Through the Looking Glass

"Snake does not bite man; snake bites what man thinks."
Vinson Brown. 1974. Voices of the Earth and Sky; Vision Search of the Native Americans

Lewis Carroll's story can be seen as an allegory for the journey of individuation, taking Alice across the eight squares of the chessboard, transforming her from white pawn to white queen in 11 moves. The seven stages she passes through (as a pawn she starts her journey on the second square) equate to the upward journey through the seven major chakras, the journey of ascension from the world of forms to universal consciousness. A journey which is symbolised and presided over by the snake or dragon of myth and of kundalini energy (held in the potent and ancient image of the caduceus, the symbol of healing). This journey demands that Alice confront the illusions of the 'real' world – the morals and social conventions of Victorian society, fixed notions of linear time, definitions of 'self' and existence, etc – and discern what is truth and what is illusion. The Looking-Glass world is the world of the unconscious: as the first lines of the book already hint – “One thing was certain, that the white kitten had nothing to do with it – it was the black kitten's fault entirely” (3).

The adventure begins with Alice playing "let's pretend" – that through the mirror above the mantelpiece is another house, a Looking-Glass House. In acting out her game, she finds she can actually pass through the mirror.

She's immediately fascinated with all the things that couldn't be seen from the 'other side'. The pictures are alive; the pieces of a chess set are walking about in the ashes of the hearth. But she discovers that they can't see or hear her. She finds a poem, most of which is nonsensical and which she can only read in the mirror, about the slaying of the Jabberwocky, a dragon-like creature. Concerned that she will have to return to the 'real' world before she's had a chance to explore further, she rushes out into the garden, then sets off for a nearby hill to get a good view of her surroundings. But the path seems to keep contorting itself and, whichever way she walks, she finds herself back at the house again.

Carroll's imagery, right down to the smallest detail, has enormous symbolic power and illustrates beautifully the process by which the inner healing (ie. making whole) journey is initiated. The house symbolises self. Alice challenges the 'reality' of the reflected image and so gains access to the inner world. In the Looking-Glass world reflections no longer exist. Duality, which allows us to exist in an illusory state of objectification in relation to our environment, doesn't operate here. Alice and her world are one; so she is confronted – naturally – with herself (the house) no matter how far or how fast she runs, or what degree of objective detachment (the view from the hill) she seeks to attain.

But Alice doesn't yet understand what's happened. In confusion and exasperation, unable to rely on either senses or experience, she talks out loud to the flowers ... who talk back.

The Garden of Live Flowers

The Tiger-lily who answers Alice is the first entity in the Looking-Glass world to interact with her. By doing so (in the absence of duality), it's effectively defining itself as Alice's presenting state, and its place in her story reflects its natural therapeutic place in relation to the inner journey ... the beginning.

Matthew Wood: "The literature of the past suggests that the lily is an excellent symbol for some aspect of spiritual life; a more thorough examination reveals that it is suited specifically to be a representative of the opening of the inward path, the first 'guidepost' on the journey." (17)

The lily traditionally symbolises spirit (rose = soul, orchid = body) (15). The fleur-de-lis (French for 'lily flower') has been used to mark the north pole of the compass for centuries (16). In Native American cosmology, the North symbolises "the realm of the mind ... 'Stopping the World' (or, in Zen, 'direct knowing' or 'unobstructed awareness'). This means stopping the everyday 'trance state' of normal waking consciousness which tells us the world is 'out there' and is happening to us, and meeting the inner realm of cause, of mythology, of spirit, which shows us, sometimes quite frighteningly, that this is where it really happens and that, in fact, the world out there is but an echo." (13)

The brief dialogue between Alice and the Tiger-lily echoes some essential features of the remedy, both in terms of Carroll's characterisation of the plant, and in Alice's state. Unlike the other flowers who join in the conversation, the Tiger-lily doesn't find Alice's confusion incomprehensible. It haughtily defends her against the others' ridicule, and adopts a confiding tone signalling identification with her.

“Didn't you know that?” cried another Daisy. And here they all began shouting together, till the air seemed quite full of little shrill voices. “Silence, every one of you!” cried the Tiger-lily, waving itself passionately from side to side, and trembling with excitement. “They know I can't get at them!” it panted, bending its quivering head towards Alice, “or they wouldn't dare to do it!” (3)

“Also the frustration has been a theme … my body shaking with energy inside, a few times during the proving, about to explode in a fit of anger/rage that only lasts for moments, very odd to me … Desire to throw things in anger, like a child with frustration that does not go mental or emotional, there are no thoughts about it, seems automatic and precipitated by things not going right.” (9)

... “I never saw anybody that looked stupider” a Violet said, so suddenly, that Alice quite jumped; for it hadn't spoken before.

“Hold your tongue” cried the Tiger-lily. “As if you ever saw anybody! You keep your head under the leaves, and snore away there, till you know no more what's going on in the world, than if you were a bud!” (3)

Kent: “It is a violent state of temper, a violent state of irritability, a loss of balance.” (7)

Through the Looking-Glass

Lilium tigrinum produces physical sensations as if one were actually passing through the looking-glass. There are echoes of mirrors elsewhere too – being a mirror; seeing through and beyond the nature of the mirror of life ...

“Where am I in all this? Am I really just a mirror? A nothing until someone comes along and looks in me? What does it feel like to be a proper person, someone who knows what they want, has a firm sense of self, of what they like and dislike?”

“Now coming to close of this essence knowing I cannot resist any more, that I must surrender to everything and it feels safe and OK for this to happen ... That sometimes others take on whatever role you need them to in order to mirror your own issues to you and that once you shift others can be free to express their true natures.” (9)

This is a liminal (a. [L. limen (-inis), the threshold] of or at the limen or threshold; of the first stage (10)) state. Recognition of this helps differentiate between Lilium tigrinum and other remedies that share many of its keynote symptoms – particularly Sepia. Superficially, Sepia and Lilium tigrinum can be easily confused. However, in the Sepia state duality constitutes unquestioned reality; there is no consciousness of it as there is in Lilium tigrinum, nor any confusion or questions about identity.

Occasionally, there were intimations of the existence of the 'other side', generally encountered at the threshold between waking and sleeping, which appeared as an inversion of a normal view.

“On going to bed, noticed one or two jumps or 'shocks' like I frequently experience on going to sleep. However, I was nowhere near sleep. This time they were not so violent and quick – if anything the "jump" was quite protracted, and in this instant it was as if I was transported to somewhere else, but jumped back again too quickly to fully grasp what I saw. I have an impression of very old sandstone walls like some medieval castle in blazing sun, but the light was very strange – kind of like the solarisation effect applied to so many films in the '60s.” (9)

Susceptible to the Sacral

Lilium tigrinum's state is the point at which dualistic conceptions of individual identity, of self in relation to other, plough headlong into paradox – just as in “Through the Looking-Glass”. Paradox is where we meet our conceptual limitations, where the reconciliation of opposites is the only way out of the conundrum. (A patient who responded very well to Lilium tigrinum once gifted me a bottle of wine called 'Conundrum'!) This reconciliation finds material expression in the meeting of male (sperm) and female (egg) to form a single unity, creating the means by which spirit becomes matter. In energetic anatomy, this is the region of the sacral chakra.

The Sanskrit term for the chakra, Svadhisthana, means 'sweetness' or 'one's own abode' (11). It's depicted as an orange flower with six petals. Lilium tigrinum has orange flowers with six petals. Sacral chakra issues include personal responsibility, money, power, control, sex, creativity, ethics and honour in relationships, ie. the energetic attachments by which we maintain control over our external environment (8). The first thing that happens to Alice when she steps through the Looking-Glass is that she loses all control over her external environment.

“Extremely irritable – angry, frustrated, insecure, feeling socially inept – mostly triggered by utility statement which, although not requiring payment, reminds me of our financial plight and how powerless I feel to do anything about it.”

“More left brained, organizing finances to the 'T'.”

“Well into financial accounting all of a sudden. After doing the [community group] taxes yesterday, got stuck into business accounts and did all the year end balancing of books. Not content with that, carried on to go back over [previous years] which were never done properly. Have desire to sort this all out so there is some clarity.” (9)

Physically, the chakra governs the organs of the pelvic region – the large intestine, bladder and reproductive organs. These, along with the heart and venous circulation, are the principal organ affinities of Lilium tigrinum.

In focusing symptoms on the sacral region, shutting down the higher centres, it's as if the vital force is signalling attention to the lowest energy centres to bring the issues they embody to consciousness while the mind, not yet understanding, resists.

There is a directive energy in this process entirely lacking from the passive, chronic sinking of the Sepia state; a sense which is also conveyed in Lilium tigrinum's desire for meat, a grounding, form-building food.

“Physically grounded but intellectually and spiritually bereft.”

“Every time I take the essence, I feel energy running down from my head to my bottom, makes me sink.” (9)

The remedy is often described as an 'hysterical' female remedy. However, the sense from the proving was one of androgyny, of yin/yang balance. The petals of Lilium tigrinum curl back on themselves while the generative organs, both female and male, are thrust forward. Intense sexual excitement manifests in both sexes, but this is an excitement with a primary inward focus (even though it may be deflected outward in those needing the remedy), reflecting the urge to achieve unity within the self, to transcend duality in order to bring about full realisation of the self.

In the early provings (1), sexual excitement was recorded by 3 provers (two female, one male), all of whom appeared not to have experienced this for some time. (Note that in Allen's Encyclopedia, Samuel Lilienthal's symptoms are wrongly recorded in the Sexual Organs – Female section.) In this latest proving, this was echoed by one prover, but notably there was no desire to share the feelings. Provers who enjoyed a healthy sex drive prior to the proving found that desire was diminished; however, impetus toward self-unity, with a positive rejection of unity with others, remained.

“Was able to call up very easily the feelings of sensuality ... very happy that I now seem to have access to these feelings again after so long without. Still have no desire as yet to do anything about them. Really enjoying just keeping them to myself, luxuriating in them like a good hot bath.”

“Do not wish to have partner involved. I am content with myself, do not wish for the interaction. Other people disgust me in a way. Highly unusual for me.”

“Sex drive still low for partner, feel he is not clean enough for me, unwashed, hands may be dirty, wish to remain in a state of self containment.”

“Joy. I was happy to be by myself and try and connect with my core. Lower sex drive I did not want to have sex. An increased self acceptance of myself – being happy with whatever I have to do for myself and others.” (9)

Underlining the self-actualising drive behind the sexual feelings of Lilium tigrinum is a prover's dream where a penile snake – representative of regeneration, spirituality and transcendence among many shamanic traditions (5) – emerges as the means of uniting her masculine and feminine aspects. Snakes as symbolic motif appeared repeatedly to two provers. A dream symbolising the raising of kundalini (the uniting of matter and spirit in cosmic consciousness – also represented by a snake) was reported, and one prover experienced an epiphany.

“Yes, see the light! Feel completely different, as if I am tapped into an awareness I was born with or that enlightened people have about the scheme of the universe, know that it probably will not last before the mundane begins taking all my attention, want to meditate my life away, join with the source, surrender to the annihilation of my ego structure/container at last.” (9) (This prover's heart palpitations were cured by the proving.)

Then there is the nature of the plant itself. As well as being able to reproduce sexually, it reproduces asexually by the growth and splitting of its own underground bulb, and by producing clones which sprout from garlic-like bulbils which grow in the axils of the leaves all the way up the stem and then drop off. One prover reported a dream sequence featuring progressively mouldering strings of garlic bulbs (Lilium tigrinum is extremely vulnerable to mould (2)), which precipitated her into a colourless landscape of derelict buildings and depressed inhabitants before her children led her away into a further sequence symbolising the raising of kundalini.

Self-actualisation permits the energy of creation, of which sexual energy is a lower octave, to flow freely through the individual. Physical reflection of self- or circumstantial suppression of individuation is expressed in an enormous number of symptoms featuring constriction and impeded flow. Illustrative symptoms arise in the generative organs, in the heart (symbolically the fulchrum between the lower and higher self, between inner and outer worlds, matter and spirit), and the kidneys, which in traditional Chinese medicine are the repository of Jing, the source of life, reproduction, development and maturation (6). Symptoms may alternate between the three locations or may manifest simultaneously in each.

“On waking notice stitching pain in heart again. Also sore kidneys, stitching pain in right ovary, and a feeling in sacral region of back as if the energy in the dorsal aspect of the sacral chakra were all wrong.” (9)

Clarke (4) notes that heart symptoms were more developed in male provers of the remedy (in W E Payne's original proving), while females had more extensive gynæcological symptomatology – entirely consistent with the fact that emotional expression (a heart issue) is societally more repressed in men than the expression of their sexual energies; whereas for women, it is the other way round.

The Journey Inward

The focus of the remedy state is firmly inward. There are feelings of detachment from others, anger and irritability at being disturbed.

“I feel aggressive, want to fight, detached from it, feel like attacking someone just because they are in the same room. Irritated by the presence of someone, it takes a lot to control it, cannot sometimes.”

“Feeling very anti-social. Can't be bothered with family. Just want some peace and quiet and time to myself .”

“Detached. Emotionally closed and unavailable.”

“Direction is coming from within me. Unable to draw from external forces.” (9)

The irritability has the quality of an indiscriminate flash-in-the-pan which surfaces more in response to circumstances (disturbance, obstruction), rather than in relation to specific issues with individuals. Emotional engagement is absent. This is another point at which Lilium tigrinum can be distinguished from the Sepia state. Sepia's irritability is decidedly emotional and person-focused.

There is dissatisfaction with the present state and yearning for transformation, yet lack of a clear direction, a sense of a headless chicken (contrasting with Sepia's indifference), which may be projected outward in a frantic desire to do something, to fix something, anything to prevent the lapse into the deeper state, where the impetus becomes internalised in a passive fatalism where identification with family/group – a different unity – supercedes. The individual sinks back into their base chakra, and identifies themselves completely with the group in which they feel they belong – their fortunes are wedded to the group and the group to them. To give way to the urge to loosen familial ties risks the possibility of being cast completely adrift, of losing all sense of unity altogether, particularly since there is a lack of inner guidance, a confused state where neither the senses nor intuitive faculties can be trusted and difficulty is experienced remaining focussed on any task or in coming to firm conclusions about anything.

“My thought pattern was more confused, I had trouble deciding about things. It took me 2 days to pack to go away to Florida for 3 days, for myself and children. I was very right brained and disorganized, I would put a piece of paper down and 10 minutes later could not find it.”

“Increased thirst continues. Maybe drinking slightly more though keep forgetting to go and do anything about it, or get side-tracked on the way to the kitchen.”

“Whole documentary [about 'surrendered wives'] made me intensely uncomfortable and, while I could see there were some merits to the approach, something struck me as deeply wrong about it. But I couldn't decide whether this was because there really WAS something wrong with it or whether I was encountering a place of deep resistance to the idea of relinquishing control over my own life in me. Concluded it was probably both – didn't seem to be any place for the 'wild woman' in this.” (9)

Yet the need and drive to move beyond group identification surfaces in the uncontrollable irritability and desire to be alone, and in the strong sexual urge for self-unity which pulls against acquiescence to family loyalties, indoctrinated ideals and the needs of others, firmly in the direction of self-empowerment and individuation.

There are many fearful impressions in this threshold state. Amidst the confusion and indecision, and the tendency to be repeatedly side-tracked, there is another dimension to the sense of duality, that of being pulled in two different directions. It's as if the vital force is pulling inexorably in the right direction, yet the conscious mind is not engaged and committed to the path. There is resistance to the descent into the subconscious, into what appears to be the base emotion and animal nature of the lower chakras; fear that everything is falling apart; an urge toward, yet fear of, the process of dissolution and recreation of identity which is part of the journey.

The symptoms present a paradox: the drive towards spiritual unity expresses itself through base sexual urgings, while conscious spiritual yearnings are muddied by identification with quasi-religious morality derived from the familiar familial identity (base chakra): the classic madonna-whore complex. (Base chakra identification is with duty, family/tribal/societal values, origins, logic, order, structure, taking things at face value – one prover had a series of dreams in which she progressively worked through the theme of taking things at face value.) Given that the drive is to transcend this identity, there is a powerful urge to reject the idealised madonna image – often acted out through a dance with the self-abusive and degrading persona of the whore – yet the pull of spirit remains. But the self-abusive and degrading image of the whore holds little genuine appeal either (issues over cleanliness and purity surfaced in two provers), yet the sexual urgings are strong. It's no wonder the state is so full of exasperation and confusion.

Outside in

The first steps into the Looking-Glass world indicate very clearly that things aren't quite what they seem. This sense will likely come across in case-taking. The symptoms of Lilium tigrinum have a chimerical quality, constantly shifting and changing, yet while each is being experienced, it carries the force and weight of solid reality. It's as if the continual play of external reflections which constitute our 'objective' reality has become internalised; turned outside in, just as with Alice's world when she stepped through the looking-glass. The remedy state throws up paradox after paradox.

Kent says: “Receives wrong impressions and everything is inverted ... Strange things occur in this remedy.” (7) [My emphasis]

Sensations of a lump, ball or weight occur frequently and in many different locations. I experienced these sensations around the epiglottis, the back of the neck beneath the occiput, between the scapulæ, and in the region of the right ovary. The sensations could be disquieting – it didn't take much to be convinced that they signified the presence of a large tumour. These sensations also had echoes in the mental and dream states which resonated strongly with the cancerous diathesis – the image of a ball-and-chain came to mind. A feeling of being weighed down by circumstances, grief and past hurts, duties and responsibilities, familial and societal expectations, all of which obstruct progress towards individuation. The connection of these symptoms to base chakra identity is obvious. The following dream symbolically illustrates this dynamic, relating that what has previously served up nourishment is paradoxically what is obstructing progress.

“Dream: The place is the house I was brought up in. I am on my way to do something and am coming down the stairs. The stairs are completely blocked by piles and piles of dirty dishes. It's obvious to me that I am the only one who is likely to take care of these, so I pick my way carefully through the piles, trying not to break any plates, easing my feet into spaces for footholds, so that I can get to the bottom and start taking them to the kitchen. I feel very resigned to doing this, and no longer have a sense of what it was I was going to do before I came down the stairs.” (9)

The location of the ball sensations likely direct focus to specific facets of base chakra issues as they relate to other chakras. For instance, sensations in the throat, heart and sacral regions point to speaking one's own truth, following one's heart and expressing one's creativity at variance with group/family ideals.

The key to resolving the situation of Lilium tigrinum is to resolve the paradoxes of duality. To understand that the madonna and the whore are essentially the same; different manifestations of the same energy, harmonics of the same tone, and that both images are degraded one-sided caricatures of the spiritual ideal – that of the fully actualised self through which the universal creative energy flows unobstructed on all levels, typical of the archetypal goddess images which have been invoked in association with this remedy (2 and 9).

In the light of this understanding, the Tiger-lily's single criticism of Alice (who habitually defers to the authority of anyone but herself) no longer appears as gratuitous or self-reflective as it does at first glance. It speaks directly to the paradoxes created by linear thought patterns which the remedy mirrors in its symptoms.

“If only her petals curled up a little more, she'd be all right.” (3)