Aspen
Botanical: Populus tremuloides (MICHX.)
Family: N.O. Salicaceae
Homeopathic remedy: Populus Tremuloides (Pop.)
Description: Aspen grows mainly in the America continent. The tree grows up to 100 meters in height. It has a pale yellowish bark with fine hairs on margin of leaves. The effects of this tree are similar to the Peruvian Bark (China Officinalis - Cinchona calisaya), since the bark of this tree is a safe substitute for the China officinalis bark and has the same effects on intermittent fevers (trembling = chills).
Medicinal uses: Febrifuge and tonic mainly in Intermittent fevers, Diuretic, Gonorrhea, Debility, Chronic diarrhea.
Keywords: Nameless fear, Foreboding, Anxiety, Terror, Night-time terror, Effects of nightmares, Causeless fear.
Compare: Rock rose, Mimulus, Red Chestnut, China officinalis
Dr Bach's description: Vague unknown fears, for which there can be given no explanation, no reason. Yet the patient may be terrified of something terrible going to happen, he knows not what. These vague unexplainable fears may haunt by night or day. Sufferers often are afraid to tell their trouble to others.
Essence: The main idea of this remedy is the fear, that something bad is going to happen. This idea is embodied in the very name of the tree − Quaking Aspen, or Trembling Poplar, since the trembling is the basic reaction of the body to the fear.
The fear in Aspen is a fear that does not have a cause, the person needing this remedy cannot describe the cause of his fear. It can range from a vague sense of foreboding of a danger, to a real terror with all the physical constituents (goose-skin, hair standing on end). Aspen is therefore specific for the effects of nightmares, when a person wakes up from a nightmare, still clinging to the emotional stress caused by the nightmare, fearing something unknown.
The fears of Aspen may arise during the daytime or during night and it is quite often, that the persons needing the Aspen remedy are afraid to speak about their fears.
The idea of the fear of an unknown cause is very important in this remedy. If the patient can describe exactly the cause of his fear, then the Aspen remedy is not the correct remedy. Mimulus is for example very similar to Aspen with one major difference. Mimulus has a fear of dark, which means, that the person fears something specific and therefore we can identify the correct remedy as Mimulus and not Aspen, since Aspen fears something non-specific.
If the person is however so terrified, that he cannot make a conscious decision and when he is completely controlled by the fear reactions, the specific remedy in this case is the Rock Rose. The fear as a process often start in a state needing Aspen, Red Chestnut or Mimulus and ends with the state of a panic characteristic for the Rock Rose.