Scorpion Proving
Androctonus amoreuxii hebraeus
Jeremy Sherr and The Dynamis School London UK 1982
Androctonus the Scorpion was my first proving. It is hard to believe that 30 years have passed since it was first published in 1984. When I conducted this proving in 1982, I knew very little about the art and science of provings, and so the many mistakes I made served as good lessons. It is thanks to the intensity of this remedy that a useful picture emerged, though a re-proving would be useful to elicit the finer points. The first specimen of scorpion I obtained was captured from under a rock in my home village. I was a second year student of homoeopathy at the time and so I took the poor scorpion back to the UK in a jar, not knowing exactly what to do or how to prepare it. I then realised that I did not have a definite identification of its genus and species, and so my uncertainty about the preparation of this specimen increased.
As I sat studying homoeopathy night after night in my lonely bedsit, the scorpion, which I named William, sat motionless in his jar refusing to eat or drink – yet he survived. This went on for four months. By now I knew he was not suitable for a remedy, yet I could not release him into the unsuspecting English population. It became a serious dilemma. I thought about taking him back to Israel but that would only be after many months. Eventually, with some remorse and apologies, I had no choice but to kill him. Killing scorpions is common practice in hot countries, an act which bears no regret as people have a justifiable fear of scorpions. In London however my guilt grew.
The following year, 1982, I visited Professor Pinchas Amitai of Hebrew University Jerusalem in his room, known as ‘Pini’s Room’, in the Small Animals Department of Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo. This was where he kept scorpions, spiders and insects. He gave me a specimen of Androctonus amoreuxii hebraeus, one of the most deadly scorpions in Israel, and killed it by injecting pure alcohol into its rectum, a theme reflected in aspects of the proving. A very young John Morgan, who would later go on to found Helios Homoeopathic Pharmacy, prepared the remedy together with homoeopath Stella Berg.
Androctonus amoreuxii hebraeus
Jeremy Sherr and The Dynamis School London UK 1982
Androctonus the Scorpion was my first proving. It is hard to believe that 30 years have passed since it was first published in 1984. When I conducted this proving in 1982, I knew very little about the art and science of provings, and so the many mistakes I made served as good lessons. It is thanks to the intensity of this remedy that a useful picture emerged, though a re-proving would be useful to elicit the finer points. The first specimen of scorpion I obtained was captured from under a rock in my home village. I was a second year student of homoeopathy at the time and so I took the poor scorpion back to the UK in a jar, not knowing exactly what to do or how to prepare it. I then realised that I did not have a definite identification of its genus and species, and so my uncertainty about the preparation of this specimen increased.
As I sat studying homoeopathy night after night in my lonely bedsit, the scorpion, which I named William, sat motionless in his jar refusing to eat or drink – yet he survived. This went on for four months. By now I knew he was not suitable for a remedy, yet I could not release him into the unsuspecting English population. It became a serious dilemma. I thought about taking him back to Israel but that would only be after many months. Eventually, with some remorse and apologies, I had no choice but to kill him. Killing scorpions is common practice in hot countries, an act which bears no regret as people have a justifiable fear of scorpions. In London however my guilt grew.
The following year, 1982, I visited Professor Pinchas Amitai of Hebrew University Jerusalem in his room, known as ‘Pini’s Room’, in the Small Animals Department of Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo. This was where he kept scorpions, spiders and insects. He gave me a specimen of Androctonus amoreuxii hebraeus, one of the most deadly scorpions in Israel, and killed it by injecting pure alcohol into its rectum, a theme reflected in aspects of the proving. A very young John Morgan, who would later go on to found Helios Homoeopathic Pharmacy, prepared the remedy together with homoeopath Stella Berg.
Androctonus amoreuxii hebraeus
Jeremy Sherr and The Dynamis School London UK 1982
Androctonus the Scorpion was my first proving. It is hard to believe that 30 years have passed since it was first published in 1984. When I conducted this proving in 1982, I knew very little about the art and science of provings, and so the many mistakes I made served as good lessons. It is thanks to the intensity of this remedy that a useful picture emerged, though a re-proving would be useful to elicit the finer points. The first specimen of scorpion I obtained was captured from under a rock in my home village. I was a second year student of homoeopathy at the time and so I took the poor scorpion back to the UK in a jar, not knowing exactly what to do or how to prepare it. I then realised that I did not have a definite identification of its genus and species, and so my uncertainty about the preparation of this specimen increased.
As I sat studying homoeopathy night after night in my lonely bedsit, the scorpion, which I named William, sat motionless in his jar refusing to eat or drink – yet he survived. This went on for four months. By now I knew he was not suitable for a remedy, yet I could not release him into the unsuspecting English population. It became a serious dilemma. I thought about taking him back to Israel but that would only be after many months. Eventually, with some remorse and apologies, I had no choice but to kill him. Killing scorpions is common practice in hot countries, an act which bears no regret as people have a justifiable fear of scorpions. In London however my guilt grew.
The following year, 1982, I visited Professor Pinchas Amitai of Hebrew University Jerusalem in his room, known as ‘Pini’s Room’, in the Small Animals Department of Jerusalem’s Biblical Zoo. This was where he kept scorpions, spiders and insects. He gave me a specimen of Androctonus amoreuxii hebraeus, one of the most deadly scorpions in Israel, and killed it by injecting pure alcohol into its rectum, a theme reflected in aspects of the proving. A very young John Morgan, who would later go on to found Helios Homoeopathic Pharmacy, prepared the remedy together with homoeopath Stella Berg.
My fellow students at the London College of Homoeopathy proved the remedy. There was no supervision, no instructions, no books to read, just brief instructions to take the remedy and send notes in a month’s time. Many symptoms were left out. Editing and collating were done by hand as I had no computer. It took a year of hard labour, late nights with pen, paper, scissors and glue. But my first proving was born. At that time a new proving was a novelty. Consequently I was invited to various international locations to lecture on the subject. And so I owe something of my teaching career to Scorpion. In fact I owe it much more.
A strange fact my friends in Israel have observed is that once a person is stung by a scorpion they can often ‘feel’ when there is a scorpion in the room. And while scorpions are often associated with evil, their use in various allopathic treatments for cancer, paralysis and other diseases is rapidly growing. I am often sent articles on new developments in this regard. There are much deeper aspects to this remedy than the violence usually associated with it, many of which emerged during the proving of Androctonus amoreuxii hebraeus. In the following pages you will find a new and improved arrangement of this proving, plus a mini meditative proving, and three Scorpion cases to illustrate the clinical use of the remedy. In addition, to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the first publication of Scorpion, Saltire Books have given their permission for Chapter 3: Androctonus Amoreuxii Hebraeus from Dynamic Materia Medica - Syphilis to be published alongside the proving.1 Happy 30th Birthday Androctonus! I thank you for all you have contributed to the homoeopathic community and to me. Once again I apologise to William.
Jeremy Sherr 2014
