In Spiritual PhytoEssencing, one of the central archetypes that needs to be determined in each case are the miasms.
A miasm is the homeopathic concept that I have adapted into Spiritual PhytoEssencing, of an archetype with a characteristic pattern of archetypal images (including archetypal modes) that is transmitted from generation to generation bioenergetically rather than genetically. In SPE, it is believed that miasms can also be transmitted from one incarnation to the next along the cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
Miasms are not transferred inter-generationally via a genetic mechanism but rather by information stored within a wave form that migrates within some aspect of formative consciousness.
Although most of the miasms are named for particular diseases such as cancer or tuberculosis, a miasm itself is not an actual disease state, but rather, a soul archetype that generates a complex of constitutional traits and reactional tendencies that resemble the presentation and/or thematic pattern of the disease for which it is named.
Accordingly, each of the miasms has characteristic physical and emotional qualities (i.e., archetypal images) symptoms and potentials, which, in conjunction, announce its presence. Similarly, essential oils, based upon their plant characteristics and history, the nature of the symptoms for which they are specific as well as their diverse portfolio of synchronicities (e.g., Six Element, gemstone, homeopathic remedy, etc.) have a special affinity for one or more of the miasms.
The identification of an individual’s prominent miasmatic influences, and specific essential oil responses to them, helps in differential diagnosis regarding essential oil selection. Also, it opens up a new, heretofore unexplored, dynamic in work with essential oils that enables the practitioner to more effectively penetrate the layers of superficial symptoms in a case and gain access to the germinal, central disharmony on the psycho-spiritual plane.
An Example Miasm
Eucalyptus oil, a specific for tuberculosis, is most strongly associated with the Tubercular miasm. The main themes of this miasm include a feeling of being oppressed with a need to break free to avoid dying. In the success state of this miasm, there may be significant creativity—a compulsion to work hard in order to break free of oppression, but in the failed state, the individual is burnt out and consumed with defeatism.
The feelings of the Tubercular miasm include: caught and suffocating; compressed; the gap is narrowing; time is running out. In this reference, the composite eucalyptus oil picture has: gives “room to breathe;” can transform a sense of suffocation into one of expansive reserve; feeling of being hemmed in, or constricted by, one’s surroundings; sense of being “suffocated” by the circumstances in one’s life.
The Tubercular miasm type is often refined, delicate and cosmopolitan, a romanticist filled with longing who never finds inner contentment. There is: a great desire to travel—an impulse to run; an addiction to intensity, in general, and intensity of feelings, in particular; ravenous hunger at night, sometimes driving the individual out of bed; a tendency to take cold; marked disposition to respiratory ailments; difficult respiration—better in the open air; desire for open air; simultaneous hopefulness and hopelessness; ravenous appetite with emaciation; alcoholism; desire for change; romantic longing; high sex drive; wasting down or may be overweight; delayed menses; pain in extremities ameliorated by motion; craving for sweets.
Aside from eucalyptus’ well-described use in the treatment of a wide variety of respiratory ailments, the following symptoms from the composite eucalyptus oil picture are relevant here: restlessness; exhilaration; desire to move about; feeling of increased buoyancy and strength; intoxication followed by depression; exaggerated worry about the future; pessimistic attitude toward life; hopelessness; alcoholism; addictive behavior; high sex drive; irritability; restless; gloomy; discontented; hurried; changeable; complaining; sentimental; hysterical; screaming; laughing; horrible things, sad stories affect her profoundly; somnambulism; jerking or crying out in sleep; ravenous appetite before noon; hysteria, weeping, sadness from suppressed menses; worse for cold.