As the man gives birth to his work out of his inner feminity as a rounded whole and the anima thereby becomes his inspiring muse, so the inner masculinity of the woman often brings forth creative germs able to fertilize the feminine in the man….If the woman has once become conscious of this, if she knows how to deal with her unconscious and allows herself to be guided by her inner voice, then it will largely depend upon her whether she will be the “femme inspiratrice” or a rider of principles who always wants to have the last word, whether she will become the Beatrice or Xantippe of the man.
What, now, does the blending of the “shadow” with the “animus” or “anima” mean” When one disapproves of certain of one’s qualities, the reaction is usually suppression, rather than a patient acceptance of one’s dark sides, transforming and out growing them gradually by furthering the underdeveloped positive qualities.
By virtue of suppression, the negative qualities persist and continue in the unconscious as the shadow; they may distort and poison the unconscious soul life by merging with and engulfing the heterosexual complementary personality which is destined to be the leading force of the soul in its evolution. The animus or anima which might be an impulse leading forward becomes an obsessive force, a fiendish tempter and seducer when “contaminated” with the shadow. In mythology, this psychic process appears described as Lucifer’s fall from heaven into the pit of the earth (the unconscious).
The angle of light (consciousness, Phosphor), by virtue of his challenge and revolt against the evolution of man, is transformed into the prince of darkness (the unconscious) and henceforth as Satan, the adversary and seducer, rules over fire and brimstone (Sulfur: sol-sun, ferre to carry, actually denotes the shackled sun forces within the interior of the earth in volcanic activities, coal deposits, etc). Thus, hell, the realm of Sulfur, is the unconscious, the psychic under world, which all too often is rules not by the sun of the higher self but by that part of our personality which, instead of being given the chance for expression and evolution of its problems, is held in scorn and suppression.
The psychological expression of the erupting “dark double” of Sepia thus is the complementary, heterosexual, psychic factor which by virtue of its suppression taken on a dark character; coalescing with the shadow, it appears as a negative ad fiendish quality. (The peculiar quality of the devilish tempter and seducer, appearing in the vestments of the opposite sex, we find expressed as psychological entities in the “succubi” and “incubi” of the Middle Ages.-E.W.).
Since, as outlined above, the suppressive tendency of Sepia is directed particularly against the feminine character, its particular difficulty will be found more frequently in women with a rather masculine tendency; this fact is fully born out by clinical experience. Also a close functional relationship to Sulphur is to be expected from the above analysis of their psychic correlation.
As though nature wished to summarize the two main direction of the Sepia problem, namely towards the feminine per se, as represented by the oyster shell (Calc. carb.), and towards the psychological expression, as symbolized by the fiendish tempter or Stann (Sulfur), calcium salts and sulphur appear as the two main components of the melanin which makes up our Sepia clouds. Since melanin itself is an intermediary product of adrenalin formation, we are led to seek the physiologic aspect of the above psychological manifestations in disorders of the adrenal function. Endocrinology confirms our hypothesis and furnishes us with the key for the understanding of the correlated physical aspects of the pathology.
It is accepted that sex is determined by a preponderance of male or female producing genes in the combined chromosomes of sperm and ovum after fertilizations; thus, even biologically, every person contains elements of the opposite sex. Even the hormones of ovaries and testes are not considered absolutely sex specific but are only stimulators of a preexistent sex character which is determined by the chromosomal structure. The total personality, as it were, determines sex. The gonads only execute or accentuate it.
While the gonads protect and intensify the preponderant disposition, the adrenal glands, on the other hand, promote the opposite, concealed sex character. The clinical condition called interrenalism (cortico-adrenal tumors) tends to produce feminism in men and masculinism in women. However, the female genetic structure seems to be more susceptible to this transmutation than the male one, since this transformation of the sex character is more frequent in women than in men. This agrees with our finding from the psychological symbol interpretation that Sepia’s “revolt” is against the feminine character. Also, clinically, we have found Sepia as a medicine more often indicated in women than in men.
Whereas an unbalanced hyperadrenalism of moderate subclinical degree probably underlies the heterosexual traits and the aggressiveness of the Sepia character (adrenal as the “gland of aggression”), the under function of the adrenals accounts for the asthenia, general ptosis, neurasthenia, hypotension and over- pigmentation (melanosis). Those most characteristic features of the Sepia patient are milder manifestations of what, as gross pathology, appears in Addison’s disease.
The dynamic formative principle underlying the unitarian totality of Sepia thus reveals itself as basically not uniform but very complex and characterized by inner tensions and contradictions. Its mental and physical symptomatology results from the participation in what we called the sphere of creativeness (oyster, Calcarea, feminity) and light (luminescence, like Phosphor) from the peculiar antithetic dynamism of the shadow and darkness, linking it to the Sulfur sphere as well as to the heterosexual personality complexes and of what we called the “masculine protest”.
We now are able to explain the more detailed symptomatology as brought out in the provings.(Symptoms quoted directly from provings and listed in the homoeopathic Materia Medica (Kent, Hering, Clarke, etc.) are in italics- E.W.
The mental symptoms are the outgrowth of the resented or suppressed sexual role and of the eruption of the unconscious personality, the amalgamation of animus and shadow. This state of “being beside oneself” is complemented by the hypersensitivity of the disturbed light dynamism, similar to the state which we found in Phosphor.
Thus the Materia Medica describes the Sepia patients as extremely passionate, irritable, hysterical, full of tears and self pity; spiteful, antagonistic, faultfinding; never happy unless annoying someone, particularly those loved best; vexed at trifles; sad one minute, gentle and yielding the next; unable to give love and affection; averse to the opposite sex; greedy, miserly ad egotistical; intolerant to opposition; oversensitive and easily offended; full of anxieties and fears (of darkness, illness, misfortune, being alone).
Like Phosphor they have states of reverie, ecstasy and dreaminess. The drive for individuality and self expression which underlies the basic contradictory attitude is expressed in the aversions to sympathy and consolation, to company and in the extremes of separativeness, aversion even to one’s family (husband, children) and those who are usually loved best.
Of the physical symptoms we first turn to those which are accounted for by the disturbed light-darkness balance, manifesting itself through the adrenals. The influence of the adrenal dysfunction upon pigmentation and the ageing process gives a typical external aspect to the Sepia patient; rigid fibre, sallow complexion, yellow freckles, loss of hair, early graying and premature ageing.
The colour of the hair, in particular, tends to be of an unusual or unexpected hue in adrenal types, e.g., blond in Italians or black in Norwegians and often is reddish. Thus the fact is explained that in the homoeopathic literature the “typical” Sepia patient has been described by turns as dark haired, red haired, or blond by different authors. Probably, each author was struck by the particular, in his instance, unusual hair colour which he described as the typical one.
Symptoms of hypoadrenalism are the adynamia, indifference, indolence and melancholic depression which spring from vital exhaustion and tiredness in Sepia, Into the same category belong the inability of mental concentration and dizziness and faintness. In hypoadrenalism the general muscular tonus is reduced, thus bringing about a constitutional hypotension and generalized ptosis (worse standing, lifting; involuntary urination upon coughing; low backache, prolapse, etc.).
The hyperfunction of the adrenals with its heterosexual tendency combines with the disorder of the sex sphere which is the expression of the antifeminine attitude. Thus Sepia patients are often masculine women with narrow pelves, overgrowth of body hair, tendency to beard and mustache and deep voice. Men who need Sepia are quite often overly dry, rigid and hardened, less frequently the effeminate type of males, as with Pulsatilla. As the negation to the role of the woman extends itself to include the refusal of the role of the mother we find homosexuality, sexual frigidity, aversion to the opposite sex and to husband and children. The wide range of genital disorders, which includes almost every and any disturbance of menstruation, cohabitation, pregnancy and childbirth with their after effects, needs no further detailed elaboration. In the aggravation every days we readily recognize the rhythm of the estric cycle.
