Editorial: a tree to the unknown

We, Slovakian homeopaths, appreciate the oppportunity to again contribute to Interhomeopathy, a fine journal that has been very popular in Slovakia since its beginnings.    

We are accustomed to the fact that Slovakia is a small country, unknown by the big world, despite lying in the heart of Europe. It is perhaps why we are prone to use small remedies along with the more well-known ones in our homeopathic practice; we believe in diversity and in giving an equal place to those who are unseen. In fact, it is a big adventure to discover and colourfully paint in the blank places on the map of our materia medica.

My colleagues, graduates from the Slovakian Academy of Classical Homeopathy, have contributed to this issue. This college has become the most prominent academy in Slovakia. Here, we have a very open-minded approach, combining all available methods, as well as discovering new remedies through provings. The basic seminars are enhanced by those of the most prominent pioneers of homeopathy.

In this issue of Interhomeopathy, Pavlína Hollá depicts a vivid picture of an old lady suffering from pains after herpes zoster. Sulphuric elements in the case, affinity to trees, and rubrics lead her to a prescription of Prunus spinosa.  

Richard Wagner helped a woman who has the feeling to be cut off from the world and who struggles with relationship although she craves them, fearing to end up alone. A nice analysis according to Jan Scholten's Plant theory and a very useful differential diagnosis complete this interesting case of Butomus umbellatus. 

Jana Kolenová tells us the story of a man who tries to maintain the old world order, living in the old days of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. Holmium phosphoricum helped him to come to the present time.  

The animal kingdom in this issue is represented by a case of Hydrophis from Katarína Jan?ovi?ová. A precise selection of rubrics combined with themes of Massimo Mangialavori led to the snake remedy, which rapidly helped this attractive woman.

Adriana Bérešová found the remedy Acer saccharum for a woman living in constant quarrels with her sister and mother. By combining the inner feeling of the patient with the themes of Acer saccharum's proving, she helped her to get rid of a badly itching urticaria.

I have choosen from my files a simple case of Sabal serrulata solved solely through Jan Scholten´s Plant system. Lost in the absence of characteristic symptoms, I let myself to be led by this genial map and the results were better than I had expected. This young lad's psoriasis disappeared after taking a remedy we do not usually connect at all with psoriasis.

The foundation of our education is classical homeopathy, combined with the utilisation of Jan Scholten´s system of minerals and plants for the  basic framework, which provides ways of finding and understanding the mental pictures of small remedies. With his system, we can come to very precise remedies for patients and get excellent results. This system, a true masterpiece, provides us with a map that can guide us through the landscape of our unknown remedies. It is built on very solid knowledge of the materia medica, and, although it can always be misused, it does not provide easy tricks for lazy practitioners.  

I have followed Jan´s teachings closely since the beginning of 90’s and later attended nearly all his Spring seminars in Utrecht; I consider myself a disciple of Jan. I have watched how the empirical knowledge of elements, and later of plants, has been shaped into a well organised building, where we can comfortably live. Thanks to that, I am much more confident in my consulations than I was in the 90’s.

Jan's system is based on the life of the patient. It examines the pattern of one‘s life and the situations which trigger problems, and thus enabling us to prescribe constitutionally as well as situationally. When used with the sensation method of Rajan Sankaran and his colleagues - we are still impressed by Mahesh Gandhi‘s seminar in November 2014, in Bratislava - which is focused on the inner world of patient, it is invincible.

I hope you will enjoy this selection of cases from Slovakian homeopaths.