The Sensation in Astrology: Eric Francis Readings for 2011

Dear Friend and Reader:

Some time during writing your Light Bridge astrology reports, I started reading about a relatively new method in homeopathy, called Sensation. Since it’s had such a deep influence on this project, I thought I would tell you a little about it.

Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

The Sensation method was created by my favorite homeopath, Rajan Sankaran. For those not familiar, homeopathy is a branch of medicine discovered in the early 19th century that uses the law of similars: like heals like. Someone with a bee sting, or something that feels like one, can be successfully treated by a remedy made from bees.

Modern homeopathy is deeply psychological and works very well to help us unravel complex issues — the kind that therapy can barely ever get near. It explores and addresses the connection between a physical ailment and the mental and emotional states that surround it. Often, those mental and emotional states give the clue how to heal the physical symptom. Homeopathy is the original holistic medicine. You might have asthma, but how do you feel when it’s acting up? That feeling will give the clue to the correct remedy.

We are living incredibly complex lives right now, moving very quickly, through both personal and world events that we often don’t understand. We live in a time when medicine cannot help most of what ails us. It’s too rigid, and along with being insensitive to actual human experience (a condition not helped by the industry’s obsession with profits and maddening political involvement).

Homeopathy is driven by the quest to help people and to understand the nature of human reality. It’s beautiful that way.

We’re also alive in a moment when most people don’t have the faith in psychology or psychiatry to get help with what pains them. Most doctors give out drugs, which we all know suppress the issues and numbs people out. Astrology, done well, is magnificent at guiding us closer to the core of our situations and our problems, and it helps us wake up to our potential.

One of the reasons I study homeopathy as a way to deepen my understanding of astrology is because homeopathy is so much more advanced in its thinking and practice than is astrology. There is an underlying set of theories that just about all homeopaths accept as being workable, which suggest concepts like, “There is a vital force in each person, and that’s what we’re working with. The correct remedy addresses the disturbances in the vital force, and then the patient heals.”

Homeopaths are interested in how to help people heal, what exactly is happening with them, why they do or don’t respond to treatment, and in finding the safest, simplest way to get results. That requires understanding, listening, scholarship and a lot of focused practice. What I admire and emulate about homeopathy is how carefully they seek to understand the people they work with. A homeopathic patient plays a key role in his or her healing process by revealing their inner details and experiences. Every homeopath understands this.

Dr. Rajan Sankaran's idea of the the 'sensation' in homeopathy. Photo from Shutterstock Images.

I love how carefully new remedies are tested, with an open mind, and the excitement with which new remedies are brought into the work. Most people familiar with homeopathy know about arnica and arcenicum, dependable, basic, old remedies. The new ones also get a fair hearing: dolphin’s milk and chocolate and petroleum, which address things like complex sexual abuse patterns, neediness and skepticism. Practitioners compare notes. There are constantly new, excellent and innovative books coming out, which are solidly grounded on the classical tradition. Though there are many different approaches, most places you go the past and present are both honored. There is, at least, an agreement that the art must advance.

In his books on Sensation, Dr. Sankaran is explaining to homeopaths how you choose the remedy, based on how you understand the client. Classical techniques are still part of the process, but he’s saying: you have to go for the deepest layer, which is the sensation of the remedy as the client expresses it. The sensation might be totally irrational or out of place, but there it is.

He tells a story to illustrate the idea. Cats are not allowed on buses in India. But he had to get a kitten somewhere by bus, so he put it in a covered basket and took it for the ride.

The bus was crowded. Every now and then the kitten would push up the lid, poke his head up out of the basket and let out a big meow — then disappear into the basket again. Everyone on the bus would look around wondering where the sound came from. Then the kitten would do it again.

That, he says, is the sensation. The kitten speaks up; we don’t see it, and we usually don’t go looking. What he’s saying is to pay attention, because the kitten is giving away the true state of the client, and the true remedy.

In going through the 12 signs, and the 12 rising signs, I’ve done my best to listen for the kitten meowing in your astrology. Part of how I’ve done that is I’ve spent so much time listening to my clients and my readers. I’ve looked at these charts for months, listening amidst much music and silence and patterns coming from the cosmos, for the sound that reveals what each of the signs wants or needs the most.

Homeopathy and astrology have many things in common. One is that they are both using the law of similars; when you get a reading, you are getting a picture or sample of yourself, which helps you move more efficiently through the world.

Another is that neither is a science. Neither can be proven, but both can get excellent results. They are art forms that require both discipline and imagination.

And one really obvious thing is that homeopathy and astrology draw connections between the natural world and human experience. So you can think of your Light Bridge readings as homeopathic or astrological. At the heart of the work, I am seeking the essence, in feeling, of how it feels for you to be experiencing the transits that you are: the sensation.

Yours & truly,

An excellent source of homeopathic books is Homeopathic Educational Services.