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The music connection is interesting. Tarentula is known for its historic link to the Tarentula ecstatic dance (tarantism); the desire to dance and amelioration from dancing and music in the remedy picture is characteristic. This was, however, perhaps the only case I can remember which showed a clear aversion to music. The rubric chosen probably should have reflected an aversion to music, rather than aggravation; the behaviour itself was not aggravated by it (or at least not recorded as being so at the time); interestingly Tarentula hispanica is not represented in this rubric. We can only surmise the reason for her wanting to leave the room, but clearly a mental state aggravation could have been involved. Combing the two as a single rubric would overcome the risk of missing a useful treatment. It is easy to forget that the hyper-activity itself is not the problem, although presented as such, but an external sign of the internal disturbance and the patient’s reaction to it. We know from human cases that there is an intense and uncomfortable internal restlessness associated with this remedy state, and this would likely be aggravated by external influences and energies before the visually obvious symptoms emerge.
Interestingly, the bite of the spider causes none of the symptoms associated with the dancing manias, which
have been recorded from as early as the 10th century and blamed on the bite of the spider; it is suggested that the actual spider involved was Latrodectus tredecemguttatus, the black widow. Latrodectus was actually called “Tarantola” in southern Italy as late as the 1950’s, according to Synoptic Reference (Vermeulen; 2012).
To digress somewhat, I had another very interesting patient with regard to music. This was also a Labrador, and a lively young male who came to me for acupuncture for an elbow dysplasia problem. Although he was bred as a working dog, and his owner was a very quiet and softly spoken, gentle individual, he too had bouncy Labrador disease! My first attempt to treat him involved having to replace the needles multiple times as he simply would not keep still. At the end of a frustrating thirty minutes, I reluctantly told the owner that perhaps he was not a good candidate for acupuncture because he was simply too lively, and I would not want him to waste his money when it seemed unlikely I would be able to help him.
My heart sank as I saw he had made a second appointment one week later. He told me that he was convinced that he was a little bit better (and I do expect to see some kind of response in the big majority of cases in the first week, despite what I used to tell the owners – on condition that the needles remain in place for the majority of the time!). I tried again, with the same predictable results – needles everywhere and an energetic, tail-wagging, adolescent Labrador having lots of fun, but not keeping still. I said again that he was an unsuitable patient, but left it up to him if he wanted to come back.
He did, much to my horror! One week later, there they were again in the waiting room. This time the owner was certain that he had improved, so wanted to carry on trying. I began again crawling on the floor to get the needles in place – and to my great surprise he was very co-operative. From memory, he even laid down and just let me get on with it, and I had to remove the needles myself after the treatment period. The contrast was astonishing, and I was unable to think of an explanation.
The next week, he came back as expected, but as I began to treat him he began behaving as the first two sessions, littering the floor with the carefully placed needles. Now I always used to play quiet meditation or relaxation music during these sessions. This served multiple purposes – it helped to calm the anxious owners down; it tried to obscure some of the noise of the adjacent waiting room; and it acted as a timer for me to tell me when the needles had to come out. At no point did I really think it had an effect on the animals themselves. It was the owner who pointed out that I had played different music the previous week, and that perhaps it was the music which was the cause of his improved behaviour. I had my doubts, but, desperate to try anything, I switched the CD back to the previous week’s music....and he started to be the little lamb again; astounding!
In subsequent sessions, we always played the same CD, and he was always the perfect patient. It was so marked that the owner asked me if I could get him a copy of the CD for him to play at home, because the dog got himself very worked up when visitors came. I did so, and he reported back that by playing the music before visitors arrived, and when they came in, he calmed down to the level of a normal, friendly dog, losing the excessive reaction previously seen. This taught me that dogs can indeed be sensitive to the energy of music, and to a far greater degree than I had ever appreciated.
This influence of environmental energies is something we need to be ever more aware of. The direct influence of the owners energies is clear (and the reverse is true, as the behaviour of, and interaction with, our companion animals can have a huge influence on our own physical and mental health, as is well proven). The above anecdote illustrates the influence of the effect music can have, but we need also to remember the far greater auditory range of many animal species, and also consider the effect of electro- magnetic pollution from our modern technology. The work of Masaru Emoto, and the stunning ongoing work of Veda Austin, shows in stunning and artistic form, the huge
English watercolour, Tarantella dancers; 1824, unknown artist
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