LATIN: Argemone pleiacantha

GOOD FOR: Shadow (Carl Jung) issues essence. Our dark side is revealed and worked through positively in the dream state. Shadow integration supporter.

DID YOU KNOW:

You are a visceral, gut-level experience kind of person. Your survival instincts, inner knowing and trusting what you know, is your classroom. You do well out of doors, or in a vocational environment. And talk about a risk taker! You're into anything that will give you a 'rush' to make you feel alive in every possible way. Many of you will want to serve your local area, regionally or perhaps, nationally. Many politicians and states people, the caring professions such as teachers, nursing and health related fields are found here. You like to give. Wisely, however, you know your boundaries very clearly so that you don't give at the expense of yourself. And serving your country may also appeal to you, as well.

HEALTHY YOU:

Thinking and understanding for you come from visual observation, hearing, as well as involving your emotions to 'feel out' a situation. You learn through mistakes; many of them. Understanding that success does not always happen the first time around, you are passionately eager to try your game plan again until you get it right. You do not care for standard schooling and are likely to avoid academia in lieu of living your life in order to become educated.

UNHEALTHY YOU:

Living your risk taking life-style to the extreme, you may become what is known as a "trauma junkie." We see this in firefighters, EMT's and paramedics, as well as the security service and the police department. Drug addiction is a huge lure to you and we hope you don't step into this trap. Many will start smoking cigarettes, unfortunately. Or, your addiction could be to love, gambling, or any other obsession that can control you. Being obsessed with sex and sexuality can entrap you in another way: STD's--sexually transmitted diseases, as well as AIDs and HIV, if wise precautions are not followed first. And you may develop a victim or codependent mentality--the "poor me"--look at what life's done to me. What you have to realize is life isn't going to treat you any better until you move out of this state. Life isn't about giving, giving, giving until you exhaust yourself on every level.

PROVING:

CRESTED PRICKLE POPPY PROVINGS -- a "peek" at the book
by Eileen Nauman, DHM(UK)

Copyright 1993 Eileen Nauman
All Rights Reserved

REPERTORY

Thirteen provers were utilized, with two males and eleven females. They came from around the world. The provings lasted between three days to fourteen days, with the average being seven days. The reason for stopping the proving were the spaciness, inability to concentrate on driving or other critical functions that could have serious ramifications if they continued the proving, thereby causing an auto accident or injury to themselves.

CRESTED PRICKLE POPPY... The Shadow Dreamer--Argemone Pleiacantha

There is no mistaking the raw, haunting beauty of the Crested Prickle Poppy plant. Here are two mature blooms with several thorny 'buds' that have three distinct 'horns' upon them. To look at this plant with all it's ethereal beauty and then view the leaves gives a person a diametrically opposite feeling about this marvelous dreamer!

Here in the Southwest, there are many legends of cowboys and Indians, the Old West and the wild nature of its inhabitants. Part of the history involves a plant known as the "Cowboys' Fried Eggs' or more officially as Crested Prickle Poppy. If one saw this plant on the range, it was a sign of over grazing . These three foot tall, highly thorny plants with crepe-paper like white petals and a huge, bright gold orange stamen with a dark brown 'cap' or stigma, was a warning sign to ranchers to stop putting their cattle into the area.

Crested Prickle Poppy is as tough as the cattle and cowboys who still proliferate the ranges (which consist of high desert plateaus that are covered with a mixture of hardy grasses, cedar, juniper, chaparral, Mormon tea bushes and cacti). No plant survives long in this hundred-degree plus environment with the Southwest sun is beating down relentlessly across the yellow and red sand of the region. No plant is hardier, and needs less rain to suddenly pop out of the sandy desert, than the Crested Prickle Poppy. It ranges from 1,000-8,000 feet, from the blistering yellow sands of the unforgiving Sonoran Desert up into the mountains of the northern part of Arizona.

The Crested Prickle poppy is also known as prickly poppy, thistle poppy, chicalote, Cardo Santo, thistle poppy, Mexican poppy and bluestem prickle poppy. There are different spellings on the plant, and all are apparently acceptable to various botanical sources. Officially known as Argemone Pleiacantha, it is from the Papavaraceae or Poppy Family.

DOCTRINE OF SIGNATURES

Here is the original essence being made by the magnificent stand of Crested Prickle Poppy. In less than an hour, most of the white petals touching the aquifer water, had become transparent! I made my essence of this plant on April 5, 1995, in the Sonoran Desert, north of Phoenix, Arizona. I located a number of Crested Prickle Poppies in a median 'strip' between two major highways. These plants were growing in the grayish-yellow sand, and conditions were dry, hot and arid. The Crested Prickle Poppies stood out, tall and proud. Their crepe-paper white petals gently folded and unfolded to the slightest of breezes, while the rest of the three-foot plant stood unbending, dominating the terrain. At first glance, this plant is formidable in its array and arsenal of thorns--it bristles with them, much like a porcupine in full defense armor response or short, thick hypodermic needles sticking out all over ever inch of the plant. There is a toughness, an inflexibility to the plant compared to any other plant around it.

Could it be that people who need this essence are people who are proud, indomitable, inflexible, defensive and have dried up on the emotional level to where they are no longer in touch with their feelings or intuition?

Desert plants, in general, remind me of people who have few inner resources of 'water' (which is symbolic of our emotions, intuition and creativity). These people are efficient despite their lack of receiving very little watering ( positive emotional sustenance and nurturing) of any kind. Yet, these people are able to withstand the heat (life stresses, a dysfunctional family background or suffered some extreme form of trauma). The drought conditions symbolize lack of water or emotions or possibly not being positively nurtured and emotionally supported during their growing up years. The poor, sandy and rocky soil in some of the most inhospitable climate and conditions could be indicative of a lack of an impoverished, low-economic childhood was endured. It could also indicate a childhood where everything is 'rocky' for them. In response, their vital force, in order to survive these marginal conditions, goes out of balance. The result is it toughens these children up, cuts off their emotions in order to protect themselves. It can potentially be a family who does not nurture, feed or support their child's individuality and the parent(s) are unable to meet or provide for the child's emotional needs.

When one views the need of very little water to not only survive, but thrive, plus the rocky, sandy soil that carries very little nutrition, a picture begins to assemble for us of this person via Crested Prickle Poppy. Laying the plant's habitant as a transparency over a human being, we could postulate that this is a person who is rarely in touch with their emotions. What little vulnerability is left of them after enduring and surviving the harsh climate of a dysfunctional, hard, tough childhood, or perhaps enduring Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, becomes protected. This individual's 'thorny' armor may consist of offensive or defensive measures. S/he will survive even in the harshest of family climate's and becomes stronger instead of being destroyed by it. Surviving such a barren, drought-like, harsh childhood comes at a high cost to their vital force. In order to survive and thrive in a highly antagonistic, anti-life environment, something must be given up.

What is sacrificed or given up is our being able to be vulnerable; our feminine energy expressions, that part of us which expresses not only our connection with our heart and therefore, our emotions, but also, to our intuition as well as our creativity. These people survive. But the cost is brutally high.

Most of them have suppressed their feminine energy expression in order to survive and may indeed appear to thrive in our world. For them, life is a harsh desert and the only way to make one's way across it successfully, is to put out a bristling defense, or a 'thorny ' personality. Any situation or person who gets too close to their tiny flame of vulnerability that still burns down deep inside them, they will respond with their thorny mode.

Visually, Male energy exudes around this plant; it's sense of self-reliant nature, it's inflexible, even rigid pride and yet, the flowers atop this plant speak of the soft, inner core of our being--our trapped feminine energy within the confines of this plant's thorny, military exterior. The flowers are thin, delicate, almost translucent. They are excruciatingly delicate and pliable to the touch. That is what is trapped--our feminine energy. And this has to do with our Kundalini energy that is coiled at the base of our root chakra or coccyx region.

When one part of us (our emotions in this case) is repressed or suppressed, that part remains unintegrated within us. In Jungian terms, that is our Shadow. Our Shadow are those parts of unrealized self sent into 'exile' by Life's harsh conditions.

Our Shadow is primal, it is survivalist in nature, our primitive animal instincts at their finest--to help us survive. However, survival at any cost has a high price tag, too. The Shadow lurks in our subconscious, deep in the subterranean wells of ourselves, roving, pacing and stirring up all kinds of energy, attracting certain situations to us, to get us to pay attention to it and finally, to begin integrating it in our mid-forties--our greatest mid-life challenge.

Carl G. Jung, psychotherapist, was a great believer in dreams and dream work as a way into our unconscious. Dreams were a translation device to speak directly to our consciousness. Through our dreams, he believed we could first become aware of our Shadow and through them, how the Shadow was trying to communicate to us via symbols. As we became conscious of our Shadow dreams, we could then begin to welcome our 'desert traveler' who was homeless and orphaned, back into the 'fold' of ourselves. Without integration of our Shadow elements, we can never hope to attain Individualization, or be a complete and whole person in this lifetime.

The promise of the Crested Prickle Poppy is that if you have the courage to mount your own array of defenses and risk everything, even the thorns that could bloody you by your continued investigation, once inside these defenses, you would be given the gift of the white flowers--the removal of blocks, reconnection and the reward of integrating your intuition, reconnection with your emotions and taping into your creative energies once more.

MAJOR SYMPTOMS:

MIND:

1. Confidence, lack of, ameliorated--more confidence is gained by the individual.

2. Delusions, time distortion, expansion and out of body sensation.

3. Fears -- that are normally repressed or suppressed, are confronted directly and quickly.

DREAMS:

1. This is the most powerful aspect of this Natural Essence: dreaming. Dreams are more vivid, detailed, more often recalled and often increased than normal. Helps those who don't remember their dreams or don't dream (they think), to recall them more easily.

2. Dreams of: hypodermic needles, danger, anger being felt/expressed, of animals, of death, people, being pursued by danger and about strangers. Curiously, a number of dreams that were 'Cosmic', such as about aliens, being in a space ship or being out in space, occurred. Two curious ones, about trees and the making of lists.

3. Most of the dreams addressed our Shadow issues--that which we had not yet confronted, worked through completely, let go of, or released, addressing our deepest, darkest fears or blocks, were the main themes of the dreaming.

4. Three of the dreamers had connected, ongoing dreams that they would recall, usually in sets of three, with an ongoing theme throughout, although not always to resolution at the end of the third dream.

STOMACH

1. Addictive cravings to sugar and especially chocolate were noted. The good news is, this Natural Essence cut the craving or desire for sugar and/or chocolate.

SLEEP

1. The ability to have a very deep, profound, uninterrupted night's sleep may make this a remedy to consider for those who have insomnia in some form.

SUMMATION ON CRESTED PRICKLE POPPY AND ITS POTENTIAL USE:

1. Psychological Ramifications: Shadow transformation, integration of one's Shadow contents in our subconscious, bringing of Shadow issues to conscious awareness (usually through dream state, although it can physically manifest in few instances, quite quickly--within hours of taking the Natural Essence). Emotional issues. PTSD issues. Abuse issues. Rape/incest issues can all be addressed by Crested Prickle Poppy---but it should be done only with therapy support if the person is unstable mentally or emotionally or spiritually. By a stable individual it is a Natural Essence that will open the door to spiritual, mental or emotional growth, the addressing of one's addictions (no matter what they are, even recreational drugs), and working toward harmony and integration with one's Shadow. Integration work. Individuation process is speeded up with the use of the Natural Essence.

If this work is undertaken by the person, the result is a centering, an inner harmony is reestablished along with a fuller sense of confidence and self-esteem being built within the individual, and a recognition and honoring of their own uniqueness in our world.

This Natural Essence has the ability to make some of us feel like daydreaming, to tap into our more creative side, to reconnect and feel completely alive. There is a sense of 'we are all related' when taking this Natural Essence; an understanding that we are not alone, rather, the spiritual and metaphysical implications that we are truly bound to one another, manifests in the most positive of ways. By making this connection, we are being given the insight and realization that while the world festers, there is famine, addictions, drugs and dying, that compassion enables us to shift our consciousness to understand that all is truly well even within the scope of this life.

If a person is spacy, ungrounded, out of his or her body, then this essence can help put this person back into their body to become grounded, focused and living in the moment. This also helps those who are caught up in the throes of an addiction. A number of provers mentioned that they no longer craved sweets or chocolates while on this essence. Part of the lure of drugs is to put a person into an 'other world' state, and of course, this essence would stop that and help the person shift their attitude and vision so that every day 'real life' could be coped with more positively and effectively--rather than 'checking out' with a drug for a few hours to escape the pain of living.

On the flip side of this, I've seen a person utilized the essence and during the aggravation phase, become more psychotic and emotionally/mental unstable. This was evidenced in one prover who was going through a highly emotional, harrowing time in his life when he was proving this essence. The aggravation lasted roughly four hours after one dose (four drops under the tongue). Homeopaths who think of using Crested Prickle Poppy should NOT use it on this type of an individual who is mentally or emotionally unstable, in my observation. Or, if they do, the homeopath must ensure that proper safeguards are in place before taking the essence, such as warning the patient and having a qualified therapist in place should the aggravation occur.

Another 'plus' to this essence is that people who want to dig into their subconscious contents, discover the blocks, their Shadow material and work consciously with it, will find this essence invaluable. In stable mental/emotional people, this essence generally works in one's dream state and brings up Shadow dreams or issues that are left unresolved and need to be worked with and through. It always addresses our deepest, darkest fears, those things we're afraid to integrate about ourselves.

2. Dream work. "Shadow" dreams.

3. Sleep-related issues, insomnia.

Here in a dry, desert sand and gravel area of Arizona where it is entirely inhospitable, the beautiful Crested Prickle Poppy grows with great vigor and strength. These plants are three to four feet tall! Photo: Eileen Nauman

COMPLEMENTARY HOMEOPATHIC REMEDIES

I used the following rubrics from the Crested Prickle Poppy that were most repeated by the provers. They had at least three to seven 'hits' or a rubric was chosen because a number of other provers used words that meant the same thing, and therefore, were included in the analysis. The Complete Repertory by Roger Van Zandvoort on MacRepertory 3.9:

MIND; CONFIDENCE; increased

DELUSIONS; body; separated, as if

DELUSIONS; time; exaggeration of

MIND; FEAR, alone, of being

MIND; FEAR; dying, of

MIND; FEAR; falling, of

MIND; MEMORY; weakness, loss of

MISTAKES, makes; writing, in transposing words

MIND; DREAMS, anger

MIND; DREAMS; animals

MIND; DREAMS, danger

MIND; DREAMS, death, of

MIND; DREAMS, people, of

DREAMS; pursued by, of being

MIND; DREAMS; strangers, of

FOOD and drinks: chocolate; ameliorates.

FOOD and drinks; sweets; ameliorates.

SLEEP; PROLONGED

SLEEP; DEEP

COMPARISONS BETWEEN REMEDIES AND CRESTED PRICKLE POPPY

Total (including all polycrests): Lycopodium, Nux Vomica, Phosphorus, Pulsatilla, Belladonna, Sulphur, Argentum Nitricum, Arsenicum, Lachesis, Mercurius Viv. and Veratrum Album.

Total (including small remedies, 15 polycrests): Argentum Nitricum, Hydrogen, Veratrum Album, Arnica Montana, Conium Maculatum, Carbon Sulphuratum, Hyoscyamus, Zinc, Cannabis Indica, Gelsemium, Alumina.

Total (including small remedies, strange, rare and peculiar and 15 polycrests): Hydrogen, Argentum Nitricum, Veratrum Album, Cannabis Indica, Ammonium Carbonicum, Conium Maculatum, Anacardium, Nux Mochata, Arnica, Opium and Zincum.