the birds and the bees...and viagra?

In the past 6 months I’ve been getting spam emails about Viagra, lonely singles, libido enrichment, penis and breast enlargement. Perhaps you have too. Many friends and colleagues have been getting them as well. Once over the pain of being singled out by the worldwide spam consortium, I started to think about this topic from a different standpoint. Why is having enormous genitalia and a sexual appetite to match, so important? We have been feed this idea by Hollywood and the advertising industry on a daily basis.  Sex reportedly sells, but why? What is it about sex that really motivates people? The obvious answer is that it feels good. Sure, for many people it does.

Yet, what would motivate a person to have larger body parts and/or a stronger sexual appetite and libido?

• Would one get more attention?
• Would one be better liked?
• To be appreciated more, to be more popular?
• To be loved more?

The motivation certainly could be an endless list, yet when distilled to a base idea it is about a lack. “I’m not big enough, strong enough, powerful enough, sexy enough, etc, etc, etc."  In the West the "bigger is better" approach has built our culture -- financially, materially, emotionally and medically. So it is no wonder that the same has happened in the realm of the bedroom. However, in this arena you come with what you have. Yet people want to change what has been given. One can make all the physical changes they would like to but the fact remains that it starts with how you feel. If one does not feel good about oneself or if self esteem is low, there are a myriad of ways that a person can overcome it, or not – everyone has a strategy, or coping mechanism that has gotten them through life. To overcome a person needs to compensate for what lack there is and occasionally this gets extreme and is called overcompensation. Perhaps someone talks loud because they feel timid, or perhaps another who feels timid clams up. Perhaps there is bravado during fear or perhaps tears and shaking. During anxiety maybe someone urinates and another gets a nervous tic. Again, people are individuals and react to different stimuli. When a person has low self esteem it is no different.

There are many remedies that cover low self esteem, one classic homeopathic remedy for low self esteem is Lycopodium. It is made from a plant that was once a large (200 ft.) fern tree during the age of the dinosaur, but is now a low running evergreen which is used for Christmas decorations. In essence, this substance that was once huge is now small. This took millions of years. The Lycopodium person feels just like this: they want to be big, but they feel small and they compensate by either being a bully, a strutter or a wimp. Interestingly enough this is a main remedy for impotency and sexual dysfunction. In this way the emotional/mental state co joins with the physical and manifests as a whole. How could it be any different? From my vantage point, we are one emanation coming through many parts and pieces. It is the job of the homeopath to find the one emanation, the one expression, the one energy as it expresses to all places (symptoms). The symptoms, both mental/emotional and physical, create a picture and a pattern of illness and disease.   It is the job of the homeopath to find this one expression and match it with a homepathic remedy of the same pattern on the mental/emotional/physical plane.

I often see wonderful results for clients in the realms of low self esteem and depression.  Homeopathy does wonders here.  It is a joy to see clients climb out of their "state" and homeopathy stimulates the person's own natural ability to heal themselves.  They were just stuck in a pattern.  Through homeopathic treatment patterns dissolve.

Go see a homeopath, millions of people do everyday in nearly every country in the world.  You'll be happy you did. 

Lycopodium

Lycopodium

Lycopodium clavatum. Staghorn Club moss. Running Pine. NO Lycopodiaceae.

Excerpted from:
“Prisma”, Frans Vermeulen.
“Desktop Guide to Keynotes and Confirmatory Syptoms”, Roger Morrison, MD.

One of the dominant forests in the Carboniferous Period, they are fern like climbers with small, simple leaves typically arranged in whorls or spirals. The evolutionary significance of the family lies mainly in the advances made in branching, and in the development of a more complex rooting system. Their remains are one of the chief ingredients of coal.

Club moss species extend from artic regions into the tropics, but they rarely form conspicuous elements in any plant community. Because they are evergreen, they are most noticeable in winter. They reproduce by spores, either clustered into small cones or borne in the axils of the small scale like leaves. Some species of Lycopodium are called ground pine or creeping cedar, and are often used for Christmas decorations. Lycopodium is an indicator of cool temperature climates, fresh and very moist nitrogen poor soils, and compacted forest floors.

The capsule which contains the gametes and the oil has a tetredic, almost crystalline form, and is of such hardness that in the preparation of the remedy, trituration of several days duration is needed, using a special mill, in order to release the soft inner contents. During its entire phase of development, Lycopodium thus exhibits a contrariness in all its characteristic manifestations. From the enormous tree to the crouching tiny plant, from powerful vitality to the greatest vegetative weakness, and combined with such weakness enormous tenacity of survival. Such contrariness is symbolized, as it were, by the spore, where extraordinary hardness contrasts with the softness of the contents. Once a mighty tree with an enormous trunk, the plant now winds snake like, reaching ten metres on the ground.

The spores of lycopodium are very flammable and were formerly used in fireworks, in theatre productions (special effects) and as an absorptive powder for pharmaceutical purposes. The spores were used as bullet tracers and flares in WWII. It has been found that Lycopodium spores used to coat non lubricated condoms, so that they will not stick when rolled up, can cause allergic reactions ranging from dermatitis to severe asthma. In Columbia a decoction is made that is put into baths for retarded children. Our neighbors in BC used to insert the moss for a nose bleed and to cure a headache.

The name is derived from Greek – lykos – wolf and podus – foot, in allusion to the rhizomes which resemble a wolf’s paw.

The herbal medicine is still used in England by herbalists for dusting of eczema and various skin diseases, and for infant chaffing.

Homeopathic uses:

“Lycopodium is one of the most fundamental remedies and is classed with Sulphur and Calcarea as part of the triad (Lyc – Sulphur – Calc). One word that is used to describe the essence of Lycopodium is “cowardice”. The patient very often has marked feelings of inferiority which he constantly tries to overcome. This liability is faced in two different ways: Inferiority and egotism.” Roger Morrsion, MD.

Mental/Emotional:

Problems of self esteem and low confidence.
Extreme lack of self confidence.
Self protective.
Doesn’t take risks when older, no personal decision.
Often verbally criticized when younger – no confidence.
Feeling of helplessness.
fears
Bullying, domineering, arrogant behavior to family and those with less authority, obsequious to superiors.
“nice outside, tyrant at home”. Inflated ego.
3 types:
• Bravado – cover up anxiety by acting confidently
• The wimp – nervousness is undisguised and often quite crippling
• The strutter – counteracts his sense of impotency by exaggerating masculine power -- body building, martial arts…

• The female Lycopodium – feels too small to cope with something which seems overwhelming. 
  Death of father when young 
  Death of partner or husband when older 
  Taking on too many ‘male’ duties 
  Central feeling of smallness – thing once seemed normal now too big 
  Family and social obligations demand a strength which isn’t available, a psudeo strength is set up
  Suppression of the intuitive (left) by the rational (right) is marked by a rather masculine or boyish disposition.

 
Intellectual and withdrawn. Depression.
Keen intellect, weak muscular power.
Anxiety: about health, about conflicts, about career.
Weeps from sentimental events or upon being thanked.
Reverses letters and words while reading and speaking.
Stage fright.
Fears: ghosts. Cancer. Alone, at night. People. Claustrophobic. Commitment, responsibility, marriage. Public speaking. Agoraphobia.
Averse to company yet dreads being alone.

Generals:

Right sided problems or right going left.
General agg from 4 to 8pm or 3 to 7pm.
General agg from waking in morning.
General amel. in the evening or at midnight.
Generally worse from missing a meal or from fasting.
Generally better in open air.

Head:

Headaches worse right side, worse 4 to 8 pm.
Flaring of nostril with asthma.
Deep furrows of the brow or jowls.
Grey hair (beard or head) in streaks or patches, mainly right sided.

Gastrointesinal:

Craves: Sweets. Alcohol. Warm drinks.
Disordered by oysterse, onions, cabbage.
Loud rumbling in abdomen.
Bloated and distended abdomen, ameliorated by eructation and flatus, worse eating even small amounts of food.
Early satiety.
Huge appetite; ravenous; appetite increases while eating.
Wakes at night to eat. Bulimia.
Heartburn. Sour eructations.

Urogenital:

Painful urging for urination.
Right sided kidney stones.
Sexual promiscuity, adultery.
Impotence, esp. with his wife. Premature ejaculation.
Herpes, esp. right sided and extending down thigh.

Musculoskeletal:

Cracks on heels.
One hand or foot much colder than the other.
Feet offensive.

Sleep:

Sleeps only on the right side.
Waking from hunger.
Extremely unrefreshed in the morning.

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