CALENDULA OFFICINALIS - marigold

Positive qualities: Healing warmth and receptivity,

especially in the use of the spoken word and in dialogue
with others.

Patterns of imbalance: Using cutting or sharp words,

argumentative, lack of receptivity in communication with
others.

The Calendula flower imparts a warm, golden light of

healing for those souls who must learn to use "the Word" as
a truly creative spiritual force. The Word (or Logos) is the
source of all creation, ever renewing itself through the womb
of Nature. Thus Calendula is also known as "Mary's Gold;"
for the golden sun-radiance of the Word must be birthed
through the receptive feminine matrix. In every human
communication there is always this masculine and feminine
polarity, of that which is spoken and that which is heard, or
received. Calendula flower essence helps those whose innate
creative potential to use the spoken word often deteriorates
into argument and misunderstanding. It is especially
indicated for personal relationship work, and for all healing
and teaching work when the art of communication must be
intensively developed as a soul force. Calendula gives great
forces of warmth and benign compassion to the human soul,
especially helping to balance the active and receptive modes
of communication. Flower Essence Repertory, Part III. Flower
Essence Qualities!and Portraits - Patricia Kaminski and Richard
Katz.
Such are the expressive qualities of one of our most well
known homeopathic remedies, and maybe they are
suggestive of how powerful and deep acting this remedy
could be. There is creativity, birth, language, receptivity,
communication, spiritual forces and benign compassion - all
contained within the healing properties of this remedy.

Calendula was first used as a deobstruent - to relieve the

obstruction, to unblock, to let the free passage of expression
flow forth - not just of speech but for the birthing of all ideas.
As Homeopaths we all know what can happen when these
acts of creativity are suppressed or thwarted, when our
natural inclinations are deviated into dis-ease. It becomes the
first instance of pathology.

My interest in Calendula is many fold - apart from the wide

and varied physical applications it is the lack of real depth in
the mental and emotional symptoms which are presented in
the Materia Medicas; the link this remedy has with Cancer
and the fact that it has only been partially proved, which
really stir my imaginations.

There are many reasons why substances have been chosen

for provings and much has to do with how that substance
has been used historically. Plenty of scope here for
Calendula then.

The ancients considered Calendula to be a deobstruent

remedy, exerting a great influence on the circulation and
strengthening the heart. It has long been used an an
antiseptic, stimulant and diaphoretic. Dioscorides
recommended it for Cancer, and Fuchsius prescribed the
juice for toothache. Gerarde described its virtues for
inflammations of the eyes. According to Westring Calendula
was formerly in much request as a medicine and was used
more especially in carcinoma and scirrhus with great effect
in the third stage particularly in diminishing the pain and
rendering the pus less corroding. It was also used in
chlorosis, hysteria, epilepsy, jaundice and some kinds of
dropsy. Many found it of great efficacy as a lotion to fresh
wounds, inducing union by the first intention. Zorn
considered it of great service in throwing out the eruption of
measles and small-pox, and as an application to stop the
bleeding of haemorrhoids. It was a favourite of Boerhaave
who employed it in uterine diseases and also diseases of the
kidney and liver. Also used for obstinate vomiting,
cardialgia, diseases of the glands, compound fractures,
amputations, suppurating abscesses, and violent pains of the
uterus.

In its more 'modern' usage it has been efficient in gangrene,

fractures, sprains, herpetic eruptions, eczema, nasal catarrh,
blisters on tongue, syphilitic ozaena, gonorrhea, non-specific
urethritis, uterine subinvolution, engorgement of uterine
walls, uterine hypertrophy, suppressed menses,
menorrhagia, chronic cervicitis, warts on the cervix, swelling
of the breasts without pain, gout of the spine, spina bifida,
one sided paralysis, coma, concussion, swollen glands,
toothache, haemorrhages, septicemia, injuries to the eyes,
diplopia, insect stings (antidote to Apis), open wounds,
burns and life threatening injuries involving the skin,
tendons, cellular tissues and muscles - healing without
leaving any scars. "Calendula is the greatest non-poisonous
germicide, antiseptic, reliever of pain and healer of wounds
that has ever been brought into use". Dr. W. M. Gregory in
Eclectic Medical Journal.

There are also some rather more unusual symptoms worth

noting - deafness, where one can hear better on a train, or
hear distant sounds better, cannot hear 2 people talking
together - the pains are excessive and out of proportion to
the injury suffered - bulimia (and maybe other eating
disorders) - and stabbing pains from within to without, like
being stabbed in the back!

The modalities are subtle but to the point:- >> perspiration

(unblocking and free discharges), >> sleep, >> walking
about, >> lying very still, >> 9-3pm (when the flowers are
open), << chill, << drinking, << damp, heavy and cloudy
weather (it is a heliotrope and follows the sun so the flowers
will close if there is no sun). Can be thirsty or thirstless.

But one of its chief uses, however, was for Cancer - of the
skin, breast, uterus, abdomen, nose, pharynx and larynx,
scrofulous and sclerotic tumours, fungus tumours, fribroma,
and it was the main ingredient of the famous Rust Pill which
consisted of oxide of iron, Colewort, and extract of Marigold.
It is the extraordinary successful application of Calendula, in
the use of wounds, which I would like to extend to those of
'wounded emotions and mental faculties' which might be
involved in the history of someone who develops one of the
worst wounds of all - Cancer. To get there, let's have a bit
more history.....

Calendula Officinalis or, the common marigold, is familiar to

everyone, with its pale green leaves and golden orange
flowers. It is said to bloom in the calends of every month,
hence its Latin name. Many think it was named after the
Virgin Mary, but this came later and it is actually a
corruption of the Anglo-Saxon merso-meargealla, the Marsh
Marigold.

Marigold was just one of the flowers associated with Mary,

the mother of Jesus - you will see her dresses adorned with
them and it was the flower used at the Feast of the
Annunciation of the Virgin, and she was honoured as the
House of Gold because in her the Blessed Trinity performed
such great and wonderful things. This may or may not be
religious idealism and regardless of one's own religious
feelings the virtuous story of Mary, the mother of Jesus,
really is an idealism that is hard to live up to. Pregnant
before marriage, had several children, one of which she had
to witness exaltation of, intense prejudice and suspicion
towards and finally observed his painful execution and
disappearance of his remains. Whether she witnessed this
with silent dignity, humility or outrage we do not know but
she surely suffered one of the worse possible woundings -
that of losing a child.

Little is known about how Mary herself died but my

thoughts lead easily towards Cancer. Maybe she experienced
an overwhelming sense of gloom and doom which is
associated with this remedy. And also that of separation,
from her child. This is another theme running through
Calendula. A physical wounding involves separation of the
tissues and an emotional wounding can leave many scars
and equally requires the reunion of harmonious forces. It
would also be very interesting to know if she suffered any
diseases of the reproductive organs (as Calendula has such a
strong affinity to these regions) and whether the so called
'virgin birth' had any relevance in this. (Calendula has
'sensation as if something alive in the womb').

Suppression of emotions is a key factor in the development

of Cancer and this brings us back to the deobstruent
qualities of Calendula - that of being able to unblock, to let a
free passage or flow go forth. It is this that gives Calendula
its essential characteristics - to remove the obstruction
causing pain, to soothe and restore without any scarring,
physically, mentally and emotionally. It restores the vision
when we have been blinded by false communication.

Cancer has been encumbered by many boundless and

unlimited metaphors. It mystifies and arouses dread. Just the
confirmation of the diagnosis can worsen the condition. It is
looked upon as a form of contamination; the body is
suffering an invasion and is under attack and thus requires a
treatment which provides an adequate counter-attack; evil
and slow but uncontrollable growths which one can either
fight or succumb to; it is seen as a form of punishment "why
me?"; cancer 'spreads'; tumours are usually excised leaving a
mutilated body; other treatments are often worse than the
disease itself; people with cancer are often lied to; rich
countries have high rates of cancer; it is a disease associated
with affluence and excess; cancer is a judgement on the
individual as well as on the community - the mind
eventually betrays the body.

In her book 'Illness As Metaphor', Susan Sontag writes about

the notion of disease fitting the patient's character. "Disease
can be challenged by the will. 'The will exhibits itself as
organized body,' wrote Schopenhauer, but he denied that
the will itself could be sick. Recovery from a disease
depends on the will assuming 'dictatorial power in order to
subsume the rebellious forces' of the body. One generation
earlier, a great physician, Bichat, had used a similar image,
calling health 'the silence of organs,' disease 'their revolt'.
Disease is what speaks through the body, a language for
dramatizing the mental: a form of self-expression."

But as Homeopaths we know all that already, don't we?

Sontag includes Auden's cute poem about Miss Gee, written

in the 1930's (just 2 verses here):

'Nobody knows what the cause is,

Though some pretend they do;
It's like some hidden assassin,
Waiting to strike at you.

'Childless women get it,

And men when they retire;
It's as if there had to be some outlet
For their foiled creative fire'.....

Foiled creative fire is just one obstruence that Calendula

could heal, given the chance.

Sontag also concludes that "the cancer personality is

regarded with condescension, as one of life's losers.
Napoleon, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert A. Taft and Hubert
Humphrey have all had their cancer diagnosed as the
reaction to political defeat and the curtailing of their
ambitions. And the cancer deaths of those harder to describe
as losers, like Freud and Wittgenstein, have been diagnosed
as the gruesome penalty exacted for a lifetime of instinctual
renunciation. Few remember that Rimbaud died of cancer)."

And so in Calendula we have, Delusion, imaginations he is

falling; Delusion, imaginations he is falling from a height;
Dreams, falling from high places. When we lose our position
in life, the safety net - this reminds one of Veratrum, but
Veratrum develops a highly delusional state to compensate
for the loss - Calendula becomes scarred and riddled with
Cancer.

There is a great sense of weight, of burdens, of dark clouds

hanging over, gloom and doom, a deep depression where
they cannot see the light. An overwhelming sense that
something bad is going to happen. They become easily
frightened and startled. With this there is a sense of dullness
and a dreamy state which can alternate with nervousness,
anxiety and irritability or of being morose and taciturn. They
carry with them a sense of separation - when wounds cannot
be healed, when union cannot be effected. There is also a
sense of being torn and jagged, as if beaten. Exhaustion
results and there is some relief from sleep, but it is not a
sleep of any great quality - restless at night, wakes
screaming, continual waking, general lassitude prevails.
Calendula contains much nitrogen, phosphoric acid and
iodine which might explain some of these disparate states.

Calendula also has:- "Pain is excessive and out of all

proportion" so the Materia Medica's say - so you can picture
someone who is almost hysterical with the pain, who cannot
tolerate being hurt, so very sensitive to pain whether it be
mental, physical or emotional. It is very interesting that
Calendula has been used in the treatment of Bulimia - where
the emotional hurt turns inward and the individual 'chooses'
to destroy themselves. This is a good example of the mind
betraying the body.

Irritability is another strong emotion - it comes down again

to this extreme, 'out of proportion'
sensitivity. It gets to be too much to bear so an outburst of
irritation sort of transfers the
sensation elsewhere. Being a Heliotrope, always moving
with the sun, you can see how they are relieved from this
sensitivity by walking around a lot - again it distracts. They
are also so much <<< for damp and cloudy weather when
they can't see the light, and so much >>> for the radiance of
the sun. The hearing is very acute and sensitive so even the
slightest noise can startle them - they hear and sense
everything acutely.

This extract is interesting....

Article by the Editor of the Hom. World, in the

Homoeopathic Recorder, May, 1891, Vol. VI, No. 3,
"The other day I was told by a friend that he had, last
autumn, chewed a Calendula leaf for a few minutes; the
effect was most marked and very striking. It entirely
removed for some days the difficulty in making water, with
which he had long been troubled, and which is so common
in elderly people. I have a suspicion myself that Calendula
affects the spinal chord, from certain unpleasant feelings
which I have when making it from the fresh plant." - C.W.
To the foregoing the Editor of Hom. World appends the
following note: In response to our request for a fuller
description of these feelings our contributor replies that the
symptom was very difficult to describe. "There was such a
feeling as if some overwhelming calamity was hovering over
me as to be almost unbearable. Three years ago, just after
making the tincture, my old enemy, the gout, nipped me in
the middle of the spine, and in three days spoiled all my
powers of walking; and then the dreadful feeling became
very much exaggerated."

As Homeopaths we really need to prescribe this remedy to

see for ourselves how broad is its application. Then we can
wonder at the results. The trouble is - Calendula has only
been partially proved.

From Kent Lectures.....

"The proving of Calendula is so nearly worthless that we

cannot expect at present to use it as a guide to the internal
administration of the remedy. There are only a few things
that I have ever been able to get out of it. In injuries
Calendula cannot be ignored, in cuts with laceration, surface
or open injuries. Dilute Calendula used locally will keep the
wound odorless, will reduce the amount of pus, and favor
granulation in the very best possible manner, and thus it
assists the surgeon in healing up surface wounds. Calendula
is all the dressing you will need for open wounds and severe
lacerations. It takes away the local pain and suffering. You
may easily see we are not now dealing with a condition that
exists because of a state within the economy, but because of
something that is without. There is nothing that will cause
these external injuries to heal so beautifully as the Marigold.
Some will say it is not homeopathic, but these are the
individuals who "strain at a gnat and swallow a camel." If
there are constitutional symptoms suspend all medicated
dressing entirely and pay your whole attention to the
constitutional symptoms. Sometimes there are no
constitutional symptoms to prescribe on, but when they are
present resort locally to cleanliness and nothing else. Do not
suppress symptoms that you will need to guide you to a
remedy."

One might argue that we do have enough of a full symptom

picture for Calendula but I would like to encourage a new
proving, to absolutely confirm the symptom picture of
Calendula and give it its proper hierarchy in the Repertories
and Materia Medicas - even if it is just for wounded parents
who have lost a child.

Thanks for reading. Joy Lucas RSHom