Sapphire

Description

The proving of Sapphire was undertaken by the Dynamis class of Orlando, a small, dedicated group of homeopaths living in one of the most allopathic states in the world: Disneyland, the magic kingdom, whose plastic beauty is skin deep. An irony, then, to discover that the vast majority of blue sapphires on the market are not natural, but have been heat treated to enhance their color and clarity. Authentic or fake, I love the deep blue perfection of the sapphire, as well as its rainbow variety of reds, greens yellows, oranges and browns.

My choice for proving the remedy was partly as a follow up to my Adamas proving. I had perceived that Adamas held a strong relationship to certain aspects of female identity. I wanted to see if this, or other themes, was a common denominator of the gem family.

The critical aspect was most pronounced in the proving and not many remedies come close to the penetrating ‘tsk-tsking’ of Sapphire. I remember the experience of one of the supervisors. On the first day of the proving, her husband bought her a beautiful, sapphire ring. She took one look at the stone and, immediately, saw in it all its tiniest flaws and imperfections. Straight away, she marched back to the shop and demanded a replacement, pestering the merchant until he was forced to replace it.

One of the provers became what some might think of as every man’s nightmare: a nagging, dissatisfied wife. Irritable, impatient and condescending, nothing was good enough, or even vaguely satisfactory. She became a constant, disapproving presence supervising her husband’s every move.

A Sapphire patient, suffering from a ‘blue’ melancholy, became so dissatisfied with her eyebrows that she plucked the hairs out, one by one, until none were left.

However, there were many other facets to this proving. There were heightened sensitivities, for example, to beauty, music and touch; and a great sensitivity to earth and nature, to flowers, trees and birds. Indeed, images of birds abound in the proving, with herons, sparrows and parrots displaying a world of color; and several provers flew in their dreams. And there were feelings, not only of being confident, assertive, sharp of mind and strong, but also of being loving, nurturing and spiritual, with a sense of living in the present. Add to this a knack of making money and you come close to perfection.

Like many of the gem stones, sapphire is associated with magic, astrology and religion, as well as having several therapeutic indications. But the proof is in the proving and, as the saying goes, “The devil is in the details.” Welcome to the proving of Sapphire.

Jeremy Sherr 2012