Page 9 - Winter 17

Hiding Cats and Hidden Metals by Don Hamilton, USA
Cats are by nature timid and even fearful – why else do we call frightened humans Scaredy-Cats? As cats are not only predators, but also prey animals, this cautious tendency has served cats well during their evolution. At times, however, at least when living with humans, this tendency becomes exaggerated, even corrupted. Then we see cats who hide under beds or in closets, avoiding even other cats in the household.
Of course, our first role as homeopaths, when faced with a behavioral issue, is to determine whether the issue is pathological or not. With feral rescues, naturally fear and hiding may be more normal than in fully domesticated cats. It is really a matter of degree. For example, a cat who prefers sleeping in an out-of-the-way spot is usually normal, as long as she also interacts with others in normal ways. A cat who hides from a bully might also be normal, although often in bullying interactions between cats, it can be the pariah who needs treatment more than the bully. After all, it is still a relationship, albeit an unbalanced one, and some cats seem to project a “victim” persona, to which others respond by bullying.
But cats whose entire existence revolves around hiding are, at least in my mind, clearly pathologic. In the past I have tried more well- known remedies, like Arsenicum or the Barium salts, with mixed or even poor results. Lycopodium has helped a number of fearful cats and dogs. However, I have had more non- responders than I would prefer, and I am always a bit surprised and disappointed, as normally I feel that fears should respond rather well to homeopathic treatment.
Recently, however, I have seen some nice results in three cats with remedies prepared from “Rare Earth” minerals, which we call the lanthanides. My first case was Katrina, a cat with gingivitis, whose case I reported in the Winter 2014-2015 BAHVS magazine.
In Katrina’s case my “way in” was her gingivitis. Following a few unsuccessful attempts with seemingly well-indicated remedies, I chose a lanthanide remedy. Jan Scholten, shortly after the turn of the
millennium, began working with the lanthanide series metals as homeopathic medications. Jan’s reasoning included their omnipresence in our modern tech-oriented world. They arose in prominence, chemically as well as industrially, during the same time span as autoimmune disease, and so perhaps there is a connection, not necessarily causative, but perhaps from a larger perspective.
Jan discovered, through his chemistry background, through provings, theorizing, and even divine inspiration, that the lanthanide essences revolved around the self. This expression included not only personal autonomy and independence from authoritarian power structures, but also autoimmune diseases. In the diseased state, the lanthanide influence appears to include attacking the self, rather like internalizing the threats (perceived or real) from the outside world, which impinge upon our autonomy. (In a healthy state, the same lanthanide influence will guide us to the autonomy we seek and even need, but if we cannot or do not follow this guidance, disease will ultimately develop.) Subsequent work by many homeopaths has underscored this connection to autoimmune illness.
Following this reasoning, as feline gingivitis is an autoimmune manifestation, I selected a lanthanide for Katrina. As her emotional state included timidity and poor integration into the household, as well as a desire to hide in small boxes, I chose a Cerium salt, a lanthanide from the far left side, in column (stage) four. Her response was gratifying and interesting. Not only did the gingivitis improve, but also her extreme timidity greatly shifted, as she began to join the household rather than remaining hidden all the time.
I found Katrina’s response to Cerium muriaticum intriguing, as her emotional shift deeply transformed her. Over the next months, Katrina’s guardian repeatedly and emphatically exclaimed, “She’s just so different!” We homeopaths dream of hearing such words as these. Subsequently two more cats have responded equally well to lanthanide salts. (Case reports follow.)
Lanthanum and Cerium fall
in stages three and four, respectively, in Scholten’s lanthanide series from the periodic table. Whereas chemists consider the lanthanides as elements 57 through 71, Lanthanum to Lutetium, for homeopathic purposes, Scholten has included Cesium and Barium as stages one and two of the lanthanides rather than leaving them in the gold series, which he begins with column four, Hafnium (element 72). (I do not fully agree with him, as Barium’s lack of power and timidity is more around responsibility, an external power issue rather than a struggle with autonomy.)
In any case, the lanthanides certainly include stages three to seventeen, Lanthanum to Lutetium. Stage seventeen is the halogen column, and there is no lanthanide in stage eighteen, the noble gases. As we know from Scholten’s work, as well as that of Sankaran and others, elements from the left side of the periodic table, especially stages one to five, tend to have low confidence, at least as applied to the realm of the row’s focus, e.g. work for the iron series, creativity for the silver series, and autonomy for the lanthanides. And so we might expect rather deep self-worth issues and deep timidity in early stage/left sided lanthanides, as they have little sense of their autonomy, or at least little understanding of how to achieve autonomy.
A curious chemical aspect of the lanthanides in general is that their discovery was rather slow, as they bind together rather tightly in nature, usually as oxygen salts. What was initially thought to be one metal turned out to be more than one, and then a second metal was isolated from that, and then another one from the second, and so on. ‘In this way, the lanthanides emerged over time, each from the one before it, rather like Russian matryoshka or “nesting” dolls.’ 1. Thus these elements were once considered rare and were called the ‘rare earth” elements, although ‘the scarcest of the lanthanides, thulium, is more abundant than either arsenic or mercury.’ 2.
As a further consequence of this binding together, we also call the lanthanides ‘hidden metals.’ Cerium was the first lanthanide to be
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