Homeopathy & Jigsaw Puzzles

Ravensburger is my favourite producer of jigsaw puzzles!

Yup, I am a jigsaw-puzzle-nerd ...

When I spread the pieces out on the surface - maybe I start with the edge-pieces, maybe I find a motif to focus on - I am quickly hooked.

I do not look at the motif on the box, to me that is "cheating": but if someone wants to puzzle with me, they are of course aloud to have a peek 😛

Actually, my love of puzzles does not end with jigsaw puzzles: at times I am really hooked on sudoku! Especially sum-sudoku, a kind of jigsaw puzzle with number ... perfect to spend time on when e.g. traveling.

But why am I babbling about my puzzle-mania on this website? What connection does this have with homeopathy?!

I am in no way implying that every homeopath, or hobby-homeopath, or homeopathy-enthusiast of any kind, are just as eager when it comes to jigsaw puzzles as myself.

But the existence of a connection between my interest for puzzles, and my fascination with homeopathy, I am absolutely sure of:

• When discussing the symptoms and characteristics of individuals coming to see me, I try to gather as many pieces of the whole picture as possible
• I try to visualise the importance of each piece to the individual themselves, and then, as objectively as possible, connect them with the other pieces
• Wherever there are common traits between several pieces, I can view them as separate motifs within the motif as a whole; and identify the essence(s) binding all the separate motifs together
• The more precisely I manage to see the overview, constituting of each piece of the symptom picture, the more likely I will be able to match it with a corresponding remedy-picture in the Materia Medica

Parts of what I love about homeopathy is the many-facetted characteristics - when approaching a case; the tools and methods for analysis; the understanding of Materia Medica; choosing how to address the process.

We have a mix of established principles and laws in the foundation, while there are also numerous ways of engaging the creative part of our brain: to identify patterns, connections and associations to substances in nature; allowing for sensations and structures to coincide into a meaningful whole ... it is not easy to describe in words, but I think most students and practitioners of homeopathy knows what I mean!

And all of this becomes a kind of abstract, yet systematic, playful game - all the while striving to make every piece fit together with the whole.

Kind of like a jigsaw puzzle, don't you think?

The jigsaw puzzle to be solved in a good way in homeopathy is no game, though.

We are dealing with symptoms and illnesses where the pieces, when put together, show us a pattern - characteristic reaction-patterns that coincide with something "out there" in nature: that we have hopefully mapped, potentised and prepared as a homeopathic remedy.

The chronic and complex symptom pictures are usually big, with multiple motifs within the bigger picture; and thereby more difficult to grasp fully: lika a jigsaw puzzle with 3000 pieces, and an array of tiny details - all equally important for fitting together the bigger picture.

Acute ailments usually have simpler motifs, fewer pieces and are easier to piece together: like a 100-pieced jigsaw puzzle with one straight-forward motif.

The motifs of each and every homeopathic remedy varies according to how well it has been mapped through homeopathic provings and clinical practice.

Some remedy pictures are rich in detail, and enormous in size! Others we might not have all the pieces for yet, but can still kind of perceive the contours of the main elements for them.

An individual's jigsaw-symptom-picture can coincide with a homeopathic medicine's jigsaw-picture: even though it does not entail all the pieces that the remedy's picture does.

Meaning: even though an individual's symptom picture matches parts of a Materia Medica remedy-picture, but not the whole thing, it is still good enough!

When you see a homeopath you will never have all the symptoms and characteristics of the remedy you are prescribed (that would mean quite a detrimental state, as each remedy cover a wide array of illnesses).

A clear and distinct symptom-picture of an acute state may match one of the corners of the jigsaw-picture of a remedy: which means that the symptom-picture is covered.

But, if the symptom-picture has a piece that can not be found in the remedy-picture - or the motif does not quite match - we have to keep searching: in the case notes, and or in the Materia Medica.

Whether my reflections and comparisons of homeopathy and jigsaw puzzles were meaningful to you; or helped you gain a fuller understanding of what we strive for in homeopathy;

Or not;

At least I have tried to provide one more hook for you to rest the concept of homeopathy on (in addition to other writings on this website):

As a many-facetted and fine-tuned system, where each piece of the symptom picture should be covered by the more extensive remedy-picture of the chosen homeopathic remedy.

And despite the fact that we by now means look lightly upon working with individuals with varying degrees of health challenges, it is - in my experience - helpful that the work entails a mix of abstraction/systematics; creativity/lawful foundation; complex/based on simple principles.

If you would like to give it a go with those simpler homeopathy-jigsaw-puzzles, when acute ailments make their appearance in everyday life, I teach you how in the online course for Hobby-Homeopaths