SAMBUCUS NIGRA
You can think of many remedies as chains and at certain points of those chains diseased states emerge, getting more profound or serious as the chain lengthens.
At one end of the Sambucus chain we have quite significant causation = fright, grief and anxiety (the anxiety often accompanies exertion – the material medicas suggest excessive sexual indulgence as a cause but I see this as a type of exertion :-)
Next on the paradigm chain is ‘congestion’ – this represents the blocking procedures of the grief, anxiety and/or fright. This blocking or obstruction also creates a confusion that, in turn, represents an inability to express and thus congestion develops - like an over flowing bath.
Further down the chain comes the reaction to that congestion. Inevitably this involves oedema in various parts of the body and the parts usually turn blue; a feeling of oppression, mainly in the chest; the head feels like it is full of water (from the over flowing bath!); the nose feels obstructed (it usually is with thick mucous); headaches; fainting; contradictory thermals – a combination of icy coldness and heat; burning fevers; nephritis; whooping cough, asthma and suffocative coughs with an inability to expire (this is the dangerous acute phase of this rx – not being able to expire or express physically, mentally or emotionally); delusions that are usually quite frightful – such as ghosts, monsters, etc; they do not like to be uncovered (and you can see how this is directly linked to an inability to express or being blocked and obstructed).
Finally comes the attempt to redress the balance by creating some kind of elimination or purging. The Elder is well know for its eliminative properties – this is all about regeneration, death and rebirth. The purgative properties are probably due to the viburnic acid that is present and this purging takes the shape of vomiting; diarrhoea; flatus; profuse urination; excessive perspiration (they can actually faint during this perspiration because they just cannot really deal with the ‘letting go’ although curiously the Irish think that Elder was used for witches broomsticks and it could induce a trance = fainting?); profuse menses; trembling; shrieking; attempts to escape; anger; restlessness; weeping.
The tree contains considerable potassium, especially Kalium nit (worth comparing) and there is a dreadful liqueur (lovely to some) called black sambuca and the ‘cool’ way to drink this is to first set it alight (either in your mouth or in the glass) – not surprisingly Elder has quite a history of fire to it and probably contributes to the known hallucinations if you drink enough of it. Apparently a decoction of it wards off caterpillars.
So, come on baby light my fire, rockets to the moon on my witches broom with a drunken caterpillar heavily in pursuit – quite a delusion, I’ll have to get some in for the festive holidays.
You can think of many remedies as chains and at certain points of those chains diseased states emerge, getting more profound or serious as the chain lengthens.
At one end of the Sambucus chain we have quite significant causation = fright, grief and anxiety (the anxiety often accompanies exertion – the material medicas suggest excessive sexual indulgence as a cause but I see this as a type of exertion :-)
Next on the paradigm chain is ‘congestion’ – this represents the blocking procedures of the grief, anxiety and/or fright. This blocking or obstruction also creates a confusion that, in turn, represents an inability to express and thus congestion develops - like an over flowing bath.
Further down the chain comes the reaction to that congestion. Inevitably this involves oedema in various parts of the body and the parts usually turn blue; a feeling of oppression, mainly in the chest; the head feels like it is full of water (from the over flowing bath!); the nose feels obstructed (it usually is with thick mucous); headaches; fainting; contradictory thermals – a combination of icy coldness and heat; burning fevers; nephritis; whooping cough, asthma and suffocative coughs with an inability to expire (this is the dangerous acute phase of this rx – not being able to expire or express physically, mentally or emotionally); delusions that are usually quite frightful – such as ghosts, monsters, etc; they do not like to be uncovered (and you can see how this is directly linked to an inability to express or being blocked and obstructed).
Finally comes the attempt to redress the balance by creating some kind of elimination or purging. The Elder is well know for its eliminative properties – this is all about regeneration, death and rebirth. The purgative properties are probably due to the viburnic acid that is present and this purging takes the shape of vomiting; diarrhoea; flatus; profuse urination; excessive perspiration (they can actually faint during this perspiration because they just cannot really deal with the ‘letting go’ although curiously the Irish think that Elder was used for witches broomsticks and it could induce a trance = fainting?); profuse menses; trembling; shrieking; attempts to escape; anger; restlessness; weeping.
The tree contains considerable potassium, especially Kalium nit (worth comparing) and there is a dreadful liqueur (lovely to some) called black sambuca and the ‘cool’ way to drink this is to first set it alight (either in your mouth or in the glass) – not surprisingly Elder has quite a history of fire to it and probably contributes to the known hallucinations if you drink enough of it. Apparently a decoction of it wards off caterpillars.
So, come on baby light my fire, rockets to the moon on my witches broom with a drunken caterpillar heavily in pursuit – quite a delusion, I’ll have to get some in for the festive holidays.