Dama dama

Description

This proving was conducted by the Dynamis School in Malvern, UK, in 2003. I asked for an omen from the universe for which substance to prove and, within one day, came across a deer seven times: a friend’s pictures from Yellowstone park, a TV programme, a kabalistic poem and a discussion on the many human names derived from the deer. The remedy was prepared by Helios Pharmacy from the hair of a female deer from Prinknash Bird and Deer Park in Gloucestershire.

My decision to prove Fallow deer was further strengthened by the particular nature of my students that year. There were several homeopathic vets in the class. One student in particular was a county vet who was responsible for culling the deer: a hunter. The other vets did not take to this too kindly, claiming he was curing animals during the week and killing them at the weekend. This conflict between the carer and the hunter, the stag and the doe, was well apparent throughout the proving.

I remember getting very excited about the movie, ‘Kill Bill’, which came out that year. I dragged my wife to see it and, when she saw the violence, she burst into tears. Like many of the provers, she had become extremely soft and sensitive, a nature loving, art-appreciating Bambi; while others identified with the yang energies of the male hunter. Provers, who were normally A-type go-getters, wanted to stay home with the family and bake nourishing foods, while homey types became active and ambitious. This divergence of male and female energies also manifested in the female conflict between home and profession, motherhood and career. The remedy was certainly hormonal, with distinct feelings of being pregnant and some interesting sexual desires.

And what became of the deer hunter? During the proving, which was double blind, for the first time, ever, he was unable to shoot a female deer and preferred to stay home baking.

As male and female, traditional roles and boundaries become extreme on the one hand and blur on the other, Dama dama, the Fallow deer, may be a remedy for our times.

Jeremy Sherr 2012