Meeting homoeopathic history in Ankaran, Slovenia, Europe

Homoeopathy: yesterday, today, tomorrow
a series of presentations by
Julian Winston
August 28-29, 2004

It was a nice place, this old monastery/hotel at the seaside where more
or less 30 people from several countries (Austria, Croatia, Germany,
Italy, Slovenia, Spain – just to mention a few) met to listen for 2
days to Julian Winston talking about homoeopathic history.

To give a short overview here’s Julian’s topic list :
..
- Introductions
- who I am, where I'm from, what I'd like to do in the next two days
- the causes of homoeopathy's decline
- where we are and thought of the future
- the role of women in homoeopathy
- a visual journey through some remedies
- some clinical cases of the old masters
- the heritage of homoeopathic literature
- the sources of rubrics
- myths in homoeopathy
- homoeopathy in New Zealand: a model

First of all: it was a pleasure to meet him again, 4 years after our
first encounter in Germany when it had taken me a 6 hours’ drive -
through the worst snow-storm I had ever experienced - to Gypser’s
house, where Julian was staying for a week in 2000. We had enjoyed an
afternoon and evening talking…it was wonderful to finally be able to
meet the man before me who had incited my interest in the ’real’
homoeopathic history through the many years of discussion on various
homoeopathic email-lists, especially on Jon Haworth’s Lyghtforce list.

So when I arrived on Thursday evening, August 26, at the hotel, where
the seminar was scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, Julian was already
busy, sitting in the atrium of the old building, giving an interview to
Chris Kurz and Robert Müntz (head of the respected pharmacy Remedia in
Austria - www.remedia.at). Zivan Krevel, the Slovenian homoeopath who
had taken up the task of organizing the seminar, welcomed me warmly, as
well as some of the other participants who already started to join us.

Hugging JW after he had finished his interview with Chris, made me once
more aware that his condition of health was far from being a desirable
one. Yet his spirits are as bright as ever, the tongue as sharpened as I
was used to it …and the anecdotes and stories kept continually flowing
like a meandering stream from his mouth. Boy, what a friend – I would
like to have only 50% of his ability to keep all the stories in the mind
and connect them!
So several of us had a wonderful evening in a beautiful restaurant
nearby, discussing homoeopathic issues, listening to Julian’s stories,
eating fish and drinking Slovenian white wine.

On Friday I joined a group of homoeopaths, the proving subcommittee of
the ECH, the European Council of Homoeopathy, discussing various topics.

Saturday started. Though I knew quite a bit about Julian, it was quite
interesting to see the photos which accompanied his various careers as
an industrial designer, as a banjo and pedal steel guitar player – and
of course his development as a homoeopath, a teacher and historian. On
he went with lecturing about the history of homoeopathy in the United
States, showing us that many of the quarrels in those times repeated
itself nowadays.
One of the topics I loved most was the role women played during the
centuries: first of all, there’s still now not too much written
information available (But, as JW mentioned, just recently a book was
published about the topic by Ann Kirschbaumer. ) I just LOVED the
stories JW told about the women: how they had to fight to make their way
into the homoeopathic schools, about a woman with several children who
started to study medicine at the age of 41 to become a homoeopathic
practitioner, …..so lovely stories, wonderful portraits of strong
characters.

The ‘plant talk’ was interesting, too – as colourful slides of the
remedies (photos often taken by JW himself) accompanied the information,
like material source (roots, flowers, twigs, dried ink in the case of
Sepia, etc.), and were filled out with anecdotes. I especially LOVED the
skunk-story (an extended version of it JW had already given to me on
Thursday evening – and I had nearly fallen off my chair laughing…..) –
great stuff, that’s why such a seminar is really worth participating. So
if you meet JW next time, ask him about the story ‘The Skunk and the
Fisherman’!

After presenting several interesting cases from the American Homeopathic
Review, 1862, we switched over to the lesser known books like:
The Organon, Materia Medica Pura, Therapeutic Pocket Book by von
Bönninghausen, A Textbook of Homeopathy by von Grauvogl, Plain Talks on
Materia Medica by W.I. Pierce, etc.

How realiable are our Repertories? Where do rubrics come from? The
necessity to check the original sources (as already Hahnemann had
postulated) was demonstrated by discussing the rubric 'Crawling,
larynx' in Kent's Rep.

Off JW went to presenting some of the Myths in Homoeopathy: That was a
special great part, in my opinion. We all know there is much gossip,
even in homoeopathy. Several beautiful stories get told, and written and
copied and get known and loved by everybody - but 'where is the beef'?

E.g. the story about Hering during the first proving of Lachesis, and
the delirium he went into.
Myth or Truth?

Or: The idea of potentization came to Hahnemann after carrying the
remedy in the saddle-bags and noticing the greater efficacy.
Myth or Truth?

Or: Kent - a product of incest???
Myth or Truth?
Interesting stuff, I can assure you!

Last, but not least, he told about the development of Homoeopathy in New
Zealand, the organisations involved, the ways trying to set up standards
for education and practice. Perhaps models for other countries?
Some info about it can be found via http://www.julianwinston.com/ or
directly at http://www.homeopathic.co.nz/

On the whole:
I enjoyed the seminar, the heated discussions during the meals, the
stories, being with old friends and meeting new friends.
If any of you have the chance to listen to Julian Winston: do it.
He lives homoeopathy, and there are only few who really can seem to
assemble practitioners from the 1880s and 2004s together at one table.
Old and new stories blend and mix - you 'll have the feeling that you
can touch the very roots of homoeopathy by getting to know what is
behind the raw facts.

For all of those who can't participate in a seminar I would recommend
especially the first of JW's books to get a grip on history:
- The Faces of Homœopathy

If you're into literature, want to buy books, want to know when/where
the first edition was published - the next one is an absolute must-have:
- The Heritage of Homœopathic Literature

And there is the database
- American Homeopaths: 1825 - 1963 (CD-Rom)

and the
- The Organon by Samuel Hahnemann, translated by Bernhardt M. Fincke,
transcribed by Dr. Maria Mackey, edited by Julian Winston

Seems like I'm advertising here. Yes - I do!

Holding up the banner for us lovers of history of homoeopathy -
yesterday, today, and tomorrow!

Cause: if you don't know where you come from - how do you want to know
WHERE you are standing and where you are wanting to go?

All the best,

Gaby

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gaby Rottler
Germany
rottler@curantur.de

http://www.curantur.de
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~