CARASSIUS AURATUS
The remedy, known universally by its common name, was given a meditative proving in October 1995. Each member of the groups was given a single potency of the 30th potency before their meditation began.
The Background
Goldfish is a domesticated subspecies of the ‘gibel’ carp, a native of China. The history of the goldfish goes as far back as the Chun dynasty (AD 265419) when the quality of its golden coloration was first written about. By the Tang dynasty (618-907) Buddhist monks were keeping goldfish in their monastery ponds and beginning a process of domestication and hybridization that has continued to this day. By the Nan Song dynasty (1127-1279) goldfish were being developed to produce white, and red and white variations. In the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) the first bowl-reared goldfish were being kept which led to mutations being developed that would never have been possible in the wild: double-tailed, anal-finned, short-bodied and those with no dorsal fins. Through the 16th century other features and colour shades were enhanced while in the 17th century goldfish became no longer the preserve of the aristocracy but were being kept by anyone with social pretensions. In 1603 the first goldfish were exported to Japan; by 1611 the Portuguese were importing them. In 1728 the Dutch were breeding goldfish for the first time and in 1874 America started importing them. Throughout this time more and more exotic varieties were being bred including such well-known ones as celestial, oranda, tigerhead, pompon and pearlscale with the famous shabunkin being developed in Japan in 1900 and, in 1908, the ‘bubble eye’. These mutations from the original freshwater fish from China mostly prove to be recessive; if left to themselves there is a tendency for goldfish to revert to their original genetic make-up.
Goldfish are subject to rigorous standards. Goldfish fanciers are as enthusiastic about their fish as dog breeders are who show at Crufts. The 1,700-year history of breeding fish to create ever more varied colours and shapes seems at odds with the fact that wild goldfish are exceptionally good to eat. However, it was the observation that goldfish have such a genetically morphological facility that led to their exploitation through domestication.5
One of the possible consequences of this process of mutation has been the weakening of the fish’s immune system. This is evident in the fact that goldfish are susceptible to a number of diseases, mostly of the scales (such as fungal growth) but also of the respiratory system.
The remedy was made from a common ‘comet’ goldfish purchased at a local pet shop by the staff at Helios Pharmacy. The fish was gradually anaesthetized by adding ethanol to its water environment. It was reported that many of the staff at the pharmacy found the death of this fish particularly affecting and shed tears of grief. The bowl was left to stand for two weeks after its demise and the remedy was made from the fluid in the bowl.
Keynote effects
The usual response to this remedy is the gentle calming of any agitation or grief with a soothing of any physical symptoms. Aggravations are not common though some may feel ‘stirred up’ and complain of the changes that transpire. Goldfish affects every chakra despite its particular influence on the crown and base and it often generates the sense of feeling more centred and less easily swayed by emotions, though an initial outpouring of pent-up grief has been reported on several occasions.
General symptoms
All provers experienced feeling disconnected; out of body or ‘spaced out’. Sleepiness; tiredness; heavy-headedness. Poor concentration. Restlessness with a sense of disconnection. Low energy state; poor assimilation of nutrients; easy loss of fluids through frequent urination or diarrhoea. Has a sense of energy ‘leaking away’. Muscle fatigue and lack of development physically. Extreme sensitivity to pollutants: impurities in the air and water; < radioactivity (solar, X-ray or from power stations). Very sensitive to the sun. Sensitive to sounds and vibrations; to the seasonal changes and to the moon’s phases. Hypersensitive to atmospheres (environmental and social). Result of sensitivities is extreme of either hyper- or hypo-activity; can be completely torpid. City dwellers who suffer from the pollution of their surroundings and are susceptible to diseases caused by toxic build-up. Asthmatic breathing; hay fever; sick building syndrome; cancer; AIDS; etc.
Primarily sycotic in terms of miasmatic influence. Belongs to the water element; susceptible to emotional turmoil and kidney/bladder problems associated with emotions. Lungs may become a focus of mucus production if the kidneys are weak (a good support remedy is Ceanothus+ Lobelia Inflata + Berberis Vulgaris 3x or 6x which supports kidneys, lungs, liver and spleen). Restores water balances in the body; excessive thirst for water especially in those who feel the lack of loving in their lives (suggestive of diabetes). Patients may feel as if they need help ‘because things are being stirred up’ and they need to be ready for any change or, as the result of taking the remedy, may feel that everything is being stirred up; may question or complain about what is happening. Can be given to a patient who tells the practitioner that she is very sensitive and likely to react strongly to any treatment; Goldfish can alleviate the anxiety especially if supported by low potency Rose Quartz.
Encourages oxygenation of blood. Poor circulation: takes a long time to get warmed up once cold or on getting up in the morning. Illnesses at the end of life: kidney failure; oedema; stones. Encourages the dispersal of kidney, gall and salivary gland calculus.
Musculoskeletal problems due to extraordinary elasticity of joints and ligaments. Useful support remedy for those undergoing physiotherapy sessions. Left side of the body most affected by sensations due to disordered central nervous system. Stroke: especially < left side (and particularly where there is blindness as a result). Numbness of the left side; feels as if anaesthetized; feels as if the left side is both numb and nauseated.
No wish to move the left side. Left side feels larger than the right and as if in a different space. Left and right sides out of proportion. Sense of being physically divided. Immobility and paralysis especially where there is fear as well. Only aware of the upper half of the body. Sensation of swaying from side to side. (This is a common but underestimated symptom of fish remedies.) Tickling and tingling in the joints of the right side of the body. Physical agitation and restlessness especially if alternated with torpor. CNS profoundly disturbed. Clumsy. Can relieve the suffering of Alzheimer’s by helping to engender more restfulness. Tumours of the brain either benign or malignant.
Viral infections: frequent and that leave a legacy of weakness. HIV+ and AIDS especially where there is much fear. The patient may not have any distress over actual physical complaints but fear of psychic or spiritual implications of disease.
Mental and emotional symptoms
Strong sense of confinement or feeling trapped. This is either actual or imagined and on any level: mental, emotional or physical and whether chosen consciously or unconsciously. For those who lead a confined existence either mentally or physically and who desire to escape but who, nevertheless, are accepting of their situation either through fatalism (leprotic) or through an inability to see how they can help themselves (sycotic or tubercular). Their sense of imprisonment may actually be from claustrophobia or it may be psychological from domination by others -parents or an institution. For those who order their lives with strict rules and standards and thus miss out on free self-expression. For those who are starved of love and companionship and who have therefore lost the perspective on what is really important in their lives. (Imagine the sensitive, creative wife who neglects her talents in favour of her husband and who feels confined and stifled by her role but who says little because she fears change and doesn’t believe her voice would be heard or that she would be understood. She has found herself in her situation without realizing it and, though she resents it, she puts up with it while her physical body shows gradually deepening symptoms, starting with allergic reactions or sensitivity to her environment that give her distress or pain.)
‘Innocent victims’; those children who are born with pathology or an early susceptibility to it: cancer; AIDS; leukaemia; deformities; cerebral palsy. Children born with apparently daunting karma who inwardly seem to suffer less than those around them: parents and carers. They attract loving care but cause (through no fault of their own) grief (and guilt) in those who care for them; as if they are offering others a karmic lesson.
Loneliness: from fear of not knowing what is going to happen; from lack of confidence; from inhibitions laid down long before in childhood. People who fear the competitive world; they feel their talents would not stand comparison with those of others, more worldly. Sensitive and intuitive but shun the limelight. As a result of their hiding away they feel empty and a loss of identity. For those who are rootless yet adaptable, fitting in with who or whatever surrounds them in order to preserve anonymity (like Merc-sol but with milder mood swings).
For those who have been made homeless; thrown out by parents; who have ‘no place in the world’ especially if they find themselves in an environment that is uncongenial to them. ‘Fish out of water’. Children in boarding school who find their environment alien; try and hide their sensitivity and want to avoid any bullying; teachers notice they are bright but wonder why they don’t do better.
Grief and sadness especially about things left unsaid or undone. Regret; remorse that nothing was said when there was the opportunity (see Hornbeam). All those who made up the remedy experienced sadness and tearfulness. There is also deeply held anger and resentment at those who made them suffer. Homesickness. Children of divorced parents who are forced to divide their loyalties and living accommodation. Victims of mental, emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Refugees from war or famine.
Telepathic; highly sensitized and sensitive people; very in tune with nature; acutely aware and perceptive; strongly intuitive and full of insight. Often hard to pin down, being rather mercurial. Yet unable to avoid putting themselves into positions where they will suffer. Unable to foresee pitfalls in their own lives but can see them in others’. Indecisive. Naive: sees good in everybody and everything; is ‘an innocent abroad’. Being sycotic, easily falls into unsuitable and unstable relationships; becomes overgenerous sexually and falls foul of STD (NSU, cystitis) and other conditions of difficult relationships such as loss of identity; sense of separation; dependency.
Fear of change even while living in trying circumstances. Fear of rejecting family values. Fear of looking into the ‘abyss’. (Chalice Well is for those who either choose to look into the abyss or who do so through force of circumstance; it follows Goldfish well.) Crisis of faith; feels trapped within the confines of the accepted family faith (or moral code) but unable to see how to adopt an alternative; unable to kick over the traces. Fear of death.
Physical symptoms
Head
Pressing pain in both temples. Numbness and fullness at top of head; as if it would lift off. Dizziness. Itching of scalp < bed. Brain tumours; benign or malignant. Unable to hold head up.
Eyes
Very itchy and watery; left eye is inflamed < lower lid. Intense pain in the left which lasts several days; deep pain which penetrated right through from eye to occiput. Blepharitis. Astigmatism. Divergent strabismus. Cataract. Soreness. Sticky discharge from the eyes.
Ears
Severe pain in left ear.
Nose
Tingling in both nostrils. Hay fever.
Face
Itching. Scaly and dry skin on forehead. Paralysis of face.
Mouth
Burning in the mouth. (Many provers experienced this symptom as soon as they put the remedy in the mouth.)
Throat
Constricted sensation; membranous mucus which rises from throat to mouth. Irritation.
Respiration and chest
Sycotic asthma with thick mucus in the throat; breathes by gaping and gasping. Feel that they are drowning in their own mucus. Choking and suffocation; shallow breathing: uses shoulder muscles to get breath in but then finds it hard to get breath out. If they can deep breathe they feel > and more peaceful.
Female
Amenorrhoea: from grief; after childbirth; in inhibited women; in those who have a mortal dread of childbearing. Infertility; tendency to miscarry. Useful in pregnancy for those women who feel ‘confined’ by their state and separated from their true selves with hypersensitivity. Engorged breasts. Sexual frigidity. Promiscuity due to misplaced wish to be generous. Uterine and cervical cancer.
Male
Prostatitis. Infertility (with a possible connection with radiation).
Urinary organs
Frequent urge to pass water; enuresis. Or the opposite: easy retention of urine.
Skin
Psoriasis. Scaly eruptions with flakes (leprotic). Dryness. Fungal infections. Radiation burns. Shingles.
Neck and back
Tension in neck and shoulders. Left side: stiff. Sharp pain which shoots through to the front of the body from the left scapula - like a needle. Lower backache.
Extremities
Left arm: pain in shoulder with stiffness and aching of joints in the hand. Hands tend to shake. Numbness of fingers. Raynaud’s Syndrome. Legs: cold in bed; restless leg syndrome - ‘don’t know where to put them’. Paralysis of legs with numbness and coldness. (Consider when Causticum fails.) Red swollen joints; cracking; gout in left foot.