Holly  (Ilex Aquifolium)

Proving date: 2015
Proving completed by: Misha Norland, Mani Norland & The School of Homeopathy
Common name : Holly

Read full proving: Holly (lles Aquifolium)

Introduction

For those homeopaths familiar with Edward Bach’s flower essences Holly is very well know. When I started out in general practice, treating children and animals more frequently than adults, Holly was one of my mainstays alongside polycrests such as Nux vomica, Pulsatilla and Natrum mur. As you will doubtless know the indication for Holly rest upon it’s capacity to reconnect the sufferer with the light, turning hate to love, for instance when the subject is feeling jealous, envious, suspicious, bitter and angry. How astonishing then, that homeopathic Materia medica’s have so little to teach us.

Boericke who has more to say than most, comments: Intermittent fever. Marked eye symptoms. Spleen pain. All symptoms better in winter. Infiltration of cornea; staphyloma; nightly burning in orbits, rheumatic inflammation of eye. Pilosis.

A few years back I collected both male and female flowers, placing them under vodka in a medicine bottle. To this I added three partly crushed burrs. While crushing these I split the mortar. The pestle’s blows focused by the hard wood of the gall cracked the bowl. I had not taken the extreme density of the slow growing wood into account. The wood of Holly was used in joinery, cabinet making, engineering, the making of mathematical instruments, wood engraving and veneering, and was fashioned to provide bobbins for the cotton mills of Lancashire. 

Below is the source substance the homeopathic proving was derived from 30c potency of burr wood and flowers:

Following the taking of the proving substace the provers did a meditation, during the meditation Mani had an image of someone coming into the room, a stranger. He asked them what they saw. ‘They see a green leaf in the middle of the room, it is large and it is shaped like a dragon. Strong and powerful. Dragons fly and they breath fire’. The mythical dragon is an interesting metorphor for Holly as they are depicted as brave, strong and defient, yet at the same time calm and carfree – they do as they please and have a sense of independence. Yet they are solitary creatures, living alone – detached. Often there is something precious they are protecting and that they will defend with anger and violence. These ideas are all key themes of the proving.

Holly key proving themes:

Provers ‘speaking as one’ arranged in the following themes:

Calm, carefree and connected
Seeking connection, feeling content, laidback calm, comfortable, mindful. There are no worries, still, loving and peaceful.

Forceful, sure, brave and strong
Feeling stronger and not restricting myself, sure within myself, and also standing up for myself, indifference. Not accepting situations, sense of justice and appropriateness. A feeling of power and standing up for oneself - courageous, I was not bothered, could be domineering, bit forceful.

Indifferent and withdrawal
Detached, aloof, spaced out, leading to being misunderstood. Nothing mattered, nothing was making me angry or upset. Unable to communicate. Isolated, closed off, quite, can be happy and calm in isolated place or feel lonely and insignificant.

Focus, energy and action
Highly Productive, getting lots done. Vitality increased, massive creative fix-it energy, busy, achieved many things. Feeling motivated, with good brain power. Meeting deadlines, creating order. Feeling social, focused, energetic. No need to sleep, cannot sleep, or disturbed sleep.

Sadness, depressed and down
Feeling melanchic and sad. Moaning & complaining, Powerlessness, Desire to withdraw, feeling miserable. Coldness and indifference.

Forgetful and lack of concentration
Loss of concentration and memory, distracted, tiredness, brain dead, lack of concentration. Feeling misunderstood like dementia and Alzheimer’s. Unable to perform simple tasks, closing off, foggy and forgetful - memory fading. Forgot spellings/vocabulary, lost track of conversations, muddled.

Exhausted, Tired and struggling
Slowing down, severe lack of energy, lagging, needed rest, struggling to finish everything. Extreme exhaustion and heaviness and requiring more sleep than usual. On the passive plane, slow and static. Constipated. Dispassionate. Frustrated, inadequate, failure, less efficient, no energy, overwhelmed, sighing, struggling, unsupported, weakness.

Angry and violent
Sudden, violence, blood, threat, desire to kill, intensive, explosive temper, screaming loudly, blaming, violent destructive dreams, impatient, insulted, feelings of betrayal.

War, shot and dead
Gunshot type pain, sudden intense, war, police, death, Sensation of being shot in the calf , Sensation of being shot in the head, Imagining my brother dead, Imagining family members dead, suicidal despair, evil.

Confused/disorientated, Vertigo and dizzy
Fragmented, disorientated, disorganised, confusion. Bewildered with vertigo, creeping circular swaying dizziness. Faint, woozy and spaced out.

Red and Blood
Colour Red. Desire for red desire. Blood as a symbol of suffering. People wanting to wear red clothes or buy red ornaments. Seeing blood and a fascination with seeing gore. Enjoymet of red sunsets.

Physicals
−    Sex & libido and sexuality.
−    Sharp, piercing, penetrative, pains, sharp burning pains, Sharp pains, prickly.
−    Insomnia, sleep, tired, awake.
−    Cold, chilling and freezing. Low temperature, chilly, ice, snow.
−    Sneezing, congestion in nose, mucousy cough runny/watery discharge.
−    Lumps, bumps, bulges, spots, bites, jelly, squidgy.
−    Metal taste, loss of appetite, eating lettuce, nausea, sick, thirst, thirsty, spices, hungry, starving, saliva, queasy.
−    Abdominal pains with heaviness; increased appetite.

Some cured symptoms in the provers:
−    People don’t bother me anymore.
−    Stand up for myself.
−    Cleared deep grief.
−    My husband says I’m a nicer person. I feel lighter.
−    I feel calm.
−    I feel very positive.
−    Cured bronchiectasis, shortness of breath, green mucus.

Polarities
Intense energy with highs and lows (ups and downs).
−    Calm / Danger
−    Powerful / Powerless
−    Happy / Depressed (Exhausted)
−    Accepting / Angry (Hopelessness)
−    Hot / Cold
−    Connected / Indifference to everything

Sense of a struggle (in dreams as well as in reality).
Sharp pains; piercing, cutting.
The colour red.

Read full proving: Holly (lles Aquifolium)