The Planetary Parade
It’s been exciting in the month of February to be able to witness the planetary parade. Because of the lack of moon and the way the planets have aligned with the sun, very few of us were able to see all seven planets, but even to be able to orientate oneself to the west as the sun sets and then to see the evening star Venus come into the night sky, followed by Jupiter and Mars, was so exciting.
For our ancestors, these constellations would guide them at night or when sailing on the sea, because they would tell them where they were in relationship to the moving night sky. They needed to know those connections for their survival and the knowledge passed from generation to generation. So I felt grateful to all the astronomers sharing their knowledge with us so we might connect into the awe of the universe that surrounds us and the naming of the constellations that allow us to connect and personally witness the wonder of the night skies – be it the redness of Mars or the bright clouds of Venus, the closest planet to Earth.
As a doctor, trained in homeopathic medicine, we’re taught how to understand how a variety of physical and mental symptoms can constellate into a pattern that would connect to a homeopathic medicine. For example seeing a child with night terror and fever and sensitive to overheating in general, might point us to the homeopathic medicine Belladonna, or deadly nightshade. Those patterns would connect humans to a variety of plants to support healing and self-regulation.
It was therefore interesting on Friday when using my star gazing app, to see how Venus as a planet was set in the constellation of Pisces, Jupiter was set into Taurus’s constellation and Mars in Gemini. Whilst we may look into the sky and see a random mass of stars, there are enduring patterns to recognise and name if we know how to look for them.
This pattern matching appears to be a quality of our right hemisphere brain and reflects our drive to join the dots and make sense of the world around us. It can also help with holistic consulting, when we might identify a pattern of symptoms for example in the menopause, or a pattern of trauma that might lead us to understand why the body’s sympathetic nervous system might be activated. For me this is one of the most interesting things about holistic consulting and what I think sets integrative medicine apart from conventional medicine – pattern matching, connecting the dots, making meaning and feeling more personally connected to this amazing body, world and universe we live in.
Dr Elizabeth Thompson