Allergies
The
Ontology of an Itch
by Solihin Thom DO DAc
When I
was 38 I noticed a strange scaly patch about the size of a
silver dollar on the skin covering my right quadratus
lumborum, just below the last rib. I also began to see that
certain shampoos would inflame a thin line of skin along my
hairline, and when brushing my hair would note the snow
shower of dried skin that would gently float down onto my
shirt. This appalled me, for my mother had had a similar
complaint when at 38 she developed scaly and dried palm and
sole of foot on her right side. When I talked to her she
recalled that one of her uncles had a severe case of
psoriasis that had developed around (she couldn’t be
specific) thirty-eight. This revelation of inheritance
impassioned me to look more deeply into my complaint. As an
osteopath and acupuncturist in the UK I had attempted to
help those with skin problems and allergies and often found
that my limited understanding could not help those who
appeared more at distress than my relatively innocuous and
hidden complaint.
Ontology
During this time I had been developing an ontological
system using kinesiology and mudras or hand modes – a sign
language that allows the body of a person to give us
feedback as to the root of their problems, so that we can
more efficiently know the causative reasons for their
state. I also narrowed in to my own problems: to understand
the itch and the psora within me.
Homeopathy
– miasma and psora
Samuel Hahnemann, the German physician who put homeopathy
on the medical map at the beginning of the eighteen
hundreds, talked of inherited patterns or miasma (Greek for
stain, and fog) that we all inherit genetically. These were
predispositions to certain types of human patterns that
could result in structural unease, states of
pathophysiology, pathological disease and mental disorders.
In other words these patterns genetically ordered us to
play out genetic patterns of dysfunction.
Tsoret
– psora – psoriasis – eczema - allergies
Hahnemann initially considered three primary miasma: psora,
syphilis and sycosis (gonorrhea) and then added a fourth
which he called tubercular. The root miasm was psora. This
word comes from the Hebrew tsoret which infers the anguish
and pain of Rachel whose position of future wife was
usurped by her sister Leah, through a trick by Laban, their
father. Leah was married to Jacob, at night, concealed so
that Jacob would not know who it was. This was because Leah
was Laban's eldest daughter. Jacob of course discovered the
ruse, and asked Laban for Rachel's hand. With Laban's
consent, in lieu of a further 7 years on tenured service,
Jacob married Rachel a week later. However this marriage
deeply hurt Leah, who did indeed love Jacob. She always
felt unloved even though she bore six children to Jacob.She
named her first three children; Reuben (affliction), Simeon
(unloved), Levi (unattached) in reference to her anguish
and pain towards her husband. Tsoret – psora – carries the
taste of separation, outcast, unclean, barren, dirty,
rebellious. We see that this stigma is carried through our
inherited ‘lot’ and manifests primarily as skin problems
(the visual representation of unclean or untouchable) –
hence psoriasis and eczemas but also as more hidden
‘itches’ as in all allergies.
Separation
The root conceptual model that can be used to uncover what
our particular itch concerns is to understand what we are
separate from. Human beings undergo rites of passage, much
hidden in our secular times – as we move through into
differing parts of our journey or lives. We become, in
effect, further away and more separate (unconscious) from
the Source. In plain English we are birthed – thus are
separated from the ‘heaven’ of the womb, weaned and
separated from the primal maternal nourishment (hence often
milk and dairy allergies), separated from the innocence and
freedom of childhood as we go through puberty, separated
from our youth as we enter into the responsibility of
marriage or partnership. As we work through life we are
often separated from life as the seriousness of survival
makes it difficult for a humanity to arise within us, and
as we retire we again separate in our gradual preparation
for death and all its uncertainty. In this life of ours we
are then separated from truth, from the source, from real
nourishment and hence we need a signal to help us come back
on track.
Signals
– the ‘itch’
The human body signals us when we are separated from
something that we need to understand. To do so, it makes us
react and itch to what we call an allergen – an irritant.
In previous articles I have alluded to the human structure
as if it were a house. That is; we consist of floors or
areas of function within our body that mirror the
functional aspects of a multistoried house, containing
basement (material nature), living rooms (vegetal nature),
areas of privacy and territory (animal nature) and places
where we manage the house and its function (human nature).
Our house may also mirror our sense of identity (Self); our
colonial nature, American, Slav, Pole, Hispanic, African
etc., through its design, décor, furnishings just as our
body displays physiognomy, racial characteristics, color
and other nuances.
Material
itch
Allergens dependant on its nature then irritates the level
of the house (body) that mirrors itself. Minute
microscopic, barely animate objects – dust, fungus, mites,
mold – ‘stuff’ that we might find in the damp, dark and
crowded basement will herald a primary inherited itch. Some
small ‘seed’ left dormant setting off an ‘itch’ to signal
its presence.
Vegetative
itch
Food being vegetal, will invade the blood as long chain
proteins (viewed as foreign) through a poorly
differentiated and vulnerable digestive system making us
reactive albeit in a delayed manner. We then turn to
absence and denial pushing aside the foods that would
nourish our corporeal body – mirroring perhaps the lack of
true nourishment in our inner or outer lives. The clues
often are illustrated by the food that we are irritated by.
The root vegetable (grows hidden, deep in our the soil),
fruit (of a feeling or emotion), grain (staff of life) or
dairy (primary maternal nourishment) that does not animate
or bring us into life, contains a clue about what we have
inherited concerning our archetypal models of nourishment.
Hence the living room of our house is affected. We have
difficulty fully living.
Instinctual
itch
Similarly those who get rhinitis, conjunctivitis or
dermatitis and eczemas illustrate that the instinctual part
of the self – the parts of the house that represents our
territory or personal space – is absent in some way; we are
not ‘at home’, not present but absent from our self or
family. The first line of defense is then absent too – and
thus the mucous membranes and skin lack their normal vigor
– and so do not do their job. Conversely we may be
irritated with some part of our ambition, sexuality, drive,
motivation or gender so we become irritated with animal
by-products – dander and hair to illustrate our own
intolerance with this part of the self. (Both human [man
made] and identity [autoimmune] states are beyond the scope
of this short article)
Allergies
– the itch in our being
Allergies are merely the seed ‘nudge’ that highlight that
which is hidden from us. Initially dust and mold, fungi and
mites are usually of relative importance to our well being.
The being, inherent within us, amps up the force of the
initial impetus and makes us then become irritable with how
we are nourished, or jacks up the power so much that we
become absent or distracted so that our animal protective
nature does not defend us from environmental pollutants,
pollens and the like. The wisdom within us is
extraordinary. It wants us to sit up and take notice.
Unfortunately as our medicine is based on pharmaceutical
intervention we use either conventional means that mask the
symptoms or ‘alternatives’ that fortify our systems but
actually do a similar job. Our modern approach is to talk
about mind body and spirit, but play lip service to the
mind, yet notice the body and often do not really
understand that it is Spirit that provides the gift by
giving us the itch.
An
ontological approach
There are simple procedures that help to ease and remove
the allergy. This is by looking at the root cause within
you, and noting the area that is affected which serves as
the clue. For example, the basement serves us to point and
look at inherited patterns that lie dormant yet present
within us. Perhaps there are things ‘dead’ within us, so
that fungus gets a hold on our decaying part of us. Perhaps
there is a dead or dormant feeling running through us, so
our digestive tract fills with candida albicans as the
mycelia entangle our genitals and innards with their
tentacles. This makes us feel unclean and perhaps inhibits
intimacy, as the feeling (vegetal self) within that
entangles, may simply be one that pushes us away from our
sexuality (animal self). Simple processes help to break the
incessant noise in the system to break the facilitated
mechanism that constantly trips us into the allergic
response. You never have to take people off foods, nor
rotate diets, give shots or mask the symptoms – there is no
need to. Once listened to, the being stabilizes its housing
and the functional parts of us go back to their normal and
usually silent job.
Allergies are a godsend for they take us back to the root
of things – that which is deep and perpetual within us all.
It takes us back further than Leah or Jacob. It takes us to
a primary itch within: who am I? Where do I come from? What
is my purpose?