How Homeopathy Mirrors Evolution: A Journey Through the Natural Kingdoms

What If Nature’s Evolution Reflects Our Inner Lives?

Jan Scholten, a pioneer in modern homeopathy, offered a fresh way to understand human health by looking at patterns in nature. His Element Theory and Plant Theory link chemical elements and plant families with emotional and psychological themes in people. But what if this approach goes even deeper—right into the heart of evolutionary biology?

In this post, we’ll explore how life’s evolution—from minerals to humans—parallels our emotional and spiritual development. By combining Scholten’s ideas with insights from evolution, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and homeopathy’s miasm theory, we can begin to see health and disease as part of a much bigger story.

Nature’s Blueprint in Homeopathy

Scholten’s Element Theory maps the periodic table into rows and columns, with each row representing a life stage—from birth to legacy—and each column reflecting a person’s confidence or capacity in that phase.

His Plant Theory builds on this by organizing plant remedies according to their biological families, each expressing unique emotional themes, like sensitivity, control, or grief.

Together, these theories suggest that remedies aren't just random—they reflect where a person is in their life journey, emotionally and energetically.

Evolution as an Emotional Journey

Biologically, life evolved in stages: atoms → molecules → cells → multicellular organisms → humans. But what if these stages also mirror how we grow inside?

Each kingdom of life—mineral, plant, animal, etc.—can represent a different level of human development, from basic survival to self-actualization. When this idea is combined with Maslow’s psychological needs and homeopathy’s idea of miasms (deep-seated disease patterns), we get a powerful new model for understanding illness and healing.

The Seven Kingdoms, Reimagined for Healing

Let’s walk through each kingdom, and see how it reflects a stage of personal evolution:

1. Minerals – Building the Foundation

• Focus: Stability, structure, identity

• Challenges: Insecurity, dependency, collapse

• Maslow Need: Physical survival (food, shelter)

• Miasm: Psoric or syphilitic (either lacking strength or falling apart)

Mineral remedies suit people who feel fragile, rigid, or overwhelmed by life's basics. Their main concern is just holding things together.

2. Monera – Rapid Adaptation

• Focus: Survival in tough environments

• Challenges: Chronic stress, over-adaptation, burnout

• Maslow Need: Safety

• Miasm: Sycotic or tubercular (stuck or constantly shifting)

These people are like survivors always on alert. Life feels like a battle to stay one step ahead.

3. Protista – Emerging Individuality

• Focus: Finding self amidst connection

• Challenges: Codependency, blurred boundaries

• Maslow Need: Belonging

• Miasm: Psoric with sycotic tendencies

Protista remedies help those who swing between needing others and needing freedom. Their identity is still forming.

4. Fungi – Toxic Ties and Dependency

• Focus: Emotional entanglement, boundaries

• Challenges: Feeling invaded or drained

• Maslow Need: Belonging turning toward esteem

• Miasm: Tubercular or syphilitic

People who need fungal remedies often feel "infected" by others' emotions or overwhelmed by family or societal ties.

5. Plants – Expression and Sensitivity

• Focus: Emotions, reactivity, communication

• Challenges: Overwhelm, emotional storms, hypersensitivity

• Maslow Need: Esteem and self-expression

• Miasm: Sycotic or tubercular

These are the sensitive souls. Life is rich with feeling, but sometimes too rich. Remedies from the plant kingdom help bring balance.

6. Animals – Identity, Power, and Survival

• Focus: Competition, dominance, instinct

• Challenges: Jealousy, performance anxiety, aggression

• Maslow Need: Social status and esteem

• Miasm: Syphilitic or cancerinic

Animal remedies suit people locked in inner battles: predator vs prey, powerful vs powerless. There’s often a fight to prove oneself.

7. Humans – Integration and Transcendence

• Focus: Meaning, transformation, wholeness

• Challenges: Existential crisis, spiritual longing

• Maslow Need: Self-actualization

• Miasm: Cancerinic or syphilitic

These remedies are for people dealing with deep transformation. They’re searching for purpose and integration of life’s extremes.

A Map for the Healing Journey

This model connects each stage of life’s evolution with human emotional development:

Kingdom	Developmental Focus	Maslow Need	Miasm Type
Mineral	Structure & stability	Physical	Psoric/Syphilitic
Monera	Adaptation & survival	Safety	Sycotic/Tubercular
Protista	Identity & fusion	Belonging	Psoric/Sycotic
Fungi	Boundaries & toxicity	Belonging/Esteem	Tubercular/Syphilitic
Plant	Expression & reactivity	Esteem/Self-expression	Sycotic/Tubercular
Animal	Power & identity	Esteem/Social status	Syphilitic/Cancerinic
Human	Integration & meaning	Self-actualization	Cancerinic/Syphilitic

Why This Matters for Homeopathy—and for You

When we see health and illness as part of a larger evolutionary and emotional journey, it changes how we approach healing. Remedies are not just treatments; they’re reflections of where we are in life—and where we’re stuck.

This framework helps homeopaths select remedies more precisely, and helps all of us better understand our own path toward balance, purpose, and wholeness.