The Ideogenic Realm : Thuja
The ideogenic remedy I’m presenting today is Thuja. This is another homeopathic which can be applied on more than one level, and you may have had experience with this remedy for the treatment of warts. The core belief of this remedy, as it is used in the Ideogenic realm, is related to the feeling of having a wart — something ugly about oneself, which one desires to keep hidden. Thuja feels dirty, or even ‘sinful’ within themselves, as if there is something fundamentally flawed about their Self. Much energy is put into keeping their inner self, which they perceive to be flawed, hidden from society. The emotion of guilt can be very strong, along with feelings of low self-esteem. The classic situation to precipitate this state is in a highly rigid religious community, but it may also emerge in a non-religious context, such as the common experience of feeling ugly in comparison to the omnipresent images of super-models in our media, and other perfected photoshop images.
Thuja will feel weak, even quite fragile, and may even express the delusion that parts of them are “made out of glass”. Their core feeling is that they will lose face if someone discovers their weakness, which is kept covered up as best as possible. Their compensation often includes having many fixed ideas and behaviours, as well as an excessive amount of attention paid to tiny details. They are very rigid in their thought patterns, speech patterns, and behaviours. The tremendous energy it takes to create such patterns functions to keep people’s attention away from seeing their weak core. The weakness or fragility can also manifest physically, in terms of food or environmental sensitivities.
The song Frail by Jars of Clay captures some of the feeling of Thuja’s fragility, and attempting to keep it hidden.
Thanks for sharing these profiles. I am find them very useful to capture the essence of each of these ideogenic remedies. Something I am finding is that I can recognise at least the essence of each of these in myself at some level. Is this typical? Do we all hold elements of all these false beliefs as imprints of our current society? I guess this is the challenge of seeking the truth leading to freedom of spirit.
Thanks for your comment, Tegan. Yes, this level of the ideogenic realm is “typological”, and we would tend to have at least a little bit of each one. Medically, of course, we focus on the ones which are most acute, and creating the greatest blockage in the patient’s life.
Going further into the ideogenic realm, we get further away from typologies (and therefore medicines), and into the pure realm of individuality and the capacity of the mind itself.
Wasn’t Thuja used as a remedy chosen to counteract the after-effects of vaccinations? I remember reading that the Gardasil vaccine has been linked with genital warts in those who got the vaccination. Also, there’s an article on Ezine that says 5.5 million cases of genital warts are reported every year in the U.S. If Thuja applies, that’s a lot of people who “feel weak, even quite fragile, and may even express the delusion that parts of them are ‘made out of glass.'”
Thanks for describing these remedies. Your posts are really informative.
Hi Paul,
Yes, Thuja was a remedy which was used by homeopaths to help treat the after-effects of vaccinosis, but you have to understand this in very clear historical terms — that is, that it was used at the time when the practice of vaccination only included 1 vaccine, namely the one for smallpox.
It does stil have a certain degree of relationship to newer vaccines since then, but not as close. As you may know, we treat the after-effects of vaccines in Heilkunst with the closest tonic remedy (the isode, in this case), with the pathic approach being only a secondary consideration (which Thuja would be an example of).
Your observation about the weak, fragile feeling after vaccinosis is a good example of how it can be useful in some cases as a pathic remedy, but not as the tonic remedy.
could this be used for body dysmorphia if a person does not like their face feels ugly…or would the rubric wretched when looking in the mirror be more appropriate..
You’re trying to ascertain a quick fix for a more dynamic cause. The allopathic label is useless in that it does not speak to the aetiology of the case. How long have the feelings of self-hatred been there, when did they start? Is it due to a genetic miasm or is it more related to something that occurred in their childhood. What does their timeline of traumatisms indicate? Did they suffering bullying as a child? When I review Thuja in Clarke, I don’t see this as the locus for causation:
“Mind.?Fixed ideas: as if a strange person were at his side; as if the soul were separated from the body; as if the body, esp. the limbs, were of glass and would break easily; as if a living animal were in the abdomen.?Sensation as if whole body very thin and delicate and could not resist least attack; as if continuity of body would be dissolved.?Insane women will not be touched or approached.?Imbecility after vaccination, restless, drivelling.?Mental dejection.?Anxious apprehensions respecting the future.?Disquiet, which renders everything troublesome and repugnant.?The merest trifle occasions pensiveness.?Music causes him to weep, with trembling of the feet.?Hurried, with ill-humour, talks hastily.?Indisposition to any kind of intellectual labour.?Mental depression after childbirth.?Very depressed, sad, irritable.?Scrupulous about small things.?Feels she cannot exist any longer; quiet, shunning every body.?Aversion to life.?Moroseness and peevishness.?Overexcited, quarrelsome; easily angered about trifles.?The child is excessively obstinate.?In reading and writing he uses wrong expressions.?Talks hastily and swallows words.?Thoughtlessness; forgetfulness.?Slowness of speech and of reflection; seeking for words when in conversation.?Incapacity for reflection.?Cretinism.”
what would a thuja causation be for feeling ugly and wanting to hide…………….more genetic ??
thx again
One layer of causation would be “genetic” as you ask (ie in the chronic miasm of Sycosis), but in the bigger picture, the ultimate causation would be in the third therapeutic jurisdiction (“Therapeutic Education”), which is the realm of beliefs and “spiritual diseases” (as opposed to the chronic miasms which are “natural diseases”).
You can get a better introduction to this vast topic in my blog series here : https://arcanum.ca/faq/what-is-heilkunst/the-three-jurisdictions-of-medical-heilkunst/