Luna
Made from moonlight — sugar of milk exposed to the moon's rays; the classical remedy of the lunar rhythm: somnambulism, the menses, worms and swelling.
The whole picture, in one breath
Think of a body that answers to the moon: the sleepwalker who rises as it climbs the sky, the woman whose periods, headaches and swellings follow its phases, the child whose worms are worst at the full moon. A rhythm felt but never seen — the moon's pull written on the nervous system: that is Luna.
The substance, in plain words
Luna is moonlight captured as Sol is sunlight: sugar of milk is spread on a glass plate under the moon's rays and stirred meanwhile; the charged sugar is then dynamised in the usual way (Fincke). Higgins instead exposed pure water to the moon's rays for three or four hours and dynamised the water so charged. As with every imponderable, nothing of the moon that can be weighed remains.
The traditional picture Classical sources
The inner state
- Irritability. Peevish on being spoken to; wants to be let alone.
- Fogged thinking. The mind is not clear; disinclined for mental or physical work.
- Low spirits. Sad and depressed, without a clear cause.
The body
- The generative sphere. Menses too soon or an inter-menstrual flow; a bearing-down feeling; swelling and hardness of the lower abdomen.
- Head. Headache that keeps time with the moon's phases; frontal and left-sided; worse after sleep, better in open air.
- Swelling. Oedema of the face, neck and hands, with neuralgic pain in the swollen parts.
- Eyes. Stinging and smarting with profuse watering; the eyelids swollen.
- Worms and itching worst at the full moon.
- Sleep. Sleeplessness; sleepwalking; talking or singing in the sleep.
Modalities (worse and better factors)
| Worse from ⬇ | Better from ⬇ |
|---|---|
| the full moon and the day before it; after sleep; milk. | open air; cold applications; eructations and the passing of wind. |
Where it acts (organ affinities)
The nervous system and sleep, the female generative organs, the mucous membranes, and the balance of water in the body.
Where the classical picture comes from
Clarke's chapter is a catalogue of lunar medicine: Goullon's 1897 essay on the moon's influence, the celebrated case of the roof-walking sleepwalker whom no locked room could hold, the swellings that rose and fell with the moon, and Swan's proving of Luna 1m on a menstruating woman physician whose symptoms ran in the generative sphere, the head and the lower limbs.
The substance in real medicine Pharmacology
What this section is: the pharmacology and toxicology of the source substance. It is not clinical evidence that a homeopathic preparation of it treats any condition. What controlled trials do and do not show is set out on the Evidence page.
The moon reflects sunlight — roughly one part in four hundred thousand of it — and has no established direct effect on human physiology. The old belief that lunacy or childbirth clusters at the full moon has been tested and repeatedly not confirmed. What is real is the biology of light and rhythm: the circadian clock, the hormone melatonin, and the way light and dark set the body's cycles. Sleepwalking, premenstrual symptoms and oedema are genuine; their link to the lunar month is folklore, not physiology.
Look-alikes (how the classical authors told it apart)
| Remedy | Looks similar because… | Tells it apart because… |
|---|---|---|
| Silicea | Somnambulism and epilepsy at the full moon | Silicea is chilly and slow to suppurate, with offensive foot-sweat; Luna turns on the moon's rhythm itself and the generative sphere. |
| Spongia tosta | Symptoms worse at the full moon; goitre | Spongia is the dry barking croup remedy, its lunar link drawn from goitre; Luna is broader and centred on sleep and the menses. |
| Aethusa cynapium | Worse from milk | Aethusa is the milk-intolerant, stuporous infant; Luna is worse from milk as one modality among a lunar pattern. |
| Cyclamen | Menses and moon together, worse at full moon | Cyclamen has flickering visual disturbance and marked coldness; Luna leads with sleepwalking and the swelling of the tissues. |