Safari, our red retriever, experienced a strange trauma when her older
half-sister, our beloved golden retriever Juni, died suddenly of gastric
obstruction in July 2021. Juni was exactly 7 ½ years old. Safari was a year
younger. A bizarre phenomenon happened the very moment Juni passed away: Safari
started morphing into Juni right before our eyes. Her appearance, behaviors,
habits, and sitting and sleeping positions all mirrored those of Juni.
Homeopathic Personality Types
The personalities and body types of these two dogs couldn’t be more different. Safari’s constitution is very phosphoric. At six years old, she was thin with long limbs, was friendly, loved attention, and had a lot of nervous energy that bordered on hyperactivity. She had some eccentric traits. For instance, she would be mesmerized by light reflections on the wall. Her gaze would follow the movements of such reflections, and she would run after them, occasionally throwing out a paw to grab the glittering lights. Other times, she would just sit staring at a corner for a very long time. She was seeing something beyond our vision.
Juni, on the other hand, fit the classic Calc Carb picture. She was beautifully full-figured, easily gained weight, and had a sluggish constitution, especially since she liked staying put. She was extremely affectionate and had a very patient personality. When Juni’s family traveled away from home, she went into a mild depression, lost her appetite, became quiet, and wanted to be alone, hiding under the large antique wooden swing in the corner of the courtyard.
Transitioning
Juni’s sudden death was a shock to us all. And it had a very deep impact on Safari. Why do I say that? Well, strangely, within hours of Juni’s passing, Safari started displaying behaviors that were specific to Juni. Soon after Safari had sniffed her sister’s dead body, she started assuming the ‘sploot’ position. It’s a posture where a dog lies flat on the tummy with hind legs stretched out behind. This was very odd. Safari had never sat like this before. However, this had been Juni’s favorite position.
A few days later, another strange event occurred. Safari’s slim, athletic figure started becoming plump. Also, grief had turned the reddish fur on her face into a golden white color. To me, it almost appeared that Juni’s soul had taken over Safari’s body. This benign taking over was affecting distinct changes on a physical, mental, emotional, and spirit level. Poor Safari seemed to be fading away. She seemed to be trapped somewhere in space and time.
More Juni-related things transpired over the next few days. Out of the blue, Safari started limping where she would drag her hind legs. It became obvious that her hip joints had become painful. Safari had never had any such problems before. She easily jumped up into the back of the Jeep and sprinted around with no cares. It was Juni who as a puppy, had started displaying gait-related problems. She became terrified of climbing and descending stairs. The vet diagnosed her with hip dysplasia, a condition not uncommon among certain dog breeds, like retrievers. But Juni had mostly overcome this disability years ago. After a few doses of Calc Carb 200C, she was no longer afraid of stairs and ran around up and down without any problem. Sometimes, though, she would find it difficult to jump into a high car. But then, she was a wee bit overweight.
In the coming days, Safari also lost her appetite. Yet, for the first time in her six years, she’d gained weight. At the vet hospital, she was put on a conventional treatment for some kind of infection. But even when she was eating again, her spirits continued to be low, and she would sit in dark corners and hide behind curtains like Juni used to do. While we all missed Juni terribly and were immensely sad, with part of Safari’s self stuck in some invisible realm, I questioned if we were losing her as well.
Homeopathy & the Death Process
Everyone at home, including Safari, had taken Aconite 30C for the trauma and shock of Juni’s unexpected passing. The day after, I noticed her developing the characteristic deep sighs of the Ignatia picture. She was grieving. I gave her a couple of doses of Ignatia 30C over a course of days. But this was a temporary fix. She would become a little animated but then regress back to a listlessness. The bereavement she was suffering was not just of her companion, playmate but a sister who had been like a mother to her. Her sighs were becoming more frequent, deeper and heavier. So, a few days after Safari returned from the hospital, I decided to give her a higher dose of Ignatia. The moment IGNATIA 200C touched her mouth, I saw a miracle happen before my eyes. Just as her transformation into Juni had been almost instantaneous, Safari’s boisterous self was suddenly back. She had returned. Within days, she regained her natural lithe physique, as well. This process of morphing into one state and back to the body, if I recall properly, all happened in a span of about two weeks.
Touching Subtle Realms
Safari has always been super-hypersensitive, very psychic, and impressionable. What occurred at Juni’s death was inexplicable. But the action of the homeopathic remedies to recover the Safari we knew was, for me, a confirmation that homeopathy works at many different levels. Some of these levels are very mysterious. Ignatia as a homeopathic remedy opened the portal to the subtle realms and it provided evidence that these remedies can enter esoteric dimensions and affect the subtle body. After all homeopathic remedies after 12C potency, are said to no longer contain any traces of the material substance. They hold the subtle energetic essence of the substance. That’s how the remedies are able to reach beyond the material realms. One big lesson in this case was that while the right remedy is fundamental, only the right potency and dosage will effect a truly complete cure.
Bordering Realities
It was all very peculiar. Once again, this dynamic transition called death, shows certain invisible processes operative around the time of crossing. As it affected our two pets, who had such distinct and unique personalities, some aspects of this subtle process became vaguely apparent to me. Lots of questions came to my mind. Could something similar also occur between human beings at the time of death? And if so, how would we recover the authentic self in such a scenario? This of course begs the question, what is the authentic self? Anyhow, I had used homeopathy because I recognized the picture forming of a remedy that is indicated specially in situations of grief. Without the intervention of Ignatia, would Safari’s being and existence have been restored over time? Would Ignatia have also helped reassure Juni, so that she could depart peacefully and cross the life-death border?
I reflected on this episode to understand whether it had been the shock of sudden death that resulted in Juni’s soul entering
Safari’s being, or was it Safari’s inability to let go of Juni that she allowed her to coexist within her own being so that Juni could say her final goodbyes. Also, it reminded me that sometimes a pet dies suddenly to avert a greater misfortune coming towards its family. But that’s another story, for another time.