Thuja - Single Remedy Project

Thuja

2006

Table of Contents

Characteristics and the Plant and its Common Uses...................................3 Symbolism...........................................................................................4 Characteristics of the Sycotic Miasm........................................................5 Pathology.............................................................................................6 Mental and Emotional Thuja...................................................................8 Rubrics..............................................................................................15 Related Remedies................................................................................17 Bibliography.......................................................................................18

Characteristics and the Plant and its Common Uses The Thuja Tree is known by many names. The family name is Coniferae but the common names include Arbor Vitae, Tree of Life, American Arbor Vitae, Cedrus Lycea, Western Arbor Vitae, False White Cedar, Hackmatack, Thuia du Canada and Lebensbaum. The Thuja was introduced to Britain as early as 1536, from its native eastern Canada and USA via France. The tree is best known these days in the form of numerous garden shrubs, mostly dwarf forms. The tallest rarely grows above 30 feet high. These trees have regular, graceful conical forms that make them valuable as high hedge trees. The leaves are of two kinds, Both have a small, flattened gland, containing thin, fragrant turpentine. The flowers are very small and the cones mature in one season, but remain on the tree throughout the winter. Thuja Occidentalis is the larger species of the tree that may grow to 200 feet. The wood is used for fencing and palings, as a light roofing timber and, as it is both durable and pliable, for boats and also for limekilns, bowls, boxes, cups, and small furniture. The fresh branches are much used in Canada for besoms (tools for space cleansing), which have a pleasing scent. The odour is pungent and balsamic and the taste bitter, resembling camphor. Thuja also contains volatile oil, sugar, gelatinous matter, wax and resin. The leaves and twigs yield also a camphor-like essential oil. A yellow-green volatile oil can be distilled from the leaves and used as a vermifuge (medicine that expels intestinal worms). The foliage is rich in vitamin C. The American Indians used it to treat scurvy. Medicinal Action and Uses: Aromatic, astringent, diuretic. The twigs may produce abortion by reflex action on the uterus from severe gastrointestinal irritation. It has been used in fevers, rheumatism, dropsy, coughs, scurvy, and as an emmenagogue (induces or hastens menstrual flow). The leaves, made into an ointment with fat, are a helpful local application in rheumatism. An injection of the tincture into venereal warts is said to cause them to disappear. For violent pains the Canadians have used the cones. The oil can produce convulsions in warm-blooded animals and paralysis in coldblooded animals. Sixteen drops of the oil, taken by a girl of fifteen, caused unconsciousness, followed by spasms and convulsions, with subsequent stomachic irritation. It causes great flatulence and distension of the stomach. The resin, known as Sandarac, was used as a drug, and for ointments and plasters. At present it is used as varnish and incense, and the powder, or Pounce, is used to prevent ink spreading on paper after letters have been scratched out. Sandarac is said to be used in India for haemorrhoids and diarrhoea.

Symbolism Trees make ideal metaphors to convey the notion of growth, strength and longevity. Trees, especially true cedars, that tower above 50 metres and are a thousand years old become emblems of grandeur, survival and incorruptibility. Due to their longevity, incorruptible resin and evergreen leaves, cypress and Thuja have been associated with immortality (Tree of Life). For this reasons the cypress is planted in graveyards and has its place as the funeral tree in the Mediterranean region. It is planted beside the graves to protect. It has durability and it repels insects. It is the tree of life but also the tree of death, a tree for all seasons. This is also the mental picture of Thuja. It shows the extent of the pathology it presents in the fully developed state of the sycotic miasm. The name Thuja is a Latinized form of a Greek word meaning 'to fumigate,' or thuo ('to sacrifice'), for the fragrant wood was burnt by the ancients with sacrifices. The tree was described as 'arbor vita ' by Clusius, who saw it in the royal garden of Fontainebleau after its importation from Canada The Greek word Thujas means “raving women”. The Greek word Thusia means “a burnt offering”, a sacrifice. Cedar was often burnt at the altar of the Gods. Cedar was also used to make coffins and in embalming. Symbolically the tree is elegant, erect, has poise and presence, is strong and inspirational. The pine cones it bears are a phallic symbol, connected with the open sexually of the conifers and our Thuja patients at times.

Characteristics of the Sycotic Miasm Thuja is a strongly sycotic remedy. The most evident characteristic of the sycotic miasm is overproduction and excess. These individuals may have inflated egos with an ability and tendency towards performance. The response to the feeling of being out of balance is to overcompensate. Sycosis may be said to be the response that compensates for a psoric lack in the past. They feel like something is wrong with them, that there’s something broken or weak within themselves, so they attempt to cope by covering it up and they become secretive, manipulative and defiant. Medorrhinum is the sycotic nosode from gonorrhoea. Thuja is the suppressed Medorrhinum state. *They suffer lots of guilt as they cover up their perceived failings and try and be all things for all people. They fear that their weaknesses may be exposed. They play many roles according to their company and surroundings and model themselves on people in their lives that they admire and hide behind that mask.

Pathology Causative Factors in Thuja A history of Gonorrhoea, sycosis, sycotic diseases in the family – diabetes, ADD, ADHD, Asthma (particularly dampness) Suppressed gonorrhoea Suppressed warts, or sycotic discharges, acne, any foreign antigen/protein coming into the body, vaccination (foreign bodies = Ars Alb – this is the acute of Thuja!). Foreign bodies – vaccination – use Thuja. Thuja is a great remedy for antidoting oral contraceptives, HRT, fertility treatments, chemotherapy, steroid therapy, Thuja - Following recurrent infections of the pelvis e.g. e coli infections, Chlamydia, triclamonia, candida, fungal infections, herpes simplex, herpes genitalia, human papilloma virus and shingles. NBWS Chicken Pox Self abuse – poisons – they have a feeling life is hostile, goes out into the world an abuses himself. Drug abuse, excessive alcohol, excessive tea/coffee drinking, tobacco, sexual excesses. Worse from sweets, onion, garlic, alcohol, chemicals (sulphur and mercury) (Hepar Sulph is the antidote to mercury amalgam fillings). Birth trauma, head injury, there’s a resistance to being born. Organ affinities – in sycosis lecture. Typecasting Sensitive to cold/wet. Affects all organs that are ovoid (shape of the tree/bush) – polyps, ovaries, testes, pancreas, spleen, endocrine glands, thyroid. Exuberance of excess, anywhere there is excess of discharges. Fleshiness (leaves) – increases water retention, they put on weight. Vast changes in weight (morning to night), they swell when they travel or go to the seaside. Slow metabolism. Thuja in health are splendid to see – very handsome men and very beautiful women with the perfect body, athletic. They create a mask through the body itself. Perfection through plastic surgery. Great attention to diet, eating, drinking, can reach obsessive levels. Then as the sycotic miasm takes hold, the metabolism slows down, they have a tendency towards true obesity. They take on an oval form. The trunk becomes fat. They have thin legs and arms. Extra breasts if it’s a man, overhanging abdomen – legs and arms are ok. As a young girl she is perfectly formed. Pill lymphatic oedema – they gain weight and are never able to get rid of it. HRT – breasts grow, one may grow and the other may not, either side, become overweight. Heaviness in the neck – short neck. Metabolism lets her down – also seen in Sepia. Sometimes the weight may be another mask (Calc the weight is another shell – Thuja is v like Calc). Thuja also for infertility where indicated constitutionally)

High cholesterol. Hair: Poly cystic kidneys, cystic fibrosis of the pancreas, pancreatic remedy. In sickness everything can be perfect in the middle of the line Thuja state. Lovely hair, luxuriant, not hairy, hair where you want it and not where you don’t want it. Sallow complexion – slightly greenish/yellowish hue, particularly around the mouth. Eyebrows often run short (Phos), peter out and are lost on the outside. In very hairy Thuja, hair is in abundance – nose, collar, back – if you’re a Thuja, you shave it off. Very hair conscious. Tend to get folliculitis (in growing hair). Very often problem on the neck when he shaves, pimples on the pubic area when she shaves. Nail: Thickened, deformed, overgrowth (sil), undulations of the nail, elongated stripes and ridges that you can feel and see. Transverse corrugation, going out and coming back – often as a reaction to stress and it#s laid down in the nail bed. Skin: Facial skin can be course. Orange peel skin. Old acne scars. Great acne remedy (as Med). Affinity for Small Pox in the remedy. Hair starts to fall out. Skin starts to peel off. Like the tree it’s like dandruff. Lose hair from parts they don’t want to lose hair – eyebrows, pubic – the older Thuja particularly. Sweat on uncovered parts. Sweat when asleep. Smelly feel, armpits, groin. Nature conspires to make them ugly nearly! Close to Lyc. Lacks musculature, eruptions and growths, warts and tumours of all sorts, particularly to the face, red tumours, red nodules, papillomas, port wine stains. Broad fleshy nose. Red veins and capillaries on the nose. Conspicuous temporal arteries – can be high blood pressure. Cushings disease, Addison’s disease, pigmentations of the skin (may be from hormone therapy, the pill, HRT), vitiligo, patches of skin which have lost pigmentation. Scars and keloids, NB – fungal infections. History of antibiotic treatment. Micosis developing (Sepia, Bas). Hormonal conditions brining on repeated bouts of candida, thrush from the pill. Noses – little turned up pug nose = Syphilis Pointed nose = psora Sculptured nose = TB Lips – are sexy. Allure. Raised around the outer edge. Looks as if you’ve been drinking milk – a little ridged raise that frames the lips (Puls, Plat). Linked to the sexual aspect – the pelvis – Michele Phifer. Thuja and copper are closely linked. Dionysian love – erotic love as opposed to Aphroditean love. It’s not a prescribing symptom it’s part of the totality of the individual. Gross excess – areola too big on the breast, nipples too prominent, internal lips of the vagina too pronounced, labia minora protruding beyond the labia majora, clitoris too well developed, foreskin too long in a young boy, genitals too large – sycotic overproduction. Beautiful physiques – put a lot of effort into getting the bodies, toned, tanned. Appearance of clean but the overproduction is masked. Colonics, cleansing diets. Recreational drugs can induce the Thuja state and can also be quite strongly craved by Thuja.

Mental and Emotional Thuja Thuja types are very secretive and deceitful. They believe themselves to be fragile. They often maintain that their health will always let them down, so may present as hypochondriac. These patients can be very religious. Here is a good indication of the extremes of the sycotic miasm. They have an image of themselves as being clean-living and upright members of society, yet they have low self esteem. This may be covering hidden sexual desires which are gilt-ridden. Thuja women have a great fear of pregnancy, often feel as though they are pregnant and this brings about feelings of guilt relating to this. This is in contrast to the Medorrhinum patient who is overly sexual. (Sankaran) Thuja comes from a situation which demands rigidity of thinking. This occurs when religion becomes very strict. Social security lies in adhering or at least appearing to adhere to religious norms. Inside however the person feels brittle or fragile. In his manner he looks straight and fixed and his ideas and views do not allow for any freedom of thinking. Yet from inside there is always a fear of being exposed and his whole cover breaking down; this makes him stiff and cautious in the presence of strangers. The fall from grace is symbolised in dreams of falling, from which he wakes up with a fright. (Sankaran) One of the main indications of the remedy is a feeling of being frail or fragmented – a feeling of weakness within oneself, that something is “wrong” with oneself. Patients think that food and alcohol are bound to cause them problems and that their system cannot take things such as drugs, allergens, emotional stress or exposure to a draft of air. They try to avoid all such things and attempt to keep themselves covered to avoid exposure to the same. These avoidances only reinforce the fear and this vicious cycle is not broken, making of Thuja one of the main remedies for neurosis, with several obsessive compulsive tendencies, fixed ideas and behaviour patterns. (Sankaran) In the emotional sphere the feeling of fragility is manifest in the fear of losing face in society. The person believes that he has a certain image in society of being a religions, upright, clean, honest person, free from human failings such as dishonesty, sexual temperament etc. this he presents an elevated picture of himself as he is afraid that any slip on his part might reveal the real him or the bad part of him which he has tried so hard to cover up. In this “bad part” lies his dishonesty, sexual desires (which can even be for close relatives), his immoral or irreligious feelings. If this is discovered, he will fall from his imagined elevated position and will be finished. Thus his survival depends on a complete cover up and there is tremendous anxiety of being exposed. The Thuja person is secretive and talks to the physician as if sharing a secret. He is ever conscious of the presence of other people, especially strangers. There is also a feeling of floating in the air. He dreams of falling from high places – representing his fear of falling from his elevated position. The physical symptoms include warts – a presentation of the overgrowth of the sycotic miasm. Discharges are profuse, yellow and green. A particular is a desire for onions yet are upset by them. There may be tooth decay, bloody scabs in the nose, greasy skin, mucus on the chest or in the throat that is difficult to hawk up, protruding abdomen, rumbling in the stomach with flatulence and a sensitive

vagina that prevents sexual intercourse. These are all particular presenting symptoms representing the sycotic miasm.

Mentals: Boerland – “all Thuja patients are truthful scrupulous in everything they do” – i.e. they are so deceptive you will think they are being honest. Thuja is also a Silicea look-alike. Silicea can degrade into Thuja. Thuja is very devious/deceptive however. Hidden – secretive, private life. Thuja is an actor, a chameleon remedy, different person in different circumstances Moral rectitude – morally correct Closed. Perfectly symmetrical, not a hair out of place. Perfect. Perfectly in control. Nothing can be wrong. Can’t be spontaneous. They like to be invisible. Archetype Hedes (Haydes) – he had an invisible cap so the dead people couldn’t see him. Delusions of being like glass – fragile and the transparency – they don’t want to be seen. They seek to be isolated. there’s a sense of alienation within himself, feels incompatible with his environment. Aurum is very close to Thuja. They try and conceal, to hide what they can’t suppress. What they can’t conceal becomes sexual. Buoyant step, even when sad. He has suppressed his emotion/grief, much farther than Nat Mur, they are in fact really sad and are soliciting for sympathy which we don’t give them and then when they don’t get the sympathy they are resentful. Where awful traumas have taken place and the grief is so deep they can fall into coma. They didn’t want to some into the world and they try and make the mother pay for making them come with confrontational behaviour. This is the shadow self. If a person is hypersensitive to remarks/opinions they protest too much, they are reflecting discomfort with themselves. This structure he builds up is a very fragile structure. They feel like they are being attacked at an identity level, at their very core, if they are questioned about their beliefs. They feel brittle. It’s a survival mechanism that they build up this world around themselves as they perceive life as hostile. These people need to be strengthened. They can be haughty and overbearing. At their best they have poise, presence, poise but it can appear as pompous. They can be very condescending. Lyc can degenerate into Thuja and Ginko is between the two. Nothing must threaten their dignity. Very serious, devoid of humour. Can’t take a joke against themselves. The more suppressed your shadow is the less you can take a joke against yourself. True feelings are often concealed beneath a charming veneer. Oiliness (in the wood) – they can grease their way up an social ladder. We call these people Sycophants –

slippery, too charming. There’s a mask of politeness and language, it’s lifeless. Too perfect diction. It distances them from other people. Hedges himself in with language, with clothes. The sexual energy can be directed into crime or into politics. They are solitary, separate, secretive. They resist intrusion. Covered in warts, resinous excretions. Desire solitude, solitary, secretive and clandestine. Manner – poise, hurried and agitated, impatient, never enough time for Thuja. Time is too short. Person who intentionally slows down time – poise, equilibrium, feels he’s on a carousel and he’s trying to get off. CONTROL (Ars), Have to look at the glandular area and all the endocrine organs. Spiritual stimulus of sycosis is part of the psychological and spiritual evolution of the individual. Through the action of sycosis the person becomes aware of duality, realising he not just a physical being. There’s an awareness of the animal in them and there’s a conflict of the energies one of which is wholesome and one of which is quite the opposite of that. There’s a loss of identity which comes with this. Then there’s a tendency to judge the self through negative energies that are determined by the shadow. Then building up a personal blighted by images determined by the unconscious and thrown up as a different identity. Sycotic child, sexually abused – loss of identity from abuse – negative images from the unconscious and a new personal being born from this negativity. “I am bad”, “I am abused” “I am wicked”. The sycotic has to descend into hell, confront the shadow and in that conflict he must rise up and resurrect. They are not destroying anything, they are bringing the two things together (like Sil) and there is a reformation to transcend. Sycosis in Greek means “standing up” rising up. It also means resurrection and transcendence. The risen God Dianesos – he died and was resurrected. Easy to see the transition from Calc Carb to Thuja – Calc has a fear of life so they create a shell. Thuja has a mask. The fear of the incarnation experience is equal to both. Both have a fear of insanity and germs. Thuja is always washing his hands – need to cleanse. Calc has the feeling that life is awful. With Thuja there is a he need to hide, to be invisible. Causation: The Sycotic Home – sycosis is transmittable (STD) so it is highly contagious through promiscuity. In the home there are sycotic energy. Where there is sycotic energy and there is lack of education possibly you have big families, where fundamentalism is practiced. They have lots of children – status thing – there are fears of infertility. Role models are cold, calculating, cruel, manipulative, child is given contrasting messages. Everything is permeated in deceit, hidden, subterfuge, clandestine, secret, private, nasty, weird, ugly. Because very often they are projecting the exact opposite image to that which they are indulging in. Masquerading with puritanical piety. Child is being fed messages that sex is dirty, disgusting, while the very things that they are condemning they are indulging in. They externalise your crimes and your iniquities and implanting them in the ears of others. Jimmy Swaggart – impassioned on the pulpit – there were prostitutes at home. Announcing the very things he desires and he condemns it from the pulpit.

These parents are talking dirt. They never talk about sex. The more the energy is suppressed the more energy it has. All the messages in the family are unpredictable, underhand, under cover. A Silicea born into this environment has the subjectivity to grow away from this situation, but Thuja doesn’t. Thuja has a loss of identity. There’s a suppression from all around them. Big factors – low income groups, overcrowding in homes, absent mother, antisocial father (antisocial personality type). The mother in this case may be the victim. Marital strife. Deviousness with that conflict. They dream of confrontation and war. Sometimes the child is sent aware from the home which intensifies the lack of identity. There’s a history of abuse – physical, emotional, sexual. Excessive parental control from authoritarian parents and neglectful suppression - pious puritanical parents. They develop intrusive thoughts of the obsessive compulsive type. Emphasise the relationship with the mother (Thuja, med – all the sycotics). Where there is a predatory mother, a perpetrator, these are the worst possible. The mother is also an accomplice. Or the mother is passive, not involved, turns her back, the intrusion of the father is not believed. The mother who is unable to help as she her self is a victim. Incest is common. Discrepancy between the behaviour at home and the behaviour in the workplace/school. Or husband who is wonderful at work and horrible at home. Loss of identity follows. Emotional problems. Frightful that the footsteps are going to stop outside your door. Beaten, subjugated, humiliated. It creeps in to you (like lac-can). An awful state of over-adaptation takes place. Overdomestication. How do they survive?- Delusions. Even if you don’t know about the abuse you can prescribe on the illusions. They are TRAPPED, caged (like Cimic). Submission, compliance and then resignation. Their destiny is in the hands of someone who is perpetrating these terrible things. Suspicious, MISTRUST. Lack of faith, sceptical of homeopathy. Thuja has no trust in anybody. The upbringing – extremely critical, destructively judgemental parents. Negative comparisons are made. There is often a Lycopodium Dad who’s not lifting the children up but plumping himself up instead. Authoritarian parents they approach parenthood with authority like you would to a dog. Children should be seen and not heard, you may look but you may not touch – it makes the child cringe, go inwards and conceal. Indulgent parents – where the child is born with an aversion to mother from the word go, from breastfeeding. There is Oppositional Defiance problems. They have the worst tantrums, immense, both in adult and child. He punishes mother with the silent treatment. As an adult they still do it. Thinks the mother emasculated him. The mother is the victim. The victim of her own passion. Rescues – when out of the energy of the family situation, he rescues. He is the victimiser and then he rescues. Neglectful parents – love and care is not flowing or consistent and unpredictable. Where it only comes from behaviour of a certain type. The child begins to think

that like is unpredictable, cruel and cold that everything is about manipulation. That he has to fight and manipulate and be devious to get what he wants. He is born with the sycotic feeling of being stained so this situation perpetuate the feeling that he is unworthy is their care and attention. – UNLOVABLE. Thuja loses identity. Goes into herself. Develops a quiet, silent, internal life which gradually becomes more warped due to the sexual sycotic energy. Suppressed sexual energy become deviant. She will make love her herself with her imagination. Masturbation. Kissing the image she sees in the mirror. At the same time there can be a sense of sexual inadequacy in adulthood. It can become and weird and twisted picture. The need is a desperate one, for love. They go inwards and become desperately compliant – the models child – out of that emerges the immaculate adult. Always dressed correctly, does things correctly, extra vigilant because they don’t know what’s going to happen next. They become hypersensitive to sound, smell. They can become androgynous (asexual, genderless). They can become very sensitive to pheromones. Tactile, sensitive children (autism). Fetishism is present. Perverse sex life. Hypersensitive to everything that encroaches on the body. Indiscriminate discipline and indiscriminate punishment and indiscriminate love. When love is indiscriminate and when punishment is indiscriminate then you have problems. Father applies indiscriminate punishment according to his will (not the child’s behaviour) and the mother gives him contrasting messages because no matter what he does she loves him. Indulges him. Or the parents indulge in this behaviour. How can you react to that. There’s no consistency. Become superstitious, fatalistic, resigned. This happened to Hitler. The sense of morality disappears. The consequences of actions means nothing. There’s an erosion of moral core of the person. Consequences are irrelevant at a young age. There’s a sense of learned helplessness (lac-can). She skulks around hoping to be invisible – glass factor – connection between Thuja, sil, lac-can. Humiliation and degradation. Inferiority complex. Jewish people need this remedy – years of suppression, victimisation, abuse, exploitation, persecution. Sexual shame. Puritanical parents giving the child messages that sex is dirty. Tremendous sexual energy in the Thuja person so that when it’s su[pressed it becomes distorted. Emotional picture emerges from the underlying theme – stained, stigmatised, blighted, soiled, defined, inferior,, something is wrong with me. If people knew the real me they wouldn’t like me. I have got something that I must hide. I will suppress what I can. What I cannot suppress I will conceal. They will suppress more deeply than any Nat Mur. (Kali Carb also suppress profoundly – by order). Fixity, rigidity – everything about it is durable however, even it’s emotions are durable. It is as persistent in its emotions as Nat Mur but deeper *** Dwells on past disagreeable events *** anger and resentment that is present on the surface. Homeopathy must be combined with therapy. A person who is totally shattered and torn apart by psychotherapy, think Thuja. Because it comes up into the consciousness and it doesn’t resolve and it becomes fixed – must go gently with Thuja – 30c will do – nudge them along. It will come out in a way that dissipates – emerging. Use counselling with Thuja – council the patient. Compare Thuja (I am different – inferior) and platina (I am different - superior). Thuja can present superior, but may be in fact inferior.

Sulphur is the salt for human being. Potassium is the salt for plants. So there’s an immense amount/influence of Kali Carb in Thuja. Thuja needs routine. They feel safe with routine – rigidity, fixity, can’t tolerate change. They impose it upon their children. You think it’s Kali carb. They don’t have the sexual deviousness. And Aurum – keeps patients out of the emotional area. Thuja, Kali Carb, Aurum – same thing emotionless. They are fit to explode. Children who have been abused: Tendency to traumatise themselves Anorexia and bulimia Washing of hands – this is a clue – inclination to compulsion – symbolic and ritualistic – to cleanse themselves of that feeling of being stained or tainted and get rid of a sense of guilt and to wash away a sense of shame. A bath will not work for Thuja. They need a shower. Lac-can, Thuja. There’s also a fear of contagion Feeling of being out of touch with reality. Creates a obsessive compulsive anxiety. Thuja is anally retentive. As part of oppositional defiant disorder in certain children there is a refusal to pass stool – ties in with the bashful stool syndrome of Thuja. Anally retentive here also. Rigidity – persistent thoughts Inflexibility of the emotions Routine is strict – if everything doesn’t do according to his will. If he is least opposed. Rigidly dogmatic in their opinions – they like to bend your ear with their opinions. They are not in the least bit interested in your opinions. Immaculate in his presentation – he’s gone into every little detail about his disease – Ars, Calc. Sensitive to criticism and contradiction`- fury from contradiction Sensitivity to trifles – worries about small insignificant things Terrible concern about trivial things whilst neglecting the bigger issues They are consummate lovers, suitors, can manipulate a woman into bed better than most remedies. Very MANIPULATIVE. Conquest is not the issue, it’s sex for sex only, the act only. Workaholic – also obsessive compulsive personality disorder. Narcissistic self love. Obsession with pregnancy. Infertility is often a problem. Towards menopause it’s marked. They tend to suppress their menstruation or it will become extremely scanty. They can show all the breast changes and the distension of the abdomen (as if pregnant) and eventually she will claim she is actually going into labour (Crocus is like this). Religious obsession and fanaticism – need for identity and security. Tendency towards fundamentalism with deep hypocrisy.

A major shock is normally what we find in Thuja. Where the goodness in a person is antidoted by a shock – he becomes violent and obsessive. Survival Strategies after Abuse 1. OCB 2. Adopt the stance of the model child coupled with vigilance – conforming. “I am bad” – they take it on board and have a dual impression of the abuser – a means to disassociate the care-taker from the abuser. Feeling guilty for the abuse they are receiving. They can hold two conflicting pictures, though deep rationalisation and delusion, of the abuser. This can only be achieved by assaulting your true identity. They have to make themselves bad. They then get to have some degree of control. “If I am bad then I am being abused with some justice. If I am good the abuse will stop so if I comply with what is being demanded of me, give in, yield, I’ll be alright”. The problem here is that the personality being created is wrapped around the concept of being wicked. Those feelings of hatred that are so profound in Thuja, suppressed deep inside, increase their sense of wickedness and badness. Sometimes they are sexually stimulated by the abuse. This is confirmation that they are wicked. 3. Creating an alter-ego. Multiple personalities can immerge where some will carry pathology and others will not in the same individual (also Plat). Delusion. 4. Disassociation – project themselves out of the body. They make their body numb and they feel nothing while the abuse goes on. Delusions he is floating on air, mind and body is separated, abstraction of the mind. Depersonalisation can occur. The cause of the disassociation has past later in life but they use the disassociation to deal with all personal traumas later in life – false personal, fragile, brittle. Amnesia as a result of abuse is very big. 5. Control freaks – chaos where the control is imposed by something else. They become histrionic (hysteria). 6. Abuse of drugs and alcohol later in life –addiction - gambling 7. Being busy all the time, workaholics. Industrious, Mania for Work, 8. Self mutilation – feeling of control at last, emotional pain substitutes physical pain, self punishment, taking out anger on herself (anger for her abuser) 9. Excessive masturbation after sexual abuse. Self love. To sooth and to comfort. 10. Kleptomania – it engenders the same feeling they get when they are fearing the abuse – adrenaline rush, intensity of the emotion. 11. Avoidance of intimacy. Seeking religious support and fundamentalism. 12. Seeking sex, compulsively. 13. Paedophilia Loss of inner control. Outside control goes. These compulsions assume another identity – Delusion, I am under the influence of other powers. The rise and fall of Thuja.

Rubrics Religious Fanaticism Fanaticism The fixed idea is shown by the rubric Monomania. The guilt is expressed by the rubrics Anxiety of Conscience, as if guilty of a crime, Delusion, sees somebody in room and Presence of Strangers aggravates. The brittle feeling in the mind is represented in the body too and can be seen in the Delusion body is made of glass. There is also a feeling of floating in the air – Delusion Body is lighter than air. Dreams of Falling Crafty Dancing, wild Deceitful Delusion, Assaulted is going to be Destructiveness, sunning Hurry, movements in Industrious Insanity, love, from disappointed Insanity, threatens destruction and death Music ameliorates Phatak: Activity, fruitless Constipation, purgatives, no relief from Hanks restless Walking, impulse to Mind, Ailments from abuse in childhood – Thuja, stram. Mind, Ailments from being abused Ailments from sexual abuse Ailments from rape – Thuja, sil, puls, cuprum, stan, plat, nat mur, hyos, op, laccan, verat-alb, Delusions, brittle, transparent. Mind, Homeopathy, aversion of. Masturbation in children Seeks solitude to masturbate Masturbation during sleep Dreams, conscience acquits him of a crime Avarice Mind, Anger, will: if things do not go after his Sensitive to criticism and contradiction – fury from contradiction Anger from Trifles Religious affections, fanaticism Delusions Feelings of Dismemberment Feelings of Fragility Body parts in danger of coming in pieces The continuity of body parts will be dissolved Body parts are delicate. Brittle

Body made of glass/wood Duality Need to be invisible/transparent Danger of being dismembered/broken apart Fragility of the personality structures built up in response to abuse Suppression privacy and dignity Industrious, Mania for Work, Occupation, Diversion ameliorates Self mutilation Dreams of falling – like having an out of body experience coming back in Symbolic dreams of falling from grace Dreams of war/conflict

Related Remedies Arsenicum – perfectionist in every way. it is said to be THE acute of Thuja, in fact it is said to be THE nosode of Thuja Lac-can, Arg Nit, Silica, Ars Alb, Thuja, Ant Tart (chicken pox). Calc Carb, Carcinosin, Ignatia, Lycopodium, Medorrhinum, Nux Vomica, Sulphur – Avarice – passion for making money Selenium – he is capable of doing so well and never succeeds. He is always going to make good and never does but goes deeper and deeper into this wild lifestyle and there’s an intensity of sexuality. Plumbum - Desire for the forbidden Nat Mur – silent solicitation but when they don’t get the attention they crave they resent it. Thuja will be more jaunty. The grief is so suppressed they give no indication of it’s existence. Aurum - Suicidal depression. Sense of Responsibility/Guilt/Honour/Guilt Sulphur can deteriorate into Selenium and selenium can deteriorate into Thuja. Calc Carb – fear of life – the shield and mask – fear of contamination, constantly washing hands. Cham, Dulc, Ran –b, Rhus Tox and Thuja – Thuja acutes Lachesis - Duality Sepia - gynaecological problems and left-sided Carc - linked to sepia and Thuja – the abuse nosode. Anac – duality Nat sulph - lymphatics and the hedonism Nit Ac – tremendous revengefulness here.

Bibliography http://www.homeopathyaustralia.com/Thuja_Occidentalis.html http://www.the-tree.org.uk/BritishTrees/MrsGrieve/mgthuja.htm Reprinted from "A Modern Herbal" (1931), Mrs. M. Grieve, Edited by Mrs. C.F. Leyel The Spirit of Homeopathy – Sankaran The Soul of the Remedies – Sankaran Prisma – Frans Vermeulen, Empryss, The Netherlands, 2002 David Lilly Lectures – The Sycotic Miasm/Thuja