night shades

Question
Dear Evelyn,

I come across literatures on night shades, how they are not good for psoriasis (an autoimmune skin condition). This made me curious as to the true nature of night shades. I once was told to look into the wisdom of fairy tales.  There was a children's book in South Africa which portrayed night shades as the villain.  In my childhood, I remember a cartoon series with the song that goes..."attack of the killer tomatoes..."  

I read an Anthroposophic writing that state that tomatoes have such a life force, they grow everywhere at the expense of other plants and might not be good for cancer patients.

If you can deepen my understanding and add esoteric insights into this, like your answer to Ms. Jessica, I'd really appreciate it and will be able to help other people.

Thanks
MArian

Answer
Dear Marian,

Firstly, let me apologise for the extremly long time it has taken me to respond to your question; unfortunately I have had sundry technical problems with my communication system.  And it is such an interesting question, which I have been dying to get my teeth into ever since I first read it a few weeks ago.

It is indeed a question which borders on many fundamental Anthroposophic understandings, and you ask specifically about the solanacea (nightshades) with regard to psoriasis and cancer which are almost diametrically opposed, and yet there is a link if we look at the underlying cause of illness.

First, perhaps a short overview of the type of plant family the solanacea is. It is indeed a very rapidly growing plant, happiest on compost heaps where there is an abundance of nutrients for this fast and rambling growth and a tendency for the dark. Aside its hardiness, it is well known to be a species high in alkaloids in varying degrees of toxicity, although the tomato and the pepper fruits are not poisonous, but the majority are (e.g the belladonna, potato fruits, mandrake).  

When we look at the florescences we note an "invagination" force. The tomato and the pepper have less involuted, and less dusky, brighter flowers, and unlike the tabacco plant, as the most extreme example, which flowers at night, will be happy in day light. These are the clues you need to understand why the tomato is not poisonous. Now, on to why this fruit can still have an averse effect on some health problems.

All plants have only a physical and an etheric body. Animals also have an astral body. While man is the only living being who, in addition, also has an Ego body. The flowering process of a plant, is how the plant touches upon the state of astral being (it is, also, where the plant literally comes into a symbiotic contact with insects/pollinators). The smaller, less pendulous or typically solanaceaic, tubular flowers of the tomato show it to have stronger etheric forces than other types of outrightly toxic deadly- nightshade. The poison is the result of a one sided development of an anabolic process, where substance is devitalised by astral powers. The refuse is formed from protein, not unlike how beings with astral bodies expell uric acid. The solanacea is a plant which is permeated excessively by this astrality, impressing upon it a basic pattern that forms alkalines, which are poisonous.

These astral patterns can influence the human astral body when consumed or used in medication. Sometimes with healing effects (as in homeopathic preparations). In order to understand how health is a matter of balancing the four bodies a human being has, we need to set as a premise that the purpose of sickness is to adjust the soul-life and the meaning of life is to develop the sensory consciousness of the waking-Ego conscious. When the astral body has not penetrated the organs sufficiently, the etheric body may permeate too deeply into the body, promoting growth where none is required, resulting for example in conditions promoting cancerous development.Where the astral body cannot be contained by the Etheric, and has become too accentuated in its centripetal force, skin conditions such as psoriasis may result.

The astrality of the solanacea will then do you no favours. In the most extreme case, such astral forces, such as are in hebane, lead to hallucinations and visions, and in mandrake anaesthesia, because the spiritual/day-conscious can no longer get a grip on the body, while the accentuated astrality keeps pushing outwards. To a much lesser degree, even tomatoes and peppers have this effect on the system. It is why it is not recommended within Anthroposophical nutrition theory to feed young children fruit from the solanacea (their astral bodies are suppose to remain weak still) and aside the high vitamin C content in green peppers especially, they are not highly praised as a regular ingredient of meals.

However, I would like to add that neither psoriasis or cancer are likely to be cured in any noticeable way by merely cutting out the solanacea from your diet. The balance of etheric/astral energies is very subtle and needs to take many more factors into account.

I, too, feel that fairy tales often use plants (rose, lily, apple, strawberry, rapunzel = rampion, hazle etc) to indicate the working of different forces (physical, etheric, astral, ego). And even in modern off-shoots we can find traces of ancient wisdom.

An awful lot more can be said about this topic, but what I would like to leave you with is the beauty of how illnessess can teach us much about healthy diets, and they are sometimes the ox before the cart in personal situations. One cannot go around advocating cutting out tomatoes to ensure perfect health, but it enhances a deeper understanding of life to become more sensitive to the different forces that have gone into making each species of fruit or vegetable unique and a gift for our self-improvement.

Hoping to have inspired further studies in you,
with love
Evelyn

1. Prev:Honey / fruit
2. Next:primal diet and food allergies