TALK : 42 ANIMAL KINGDOM - 6
Birds
Hello and welcome.
Today we will continue our talk on the Animals and we will speak about Birds.
The class of Aves in the Animal Kingdom. Let’s take a case as an example:
Case Example – 1
(Haliaeetus leucocephalus: Bald Eagle)
(L: Lecturer- Dr. Rajan)
This female patient aged about 35 years came to me in 2004 with migraine. She
said:
P: The headache started about six years earlier.
L: And she used to get weekly attacks. She would get heavy sleep during the
headaches. The frequency of headaches had reduced and now it happens once a
month and she said:
P: The headaches start as if a shot is given in my head. And she says I want to tie
my head very tightly and I get very sleepy with the headache and I feel much
more drained.
L: So what was interesting in her case was the sensation that she showed as if
there was a shot and this was with a lot of energy. There is a shot in the head and
then I get headache and then after that I feel very sleepy. So I said to her:
D: Describe the shot a little bit more.
P: It is something is piercing me, like an insect biting me.
D: Describe this little bit more.
P: It’s as if something is poking me. Something is hammering me. And then the
pain starts increasing. My face becomes red. (HG of finger coming quickly to her
head). It is just like lightning…something is going inside, some sharp thing like
wire. It’s just drilling inside me and it goes inside and I see darkness in front of my
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eyes and then I feel giddy. I get very angry before getting this shot. I cannot
control my anger. And then all of a sudden I get this shot (hg).
L: Now what is interesting here is how this case begins.
This case begins with a sensation – shot. But when you ask her about the
experience of the shot, it doesn’t stay at shot. It becomes a whole description, a
description of something coming suddenly, something drilling inside and then a
lot of sleepiness and weakness and before the shot an anger. So what happens is
that you don’t only see one sensation but an entire process. Something happens
first, the anger happens, the shot happens, the drilling happens, the weakness
happens and therefore this is a case where you should be very careful before you
say that this is the specific sensation of the case because there is no one specific
sensation. There is a whole process. So I say:
D: Show me this action again.
P: It .. Somewhere.. From somewhere something comes, from somewhere
something comes and it just goes into my head and it bangs. It is very quick then
the head becomes very heavy. The Shot is quite hot. It’s straight, straight, like a
needle. It is coming from some area around me, not from the house, but it’s from
the sky or something like that. A needle like thing comes it goes into my head and
remains there. This poison pain remains there.
L: Now we are seeing more and more descriptions of the process. That this shot,
this sharp thing comes from the sky, comes from the around, comes from
somewhere and it is hot.
What is very important here is to not again make a conclusion, not to use your
own imagination and think what could this be. What is this shot? Who is getting
this shot? Why? Which Kingdom could it be? What miasm could it be? That
exactly what we should not do. We should not use our imagination. We should
not use our interpretation or classification at this stage because it’s very
premature. We have to go with the patient into the entire description of the
process. She says:
P: It’s like something is coming from outer space or out of the house…I feel it has
travelled a big distance and hit me and it is a force that has come into my head.
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D: Describe this that it comes from the sky.
P: The sky is dark, no moon and then I get this shot. Then I feel I am very much
alone. I feel I am absolutely alone…and then all of a sudden these bang in my
head. I have to accept it. I feel as there if no ground, nothing in between... I feel
very steady, but nothing is there around me. Nothing affects me. Only that
shot…I try to accept that shot and calm down. Then I say:
D: Alone, very alone, nothing around you … what is this describe this.
P: I feel very free and very happy when I’m alone. I like to listen to the music.
D: Describe this experience of nothing around me, that there is no ground.
P: Something is attracting me, drawing me, pulling me, but I’m not leaving myself,
my position and therefore these thing comes to me and bangs my head…I just
allow it to come and hit me.
D: Describe this something is pulling me.
P: It’s not a physical force that’s pulling me, but something in my mind…my body
is getting lighter and something is pulling on my head…I feel I am out of my body.
I feel I am becoming lighter... I am coming up (hg). Head is heavy, but body is
light. I’m just taken away from my body. I’m not there in my body; my body is
very light. I am coming upwards and lifting myself. And it lasts only for three
seconds. It slowly starts from my toes and the whole feeling slowly it reaches my
head...my head is heavy…something is crawling inside…like when a snake leaves
its skin...coming slowly, getting pulled. Like if you remove the skin of something.
L: Here more and more expressions, more and more sensations are used. We
have to catch all these sensation words:
Sudden
Shot
Sky
Nothing around
Alone
Being pulled
Lighter
Going upwards
Heavy
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These are the words. This is what we have to catch and these words are non
human specific words. These sensation words they form a pattern. Not a pattern
of a specific sensation or opposite like a Plant, not a pattern of Structure or loss of
Structure like a Mineral. But a whole process which gives us the clue to words and
Animal remedy. And at that point she mentions an Animal which is a snake. But
we have to understand that that snake what she mentions is at a delusion level.
The only significance of that snake is something that crawls out of its skin, that’s
all. All the other sensation words that she has used doesn’t have to do with a
snake. So I tell her:
D: Tell about being alone with no one around.
P: Something is coming towards me and trying to pull me, but I’m not leaving my
position. I feel absolutely alone. I cannot resist that, I cannot fight that force. It’s
quite sharp, it’s not very long and like a wire. And then it just goes inside and
twists my head. It is like a snake zig zag.
D: What happens?
P: The area becomes hot and my eyes become very heavy. I can’t see properly. I
have to accept this.
D: What dreams do you get?
P: I get dreams, I see snakes and I see the elephant headed God, Lord Ganesha
and I’m always scared of water, of drowning in the water. I dream I’m not
walking; I’m traveling at the speed of wind and fast. I see snakes on the ground.
I’m not rotating, I’m traveling. I’m not on the ground. I actually feel that I’m
flying.
D: Describe flying.
P: It’s very fast, flying very fast. My body is quite light and I’m trying to reach
somewhere.
D: Describe that flying action a little bit more.
P: I’m not flying vertical; I’m flying horizontal. The flying is fast and it is cold. I’m
very light and I’m alone. And I really enjoy that dream. And the flying because
then No one is pulling; no one is forcing me to go anywhere. No one is telling me
to come out. I am alone. These are deserted places. Colorful, trees, water, and
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there is I’m struggling, I am getting drowned. I am getting killed, because I don’t
know how to swim.
P: I am trying to find a solution to the problem; to tackle the problem, to come
out of that problem. And step by step, I want to tackle my problem. But now I
cannot control it. I get angry. And when I get really angry I just bent the spoon.
And I speak very loudly.
D: What is the feeling in the anger?
P: The flow of blood is more. My whole body gets fumed, my face turns red. And
then I just bend the spoon. I absolutely break it.
D: Describe this hand movement.
P: That is the force of my anger. I want to crush something. I want to bend
something; I want to make it into a ball. My strength increases during that
period. I want that thing to be broken. But I don’t get angry very quickly. I’m very
liberal, very free.
D: What you do mean by Free?
P: I want freedom. It means no domination of anyone else. I don’t want anyone to
tell me, “You’re a woman and you shouldn’t go out, you shouldn’t do this or do
that.” When I’m going by a public transport like a bus and someone offers me a
seat I don’t take it. People should be courageous and have a fighting spirit. I don’t
feel that women should be given protection. I like hygiene and I don’t like
domination. I like free hand in whatever I am doing…
D: Describe the word freedom, what does it mean for you?
P: Independence...no nagging, no pressure.
D: What is pressure?
P: Pressure means something is holding me. It is heavy. My body becomes stiff
again. I feel Closed and tied.
D: Just describe this closed and tied.
P: It’s just holding you, stopping you and controlling you , dominating you. And
you feel helpless because there is no choice, no freedom.
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D: What is freedom?
P: Freedom is like traveling to new places. Because then there is no noise, no
responsibilities. I’m married, have daughters and have all these responsibilities.
But I want to retire; I want to stay alone and to travel a lot.
D: And what is the experience there inside?
P: You feel light, you feel absolutely relaxed. To be not tied up, in my own
creative restrictions, to leave everything behind and to go forward.
D: What is this action to go forward?
P: Going forward, my body is getting lifted. It’s like freedom. It is like going up.
I’m not carrying my body. It’s lighter. I’m moving with a force, it’s like a plane,
(then she shows this action fast zoom motion). It’s like a plane, it’s so energetic.
So fast, so forceful. Like a Zoom, like a plane.
D: Describe this zoom, like a plane a little bit more.
P: It is very fast. It has got a lot of force. It is moving, it is going very fast. It’s like
this, some force is going out of my body and it just goes very fast.
D: Describe this.
P: I’m not walking; I’m flying.
D: What is flying?
P: Flying means above the ground... light. Lot of force in my traveling. It’s like a
shot, like a jet. It’s like a bird or a butterfly. (She shows action like this – gesture of
wings). It’s not like flapping of the wings, it’s like a jet. Its like a shot, it’s like a
plane very very swift.
Analysis of the case:
So this was the case which is so interesting. Where it started? It started with a
headache and a shot and when you ask her to describe the shot she says, ‘I am up
there in a position which is completely alone and away from everybody. And the
only thing that can get me is the shot. And also the shot is coming from the sky.
And it’s coming with a lot of speed and it hits. It’s an impact and then she talks
about anger which has got the action like this – to crush, to smash, to hold tight,
to break with the power in the hands and the fist. She talks about the action of
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zoom like a plane not flapping wings like a normal bird. Then she talks of freedom
and she talks of restrictions and held in by responsibilities. And she wishes for
that day when she can get rid of these responsibilities and travel forward and
zoom and fly and travel and go different places.
She says the attack comes with force as if it has travelled a long distance. She has
multiple sensations – hammering, poking, needle, heat, bang, crush. She also talks
of vision that means she is above the ground and she can see the things on the
ground whether it is the snake or whatever it is so clearly and then the entire
headache and everything is described as one doing to the other.
Something is hammering me. Someone is hammering me, someone is drawing
me, someone is holding me, somebody is dominating me, somebody is controlling
me. And then she talks of the sensation of lightness, going upwards, flying,
freedom, traveling and being alone with great speed. Then she does, she talks not
of the flapping but the gliding, the soaring, the flying at a high and watching with
accuracy. The Animals on the ground and the theme to crush with a grip, with the
strength and power is very prominent in the case.
So this was a case where I gave her the remedy Eagle which is the Haliaeetus
leucocephalus (the Bald headed Eagle) leuco is white, cephalus is head – white
headed Eagle. And one of the things known about the eagle is the griping power
which is the strongest in the Animal Kingdom, in the Eagles. It’s very very strong.
I once remember I was in a bird park and there was an eagle there and it held on
the wooden plank and the instructor, the man looking after it asked me to just
take one of its talons and just make it use but with all my strength. I couldn’t even
catch one of it is talons where it was holding on so tight.
So I gave her the Haliaeetus leucocephalus and she did very well in one year’s
time. I can see that her headaches were 70% better, much more stable in her
anger. The hitting and the crushing and all those have reduced significantly.
L: The feeling of heaviness, tied feeling, tight feeling, not free – feelings have
come down a lot and she is much more calm.
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Proving of Bald Headed Eagle leucocephalus– Jeremy Sherr
Jeremy Sherr has done a proving of the Bald headed Eagle and some of the
symptoms that he mentions are:
 The feeling to be Calm inside, a very sharp focus, the high ability to hold
attention.
 Feeling to be not affected by usual stress.
 Feeling on a high
 Feeling of being one with universe.
 Sensations came on suddenly and were sharp and were of short duration.
Jonathan Shore who has done a lot of work on Birds which in fact he has
published a book on the subject, talks about the Eagle as:
Something that is TRAPPED IN THIS WORLD
 The eagle flies higher and he is alone.
 He moves between two worlds, symbolically the conscious and unconscious.
 He feels trapped in the world and is more solitary.
 And these were some symptoms that we found in the patient.
One of the dreams of the proving or the experience of the proving was the prover
says:
“Had a peculiar experience during the day. While playing with one of my dogs, I
started to wonder what it would be like to crush her. There was something very
sensual about the idea of crushing flesh and bones of a soft creature that would
not be able to fight me off.”
A very interesting idea that the prover doesn’t know what remedy is being
proved. But the idea wanting a sensual experience of crushing something came in
the proving. In this patient, or in patients that need Eagle, one of the idea is to:
Hence Possible Patient Expressions specific to Eagle:
 To rise high above, to go higher from bondage, obligations, from stress, from
tension, from responsibility , also from hatred, violence, miseries of life,
 A feeling of not wanting to be attached. Wanting to be detached from things.
 To be wanting to observe things from distance. To The witness of good and
bad.
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Also most eagles are Solitary birds and in patients you can see – there is a sense
of being alone, or even a liking to be alone. And in this patient this was quite
marked.
The Eagle belongs to the Bird Order Accipitriformes which includes Hawks, eagles,
buzzards, harriers, kites and Old World vultures
In Homoeopathy we have:
Family Accipitridae –
Aquila chrysaetos (Golden eagle)
Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Bald eagle)
Buteos jamaicensis (Red-tailed hawk)
Family Cathartidae:
Cathartes aura (Turkey vulture)
Vulture gryphus (Andean condor)
We will discuss some cases of vulture further in this talk, as we return to this
group. But first let us understand what are the general characteristics of Birds.
General Features of Birds
The first thing about the Birds of course as we know is the Class Aves, presence of
wings and feathers.
By evolution the birds are related to dinosaurs and ancient reptiles.
We will look at some which we can find relevant to the talk.
The birds are of course known to be flying animals.
What are the Adaptations needed for flight:
Reduction of weight.
Compact body which is streamlined in shape.
Horny beak instead of heavy jaws and teeth.
Lighter feathers instead of scales.
Strong and elastic skeleton with hollow bones.
Reduction of the skull size.
Also the Presence of feathers and a pair wings.
Feathers: are specialized structures made of keratin.
The feathers serve the following functions:
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



They Cover and protect the body.
They also prevent water loss.
They provide thermal insulation.
They help in flight by providing a smooth, flat surface for pushing against the
air during flight.
As far as the flight is concerned we have:
Flight:
The different types of flight in birds include:
 Short - distance flight.
 Soaring flight.
 A High - speed flight.
 A Flapping flight.
 A Gliding flight.
 A Hovering motionless flight.
 Silent flight.
In the flight, especially taking off and landing, requires a huge amount of energy—
even what we need more for running.
Now some of the lesser known features about birds, I will just mention some of
the research that we did which are:
One is:
Metabolism: In keeping with their enormous energy needs, the birds have an
extremely fast metabolism. They have an ability to digest food at a remarkable
speed.
Vision: The other thing is their vision. You have to fly one has to have good vision.
The birds that have eyes at the sides of their heads have a wide field of vision.
Some birds have their eyes in front of their heads have binocular vision enabling
them to perceive the depth of field e.g. – owls. They have this in the front. The
Birds possess tetra chromatic vision, which means they can perceive green, red,
blue as well as ultraviolet light. They have dense receptor cells in the retina which
enables them to have a better vision in dim light as compared to humans.
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Food habits: To support the high levels of activity and rapid metabolism in birds, a
rich diet is a pre- requisite. So birds have to eat often.
Let’s talk about their:
Social structure:
 Birds can live solitarily, or in pairs, or in small family groups, or in large groups.
 Flocking ensures safety and foraging benefits.
 Communal roosting provides warmth to birds that huddle together.
 Bossing of dominant birds over the subordinate ones for food resources.
 So they have a hierarchy too. So dominant birds and the sub-ordinate birds.
One important thing about Birds is:
Courtship and mating:
Breeding begins with courtship displays. Generally males are more attractive than
females.
You know this very well with the peacock and the peahen. The Peacock is
infinitely more colourful and more beautiful. Similarly in the case of simple hen
and cock, you see the cock has much on colours.
Monogamy is the most common. This ensures biparental care in raising the
brood.
Parental care: is very strongly seen in birds. Chicks leave their nests soon before,
or soon after they are able to fly.
Defining and defending territory: Most of the birds become highly territorial
during the breeding season and defend their nest, chicks and feeding areas very
actively.
Another thing we know about the birds is the calls that we hear all the time.
Vocal signals: Birds are very vocal creatures. Vocal signals include calls and songs
and they range from a simple call to very complex songs.
What is the use of these vocal signals / calls:
 Identifying individuals.
 To look for their chicks in a large crowd.
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Now this I found very fascinating that can you imagine a very large flock of birds
and the parent bird is coming here and giving out a call and she keeps responding
and amongst that huge gang of so many birds that are making calls at the same
time. The parents and the child are able to identify each other’s calls exactly. It’s
so fascinating. You must have heard one is calling and the other is responding. So
this: Helps in pair-bonding or even Ascertaining how good a mate is.
Calls can also be used to proclaim one’s territory. Or to warn other birds in the
group of predators.
Another quality of birds is:
Resting / roosting: Because of high metabolic rates of birds, they need adequate
spells of rest to rejuvenate themselves. Most perching and some ground birds
roost in trees. They lock their Tendons so that they can enable them to have a
tight grip on the perch.
Sleep: Sleep in birds is an alert state of rest with some quick eye–opening period
and they remain vigilant. There is a bird named swift which is the fastest bird,
small one and can sleep in flight (roosting flight).
Another strong feature of a bird is:
Migration: Now you know when the patient talks to us, the Haliaeetus
leucocephalus (the Eagle patient) we spoke about first. She spoke about her love
for traveling and how she likes to go to long distance and this is a very strong
feature of birds which we can call as Migration.
Migration is the periodic flight of flocks of birds from one region to another region
in their quest for feeding or breeding or to warmer place. So you can have
Partial migration: Traveling over short distances e.g. land birds.
- Altitudinal migration: Moving to higher altitudes for breeding.
And in Navigation they can migrate either
-(Diurnal): with help of sun or at night through (Nocturnal): Stellar compass using
photoreceptors. You know this migration is such a fascinating quality of bird life.
They can migrate huge distances and go back huge distances to their original
place and that’s just absolutely fascinating. How long the flight can be? How they
know exactly the distance and how they reach almost exactly the same tree after
travelling so many thousand miles. These are just wonders of nature. But this
thing of migrating is translated in human language as traveling long distances.
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Attack and Defense in Birds
Bird Defenses:
 The first line of Escape is Flight.
 Some birds of course like the ostriches, emus they would run rather than fly.
 Another defense is the Warning calls that they make to communicate the
presence of a potential predator to the other birds.
 Flocking also ensures safety. But in flocking also what happens is some birds
starting bullying the weaker birds and this is something the birds have to
accept and this is also as you will see later common for the other Animals. That
if you accept the group, the herd, the flock, you also have to accept hierarchy.
You get safety but you also get domination.
 In their attack strategy, it has its own disadvantages like intense bullying of
socially subordinate birds by more dominant ones.
Bird Attack:
 Many birds hunt for insects by launching a sudden attack from the branch.
 Birds of prey are the fastest – and they can swoop down at their prey at a
great speed.
So this is what the patient told us in the Eagle case that the attack comes
suddenly and from nowhere and from long distance and then hits you suddenly is
not only in the case of the Eagle is a method of being attacked by the only
predator known to the Eagle which is the man and it’s shot with a bullet which is
actually one of the things by which the eagle gets killed by the bullet or the arrow
or something sharp coming from nowhere and hitting her. She not only spoke
about the way the Eagle gets killed but also the way the eagle can kill which is a
sudden sharp attack, out of the blue, out of the sky. That’s the way it can also
attack. So we are talking about swooping, great speed, sudden and flight. Okay
from the proving of Bird remedies.
There are some proving are there and we look out for some common symptoms.
One of them is:
Headache and in the headache: Sensation of fullness, pressure and heaviness.
In the Face and jaws: we found commonly
- Pressure and sharp pains in zygomatic bones reminiscent of sinusitis.
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- In the Eyes and Ears: we found Sharp stabbing pains, and also in the eyes
enhanced visual acuity.
- In the Throat: we found problems in especially the aquatic birds like
pelican, swan and heron:
- Choking
Lump or a plug; stuck, constriction in the throat.
I believe these Birds can also choke sometimes on their food.
In the abdomen and the female organs: Stabbing and cutting sharp pains.
Also in the Chest: and sometimes feeling of Constriction or tightness with a desire
to breathe deeply
Generalities
A Strong desire for open air
Sense of lightness and the opposite a sense of heaviness
- Mind
Jonathan Shore mentions that the provers of bird’s remedies also mention
something to do with drugs. I mean they had an experience of drug like effect
like: Cannabis or LSD.
So obviously with this freedom, with this lightness, out of body experiences, one
gets a sense of something like a drug remedy. He also mentions some prominent
themes seen in some birds:
One of them he says:
Grief: Living grief. ‘Grief is as strong as it was 10 – 20 years ago’ – this is from a
Swan proving
He also mentions above some provings in other birds.
Shame: in the Dove
In the Falcon Pride and self-will:
In the Hawk strong sense responsibility towards family
A general idea in birds:
Freedom.
Remoteness.
Perfectionism – ‘urge to get it right’.
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Observation: one observation that he makes and I can also confirm quite strongly
is a claw – sign. A claw – like movement of the hands and fingers, as if grasping for
something, especially when the patient is using the expression of ‘I want it. I
would like it’. And then they make a sign of the Claw. But, even at other times this
can be made like our patient made during anger she said I feel like doing like
this…
So Jonathan shores observe this hand gesture of claw to be an almost
confirmatory sign for bird remedies. At this point I would like to add a small
comment: there is a definite tendency for us, all of us to attribute certain
concepts to certain specific animals or minerals or whatever or certain remedies.
For example the concept of shame as associated with Dove, of pride and selfwilled as associated with Falcon and of grief which is associated with Swan,
responsibility as associated with Hawk. I would suggest that these concepts we
use with caution. Because this are more human expressions of the Bird qualities
or the specific survival issue in the Birds. Later on we will see the Hawk is one of
the most responsible of the Birds and gives the maximum parental care to its
young ones and therefore it is not at all wrong to say that responsibility is the
concept related to a Hawk. We will also see the Falcon later on as strongly to do
with self-willed. How? We will see later that it has to fight itself its own will. If it
can make its will strong enough the Falcon will be free. But because of some weak
willed it keeps coming back to the falconer to the lure. It goes to a certain
distance and if it can cross that barrier with self-will its free because it’s not tied
what brings it back it is the loss of that will and it comes back And I have seen
Falcon patients to talk about this loss of will and therefore of addictive qualities,
addictive tendencies. Later on we may speak about a case of Falcon whose main
complaint was sex addiction. He couldn’t escape the lure of Sexual pleasure.
For example: so there is certain logic in attributing certain concepts to certain
remedies. But at the same time I still would advice caution in doing that and to
study remedies more at a source level, at a sensation level rather than at a
concept level. Because why, why? Because it can happen that what the patient
calls as responsibility, may be at a sensation level is something else all-together.
So we have to be very careful when we say what is responsibility, he may say
something completely different. He may say it’s like being put inside something
and squeezed or whatever and it may lead you somewhere else. So if we can
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locate our similarity at a sensation level, at a non human specific level, then we
are far more sure and of course we can use this conceptual level experience as a
confirmation rather than as the sole indicator. That’s my only suggestion.
Now what are the possible expressions - human expressions of Birds.
Since we have studied so much about the survival quality of Birds, we can study
what can be its human expressions:
One is-Appetite:
So you can have:
Ravenous appetite.
Ravenous comes from the word Raven which is a Bird – Ravenous appetite.
Second it:
Easily satiated.
So you can have disturbances of appetite even like:
Anorexia or bulimia.
The high metabolic rate of birds in the humans will be translated as
Hyperactivity with Lots of energy / loss of energy.
High energy or low energy. The needing for periods of rest because of very high
levels of activity.
The Group feeling of birds of Flocking will be found in humans being as
Safety within a group or Security within a group
And in this group also you will find the Domination, the Submission, the
subordination to somebody higher to be a superior person.
You may have in the human being the territoriality. The fight for one’s position.
One’s territory and also the idea to be constantly alert.
Strong Parental care is seen in birds and therefore in patients too
Now here is the interesting thing. In Reptiles, we saw that Parental care was
minimal. In Birds, parental care is very high. But what is the difference between
the Parental care of the Mineral? So you can have parental care in minerals too.
You can have the Responsibility in row 6 or you can have the care in Row 3 or in
Row 4. The protection in Row 4, the care in Row 3. The responsibility in Row 6.
What’s the difference between that and the Birds?
The difference is that in the Mineral kingdom this sense of responsibility will be
constant whereas in Birds, this sense of Responsibility will be till the young one
reaches the age of independence. When he is able to fly then the Responsibility of
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the Parents is over then he is free. So the parent is responsible in the Birds. But
also seeks the moment when he can discharge his responsibility. When his baby is
able to fly and he is now free to be himself, to fly himself. So he is not pulled and
called to the ground and to the nest again and again. This is very interesting
whereas in Minerals this sense of responsibility never really gets over. There is no
time limit. It’s not a process. In Birds, it’s a process. In Minerals, it’s a permanent
feature that’s the difference.
The Parental care is highest seen in predator birds like Hawk even in the eagles.
Of course the most important expression of the birds in human beings is:
Flying
This flying can be described by the patient in various terms. They can talk about it
as a:
- Sense of lightness
- They can talk about it as a sense of weightlessness
- As a Soaring
- As a Desire to go to high places.
- As a sense of freedom, where there is no boundary, no restriction, no
limitation
- They can talk of ‘Freed’, ‘free-spirited’.
- Even a Drug like state
- They can talk about mountains , about rising , about love for nature
- About open ,about being expressive
- About being Out of this world , out of being spaced out
About not being on the ground, about not being here various expressions can be
used by these patients and sometimes many of them together.
The question here will come:
What is the opposite?
And the opposite is to be: trapped, to be caged, to be restricted, to be
constricted, to be held in, to be not allowed to move. Like caged bird.
That’s the opposite and that’s what they don’t like.
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Now a very important question here.
There are two questions here. The first is when a patient talks of freedom many
patients will talk of freedom because freedom is a very common human theme:
Desire for freedom
And when you ask them to ‘Describe freedom’. Many of the patients may give you
an image of Bird or even of flying, of space and what is very important is to
differentiate whether this flying and this freedom is a delusion, is at a Delusion
level or is it at a sensation level. And therefore bird could be a remedy. Is it just an
image of a Bird and the flight that they think of as freedom or is it an actual
experience. If it is an actual experience then you will get the entire constellation
of words that represents a Bird that means one versus the other, survival
– domination, territoriality, parental care, freedom, rise versus heaviness,
tightness – constriction, trapped, caged and also anger, crushing or whatever.
Whereas if it’s just a delusion, it will move away very quickly and you will not get
this entire constellation of sensory experience and non human specific language
that you get in a Bird. That is the first and the most important thing. The Bird
patient will actually give you the experience of all this, of breaking out, of flying,
of soaring, of moving, of speed, of whatever as we saw in the Eagle case.
The 2nd question that comes here is this kind of closed – open, light – heavy,
freedom is also a very strong feature of our Hamamelidae especially Cannabis
indica. There you have closed – shutting, confined, compressed, dragged, heavy
and opposite, open – expanding, flying, floating, light and free.
So how do we differentiate this from a Bird remedy and the answer is simple.
The answer is that in Hamamelidae this will be the only sensation: the closed and
the heavy; the light and open. That’s it. Light – open and free and floating. So this
pulling down and closed and rising up and free. That’s it. Whatever you ask will
come back to this. Whereas in a Bird remedy this will only be their movement and
then will come their survival which is migration, which is mating, which is anger,
which is a victim – aggressor, which is a hierarchy, which is territoriality, which is
violence, which is claw sign etc.
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So if you just look at one aspect, there will be confusion. But if you see that there
is an entire process involved then you go away, this light and heavy is only one
part of it.
Also the flying of Hamamelidae will be the experience again of open and of light
whereas the flying of the Bird will indicate you the speed will indicate you the
reason for flying. Look how this patient said, ‘I am flying and I can see the snake
right below’ with so much accuracy. So the flying is associated also with other
things. I think that case that we discussed is a good example how it’s very difficult
to … it’s not, it’s not difficult, it’s not difficult to distinguish between these two
energies of Hammelidae and of Birds.
Because she begins straight away with something else – a sudden shot where is
this hamamelidae . So one has to be open to this. That It’s not one thing but an
entire process that is involved. The other thing of course for Birds in Human
beings is:
- High sexuality
- Also Homosexuality
- Also Rape, rape force, forcible.
So there’s lot in Bird. Also there is a lot of quality of victimization, of intense
violence feeling towards the aggressor, the feeling of being forcibly taken away
and tortured in captivity.
- Captivity
- Force
- Torture
These are some of the words that can come in Bird patients. And rape is an
interesting example because the word Rape and the word Raptor comes from the
same root which you will see later.
The important key words of Birds are the:
- Conflict between Responsibility and freedom
Responsibility keeps me on the earth and freedom wants me to go higher, the
earth and the sky, to be bound and to be free, to fly, to be free, to take off, to
rise, to float, to soar, to travel, to migrate and the opposite to be shackled, to be
Talk 42 Animal Kingdom – 6 : Birds
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bounded, to be chained, to be caged, to be trapped, to be lured and to be
confined.
Also you have to hunt, to chase, to cut, to tear, sharp things, to puncture, the
claws, the sudden attack, to catch the prey by surprise, out of the blue, to trap, to
suffocate, to break free, to tear, to rip.
And In Raptors, you see they are more solitary with high flying capabilities, keen
vision and focus, speed, to fast, swoop, to spiral and to have a free fall.
So this is the general picture about the Birds, about their survival, about their
human expressions. And now we see that there’s definitely more to Birds than
just flying. We saw so many aspects about Birds.
Now once we understand and once we perceive that the patient needs a Bird
remedy, then we have two choices because we want to know which exact Bird
the patient needs. The first choice is:
We can go over the list of Birds. We can look at themes for example- is this person
having the problem with Responsibility. So it might be Hawk. Is he having a
problem with self-will, so it might be Falcon and so forth. Or sometimes we wait
for the patient to tell us the name of a bird. I hope He mentions the peacock, or
the Dove or the Eagle or the Falcon or the Vulture or whatever.
So either through the patient revealing the source may be or he mentions some
themes that we know may be, we try to find the exact bird.
But I think that there has to be a more systematic way and that systematic way is
to know what are the groups in the birds? What are the orders? What are the
families? And what are the qualities of the specific orders of families in the birds?
Just as we studied them with the Reptiles or with the Molluscs and later we will
study them with the spiders and we will study with the Mammals, we need to be
more systematic.
At this moment, I don’t have so much knowledge about birds and not so much
practical experience to be able to tell you things as precisely as we could do in the
Talk 42 Animal Kingdom – 6 : Birds
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other classes. But let’s go over it briefly because this is the map of the future of
our learning. And this is where we need to put out energy because otherwise
again things start getting a little bit random and out of order.
Bird Groups
Kingdom: Animalia.
Phylum: Chordata.
Subphylum: Vertebrata.
Class: Aves.
The Class Aves of birds is currently divided up into 27 orders, 142 families, 2,057
genera and 9,703 species of birds. In this talk we can only have a Bird’s eye view
of some of these orders.
What is interesting of course is the number of Birds that we have available in our
Materia Medica and in our Pharmacies today. When I started practice in 1981 and
even uptil 1990, up to 20 years ago, I don’t even think we had a single Bird in our
entire pharmacy. And then they started coming and then they are coming quite a
bit. So we have now quite a few birds and more and more are being introduced
into our Materia medica.
The most popular among the Bird classes, we have:
BIRDS OF PREY
Raptors
Raptors are carnivorous birds that feed on mammals, on amphibians, on reptiles,
on rodents and on other small birds. As I told you the word raptor comes from the
Latin word 'rapere' which means ‘to take by force’.
This also is the same root for the word Rape. Among these Raptors, we have:
Raptor Family:
- Accipitridae: Hawks, eagles, kites, buzzards
- The Falconidae: Falcons, Caracaras
- The Strigidae: Many owls
- The Cathartidae: Turkey vulture, Andean condor, The King vulture (New
world vultures)
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The most Characteristic things about these raptors are that they are:
•
Most Raptors are solitary birds.
So the patient expresses the idea to be alone or wanting to be alone and very high
Exceptional flight capabilities – they can hunt, they can chase, they can soar very
high
 They have also a Keen vision and focus
 They have hooked beaks which are sharp, cutting, tearing, and splitting.
 They have curved talons that can crush and puncture, claws that penetrate the
prey’s body.
 Their attack is sudden and they catch the prey by surprise - Sudden,
unexpected, attack, out of the blue exactly like what our patient described – a
sudden shot, out of the blue, out of nothing, out of nowhere, out of the sky.
 The Speed is an important feature of their attack – it’s fast, swoop, zoop etc.
The patient describes it as a very zoom like a jet. It is a very
•
Strong feet
•
Strong grip
•
And they can Soar effortlessly
So the action of this bird is not the flapping but the soaring.
•
Raptors except eagles do not build nests.
And some key features that should help us to identify the patient as a Raptor are:
Violence
Sharp
Cutting
Tearing
Splitting
Crushing
Puncture
The Claws
Solitary
Speed
Sudden
Soaring
Keen vision
Power
Chase
And Hunt
Among the Raptors, we have the Falcon which has the issue of speed because
Falcon is the fastest among the Raptors and also can achieve almost the highest
speed amongst Birds.
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Also, the theme of being controlled and limited in a boundary. So the Falcon is
used in falconry and what the Falconer does is to train the Bird in such a way with
its whistle and with the lure, with the piece of meat that draws it back. So he is
able to let the Bird go free but it’s only able to go in that periphery and when he
tries to break that barrier, the Falconer calls it back and it is drawn back by the
lure. It is lured back. So this is a theme which I have seen in Falcon cases. I have
some Falcon cases that are doing really beautifully well and this is the theme of it.
Falcon incidentally was proved by a good friend of mine, Misha Norland from
England. Then you have eagle with the keen vision. The patient you remember
our patient said she is going above the ground and she can clearly see the snakes
on the ground. Unbelievable, how they talk in terms of the source and rising
higher and rising above everything else.
 The Hawks - are extremely agile, maneuverable. And with an Extreme sense of
responsibility to the young ones. And the hawk is known to take care of its
young ones more than other birds.
 And the Vulture – as we all know is More of a scavenger, and depending on
remains, and the feeding on the dead.
Let’s talk of one of these birds:
Buteo jamaicensis which is the (Red-tailed hawk):
Some of the Characteristics of the Red-tailed Hawk:
Speed
 Stamina
 Determination
 It’s an agile flier and can pursue its prey through thick forests.
 Its Flight which is soaring and can attain a speed of 150 miles or more when it
dives.
 It is known to take more care of its young as compared to the other birds. The
young ones stay in the nest for about 6 weeks and they are looked after by
both the parents and later they fly and hunt for themselves.
 A hawk is loyal to its partner and they remain together for lifetime.
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So the divorce rates in hawks is pretty low.
 It’s a courageous bird, which can even take on poisonous snakes.
 And once it spots its prey, it hovers in the same place with beating of wings for
a very short time. This is known as 'kiting'. And then it swoops down and
snatches. It is also known to seize a prey in the midair and it even can take
food from other species, which is known as 'pirating'.
Hawks are also used in falconry like Falcons are used.
Case Example:
(Buteo jamaicensis)
It’s a girl of about 20 years who is studying engineering and I think her main
problem is:
Chief complaint:
1. Menses: Irregular periods and heavy periods. And she had been taking
Hormonal tablets.
2. Her Body weight has increased
3. She has got hirsutism. Excessive hair growth on her body
4. She has got pricking pain during passing of her stools.
So she talks about her periods and she says;
P: Because of this problem of periods I am getting depressed and going into a
passive state. She says I am not able to engage in any sort of physical activity. I
don’t feel like meeting people. I don’t know where to go, how to find a solution
and I feel totally gripped by this problem (Hg). This depression started suddenly
(hg). I feel completely gripped (Hg), as if it is holding me back (Hg). It is just
gripping me (Hg, closed fist).
She says I like to follow the rules rather than breaking them, I like to go for a
disciplined way rather than to go against it or create my own way. If somebody
says, “Go left,” I will go left and I will not go right to explore or discover. I feel a
boundary is defined (Hg), and I would not like to cross it. I want to stay within this
limit (Hg) that has been made for me. I don’t even try to go out of it. I don’t feel
bounded
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D: What is bounded?
P: Bounded means restricting you, you have no freedom. You are not free (Hg).
P: Sometimes I feel I am trying to swim and searching for a way and then the floor
is pulling me in (hg), I am not able to come out, I feel stuck… it is very deep, it is
very dark.
L: One of the incidents that had a big impact on her was the death of her father,
sudden death of her father. And she felt as if one protective force that wass
holding me back is missing. I am no longer in a protective zone. Something will
come and attack me. Something is having control on me, something dominates
me …something has authority on me and I had to follow this and I have to be
controlled.
Analysis of the Case:
So in this case you found the characteristic expressions:
- The Gripped
- The Bound
- Restricted
- Suffocation
- Desire for freedom
- Being attacked
- To be pulled down
- To Stay within the boundaries
- To be controlled and to be dominated
She received the:
Remedy: Hawk (Buteo Jamaicensis) 1M
And with this she did very well.
Case Example
(Buteo jamaicensis: Red-tailed Hawk)
The other case that I remember and this is a case I have very good memory is of a
woman in her late sixties who came to me with a serious depression and
headaches and she came in quite a bad shape.
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D: What’s happening to you?
P: She says well I live with my husband. My children have all gone. They are
settled abroad. They don’t want to come back. But my husband has now become
my child. He is an absolute workaholic. I used to go and help people in the
hospitals. I used to do social service.
P: And now he says, Don’t do that. Come and work with me. Join my company and
this is not my work. I don’t want to do this. This is causing a big turmoil within me.
I tell him, ‘We have enough money. You don’t have to work. Why can’t we just go
for a walk and see the sunrise and the sunset? Why can’t you spend time with
your grandchildren. Why do you have to go from home to work and work to
home, that’s it’.
He tells me, No I don’t want to do that. I want to do more work.’ He started to
develop more factories. He is now 70 years old. He doesn’t give up and I am
mothering him all the time and carrying my cross.
D: Carrying your cross, what do you mean?
P: Like looking after him like a mother….this is taking a toll on me.
At 10.30 at the night he will ask me to tell him about the bank statements. All my
meditation, my music, my yoga, my morning walk, my evening walk, my hospital
visits, everything has gone down. How much can I crucify myself? I keep listening
to him, I keep guiding him. But inside me I feel empty. I feel like a zero. I struggle, I
fight with myself.
D: What is your feeling, I asked her. What is your experience in this situation?
P: And then she says I feel trapped…I can’t get out of this. I feel suffocated. I am
not a free bird.
D: What’s a free bird?
P: Free bird means I want to fly and see the sky, I want to be one with nature…I
want to see the horizon. And now my wings are cut. I can’t fly. I am at the mercy
of others. I want to take off, to new horizons and give my mind an absolutely an
infinite space. I want to expand. Sometimes when I walk on the beach,
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L: What’s interesting here that I walk on the beach too. And I meet her sometimes
even now a days, she stays very close and she really loves to walk on the beach
and sea.
D: What’s your experience to walk on the beach?
P: I look at the beach and say, God has given us this body, in this body there is this
small eye, in this small eye there is pupil with a little lens and from this pupil and
little lens you can see the whole horizon, you can see the whole sky. You can see
the entire spectrum. And now I feel trapped, closed (HG) shut in a box. Like how
children they take a matchbox and they put a worm inside. I feel like that and I
want to break my head and I want to get out.
Analysis of the case:
So the main theme for her was a whole process where she had looked after her
kids. The kids had flown away from the nest and now she is stuck with her
husband. She feels responsible towards him like he is her child. And that keeps
her grounded. And she cannot fly, she cannot soar, she cannot see the horizon.
And she talked so many words about Bird
Bondage
Trapped
Can’t get out
Suffocated
Free
Fly
Freedom
Wings are cut
At the mercy of
horizon
Expansion
Small eye, small pupil
Closed
Shut
Caged etc.
Also of solitude, of wanting to be alone. And she also talked about the sensitivity
to violence, to murder, to killing someone, to torture, to blood.
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And she used the claw sign, that something is caught over there and she had a
dream that she is flying over water and the water is crystal blue and green water.
In Human issues, she talks about mothering, of responsibility, of caring for the sick
where she goes to the hospital and does things for them.
And she got the remedy -Buteo Jamaica
Interestingly, I saw in the Rubric, one dream was of the colour blue.
And She got remedy Buteo jamaicensis. Interestingly I saw in the Rubrics:
Dreams, color, blue
Another dream is the fear:
Dreams, Fear, doing something I should not have been doing.
Dreams, Freedom, complete
Materia Medica Reference:
So in the proving of Jan Scholten of Hawk, he talks about:
Conflict between Freedom and obligation.
Of a Very strong sense of responsibility to the family.
It’s even more than duty, it’s a feeling they are obliged to care and support.
And also the eyesight of a hawk is eight times more powerful than a human being
and its interesting how she speaks of a small eye and it can see with such clarity.
Both males and females assist in the construction of the nest. And Nest sites may
be used from year to year. There is strong evidence that hawks mate for life. If the
old nest is wind damaged, layers of new nesting material are added each year.
Socially, red-tailed hawks are solitary animals. They are monogamous when it
comes to mating, and then they form permanent pair bonds.
Now we can talk of the other order the Falcons and we have the Homoeopathic
remedy.
Order Falconiformes
Falcons
Homoeopathic remedy: Falcon peregrines (Peregrine falcon).
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What we know of the Falcon is:
 That The males are proficient hunters. They circle high in the air and then
spiral down uttering a sharp terrifying scream to grab their prey bird in mid air,
snatching and killing it with a strong impact.
 They have the extraordinary ability to dive at the prey from great heights and
at a remarkable speed, pushing the other birds from its way, in an exceptional
trait of the falcon.
 Once the prey falls down, the Peregrine then swoops down to deliver the
concluding blow by dislocating the victim's neck which is specially designed
notched tooth and then leisurely consumes its kill.
 Long duration chases also are characteristic of the falcon and distinguishes it
from other birds of prey.
Misha Norland as I told you has done a very nice proving of Falcon which I suggest
you should go through:
Some of the Rubrics of this proving are:
- Ailments from a long history of domination.
- Ailments from being humiliated
- Del. that He is under a superhuman control
And some words that are used by patients are:
- Restricted, limited, prevented, blocked, tied, held, obstructed etc.
As I told you the story of the Falcon is that, it is supposed to go round and round,
and cannot go out of that circle; it is completely under the control of the falconer,
who makes it addicted to the food which is the lure. If it can get out of the circle
it’s free but it just cannot get out. With the force he keeps it under the control.
And the whole issue is am I going to stay in this addiction in this control or am I
going to get out and be free.
 So 'Will, Power and Domination'. Conflict with each other here.
 And the feeling is I am Helpless because of my instinct and I am under control.
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Case Example – 4
(Peregrine Falcon)
As I told you this remarkable case of a 35 year old married man whom I had seen
before and I had given him remedy Coca for example. So he met me again and he
talked to me about his alcoholism and his obsessive thoughts.
P: He said Alcoholism is one problem,which and the other is sexuality continued
masturbation, and fantasizing.
L: And in his fantasies, there were quite a few perverted fantasies also. For
example: fantasies of domination, fantasies of sadomasohcism, fantasies of
seeing his wife with other men. So his mind would be constantly fantasizing
coming around that thought again and again.
He says:
P: My thoughts go round and round. And he says in my office there is always a
conflict just going against each other.
D: Tell me about this conflict.
P: It’s like a roller coaster ride and thoughts keep circling around and around
moving around and around. And this is a battle he says that drains my energy. I
am struggling with this thought. It’s something like a force which stops me from
doing something and I get completely tired. And I cannot be free
D: What is free?
P: Free is like a flight of bird, achieving great heights, moving without barriers,
without any jumble, without any clutter. It’s a kind of lightness, an excitement…a
soaring through empty space. It is exhilarating. You are happy, you are living. It is
just beautiful, you enjoy life and you feel excited. But what happens to me is that I
keep going around in circle. It’s a cycle, it’s a circle like I can’t get out of it. This is
my addiction. So I feel shackled. I have tremendous potential but I cannot realize
it. I cannot break free. I cannot move forward, break free and go in the air
because I am shackled and I am under control and I can’t break free from this
control. What I want to do is to move upward, to feel space, a light space,
emptiness, move forward and what I experience is a clash, a confrontation, a
banging into each other.
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P: I literally force myself sexually on my wife. It is like raping my wife. Rape means
a force…a push and energy that can cause harm to people. It’s a controlling
energy. I want to control. I have this concept of controlling.
L: This was a very very … I mean this guy was Psychiatric case. His wife came and
spoke to me and she said he is obsessed with sex with every kind of pornography,
homosexuality, anal sex, violence, oral sex …. Any kind of a thing you can imagine.
And also he uses a lot of violence and physical force as if trapping me down. So
what she did she just cut off from here and she didn’t want anything to do with
him and the patient had to accept that situation and everything was just going
pieces.
His whole life, his marriage, every dam thing. And from this whole energy of it, I
understood the remedy was Falco perenguies which I gave him in the 1M.
You can see the animal theme, you can see the Bird theme and you can see the
specific falcon theme of going in circles, unable to break the circle, being lured
back by whatever it is using his control and also you can see the violence and the
torture and the caged and everything that you can imagine.
I must say this was one of the really beautiful results I saw in my practice. The
patient did very very well in the next one or two years of treatment. Many many
of his problems were solved and he became a much better human being than
ever. Some of the rubrics that applied to this case here are:
Rubrics:
- AILMENTS FROM: MORTIFICATION, HUMILIATION, CHAGRIN: SEXUAL. {0>
1> 0} [265] its the only remedy
- Ailments from: sexual: abuse: raped, being. {0> 9> 0} [265]
- Cruelty, brutality, inhumanity: general. {10> 29> 0} [265]
- Delusion: SPIRALS. {0> 1> 0} [265] very interesting rubric
- Delusion that he is trapped
- Desire recreational drugs
- Dancing in a spiral
You know some people I know, like to dance, they spiral the round, it’s very
interesting.
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- Delusion sexual humiliation
- Delusion pursued
- Delusion rape
- Dream of spirals
- Forsaken feeling: isolation, sensation of. {5> 30> 0}
There is a very nice follow up. I will put it on the forum. You can have a look. He
has done very very well.
Let’s take one more order, the order
Strigiformes
Owls
We have in Homoeopathy two of these:
Homoeopathic remedies:
Family Tytonidae: Tyto alba which is the (Barn owl)
Family Strigidae: Bubo virginianus which is the (Great horned owl)
So little bit about these owls:
 Owls are birds of prey.
 Stocky bodies, big large heads with large, forward-facing eyes, short necks, and
short, strong, hooked beaks.
 There is a conspicuous circle of feathers around each eye that can be circular
or heart-shaped.
 The Forward-facing eyes of these owls prompt these birds to turn their head to
change their view. They can turn their head 135 degrees in either direction
which allows them a fair view of things behind their own shoulders.
 They have huge pupils so that they can see in very dim light.
 They have a keen sense of hearing.
 Their Flight is silent, because of specific feather modifications.
 They are Solitary and sedentary by nature.
 Most owls are nocturnal
 They hide themselves by the day by perching on a tree or a rock, pulling their
feathers close to their bodies and remaining completely motionless so that
they are mingled with their surrounding as they are often mobbed by other
birds if spotted during the day.
 Messages are conveyed vocally and through their physical stance as well.
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The Barn Owl
 Is nocturnal bird that can be seen during the day.
 It has downy wing feathers which allow it to fly very slowly and absolutely
silently.
Tyto alba: Barn Owl
Was Proved in:
Wales in 2003 by Elizabeth Stone
In Germany in 2004 by Jorg Wichmann
It has many similarities with the Great Horned Owl. It exhibits many of the
features that are common to the Bird remedies as a whole. For example:
 The theme of freedom and the antithesis of being trapped.
 Desire to be alone and dislike of group activity and feeling cornered by the
group.
 The pains were described as stabbing or piercing, which is common to bird
remedies.
 The Clarity of vision or the lack of it through blurring or cloudiness.
 The Monochrome feel to parts of the provings and some dreams were in black
and white. .
 Moonlight was an important with lunar periodicity.
 Peripheral vision and things happening just on the fringe of vision came up in
the provings.
Family: Cathartidae
In which we have two Homoeopathic remedies
The Cathartes aura (The Turkey vulture)
Vultur gryphus (Andean condor)
Characteristics of Turkey Vulture:
 Turkey vultures are black birds. They have bald head prevents the pieces of
meat from sticking to the feathers.
 A vulture digs its head into the body cavity of a dead animal.
 It has incredible sense of olfaction, and it can smell the carrion even from a
mile away.
 They have an enormous appetite. They eat up to 20% of their body weight at a
time.
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The proving of Cathartes aura has been done by Todd Rowe:
And you can read up this proving. I will now read you a case of vulture that was
sent in by a colleague April Brown from the Insight Forum that we have.
Case Example:
It was of a forty-nine year old female.
Observation: She is very tall, 5’10, gangly, extremely thin, and with a very long
neck.
And she talks of:
Chief complaints:
1. Interstitial cystitis for the past three months which has been recurring in the
past 22 years.
2. Infection on her right big toe.
3. Low blood pressure
4. Loss of weight
Talking about her ailments she says:
P: It is spiralling downwards (hg -downwards spiral). I seem to be spinning more
and more out of control (hg: shows a Fast spiral).
I was married for 5 years, and living in an ashram. I loved it because of the
spirituality, the lifestyle, and eating vegetarian. They lived in a community, it was
safe, it was family—I felt at home. They always said, “The higher you rise, the
lower you fall”. When we opposed the leadership. My husband stood up to
them, and they came (hg-fist bangs down hard on other palm) down very hard on
us. We were ousted, treated as outcasts, as if we didn’t exist; no body would
speak to us. We were shunned and there was no flow of communication. It was
total rejection (Hg-pushing away forcefully to side). We had no social life outside
of the community—had no sense of community.
(The turkey vulture is considered to be very intelligent and social. They often
roost communally in elevated rock outcrops or cliffs.)
L: So they are very social creatures.
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P: I also had an infant day-care at that time. I lost all patience, I felt like I became a
monster. I use to get angry couldn’t control the rage! I was yelling, screaming
throwing the baby onto the floor or into the crib. The Babies’ not wanting to eat
it was a big problem for me. It was unbearable! It brought up my terror, and the
terror would go over into rage.
One of the provers wrote:
I am somewhere holding someone else's baby and I am caring for that baby.
P: Patient says, the first three years of my life were difficult. In Germany, people
who had homes were forced to take in other families, whether they wanted to or
not. So we had to live with a psychotic, alcoholic woman. And this woman would
continually harass us.
So the feeling of harassment and tortured is very strong
P: My mom said I was terrified of this woman. I was afraid she was going to grab
me (HG-grabbing motion), and put her hands on me, shake me and yell at me. I
would stomp my feet to keep her away from me.
Vultures stomp their feet when warning others to stay away.
P: When I was 8, some older lady gave me candy, and then she just took me by
my hand. My mother saw me, and grabbed my hand and yanked me out of that
state.
I always afraid some would break in, rape me. I have these series of dream I am
trapped with this assailant and the feeling of danger, the feeling of sensation of
knife or something sharp, piercing into my chest. I had to be very vigilant if I had
to go out at night, constantly vigilant. I always have to be on a guard. I have a fear
of letting anything into my body that might harm my body for example:
antibiotics.
One of the things she said is that she loves dancing. I do English country dancing.
L: What is interesting is that there is a mating ritual dance in the Turkey vulture.
They form a group and hop around the perimeter with the wings partially spread.
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So dancing and music are very important part of Bird life. This is very interesting
in most of them.
P: My husband was pressuring me about sex I felt so pressed (Hg) against the wall.
I couldn’t yield anymore. He couldn’t hear my fear and my helplessness. I
couldn’t handle it anymore and I had to get out (Hg). We separated. I FELT so
ASHAMED with my mother. Her WORLD WAS SO CONFINED (HG-cupped palms,
pressing towards each other, like a ball); so TRAPPED. She seemed to BE YANKED
AROUND BY SOME UNSEEN FORCE, like she HAD NO CONTROL OVER IT.
So the feeling of TRAPPED, CONFINED and YANKED AROUND were very strong.
P: Like YANKING AROUND A DOG ON A LEASH. LIKE a DRILL SERGEANT, That one
couldn’t get out. So I would feel VERY INTIMIDATED, TERRIFIED. I had to feel
EUPHORIA.
This euphoria is very light. It is like flying, it is like out of my body, above the
ground, feeing weightless like lifting off the ground, liberating. I was spreading my
wings and I took off , I was completely weightless and then I want to a certain
point to the edge of the canyon. Then I felt I will fall down. That There was no
wind to THERE WAS NO WIND TO CARRY ME! LIKE A BIRD, I very OCCASIONALLY
need to FLAP MY WINGS. THE WIND just CARRIES ME. I RIDE THE THERMALS. It is
so EFFORTLESS.
[The turkey vulture is one of the most skilled gliders, and is sometimes called the
“wind master”. It migrates across continents with minimal energy output.
Vultures launch themselves from their perches only after the morning air has
warmed. Then, they circle upward, searching for pockets of rising warm air, or
thermals, especially those found along ridges, to avoid flapping flight, and to
conserve energy. Once they have secured a thermal, they allow it to carry them
upwards in rising circles. When they reach the top of the thermal, they dive
across the sky at speeds of 60 miles per hour, losing altitude until they reach
another thermal. All this is done without the necessity to flap. In fact, the turkey
vulture can glide for over 6 hours at a time without flapping a wing! They are
most active between 10AM and 4PM,]
Then when she asked about the dream, she said:
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P: In my dreams, I’m some sort of a RAPTOR, a HAWK, a FALCON maybe.
L: And there is more about the case that I can read and many many interesting are
noted by the colleague April and she talks about how the turkey vulture plays
dead when it feels threatened and how the patient reacted in fright. She just
freezed and so forth. So anyaway I just want to briefly mention because we will
not have the time to go over the other orders. And not that I have too much
information about the others. So just to mention some more orders that they are
there. One of them is:
Order Procellariformes
Which includes albatross.
Homoeopathic remedy:
Diomedia exulans (Wandering albatross) from the family Diomedidae.
Characteristics of Wandering albatross:
They have the greatest wingspan of all the birds.
Powerful and graceful fliers with long flight capacity.
There is a proving of Wandering Albatross:
Also mentioned by Dutch homoeopaths and given in the book Wad stories.
There is:
Order Anseriformes
 Which Mainly aquatic birds.
And some these include the Homoeopathic Remedies:
Anas platyrhynchos indica ex covo (Eggshell of Indian runner duck).
Branta Canadensis(Canada goose).
Cygnus Cygnus(Whooper swan).
There is a proving of Cygnus Cygnus by Jeremy Sherr and Camilia Sherr and they
talk about:
Main issues:
Sadness and grief: experiencing the suffering, ‘the grief is there as if it has
happened just yesterday’.
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There is the:
Order Sphenisciformes
Which includes the penguin
Homoeopathic remedy:
Spheniscus humboldti (Humboldt penguin) – family Spheniscidae.
Characteristic features of penguins:
 Flightless birds
Social
 Slow and awkward gait - short steps or hops and may walk in a line.
 They often "toboggan" on their stomach when sliding on ice to move faster.
 They huddle together for warmth.
Humboldt Penguin: Spheniscus humboldti
And the main issue with this proving conducted in Germany by Peter Mohr, in
which Jonathan Shore was a participant. This proving is mentioned in his book on
birds
Main Issue: Feeling of being pushed aside and excluded from society.
There is the order:
Order Columbiformes
(Doves and pigeons)
In Homoeopathy we have:
Homoeopathic remedies:
- From the family Columbidae
- Columba livia domestica (Domestic pigeon)
- Columba palumbus (Wood pigeon)
Characteristics of Pigeons:
- Pigeons have an excellent eye- sight;
- And can hear sounds of lower frequencies that humans cannot
- They are gregarious and normally form large flock of birds.
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- They are also considered as calm birds.
- They are usually monogamous.
- There is a proving of dove which gives themes such as
Themes from the proving of Dove:
- The world is a harsh place, full of violence and injury.
- There is Guilt in the sense of self:
- A person who feels really badly about himself when he's been abused in some
way. It's been indicated that who you are is a pile of shit.
So there are many Issues here and rubrics also of Dove:
Then there is the
Order Psittaciformes
Which include Parrots which are brightly coloured birds.
Characteristic features of Psittaciformes:
- Parrots show an amazing ability to mimic people and noisy objects.
We have here Homoeopathic remedies
- Ara macao (Scarlet macaw)
- Psittacus erithacus (African grey parrot)
There is a recent issue in the journal Spectrum in which theme of birds have been
highlighted. There’s a very nice case of Linda Johnston of macav. There are also
rubrics of this remedy. There is the order with Cuckoos and turacos and you have
the Homoeopathic remedy.
Order Cuculiformes
Cuckoos and turacos
And you have the Homoeopathic remedy:
Geococcyx californianus (Greater roadrunner)
Jan Scholten has mentioned a very nice case of this remedy and a very nice case
understanding which includes themes such as:
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The strong need for freedom and the wish to be independent.
Also mentions the duality of restless activity and fixation.
There is the order:
Order Passeriformes
Passerines
It is the largest order of the birds consisting of around 5400 species.
They include our:
Homoeopathic remedies:
Family Corvidae - Corvus corax (Raven)
Corvus splendens (House crow)
Magpie (Pica pica)
Family Muscicapidae - Erithacus rubecula (European robin)
And you have the proving of Raven with rubrics, many, many rubrics
You have the:
Order Galliformes
- Which are the Chicken-like birds
And these include:
Homeopathic remedies: From the family Phasianidae
- Calcarea ovi tosta (Roasted hen’s eggshell)
- Gallus gallus / Embryo gallinae = Pullus gallinaceus (Chicken embryo)
- Gallus gallus / Ovi gallinae pellicula (Chicken eggshell membrane)
- Gallus domesticus (Chicken)
- Pavo cristatus (Indian peafowl, peacock)
Order Charadriiformes
Which live near water and eat invertebrates and other small animals.
In Homoeopathy we have:
Homoeopathic remedy:
Larus argentatus (European herring gull)
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And this also has some proving. You have the order:
Order Gaviiformes
Loons
Which includes the
Homoeopathic remedy:
Gavia immer (Great northern loon).
Finally you have the:
Order Pelicaniformes
Which includes:
Homoeopathic remedies:
Family – Pelecanidae - Pelecanus occidenatlis (Brown pelican).
Family – Ardeidae - Ardea Herodias (Great blue heron)
Which are also Homoeopathic remedies.
There are still more orders like which includes the Flamingo which is the order
Phoenicopteriformes.
Then you have the Crane – the Order Gruiformes.
Then you have the Hummingbird and Swift – Apodiformes and so forth.
These are only some of the orders and I believe I have given you an idea of the
vastness of the birds of which we have been only able to scratch the surface today
and that’s about all that I even know about them. Because it needs an extensive
study of all these remedies through provings so that we can use them more and
more effectively in our practice and recognize them.
But that is a long way to go. I hope we had some introduction and some idea
about the Spectrum of the Birds and if you have any cases of birds, you are most
welcome to write them in. We can all learn from them, write to the forum about
your experiences.
I say to you Good bye till we meet again.
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