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Allergy: The Ontology of an Itch
Allergies are not just physical irritations. They can be seen as messengers from within, drawing our attention to something forgotten, unresolved, or disconnected. An itch may be more than skin deep; it may be a signal from our being.
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Inheritance and the Hidden Complaint
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At 38, I noticed a scaly patch on my side — the same age my mother developed one, and her uncle before her. This sparked a search into inherited patterns. As an osteopath and acupuncturist, I realised that typical treatments — whether medical or alternative — rarely reached the root. I used a system I’d developed based on kinesiology and mudras, a symbolic feedback method, to explore the source of my own condition.
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Psora, Pain, and Ancestry
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In the early 1800s, Samuel Hahnemann, founder of homeopathy, introduced the miasmic theory — the idea that chronic disease arises from inherited energetic imbalances called miasms. Chief among them was psora, derived from the Hebrew tsorat, linked to themes of shame, exclusion, and emotional abandonment.
Tsorat refers to Leah in the Hebrew Bible, unloved and overshadowed, who named her children Reuben (“affliction”), Simeon (“unloved”), and Levi (“unattached”). This symbolic inheritance — of being cast aside — often appears in the skin: eczema, psoriasis, and other visible signs of being “unclean.”
Ref: Hahnemann, S. (1828). The Chronic Diseases; their Specific Nature and Homoeopathic Treatment.
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The Itch as Signal
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We can understand the body as a house:
• Basement: material inheritance
• Living rooms: nourishment and emotion
• Instinctual level: relationships, sexuality, territory
Allergies arise when something is amiss on one of these levels.
• Dust, mould = ancestral stagnation
• Food allergies = lack of inner or outer nourishment
• Animal dander, pollen = issues of boundary, gender, or sexual self
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Modern Resonance
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Today’s research on the glymphatic system shows that the brain clears toxins during deep sleep via cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Emotional trauma can dysregulate this system. We also know early stress changes gene expression — a field known as epigenetics. What our ancestors carried, we may still react to.
Ref: Nedergaard, M. (2013). The Glymphatic System. Nature Neuroscience.
Ref: Slavich & Cole. (2013). Human Social Genomics. Nature Reviews Immunology.
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The Gift Within the Itch
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Every allergy is a messenger. The itch says: “Look here.” It invites us to remember, to respond, to come home to what is essential. Ontological work listens for the deeper signal — and helps return us to the promise we came into this life to fulfil.