‘Do you practise homeopathy only with your head – or does it involve your heart and soul too?’ Rowena J Ronson and Nigel Summerley have differing views…

Double Take (Spring edition 2017, The Journal of the Society of Homeopaths) 

RJR: Practising homeopathy is quite a heady experience. Analysing cases, choosing methodologies, selecting rubrics, comparing repertorisation and differentiating remedies – these skills all involve the part of our brain that is rational. Our lucidity enables us to be the objective, grounded and clear-thinking unprejudiced observer that Hahnemann encouraged.

And we know that practising homeopathy is a very hearty experience too. Often it is the empathetic wounded soul within that awakens us to our purpose and journey as homeopath and healer in this lifetime. And our infinite compassion undoubtedly fuels our desire to help others in need.

But I wonder what ingredients of our inner being support us to remain consistently present throughout our years in practice, endlessly empowering us to stay motivated, open and willing to persist in service.

For me, my practice as a homeopath, is an extension of my practice as a human being. In life I am boundlessly curious to discover the keys to unlock the obstacles that stand in the way of my healthy journey forward. In our current era of mass deception by corporations and the media, coupled with the persistent myopic and mechanistic medical model, it takes an unbreakable kind of mindfulness for us not to be hoodwinked into dropping down into a hidden well of suppression and toxicity.

I perceive my trail ahead of me, and I am excited by the view. My journey so far has not exhausted or broken me, but has imbued me with a special kind of wisdom and understanding. And in the holding of that light, I am forever motivated to share it with others.

I see my life past as one of many lessons learned, and my future self as a vessel for that continued learning. Each heartbreak, trauma and loss brings to consciousness a part of me that I did not know existed, and I use that dynamism to carry me forward. I actively resist resistance, with the awareness that the more I evolve, the more I am able to empower myself – and guide and empower others.

To adapt Kahlil Gibran’s sentiment, the healing comes through you but not from you. I know when I sit with my patients that my intention to heal and transform, the potency of the words with which I choose to enquire and flow, the field in which I work, and the ability to perceive a person’s essence, comes through me, because I am open and receptive to embody a healing vehicle for them. I feel the support of the animals, minerals and plants from whom we have come, and with whom we share this planet. I feel their connection and energy, as I do that of the person with whom I sit, who has come to me for help.

And for myself and my life, and my practice as homeopath, Dylan Thomas’ words resonate: ‘Do not go gentle into that good night – rage, rage against the dying of the light.’ My dying I will accept in peace, but while living, I will let his words ignite me with endless fire to continue on my quest – and support others in theirs.

NS: I tend to be passionate about the things I feel are right – sometimes too passionate. But the passion in my approach to homeopathic practice was always cooled by a vision of being as down-to-earth as an old-fashioned family GP.

I wanted to employ the potential of homeopathic remedies to help with everything from babies with eczema, to adults with midlife crises, and the elderly with chronic ailments for which allopathic approaches seemed to have very little to offer.

I recognised that my desire to be part of an alternative healing process was born out of my own experiences (and those of many others) with conventional medicine, and was also (for good or ill) part of an anti-establishment attitude.

I did not and do not see it as part of some deeply spiritual journey – either for me or for the patients. People get ill – we all get ill – and there are natural ways to rebalance people’s health and get them closer to being whole again. Homeopathy is one of those ways, along with a number of other long-established non-allopathic therapies from all over the world.

If, as practitioners, we employ the wisdom of nature – herbs and minerals and nutrition or massage and bodywork systems or energetic medicine – it doesn’t necessarily make us mystics or shamans.

Hahnemann always stressed that homeopathy was a science, and by practising it according to the basic laws that he discovered and laid down for us to follow and possibly develop, we are – or should be – behaving like scientists.

Yes, homeopathy is also an art – but it may not be helpful if we lose the balance between science and art and sway too much towards the “creative” approach to homeopathy.

We have knowledge of and access to hundreds of healing remedies and these can be employed for the good of those who are suffering. This is a wonderful and at times seemingly miraculous thing – but maybe it is good to keep ourselves rooted in practicalities rather than float off into clouds of self-discovery and spiritual significance.

I am retired from practice now. But recently I took my first case in many months for a friend suffering with a chronic ailment that nothing else could help. Within days of taking the remedy, their symptoms had gone and they remain well. My passion for homeopathy – and my amazement at its effectiveness – has been reignited.

RJR/NS: Homeopathy is a serious business – for both practitioner and patient. Whether the homeopath’s natural tendency is to be either spiritual or earthly, they need to combine passion with practicality, and art with science. As long as we strive to be ourselves – with openness and honesty – we can do our best for others.