Contextual Materia Medica, by Ewald Stöteler

In the autumn of 2006, Ewald Stöteler, for the first time, gave a very interesting seminar of 5 Saturdays titled: Contextual Materia Medica. During the seminar, he discusses the Materia Medica from the miasma theory. By looking at medicine through the miasmas, an extra dimension is added to the understanding of the medicine. Contextual Materia Medica is the theory of medicine that gives a better insight in the dynamics of disease processes with human. The hereditary transmission, one is born with, also determines the constitution. This means that hereditary transmission; constitution and biography are closely interweaved but still different entities. Every entity requires a different set of medicine. The hereditary transmission can be considered the ‘context’, out of which the human constitution is born. As a total human being, he experiences his biography. This leads to a mutual, contextual relationship between the different living areas, where one is the result of the other one and where they could mutually influence each other very strongly. The Material Medica that comes with this theory, where one pathological state of being is the result of another one, is called the Contextual Materia Medica, according to Stöteler.

During the course, different sorts of diseases, their medicine and their mutual relations and influences were illustrated by using often-occurring real life situations. The following themes were discussed:

Mother – Child bonding
Family and Education
Work, stress and tension
Fear, sadness and depression
Miasma and responsibility

Because of the limited time available, the course can only be a first impulse to a different way of looking at, and dealing with Materia Medica. The course was very interesting, but due to the lack of time, not all aspects were treated as thoroughly and as comprehensive as they should be. Within the limited possibilities of this article, I would like to discuss a few aspects of the seminar. What are the different incentives of homoeopathic medicine within the miasmatic context? Through the themes: responsibility and miasmas; stress, work and tension and fear; sadness and depression; the miasmas and the means Calcium Carbonicum, Silicea and Aurum, are being discussed.

Biography as a result of miasmatic burden
The miasma described above is being determined during a consult, through a mix of diseases in the family (hereditary), diseases and episodes in life (the biography), the individual response of the patient on the disease and the distinguishing symptoms of the patient’s complaints (chronic/acute illnesses). The hereditary aspect of people with a syphilitic tendency becomes clear, when studying the disease of that family. For example a father of 24 who dies of an aggressive form of cancer, the death of a sister who suffers from cystic fibrosis and an aunt who commits suicide. During the life of the patient, different acute and serious diseases with serious complications emerge, like for example otitis media that causes hearing damage, the delivery that results in a ruptured uterus with so much blood loss that a blood transfusion is necessary, and the loss of a job because of a fight. The destructive character on all levels is obvious. For someone with a family- and personal history like this, a new acute infection will demand the use of a syphilitic medicine like Mercury. Chances are that the patient, during an acute disease, again will respond very violent, in other words that he will show a disease form with a violent course with a destructive tendency. In order to achieve lasting improvement, Syphilinum may be necessary sooner or later, followed by other medications like Nitricum Acidum, Aurum of Silicea.

Not all the homoeopathic medicine are only Psoric or Sycotic, many medicine are even triasmatic. By using the miasma theory, medicines obtain an extra dimension. A good understanding of the miasmas provides a deeper understanding of the reason why Silicea patients can be so different from each other. In the psoric picture, with its slowness and insecurity, the Silicea patient is insecure and vulnerable on an emotional and also on a physical level: a tendency to catch a cold. In a Sycotic picture that shows morbid growth and exuberance, the Silicea patient has a tendency to inflammation with the formation of puss. In this situation the patient doesn’t have to be insecure and frightened. A psoric Aurum tends to become depressed when he works too hard and has too many responsibilities. A syphilitic Aurum becomes suicidal when he encounters problems at work. The underlying miasmatic disturbance with the different medicine can be determined with the help of the hereditary transmission and the disease pattern in the biography.

Three basic miasmas
Stöteler focuses on the Organon and Chronic diseases by Hahnemann, and therefore assumes that there are three traditional basic miasmas and a couple of combinations of them.

Psora: slow, insecure, unsafe, defect, deficiency. Fear to fall short, fear of changes. Slowly progressing processes: “Help I do not know”.

Sycosis: with morbid growth, abundance and vehemence. Rapid and violent course: “Make a lot of fun”

Syphilis: destructive. Rapid and devastating: “It’s all useless”. “It’s not going to work”. In practice we often see a combination, most often between the Tuberculinic and the Carcinogene load.

Tuberculosis: is a combination of infection (Sycosis) followed by devastation (Syphilitic).

Cancer: is the destruction of the nucleus (syphilitic) followed by the morbid growth of the tumour (Sycosis).

Responsibility
“When human beings are healthy, the spiritual vitality, that makes the material body (the organism) live, rules without limitations. It keeps all it’s pieces in a wonderful harmonious living state, in a way that the with an intellect equipped psyche can freely serve itself from this living, healthy instrument for the higher purposes of our existence” (Hahnemann, §9, Organon of Medicine).

Ewald Stöteler actualises this paragraph in the following way: “when a person, with the help of his common sense, does not use his body (organism) for the higher means of our existence, but only for his own personal life, the Dynamis that would otherwise let the organism live in health, would probably deregulate the organism and make the body (chronically) ill, so that men will remember their individual destiny.”

This statement has an altruistic component: to make yourself subservient to the collective. This interpretation of paragraph 1 should be interpreted in a very practical way and applied without self-denial. “When I deviate from my path of life, my body will reflect this”. This choice is against our own nature. The environment also reflects in the form of setback. So, the body “mirrors” the spiritual side. The miasmatic disturbance of the vital strength makes it difficult for the vital strength to carry the responsibility for the maintenance of someone’s health on a spiritual level. The Dynamis encounters disturbance in it’s own functioning and forms the basis for illnesses. Many patients have problems with responsibility: too little, too much, or no responsibility at all.

A person with a psoric burden has a fear of responsibility, is in need of support and security, and will maintain his strict, safe limits (Psorinum).

• A person with a Sycotic burden tries to avoid responsibility at the cost of others, goes beyond his limits (Medorrhinum).

• A person with a syphilitic burden doesn’t take responsibility, there are no limits (Syphilinum).

• A person with a Tubercular burden avoids responsibility by doing something else all the time (Tuberculinum).

• A person with a carcinogenic burden takes on too many responsibilities at the expense of himself, lets others go first and crosses his own limits (Carcinosinum).

Calcium
The psoric Calcium: I don’t know what to do with the problem, I’ll just wait for help, otherwise things will go wrong, despair. The carcinogenic Calcium: I feel the responsibility for the problem and I’ll do my best to solve the problem by working even harder. The Tubercular calcium: has a difficulty with the responsibility of the problem: tries to avoid it, and is in that case closely related to the Calcium Phosphoricum. The Sycotic Calcium is dissatisfied, feels underestimated and has infections with thick secretion and in that case becomes closely related to the Calcium Sulphuricum. In real life, we usually encounter Calcium on the psoric and Tubercular level and less on the syphilitic and Sycotic level.

The psoric person needs Calcium C, feels structurally insecure. Everything goes well, as long as there is security and familiarity, but problems arise when this is no longer the case. A Calcium baby is an easy child, when it feels secure, goes with the flow and enjoys it, the happy and content baby. It accommodates itself the biorhythm of a calm and balanced mother. There is no hurry in the development, as long as it is safe. The baby is content with regularity and structure of the parents: home is safe, the outside world not. Complementary are Belladonna and Stramonium. The child will encounter problems when this feeling of insecurity is being disturbed by an anxious mother or an insecure environment, and it starts to develop fears: in the dark it’s unsafe because you can’t see anything: fear and nightmares, and the child possibly needs Belladonna or Stramonium. A child fears the first day at school, has a stomach ache and sleeping problems, but once it’s accustomed to school, things will go well (Silicea is tensed every morning). Adults will look for security in a regular job with a safe company. They will probably get sick during a shake-up of the organization. People like this will usually not work in the private sector with its adventurous and unpredictable character. Calcium C has trouble crossing his own limits. It’s the prototype of a calm, reliable, hard worker. They will definitely make a confidant and imperturbable impression, but they themselves say: “you should see how I feel inside”. In these sycotic/syphilic times the Calcium C personality feels insecure. More and more has to be produced and consumed and the Calcium C personality will fearfully work harder and harder to keep his sense of security, but ultimately, he will overstrain. In this kind of situation we may encounter a Rhus-tox picture: in a healthy situation, these personalities give shape and form to ideas and structures, like for example construction workers.

Silicea
The Silicea personality with a psoric background has many similarities with the Calcium personality, with regard to the anticipation for the big world: the child that has been pushed into the school, held by his mother. The Silicea child needs structure, just like the Calcium child. It’s frightened, clever and obstinate. Just like Lycopodium, he works very hard to prevent criticism (a Calcium personality doesn’t). He constantly needs people around him for confirmation and he actively searches for security with other people (Calcium personalities have no trouble being home alone, as long as it is a safe haven). He’s precise and exact, busy with proportions and structures. Later on in life, Silicea likes to work with a system within creative structures, like programmes and architects.

They know all the ins and outs of the system, so that they can keep it under control. In a more Sycotic way, Silicea can be found in top sports: in well-defined structures he works towards a record. They set high standards, train very hard, disciplined and efficient, but they are very insecure: “Can I do it, do I have the right competences?” Infections and asthma often occur. Kent declared that Natrium Sulphuricum and Silicea might provide a structural cure for asthma. Complementary to Silicea in an acute situation, is Thuja, a typically Sycotic medicine, or Pulsatilla, also Sycotic with Medorrhinum on the background.

Aurum
The problems of an Aurum patient are usually profound. They can be both biographic and constitutional and demand, depending on the symptomalogy and the course of time, a short or sometimes longer treatment to become healthy again. There is a syphilitic or Carcinogene background with the destructive character of the suicidal aspects. The subject is responsibility, guilt and penance: “It’s never good enough. I’m guilty and I don’t deserve to live”. An Aurum patient with a Carcinogene background, usually has had too many responsibilities too early in life, that were too difficult or were not rewarded. With the syphilitic Aurum we often see a family history with more family members with syphilitic tendencies or depressions. The depressions have an endogen character. His life with his responsibilities feels like a heavy burden. The dominating father and his business are the symbol. Aurum is strongly related to work and ratio: the most important goal is to work hard. A large responsibility to continue the family business. With farmers who go bankrupt, the suicide rate is high. They work until the bitter end to try and save their business. Business is more important than love and family, the family business has to be saved at all costs. That’s why they want to keep the impression for the outside world that the company is doing well. If I don’t have the family business anymore, then what’s the purpose of my life? There is just the company, acting from the mind, not the heart, can’t be emotionally touched by the other one. The emotional life is out of contact and therefore has a very dangerous suicidal aspect. Immediately complementary for acute situations are: Ignatia (the heart, emotions) and Bryonia (the head, fear and financial circumstances).
Giving Aurum immediately is asking for trouble, it’s best to prevent a deterioration of a syphilitic medicine. That’s the reason why it’s better to give Ignatia beforehand. When the patient is calm, slowly switch to Aurum. In some cases, when there is a syphilitic or Carcinogene background, it’s necessary; in order to make sure that the Aurum works better, to precede this prescription with the indicated nosode (with Syphilinum or Carcinogene on the background).

A syphilitic disturbance is fast and vehement; the recovery of it also goes quick and often spectacular. If things go well with the Aurum patient, then the treatment really starts, and in many cases, medicine like Natrium Muriaticum are being prescribed. But after that the often much longer antipsoric treatment starts.

For the healthy person:
Phosphorus: the idea Phosphorus: awareness, ideas
Silicea: the architect Silicea: structure
Calcium: the bricklayer Calcium: the material reality
Sulphur: energy/movement Sulphur: energy
Potassium, Sodium: transport.

If you are interested in seminars, courses or tutoring based on the philosophical points of view made above, please email booking@classicalhomeopathy.eu. Ewald Stöteler will be leading these seminars, courses or tutoring with thoroughness and expediency, based on his 25 years of practicing homeopathy according to the basic assumptions cited below.

About Ewald Stöteler

Ewald Stöteler came into contact with classic homeopathy at a very young age and was immediately “taken” by it. As mentioned before, he has been practicing homeopathy intensively for the last 25 years. That the above-mentioned renewed elements of homeopathy concerning the treatment of patients have been placed on the forefront is of credit to him. All information regarding this, can be found on our website. Ewald Stöteler started relatively early to pass on knowledge through teaching. With almost 20 years of experience as a teacher, he can rely on a huge amount of experience. For over five years, he has been the managing director of the Homeopathie Academie Nederland. This is his own developed schooling, based on the above-mentioned philosophy. His ability to explain the issues clearly, insures that the students experience his classes as very inspiring and offering clarity. His ideal, to bring homeopathy to the world, is being realised in this way. Partly due to this ideal, he has held seminars in several countries and his articles have been published in and outside of the Netherlands. Several books written by him, will soon be available in both English and German.