Vogel Remedies – Bridges Between Worlds

Pat Deacon 17/01/2013

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When Amanda first came to my clinic she was four years old. Her mother was looking for a "gentle, reliable medicine". Amanda was just having her first febrile illness and had vomited during the night. Suddenly fears surfaced that she had not had before. Up until then her only complaints had been a strange cold and a mainly right‑sided, red, spotty rash around the mouth that had appeared after her DPT vaccination. She has had no further vaccinations since. She says to her mother, "It's from the milk!" She is a very special child with large blue eyes that seem to look straight into my inner self. She has the calm wisdom of someone much older than four. She comes with her younger sister, who adores her and whom she "manages" like a little mother. In many ways the relationship with her parents seems to be on an "equal footing", as if she were another adult in the family. Her mother says she always wants to be the leader when playing. Other children are happy to leave the leadership role to her. She is very talkative and precocious in speech and understanding. She is not interested in people who do not want to communicate with her. Before her birth her father's only sister had been killed in a mountaineering accident. The siblings had grown up on a farm as the children of older parents with an immigrant background. They had a close relationship and were also united by a common interest in environmental protection. Her aunt had struggled with anorexia and suicidal tendencies during adolescence. Shortly before her death she had finally resolved these problems and entered a good phase of life. Amanda often talks about her and displays an almost uncanny understanding of her life, although these matters were never discussed in the family. Amanda is very close to her father. She told me that she sometimes has dreams of flying. In the mornings she always says she is glad the night is over, "because then I don't have to see Spiderman and Batman anymore" (they don't have a TV). She says that by day there are only the good ones and at night there are the evil ones who try to catch her in her dreams. She also says how glad she is that her guardian angel protects her.

Once she was bitten in the face by a dog, but undeterred she hugged the dog.
	She prefers horses. I notice, however, that when she plays with the animals from my toy box she puts aside the frilled lizard, the snow tiger and the panther; she says they are scary animals. Her mother says she was completely astonished when they had to slaughter their first chickens.

ANALYSIS I had the impression that Amanda needed an "old" remedy, a remedy we don't usually think of for children. Her wisdom and composure, her maturity and self‑confidence — all pointed in that direction. I thought of a bird remedy, because I see in it her bridging of both worlds in her connection with her deceased aunt. The remedy that came to mind was Haliaeetus leucocephalus (bald eagle). There were few physical symptoms to guide the remedy choice. The rash around her mouth is among the indications for this remedy. Prescription: Haliaeetus leucocephalus 200C FOLLOW‑UPS Seven weeks later I heard from her mother that she has been completely well since taking the remedy. She had a minor diarrhoea for one day while other family members had a genuine gastroenteric infection. The night‑time fears and bad dreams have gone. For her mother it remains problematic that she shows a materialistic streak, which her "alternative" parents find very troubling! She is interested in Barbie dolls and dressed up in her aunt's old clothes and high‑heeled shoes when she visited her grandmother. Most importantly, however, she paints a perfect picture of a bald eagle and presents it to me while her mother and I are talking! I had told no one what her remedy was. Two years later her mother rang me to say that Amanda was seriously ill. She had been lying on the sofa for four days. She had a fever and was delirious and had been talking in her sleep for the last three nights. She had pains all over and a dry fever. Her mother gave her another dose of Haliaeetus leucocephalus 1M, but it seemed to have no effect. Up to that point I had not seen Amanda for follow‑up because there had been no need. She now lives with her family in a commune, and gastroenteric infections, colds and coughs often go round the community. Each time her mother gave her a dose of Haliaeetus, which brought her back to her feet immediately, while the others often took days to recover. I had the impression that this time, two years after the bird remedy, in this acute situation she needed a nosode and I gave her Tuberculinum aviare C30. Both sides of her family have strong tuberculous tendencies: they easily get respiratory infections and asthma, move frequently and like to travel a lot; they suffer from hay fever and cat hair allergy; her mother has been short‑sighted since childhood; they have strong musical and artistic tendencies and love nature. I chose Tuberculinum aviare because it is related to birds. Within 24 hours she was completely well again. Two more years pass... Amanda comes for another follow‑up. Her mother has suffered two miscarriages; during this time Amanda took responsibility for their care. On one occasion she even (unnoticed by her parents) went to the other side of a campsite to ask the other campers to turn their music down because her mother needed peace. Her mother says Amanda now needs a lot of attention. When she is frustrated she collapses. She is very focused on being an artist; last year she wanted to be a dancer. She demands a lot of attention and always has to be the centre of attention. She wants her parents to play with her more and not to work so hard. She wishes they would do crafts with her.

She does not want to be alone at night. She needs a lot of time with her father. As soon as he comes home from work he is immediately under Amanda's "rule", as her mother says. She needs a lot of time alone at home to do her artistic work and to have time for herself.


ANALYSIS Certain changes in her family life (workplace stress for her parents; her mother's miscarriages; new people in the community; she now spends one day a week at a learning centre) had made her somewhat unbalanced. A dose of Haliaeetus leucocephalus 10M brought her back into balance. She returned to her happy self and is no longer afraid to be alone at night. She is still the leader in the family, but no longer has emotional breakdowns. FURTHER ACUTE SITUATIONS Amanda and her sister were confined to bed with high fever, very red cheeks and a deep, wet rattling cough. A repeat dose of Haliaeetus did not help, so I repeated Tuberculinum aviare C30, and again everything resolved very quickly. Six months later... another acute illness. This time none of the previous remedies helped. A gastroenteric infection was going round her community; the other children were fit again after 24 hours, except for one boy who had diarrhoea for six days. Amanda played but ate very little. She had severe diarrhoea after eating. She was pale and lethargic and had developed a red rash that looked like lots of small insect bites. She had never been so seriously ill, and it frightened her. She drank only small amounts of water (sipping!). From her symptoms (and a syphilitic tendency in her history) it was clear to me that she needed Arsenicum album. She responded to a C30 within half an hour and asked for something to eat, which she then kept down. She slept well, had no more diarrhoea and woke in the morning without rash or stomach pain, looking rosy and wanting to play! CONCLUSION I chose this case because I find it wonderful to see how a foundational remedy acts as a constitutional balancing remedy over several years, and how a nosode can be used effectively in acute situations. Does this mean the next nosode could be Syphilinum if Arsenicum album was indicated? Was Arsenicum simply the remedy for the epidemic? Some of the other children took it early and recovered quickly. Perhaps it indicates that at a certain point in the future Amanda will need Syphilinum.

Photos: Wikimedia Commons
1. Bald eagle, Creative Commons licence 3.0 Unported; William H. Majoros
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bald-eagle-140a.jpg?uselang=de-formal
Categories: Cases
Keywords: bridging of both worlds, wisdom, calmness, maturity, trust
Remedies: Arsenicum album, Haliaeetus leucocephalus, Tuberculinum avis

Pat Deacon