through the patterns of behavior we were previously living out were physical symptoms, materialized products of a falsely understood principle. When the basis for a symptom is no longer present, then a person no longer needs a physical reminder to “please change this pattern.” Logically, symptoms become unnecessary once a transformation on a spiritual level has taken place – for matter, as has been proven, it is but condensed energy.
Homeopathy is much more than just medicine. Homeopathy is, as a mirror of life, a path to greater awareness of one’s own individuality!
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