Month: May 2022

Hermione Granger, S.P.E.W., and Causticum

May 31, 2022

I’m reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at the moment with my daughter. It’s possibly my favourite Harry Potter book, adding so many facets to the wizarding world introduced in the earlier books. In the book Hermione gets extremely upset about the treatment of House Elves, who are bound to the service of a wizard family, and starts the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, or S.P.E.W. for short. Hermione wants to improve the House Elves position …

Monkeypox

May 26, 2022

Things have started to calm down on the media MonkeyPox front, but here are my homeopathic musings. Monkeypox is an orthopoxvirus which is the same family as smallpox – however this does not mean that it is as virulent or dangerous as smallpox; cowpox is another orthopoxvirus which can be passed onto humans and was used as the first type of vaccination. (Incidentally this is why we call it vaccination, as “vacc” refers to cows). Traditionally, monkeypox has been passed …

Grief

May 9, 2022

This post is a personal one, and written in loving memory of my Nana who passed away on April 30th. Loss of a loved one (or job, opportunity or other loss) can cause a wide range of feelings, that all fall under the umbrella term grief. For some it is feelings of numbness, there can be deep sorrow and sadness, uncontrollable weeping, anger – whether at the person, others, or at yourself if you are not dealing with it the …

Belladonna

May 4, 2022

Also known as Deadly Nightshade, Belladonna -“beautiful woman”- gets its name because it was used to make the pupils of women dilate, which was considered attractive in Renaissance Italy. It is an incredibly deadly plant, eating a few berries is enough to kill a child, but ingesting any can cause flushing of the face, dry mouth, lack of sweating, blurred vision and sensitivity to light, dizziness and unsteady on the feet, through to palpitations and an increased heartbeat, pounding headache …

Barbara Roberts, Homeopath