Book Review of Colubrid snake remedies and their Indications in Homeopathy
Practice by Vatsala Sperling MS, PhD, PDHom, RSHom (NA), CCH . Interviewed by
Dr Kavitha Kukunoor,CCH, RS Hom (NA), C.HP, BHMS
I ,Dr Kavitha kukunoor, want to congratulate Dr Vatsala Sperling for the new book
“COLUBRID SNAKE REMEDIES AND THEIR INDICATIONS IN HOMEOPATHY
PRACTICE”.
I know very few have written books on the colubrid family but you have added
more value with homeopathic cases which no one has done so far.
Kavitha kukunoor: What inspired you to write this book?
Vatsala Sperling: What precisely inspired me to research deeply, and write this
book is an Indian saying “WHAT WE KNOW IS AS TINY AS OUR FIST. WHAT WE DO
NOT KNOW IS AS LARGE AS THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.” This saying also made me
curious about what we do not know.
As homeopaths, we know about remedies made from venomous snakes since
Constantine Hering proved Lachesis. Presently, apart from Lachesis, we also know
Dendroaspis, Cenchris, Naja, Crotalus, Bengarus, Bothrops, and Vipera. These are
all venomous snakes from Elapidae and Viperidae families. We also know about
boas, python, and Anaconda that kill their prey by strangulation, instead of by
injecting neurotoxic or cytotoxic venoms. That is well and good.
But, what about what we do not know yet? Since 2005, I have been spending
several months at a stretch in the rain forest region of Costa Rica, where snakes of
all types are a plenty. You could run over the snakes while walking in the garden
and people get terrified by seeing it and want to kill it but the rural folks identify
non-venomous snakes quickly, let it go without hurting it, and say, “Non
Venomous snakes look scary, but they do not kill us. They are good for our
environment.” These nonvenomous snakes live close to human habitat, and they
feed on snails, frogs, rabbits, geckos, lizards, mice and rats, gophers, moles, chicks
that fall off the bird nests, small puppy dogs and even kitties. So remedies
available to us for our practice are all from venomous snakes and our repertories
are also focusing on venomous so what about non venomous snakes.
Why do we give venomous snake remedies to all cases calling for snake remedies?
We do not give aurum to all cases requiring minerals, and we do not give arnica to
all plant cases. Our excellence depends on our ability to individualize and
differentiate remedies and choose the closest simillimum. So, why are we stuck
with Lachesis, Vipera, and Naja, and an occasional python? This question, and a
quote from Rajan Sankaran, “All that slithers are not Lachesis” led me to explore,
research and study non-venomous snakes and look to them for remedies. The
exercise appeared to be exciting enough, and I compiled years of my work into this
book, Colubrid snake remedies and their indication in homeopathy practice.
Kavitha kukunoor: What do you mean by Colubrid snakes?
Vatsala Sperling: Colubrids are snakes belonging to the largest family, Colubridae,
that comprises of 258 genera, and 1866 species. In the classification of snakes,
family Elapidae includes venomous snakes like Bungarus, Dendroaspis, Elaps,
Micrurus, Naja, Notechis, and Hydrophis. Family Viperidae includes Vipers,
Bothrops, Cenchris, Crotalus, Lachesis and Bitis. Family Boidae includes Boas and
pythons. But by far, Colubridae is the largest family of snakes, and though it has
1866 species, all but one species (Boomslang), are nonvenomous to humans.
Homeopaths are yet to explore the largest of snake families as a source of
remedies.
Kavitha kukunoor: What is special about the nonvenomous colubrid snakes that
drew you to research them for remedies?
Vatsala Sperling :As a homeopath I have a habit to look at everything as a possible
source of remedy, so I was interested in knowing that colubrid snake remedies are
helpful in practice. Also as we know colubrid snakes are special, because
nonvenomous snakes look scary, but they do not kill us. While researching this
aspect of nonvenomous snakes, I realized that because they are nonvenomous,
they are gifted with various survival strategies. They “look scary” enough so that
we assume they are venomous, and we leave them alone. Lachesis, the mighty
venomous snake does not have to pretend to be scary. It is scary. One bite from it,
and you will be dead. But nonvenomous Colubrids are small in size, do not have
venom that can kill humans, and are lower down on the food chain, in the sense
that other predators that eat snakes will eat them up. So, what do they do? They
pretend to be scary by mimicking venomous snakes. Mimicry is their winning
ticket. Mimicry of stronger venomous snakes with a soul purpose of survival and
this point grasped my interest.
For example, they can have coloration like coral snakes and drop their tail like
lizards. They can play dead, auto hemorrhage, and have head triangulation like
cobras and vipers. They can have hoods like cobras. They can rattle their tails like
rattle snakes. True purpose of these mimicry mechanisms is survival and
self-protection. This feature has landed them in row four of the periodic table of
animals, and the theme of this 4th row is self-protection (Scholten and animals of
Dr Joshi’s). Colubrids are masters of self-protection by using the mechanism of
mimicry, and that is the special feature about them.
Kavitha kukunoor: How do these non venomous colubrid snake remedies do in
practice?
Vatsala Sperling:Farrington has talked about the connection between remedies
and the behavior and nature of source material in the natural world.
In our case taking, we are trained to go head to toe for physical, emotional, and
mental symptoms, listen for the PQRS symptoms, and focus on pathology, taking
into consideration the aggravations, ameliorations, and thermals at a local and
general level. This is our bread and butter, and it works like a charm most of the
times. But sometimes, it does not, and instead of clearcut symptoms that we can
repertorize, we end up receiving a life narrative.
What is life narrative? It is the story of life and shows how a person sees himself in
relation to others, how he or she navigates life, and face challenges that come
along the way. How do they succeed? How do they fail? Such life narrative helps
us plot the person on the periodic table of minerals, plants, or animals depending
on the energy, themes, language, and words they use to narrate their story.
When it is obvious from the narrative that the patient is calling out for a remedy
from the animal kingdom, from vertebrates, from snakes, this is when the book
begins to take on a purpose and a meaning of its own.
In my cases requiring snake remedies, I found the rubrics that gave me snake
remedies like Lachesis, Crotalus, Vipera, Naja. These are all venomous snakes.
But my patients did not show the energy, the gestures, the words, the intensity,
the viciousness of venomous snakes. They came across as pretending to be
dangerous (like venomous snakes), but were timid, and projecting an image of
dangerousness purely for self-protection. This is the story of nonvenomous
colubrid snakes. They project a scary image so that they can look like venomous
snakes and will be able to survive. For these patients, I was inspired to look
beyond venomous snakes for remedies.
Dr Rajan Sankaran and Dr Vermeulen mention nonvenomous colubrid snakes in
their books, but they have not shared any cases. This is when I was inspired to
look for remedies from nonvenomous colubrid snakes and use them for my
patients. I correlated the patient’s energy, language, and gesture with the source
material, that is colubrid snakes in nature and what they do for survival. The
results were brilliant and the follow ups showed exciting progress in wellbeing and
tangible reduction of presenting complaints.
This clinical experience, in combination with my research on nonvenomous
Colubrid snakes and their survival strategies for self-protection, led me to
contemplate a solid place for remedies from nonvenomous colubrid snakes in
homeopathy practice. And that is the reason for the birth of the book we are
talking about, Colubrid snake remedies and their indications in homeopathy
practice.
The good news is that the book is being very well received by critics and
reviewers, as well as readers. A well-known practitioner from the UK has
communicated with me about grand success in treating some of his cases using
nonvenomous colubrid snake remedies in his busy practice after reading my book.
In my own practice, I am finding more cases that are clearly snake cases, but their
energy matches closely with nonvenomous colubrid snakes, and I am using the
remedies from these snakes with success. That is very encouraging.
Kavitha kukunoor:What specific nonvenomous Colubrid snakes have you
presented in your book and Where are these remedies available?
Vatsala Sperling: I had good results with five different nonvenomous Colubrid
snakes, that use various self-protection mimicry mechanisms: Natrix (mimics
copperhead in playing dead), Thamnophis (excessive sexuality, mimics mating ball
of copperheads and anacondas), Cyclagras (excessive anger and mimics hooding
of Naja ), Elaphe (escape and remain free, tail rattling of rattlesnakes),
Lampropeltis (mimics coloration of Coral snake, and tail rattling of rattlesnake). I
obtained the remedies from Helios and Remedia.
The universe of nonvenomous colubrid snakes is huge that we have just started
exploring. I envision more and more practitioners realizing the need for remedies
from nonvenomous colubrid snakes in snake cases that do not express the energy,
gestures, words and body language of intense and deadly venomous snakes. On
the basis of the principle, like cures like, when they begin choosing nonvenomous
colubrid snake remedies for these cases, we will have more clinical evidence for
use of this group of remedies.
Kavitha kukunoor also added that this book is beautifully laid out with 9 chapters
in detail that covers snake remedies in our repertories and materia medica with
several cases including 45 colored images which adds more interest to it.This book
should be at bedside.
Kavitha kukunoor: Where can we buy the book from?
Vatsala Sperling: The book is published by Narayana Verlag GmbH.
232 pp., 1st ed. 2023,
ISBN: 978-3-96257-322-5,
The book can be purchased from below links
https://www.rochesterhomeopathy.com/colubrid-snake-remedies
https://www.narayana-verlag.com
Thank you Dr Vatsala Sperling for sharing insights about your book, and will look
forward to do more book reviews in near future.
About Author:
Dr Kavitha Kukunoor, CCH, RS Hom (NA), C.HP, BHMS -Nationally Board Certified
Classical Homeopath. President & CEO – Kavitha Holistic Approach, LLC. Founder &
Director – KHA Homeopathy Study Group Pro Bono. Certified HP Supervisor
(Homeoprophylaxis) LMHI – Liga Medicorum Homoeopathica Internationalis.
Member of Charity Organization – Kavin Friendly Foundation. Women of the Year
2023 from NATA (North American Telugu Association). Legendary Homeopath
Award 2022. Recognition & Honor from TANA (Telugu Association of North
America) at Ladies night out Oct 2022. Recipient of Martha Oelman Community
Service Award 2021. Best Entrepreneur of the Year 2021. Author of the books –
Beyond the Limits – A Challenge to Prove oneself and A Dose of Spirituality with
Kavitha. Website: www.kavithakhomeo.com