Belladonna acts upon every part of the nervous system, producing active congestion, furious excitement, perverted special senses, twitching, convulsions and pain. It has a marked action on the vascular system, skin and glands. Belladonna always is associated with hot, red skin, flushed face, glaring eyes, throbbing carotids, excited mental state, hyperaesthesia of all senses, delirium, restless sleep, convulsive movements, dryness of mouth and throat with aversion to water, Neuralgic pains that come and go suddenly ( Oxytropis.) Heat, redness, throbbing and burning. great children’S remedy. Epileptic spasms followed by nausea and vomiting. Scarlet feverand also prophylactic. Here use the thirtieth potency. Exophthalmic goitre.Corresponds to the symptoms of "air-sickness" in aviators. Give as preventive. No thirst, anxiety of fear. Belladonna stands for Violence of attack and Suddenness of onset. Bell. for the extreme of thyroid toxaemia. Use 1x (Beebe).
BETTER, semi-erect.
WORSE, touch, jar, noise, draft, after noon, lying down.
Relationships
Compare: Sanguisorba officinalis 2x-6x, a member of the Rosaceae family, (Profuse, long-lasting menses, especially in nervous patients with congestive symptoms to head and limbs. Passive Hemorrhages at climacteric. Chronic metritis. Hemorrhage from lungs. Varices and ulcers). Mandragora - (Mandrake). A narcotic of the ancients - Restless excitability and bodily weakness. Desire for sleep. Has antiperiodic properties like China and Aranea. Useful in epilepsy and hydrophobia, also Cetonia (A. E. alvine).Hyos ( less fever, more agitation); Stram ( more sensorial excitement, frenzy); Hoitzia - A Mexican drug, similar in action to Belladonna ( Useful in fever, scarlatinal eruption, measles, urticaria, etc. High fever with eruptive fevers. Dry mouth and throat, red face, injected eyes, delirium.) Calcar is often required after Belladonna.; Atropia. Alkaloid of Belladonna covers more the neurotic sphere of the Belladonna action ( Great dryness of throat, almost impossible to swallow. Chronic stomach affections, with great pain and vomiting of all food. Peritonitis. All kinds of illusions of sight. Everything appears large. Platina opposite.) Hypochlorhydria; pyrosis. Motes over everything. On reading, words run together; double vision, all objects seem to be elongated. Eustachian tube and tympanic congestion. Affinity for the pancreas. Hyperacidity of stomach. Paroxysms of gastric pain; ovarian neuralgia.
Antidotes to Belladonna: Camph.; Coff.; Opium, Acon.
Complementary: Calc. Belladonna ( Contains lime). Especially in semi-chronic and constitutional diseases.
Incompatible: Acet-ac.
Dose
First to thirtieth potency and higher. Must be repeated frequently in acute diseases.
Source: ABC Homeopathy
Atropa belladonna, commonly known as
belladonna or
deadly nightshade, is a
perennial herbaceous plant (
rhizomatous hemicryptophyte) in the Nightshade family (which includes tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, etc.)
Solanaceae, native to
Europe,
North Africa, and
Western Asia. Its distribution extends from
Great Britain in the west to western
Ukraine and the
Iranian province of
Gilan in the east. It is also naturalised and/or introduced in some parts of Canada and the United States. The foliage and
berries are extremely
toxic, containing
tropane alkaloids. These toxins include
atropine,
scopolamine and
hyoscyamine, which cause a bizarre
delirium and
hallucinations,
[1] and are also used as pharmaceutical
anticholinergics.
Atropa Belladonna has unpredictable effects. The antidote for belladonna poisoning is physostigmine or pilocarpine, the same as for atropine.[28]
It has a long history of use as a medicine, cosmetic, and poison. Before the
Middle Ages, it was used as an anesthetic for surgery; the ancient Romans used it as a poison (the wife of Emperor
Augustus and the wife of
Claudiusboth were rumored to have used it for murder); and, predating this, it was used to make poison-tipped arrows. The genus name
Atropa comes from
Atropos, one of the three Fates in Greek mythology, and the name "bella donna" is derived from
Italian and means "pretty woman" because the herb was used in eye-drops by women to
dilate the pupils of the eyes to make them appear seductive.
[2][3]
Description[edit]
Atropa belladonna is a branching
herbaceous perennial, often growing as a
subshrub, from a fleshy rootstock. Plants grow to 2 metres (6.6 ft) tall with ovate leaves 18 centimetres (7.1 in) long. The bell-shaped
flowers are dull purple with green tinges and faintly scented. The
fruits are
berries, which are green, ripening to a shiny-black, and approximately 1.5 centimetres (0.59 in) in diameter. The berries are sweet and are consumed by animals (see
Toxicity) that disperse the
seeds in their droppings, even though the seeds contain toxic
alkaloids.
[4] There is a pale-yellow flowering form called
Atropa belladonna var.
lutea with pale-yellow fruit.
Distribution[edit]
Atropa belladonna is native to temperate southern and central Europe but has been cultivated and introduced outside its native range. In southern Sweden it was recorded in Flora of Skåne in 1870 as grown in
apothecarygardens near Malmö.
[5]
In Britain it is native only on calcareous soils, on disturbed ground, field margins, hedgerows and open woodland. More widespread as an alien, it is often a relic of cultivation as a medicinal herb. Seed is spread mainly by birds.
[6]
Cultivation[edit]
Atropa belladona is rarely used in gardens, but, when grown, it is usually for its large upright
habit and showy berries.
[9] Germination of the small seeds is often difficult, due to hard seed coats that cause seed
dormancy. Germination takes several weeks under alternating temperature conditions, but can be sped up with the use of
gibberellic acid.
[10] The seedlings need
sterile soil to prevent
damping off and resent root disturbance during transplanting.
[citation needed]
Naming and taxonomy[edit]
The name
Atropa belladonna was published by
Linnaeus in
Species Plantarum in 1753.
[11] It is in the
nightshade family (
Solanaceae), which it shares with
potatoes,
tomatoes,
eggplants,
jimsonweed,
tobacco,
wolfberry, and
chili peppers. The common names for this species include belladonna, deadly nightshade, divale, dwale,
[12] banewort, devil's berries, naughty man's cherries, death cherries, beautiful death, devil's herb, great morel, and dwayberry.
[13]
The name
Atropa is thought to be derived from that of the Greek goddess
Atropos, one of the three
Greek fates or destinies who would determine the course of a man's life by the weaving of threads that symbolized his birth, the events in his life, and finally his death, with Atropos cutting these threads to mark the last of these.
[14][15] The name "belladonna" comes from the
Italian language, meaning "beautiful lady";
[12] originating either from its usage as cosmetic for the face or, more probably, from its usage to increase the pupil size in women.
[14][15]
Toxicity[edit]
Belladonna is one of the most
toxic plants found in the
Eastern Hemisphere.
[16] All parts of the plant contain
tropane alkaloids.
[17] Roots have up to 1.3%, leaves 1.2%, stalks 0.65%, flowers 0.6%, ripe berries 0.7%, and seeds 0.4% tropane alkaloids; leaves reach maximal alkaloid content when the plant is budding and flowering, roots are most poisonous in the end of the plant’s vegetation period.
[18] Belladonna nectar is transformed by bees into honey that also contains tropane alkaloids.
[19] The berries pose the greatest danger to children because they look attractive and have a somewhat sweet taste.
[13][20][21] The root of the plant is generally the most toxic part, though this can vary from one specimen to another.
[13][17][22] Belladonna leaves and berries are gathered in May and June, when the alkaloid content is largest and the berries are almost ripe which makes them suited for medicinal use. The leaves and berries are then dried in a dark and dry place and stored airtight. Fresh belladonna berries are mashed, fermented, and distilled into alcohol. Belladonna dosage depends on the user’s age and health condition. Consumption of one or two fresh belladonna berries mildly affects perception in adults. This effect outsets in one or two hours after the berries have been ingested. Three to four fresh berries act as a psychoactive aphrodisiac, and three to ten berries are a hallucinogenic dose. The lethal dose for adults is ten to twenty berries, depending of the physiological constitution of the consumer. Consumption of two or three berries by children can be lethal. These data notwithstanding, consumption of belladonna should be mindful and generally avoided due to the devastating toxic states that can for some individuals prove lethal even with the minimal dosage. Least dangerous is belladonna consumption in smoking blends with dry fly agaric mushrooms and hemp or as a fumigant. An average internal dose used for medicinal purposes is 0.05 to 0.1 g of dried and powdered leaves.[Lindequist] 30 to 200 mg of dry leaves or 30 to 120 mg of dry roots, either smoked or ingested, have pleasant psychoactive effect.
[18]
The active agents in belladonna,
atropine,
hyoscine (
scopolamine), and
hyoscyamine, have
anticholinergic properties.
[23][24] The symptoms of belladonna
poisoning include
dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred
vision,
tachycardia, loss of
balance, staggering, headache,
rash, flushing, severely dry mouth and throat, slurred speech,
urinary retention,
constipation,
confusion,
hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions.
[23][25][26] In 2009,
A. belladonna berries were mistaken for
blueberries by an adult woman; the six berries she ate were documented to result in severe
anticholinergic syndrome.
[27] The plant's deadly symptoms are caused by atropine's disruption of the
parasympathetic nervous system's ability to regulate involuntary activities, such as sweating, breathing, and heart rate. The
antidote for belladonna poisoning is
physostigmine or
pilocarpine, the same as for atropine.
[28]
Atropa belladonna is also toxic to many domestic animals, causing
narcosis and
paralysis.
[29] However, cattle and
rabbits eat the plant seemingly without suffering harmful effects.
[26] In humans, its anticholinergic properties will cause the disruption of cognitive capacities, such as memory and learning.
[24]
Legal status[edit]
Belladonna cultivation is legal in Southern and Eastern Europe, Pakistan, North America, and Brazil.
[18] All parts of the belladonna plant can be cultivated, bought, kept, and distributed (sold, traded or given) without a legal license or medical prescription in the USA. Sales of belladonna in the USA conform to U.S. supplement laws or are regulated by the FDA.
[30] Belladonna leaves and roots can be bought with a medical prescription in pharmacies throughout Germany.
[31]
Cosmetics[edit]
The common name
belladonna originates from its historic use by women -
Bella Donna is
Italian for
beautiful lady. Drops prepared from the belladonna plant were used to
dilate women's
pupils, an effect considered to be attractive and seductive.
[2][3] Belladonna drops act as a
muscarinic antagonist, blocking receptors in the muscles of the eye that constrict pupil size.
[32] Belladonna is currently rarely used cosmetically, as it carries the
adverse effects of causing minor visual distortions, inability to focus on near objects, and increased heart rate. Prolonged usage was reputed to cause
blindness.
[33]
Medicinal uses[edit]
Belladonna has been used in
herbal medicine for centuries as a pain reliever, muscle relaxer, and anti-inflammatory, and to treat menstrual problems, peptic ulcer disease, histaminic reaction, and motion sickness.
[23][34] At least one 19th-century
eclectic medicinejournal explained how to prepare a belladonna tincture for direct administration to patients.
[35]
Belladonna
tinctures,
decoctions, and powders, as well as alkaloid salt mixtures, are still produced for pharmaceutical use, and these are often standardised at 1037 parts
hyoscyamine to 194 parts
atropine and 65 parts
scopolamine. The alkaloids are compounded with
phenobarbital and/or kaolin and pectin for use in various functional gastrointestinal disorders. The tincture, used for identical purposes, remains in most pharmacopoeias, with a similar tincture of
Datura stramonium having been in the US Pharmacopoeia at least until the late 1930s. Cigarettes with belladonna leaves soaked in opium tincture were a prescription medicine as recently as 1930.
[18] The combination of belladonna and
opium, in powder, tincture, or alkaloid form, is particularly useful by mouth or as a suppository for diarrhoea and some forms of visceral pain; it can be made by a compounding pharmacist, and may be available as a manufactured fixed combination product in some countries (e.g.,
B&O Supprettes). A banana-flavoured liquid (most common trade name: Donnagel PG) was available until 31 December 1992 in the United States.
Scopolamine is used as the hydrobromide salt for GI complaints and motion sickness, and to potentiate the analgesic and anxiolytic effects of opioid analgesics. It was formerly used in a painkiller called "
twilight sleep" in childbirth.
[36]
Atropine sulphate is used as a
mydriatic and
cycloplegic for eye examinations. It is also used as an antidote to
organophosphate and
carbamate poisoning, and is loaded in an autoinjector for use in case of a
nerve gas attack. Atropinisation (administration of a sufficient dose to block nerve gas effects) results in 100 percent blockade of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptors, and atropine sulphate is the benchmark for measuring the power of anticholinergic drugs.
Hyoscyamine is used as the sulphate or hydrobromide for GI problems and Parkinson's disease. Its side-effect profile is intermediate to those of atropine and scopolamine, and can also be used to combat the toxic effects of organophosphates.
Hyoscyamine was the primary alkaloid in
Asthmador, a nonpresciption treatment for the relief of bronchial asthma, until Asthmador was discontinued.
Scientific evidence to recommend the use of
A. belladonna in its natural form for any condition is insufficient,
[23] although some of its components, in particular
l-
atropine, which was purified from belladonna in the 1830s, have accepted medical uses.
[26] Donnatal is a
prescription pharmaceutical, approved in the United States by the
FDA, that combines natural belladonna alkaloids in a specific, fixed ratio with phenobarbital to provide peripheral
anticholinergic/
antispasmodic action and mild sedation. According to its
labeling, it is possibly effective for use as adjunctive therapy in the treatment of
irritable bowel syndrome (irritable colon, spastic colon, mucous colitis) and acute
enterocolitis.
[37]
Alternative-medicinal use[edit]
Belladonna preparations are used in
homeopathy as alleged treatments for various conditions.
[38][39] In clinical use and in research trials, the most common preparation is diluted to the 30C level in
homeopathic notation. This level of dilution does not contain any of the original plant,
[39] although preparations with lesser dilutions that statistically contain trace amounts of the plant are advertised for sale.
[40]
In 2010 and again in 2016, the US FDA warned against the use of homeopathic teething tablets found to contain Belladonna.
[41][42]
Recreational drug[edit]
Atropa belladonna and related plants, such as jimson weed (
Datura stramonium), have occasionally been used as
recreational drugs because of the vivid
hallucinations and delirium they produce. However, these hallucinations are most commonly described as very unpleasant, and recreational use is considered extremely dangerous because of the high risk of unintentional fatal
overdose.
[43][44][45] In addition, the central nervous system effects of atropine include memory disruption, which may lead to severe confusion.
[46] The major effects of belladonna consumption last for three to four hours, visual hallucinations can last for three to four days, some negative aftereffects are preserved for several days.
[18][47] Belladonna used as a recreational drug is reported to bring about predominantly bad trips that the users want to never repeat in their lives.
[47] Trips induced by belladonna are threatening, dark, demonic, hellish, frightening, and terrifying.
[18] Occasionally, belladonna can induce
out-of-body experiences,
[48] a heightened sense of awareness,
[49] and enhance sexual, mystical and lucid dreaming experiences often in combination with other psychoactive plants.
[50][51] Positive experiences induced by belladonna consumption are rare.
[18]
Macbeth of Scotland, when he was still one of the lieutenants of King
Duncan I of Scotland, used it during a truce to poison the troops of the invading
Harold Harefoot, King of England, to the point that the English troops were unable to stand their ground and had to retreat to their ships.
[15]
Folklore[edit]
In the past, witches were believed to use a mixture of belladonna,
opium poppy and other plants, typically poisonous (such as
monkshood and
poison hemlock), in
flying ointment, which they applied to help them fly to gatherings with other witches.
Carlo Ginzburg and others have argued that flying ointments were preparations meant to encourage hallucinatory dreaming; a possible explanation for the inclusion of belladonna and opium poppy in flying ointments concerns the known antagonism between tropane alkaloids of belladonna (to be specific, scopolamine) and opiate alkaloids in the opium poppy,
Papaver somniferum (to be specific, morphine), which produces a dream-like waking state. This antagonism was known in folk medicine, discussed in eclectic (botanical) medicine formularies,
[54] and posited as the explanation of how flying ointments might have actually worked in contemporary writing on witchcraft.
[55] The antagonism between opiates and tropanes is the original basis of the
twilight sleep that was provided to
Queen Victoria to deaden pain as well as consciousness during childbirth, and that was later modified, and so isolated alkaloids were used instead of plant materials. The belladonna herb was also notable for its unpredictable effects from toxicity.
[56][57]
Atropa belladonna, the deadly nightshade, is a member of the solanaceae family, which includes other very poisonous plants, such as Datura stramonium, the thorn apple or devil’s trumpet, and Hyoscyamus niger, the black henbane, but also such friendly plants as the tomato, the potato, green and red peppers and the eggplant, as well as the protective mandrake and the seductive, but not so harmless, tobacco plant.
Nature is the great mother of symbols. She reveals much of her inner mysteries in the external characteristics of her creations. The appearance, growth pattern and habitat of a plant form a symbolic expression or signature of the hidden, therapeutic genius lying latent within. So it is with Belladonna.
The deadly nightshade is widely distributed over Central and Southern Europe and is almost confined to chalky or calcareous soils. Early homeopaths soon discovered that a close relationship exists between Belladonna and Calcarea carbonica, which is derived from the chalky, middle layer of the oyster shell. People of the Calc carb constitutional type often develop acute conditions that require treatment with Belladonna.
The nightshades have been described as the “gypsies of the roadside and abandoned places”. Many thrive best where there is human garbage and refuse, on rubbish dumps and compost heaps. Belladonna loves waste areas, old quarries and ruins – places forsaken by man.
The plant shows a curious responsiveness to light and shade. In shady places, on wooded hills and especially if on limestone, it grows vigorously and luxuriantly, even to the height of a tall man, but specimens exposed to the sun are, by comparison, weak and dwarfed. Paradoxically, however, the more sun and light a plant is exposed to the more poisonous it becomes, due to the increased concentration of the toxins (alkaloids) it contains. Belladonna is one of the most frequently indicated remedies for sunstroke.
The extreme vitality of the plant is witnessed each year in the rapid and vigorous growth that erupts from the thick, fleshy, whitish perennial root – older plants attaining a height of five to six feet in one season. Ailments that yield to Belladonna therapy come on suddenly, even explosively, and most often in vigorous, robust children and adults. Pains are intense and come on suddenly and disappear suddenly. The mental and physical symptoms it produces and cures are generally of a violent nature. Inflammatory states are characterised by extremely high fever and locally by severe throbbing pains, a bright redness, which quickly changes to bluish-red or purple, marked tenderness, swelling and heat. It is remarkable how swiftly a Belladonna condition can move to suppuration. Typical examples of this are tonsillitis and whitlow.
Despite being highly poisonous, the only sinister aspect the plant presents is the flower, which appears in June and July in the axils of the leaves and continues blooming until September. These are pendent, bell-shaped and are a dark, congested, purplish colour, tinged with green and possess five lobes. The calyx, which embraces the base of the inflorescence, has five clefts.
Even the number of petals of a flower has significance. In the ancient lore of numerology the number five possesses certain analogies – freedom, independence, changeability, rebelliousness, volatility, youth and adolescence, the five faculties and the sense pleasures. Five is also connected with fire and the colour red, which emotionally indicate passion and physically suggest inflammation. Fire is also symbolic of initiation, cleansing and regeneration.
Red is the colour of the first or root chakra, which reflects consciousness at a survival level – aggression and animal sexuality. The shadow aspect of the number five reveals insatiable desire for sense gratification, luxury, promiscuity, the abuse of recreational drugs and alcohol, and the destructive emotions – jealousy, hatred, pride, aggression, viciousness and malice. As a red, fire number, five has an affinity for anything hidden, occult, esoteric or mysterious. This may focus on meditation, rituals, witchcraft, Satanism, tantra, sexual and drug “magick”, and interests, which may prove either enlightening or detrimental to the individual. A study of the history, folklore, uses and remedy pictures of the poisonous solanaceae and comparison with the above, reveal powerful evidence of their correspondence to the number five – a correspondence which begins with Belladonna and becomes more pronounced in Stramonium and Hyoscyamus.
The berry that follows the blossom, far from being repulsive, is as big as a small cherry and acquires an intense, shining black colour, which enticingly catches the eye and beckons to the unwary. Like a rare jewel it attracts the fingers, whilst the mouth already anticipates the intensely sweet taste of the dark, inky juice it contains – an attraction that has often proved fatal to children. The berries’ lethal seductiveness, the frenzied, demoniacal mania they induce and their homicidal reputation gave them the name “Devil’s Cherries” or “Naughty Man’s Cherries”. As we might anticipate the symptoms of poisoning develop rapidly and violently and soon threaten life.
The species name belladonna “beautiful lady”, alludes to the custom, of fashionable Italian ladies of the Renaissance, of dilating their pupils by instilling a drop of the berry juice into their eyes, rendering them darker and more brilliant, to enhance their beauty and allure. The Latin scientific generic name of the plant, atropa, derives from Atropos “the inevitable”, one of the three Fates of Greek mythology – she who, at the bidding of Lachesis, cuts the thread of life woven by Clotho. The common name “nightshade” most likely refers to Nah-Skado, alluding to the Celto-Teutonic goddess Skadi – “the destroyer” – “Queen of the Shades” or “Mother Death” – active in the darkness of the night (nah) – (Prisma). As such Skadi is the equivalent of the Hindu, Kali, “the black goddess” – “she who creates that she may destroy and destroys that she may create”. She is akin to the black Madonna of Christianity.
Behind the sternness of these mother goddesses abides a nurturing, infinite love for mankind working with seeming ruthlessness towards the destruction of the false-ego and the transcendence of the human psyche from the shadows towards the light.
It would seem that nature intentionally fashioned the herb for a special role in the treatment of the human psyche, particularly when beguiled and entranced by the seductive ways of the world into a state of forgetfulness and detachment from its divine origin and spiritual nature. Its toxic alkaloids become more aggressive to animal life in direct proportion to brain development, being least active in lower animals, such as rabbits and goats, more intense in carnivorous animals and highly toxic and even lethal in homo sapiens.
In humans furthermore, this gradation of toxic intensity is evidenced in proportion to intellectual development – being most dangerous in those of high intelligence and those who show left cerebral dominance, characterised by a sharp intellect, a logical, analytical approach to life and a masculine energy (regardless of gender). Hufeland asserted that the mentally retarded are unusually resistant to the poison. Since the left cerebral hemisphere governs the functions of the right side of the body, the physical symptoms of Belladonna are more frequently right-sided.
The disproportionate development and dominance of the intellect and the masculine principle is often at the expense of both instinct and intuition. The stage upon which life is enacted is then too much in the head and too little in the heart, too much in the mind and too little in the feelings. The false-ego becomes inflated and worships at the altar of intellect and materialism. The sense of oneness with the creation and with Mother Nature is lost, the divine aspects of the true-self become disconnected and are lost in the Shadow-self, unrealised, unfulfilled and most often not even aspired to. Belladonna like its solanaceae cousins is most active in the treatment of those whose eternal qualities and awareness have been forgotten and whose true-self has been replaced by a false-self filled with fear and anger.
The Shadow, or personal abyss, grows apace with the development of the false-self and is filled with all the characteristics we are ashamed of and therefore repress, all our unresolved emotions, dating back to our conception, and our unrealised, divine aspects. This is particularly true of those who fail to feel and live out their emotions. In the Shadow lurks also the personal devil or “beast” structure, a proud, selfish, destructive, hateful, dark energy, which resides in varying degrees within us all, easily recognised in a Hitler but difficult to own and face in ourselves. The Devil has many symbols and some loom large in the collective, human unconscious, such as the wolf, the cockroach, with its long horns (antennae) and gleaming armour, the rat and the snake. The devil wolf is black, snarling, threatening, with glowing, baleful eyes and bared, slavering fangs, a malevolent and terrifying image – or it is the mad dog, the rabid, mutant wolf, black, fiendish, savage and unpredictable, a “Hound of the Baskervilles” – a carrier of death and destruction. These images are imprinted not only in the Shadow of humanity but also in Belladonna, Stramonium and Hyoscyamus, remedies of inestimable value in the treatment of rabies and hence for the treatment of the Shadow. Fear of water (hydrophobia) is a characteristic of rabies and also of these three remedies. In analytical psychology water is understood to symbolise the unconscious, hence fear of water symbolises fear of what lies in the unconscious – an innate fear of the Shadow.
Materia medica In the materia medica of Belladonna appear the following significant symptoms derived from proving trials of the remedy and from cured cases:
She attempted to bite and strike her attendants, broke into fits of laughter and gnashed her teeth. The head was hot, the face red, the look wild and fierce. He was possessed by an inclination to bite those about him and to tear everything about him to pieces. Raging, violent fury; such fury that she had to be held constantly, lest she should attack someone; and when thus held, so that she could not move, she spat continually at those about her. Visions of wolves, dogs, giants and fire; cockroaches swarming about the room; rats; snakes; worms; unclean beasts, black creatures. Sees black dogs; snakes in and around her. Everything he looks at seems red; everywhere she sees fire and conflagration.
Such ghastly visions and violent anger indicate some awful abuse in the past, experiences so horrible that they have been consigned to the Shadow, out of memory. The Shadow is our own, hidden, waste area, our rubbish dump, our forsaken realm. Yet within its confines lie riches beyond measure. Like the deadly nightshade, it is in the realising of the Shadow that we can grow spiritually with vigour and luxuriance and advance beyond the toxic, spiritually dwarfing, light of the false ego and the intellect. Even in the acute Belladonna state, with its high fever and violent symptoms, a more subtle process is at work, the releasing of repressed energy from the Shadow realm, an evolution that is further developed and fulfilled in the states of Stramonium and Hyoscyamus.
The solanaceae, when indicated, expedite the individuation of the soul, the advancement towards spiritual maturity. They embody the intense, all embracing love of the “Black Goddess”, the “Queen of the Shades”, whose sustaining power overshadows us when we finally face our Shadow in the “Dark Night of the Soul”.
David Lilley MBChB FFHom trained at the Royal London Homoeopathic Hospital and developed his practice in South Africa over the last 35 years. He is internationally renowned as a teacher of the materia medica.
Belladonna – the mystic dimension
by David Lilley
Belladonna
| Useful for: | Key Symptoms: |
|---|
| CHILDREN | Useful for colds and flu, sore throats, headaches and rapid high fever.
A great children’s first aid remedy. |
| COLIC | Severe cramping pain |
| EARACHE | Especially right ear |
| EYES | Eyes are dry, burning.
Eyes look brilliant, staring, glassy.
Pupils dilated. Throbbing pain in eyes.
Eyes are sensitive to light. |
| FEVER | Extreme high fever that comes on suddenly, then breaks just as suddenly.
Skin is dry, burning hot; feels hot to the touch. Feet are icy cold. No thirst with fever.
Red face
Hot, dry skin
Cold hands and feet
Restless, thrashing about, twitching in sleep
Sleepy, but cannot sleep
Hard, pounding pulse |
| HEADACHE | Congestion with throbbing pain
lying down
Pupils dilated |
| MENTAL | Delirium, restless, acuteness of all senses.
Muscles twitch, may cry out in sleep from nightmares. |
| NOSE | Nose feels dry, hot. |
| THROAT | Throat is dry, red, sore.
Worse right side.
Tonsils are swollen.
Throat feels constricted, like it has a lump in it.
Swallowing is difficult, especially liquids. |
| TOOTHACHE | Throbbing, especially right-sided |
| SKIN | Skin is dry, hot, swollen.
Useful is cases of measles, mumps and chicken pox. |
| SORE THROAT | Bright, red color
Strawberry tongue, red on edges |
| STOMACH | Stomach: No appetite. Very thirsty, but dreads drinking.
Stomach is swollen, distended, hot, tender. |
