As mammals, milk is our first source of sustenance. Milk is medicine in many ways as well. Milk itself and the bonding that comes from it can set or activate patterns within us, including themes such as nourishment and groundedness. As we shift from the fire of summer to the air of fall, we move through the earth element. These themes may surface now. It is an energetically supportive time to address and resolve them on deeper and deeper levels in this stomach-spleen season.
Milk Medicine in Homeopathy
I am a fan of homeopathy. My dog had a homeopathic vet, I travel with remedies, and recently I took UNDAS to detox after repairing some dental fillings. Mostly, the remedies I’ve taken are plant-based, though they are also made from animal and mineral sources.
In The Book of Help : A Memoir in Remedies, Megan Griswold writes about her foray into classical homeopathy with the remedy Lac caninum or Dog Milk. Her ND Krista Heron explained this remedy is about nourishment. “…the personality of the dog-milk remedy, in particular, is for the individual who may feel shame associated with needing that nourishment. Picture a cat. You can’t shame a cat for being hungry, for anything, really. But you can shame a dog.”¹ Some of Krista’s other notes on Dog Milk included in the book:
- struggles to individuate, to cut the umbilical cord, and to express their anger and rage
- confuses the needs of the parent and of the child
- feels float-y, not knowing what they desire as their needs were not validated as a child
Drinking dog milk helped me gain momentum, to feel myself not as a failed daughter or failed wife, but to look for a full, rather than a dry, tit. Within hours, and through the subsequent weeks, I felt like a big ship with a decided course, cutting through strong seas with a powerful wake.
Megan Griswold ²
Lac caninum is a remedy of indispensable value to the practitioner of “depth homeopathy”. When a patient’s emotions and feelings are deeply repressed, when dreams have ceased or never been, when the personal shadow is heavily burdened with unresolved emotions and experiences, it is often the dog that leads the physician into the deepest realms of the unconscious and releases the pains of the past. Lac caninum can rescue the wounded child in the depressed adult.
David Lilley ³
Who is Milk and Lac Medicine for?
According to British Homeopathy Association, people needing lac remedies may present as follows:
- may crave milk or may be adverse to it or intolerant or sensitive to it
- have eating challenges so they may not feel full or nourished, can feel hungry all the time, have food intolerances, or may be fussy with food
- feel chilly or deal with insecurities because of a lack of healthy “mammal feeling” and warmth
- have bonding struggles and may regress to a child-like state under stress
Jonathan Hardy goes on in this BHA article on lac medicine to name a few kinds of remedies that he’s worked with – Lion’s milk, wolf’s milk, horse’s milk, and lac felinum. As you may guess, people who may benefit from lac felinum struggle between dependence and independence. They may want warmth and comfort and fear being tied down because of that need.
Dr Joel Kreisberg writes about how taking Mother’s Milk, Lac maternum, can help to complete the birthing process so that a person can integrate the experience and feel fully grounded. People needing this remedy may have a less robust immune system, poor boundaries, issues differentiating self from non-self, and inability to be inserted in time and place. They may not be fully incarnated in their body, on the earth plane.
Lac homeopathic remedies may be indicated for people dealing with a lack of nurturance, failure to bond, self-loathing, poverty-consciousness, feeling of estrangement and isolation, and a lack of trust for example. They also address physical symptoms.
To understand this, we only need to think about the role of milk and the experience of being nurtured, nourished, and comforted in the arms of mother and bathed in mother energy. It’s easy to see that many people don’t live completely embodied and fully incarnated. Do you feel like you are floating through your own life? Do you struggle with food intolerances, unhealthy eating patterns or digestive troubles? Could milk remedies be the medicine for you? Perhaps it’s time to book a session with a Homeopath to explore how homeopathic remedies can help you.
Sources
1 The Book of Help: A Memoir in Remedies by Megan Griswold. Rodale Books, 2019. p 3082 Ibid., p309
3 Lac caninum by David Lilley. British Homeopathic Association. [link]
Lac medicines by Jonathan Hardy. British Homeopathic Association. [link]
Lac in Homeopathy by Aisling Murray. Hpathy.com. December 14 2010. [link]
Seminar Review – Lac felinum. Report on a presentation by William Mann, LAcby National Centre for Homeopathy [link]
