Lycopodium clavatum

Lycopodium clavatum is a spore-producing, creeping evergreen plant native to the forests of Europe, Asia, and North America. The yellow spores are collected from the cones and are extremely fine and hydrophobic. These spores are the part used in homeopathic preparation, prepared by trituration and then potentised. The plant is classified under the Lycopodiaceae family and represents one of the oldest vascular plants on Earth, with fossil records dating back over 300 million years.

Lycopodium was proved by Hahnemann and published in his Materia Medica Pura. Later expanded upon by Hering, Allen, and others. Symptoms primarily derived from trituration of the dried spores and administered tincture.

At the heart of Lycopodium clavatum lies the conflict between inner weakness and outer performance. It suits individuals—children and adults alike—who feel deep internal uncertainty or failure but project a confident exterior. There is an intense fear of not being good enough, of being seen to fail, or of being overwhelmed by responsibility. Yet these individuals are often intellectually sharp, precociously clever, and naturally suited to leadership roles once self-trust is restored. Physical pathology is marked by fermentation, distension, and obstruction—mirroring the emotional blockage within. The right-sided action, anticipation anxiety, and aggravation from 4 to 8 p.m. form the keynotes of this deeply constitutional plant remedy.

Lycopodium has a deep and wide range of action, with profound affinity for the digestive system, particularly the liver, gallbladder, and intestines, often producing flatulence, bloating, and sluggish digestion. It acts strongly on the urinary organs, respiratory system, and genitalia. It also affects the mind, especially in relation to confidence, anticipatory anxiety, and self-esteem. The right side of the body is notably affected, with complaints often beginning on the right and moving to the left. Lycopodium is also a key remedy for chronic complaints, particularly in the elderly, children with premature intellectual development, and menopausal women. It influences circulation, hair and skin, and is deeply active on glandular function and metabolism, including the thyroid.

Lycopodium exhibits great intellectual keenness but equally deep lack of confidence, especially in new situations or responsibilities. The child or adult may show timidity with a façade of haughtiness, often hiding fear of failure or embarrassment [Kent]. A classic keynote is anticipatory anxiety—stage fright before public speaking, trembling before exams, or fear before appointments, which disappears once the event begins [Hering]. There is fear of being alone yet also a dislike of company, creating inner conflict. Children are precocious intellectually but emotionally fragile. They may cry easily, become obstinate, and have difficulty expressing anger, which turns inward. Lycopodium is irritable and dictatorial with inferiors but obsequious with superiors [Boericke]. Forgetfulness and confusion increase with fatigue or pressure. Deep insecurity manifests in overly ambitious individuals who collapse under stress.

Restless and anxious sleep with vivid dreams. Wakes feeling unrefreshed. Dreams of failures, accidents, or robbers. Tendency to sleep on the back. Frequent waking around 4 a.m. with abdominal bloating or palpitations.

Dreams of powerlessness, humiliation, or disgrace. Themes of being chased, falling, or examinations. May dream of old events or people not seen in years. Children may have night terrors with shrieking.

Right-sided complaints; symptoms move right to left. Great weakness after exertion or eating. Emaciation in upper body with bloated lower body. Worse from warmth, tight clothing, and mental exertion. Better from passing gas, uncovering, or loosening clothes.

Low-grade fevers with digestive upset. Heat and chill alternate. Sweating may be profuse at night or from anxiety. Heat often localised to head or face with cold limbs.

Chilliness predominates with heat in isolated parts. Feet are icy cold while face flushes. Sweating is often offensive and oily. Cold air aggravates skin complaints.

Headaches are often right-sided, with pressing or bursting pain, particularly over the temples or forehead, worse from 4–8 p.m. [Clarke]. Vertigo upon rising or turning the head, often with digestive issues, is prominent. Premature greying of hair or hair loss is notable in the young. Children may have large heads with open fontanelles. The scalp may itch and feel tense or dry. There is a sensation of heat rising into the head, especially when lying down.

The eyes may feel dry, inflamed, or weak. Distant vision may blur after mental effort or emotional strain. Lachrymation on exposure to wind or light, especially in open air. Lycopodium suits chronic conjunctivitis and weakness of the optic nerve. One pupil may be larger than the other. Complaints are often worse on the right side. The eyes may be sunken with dark circles during chronic illness.

Sensitive to noise, especially music, which may cause weeping or anxiety. Cracking and roaring in ears with difficulty hearing. Earaches, especially right-sided, that extend to the throat. Blocked sensation in ears, worse in warm rooms. Discharge from ears may be yellow and excoriating. Hearing improves in a noisy environment.

Frequent coryza with dry crusts and internal soreness. Right-sided obstruction alternating with left. Sense of smell may be diminished. Sneezing in morning or after rising. Nasal polyps and chronic catarrh, particularly in children. Nosebleeds from right nostril, especially in the morning or during menses.

The face is often pale, earthy, or yellowish, particularly around the mouth or nose. Deep lines may appear across the forehead and between brows. In children, one cheek may be red while the other is pale. Pimples, acne rosacea, or eruptions worsen before menses. Twitching of facial muscles, especially around the mouth. Lips may be dry, cracked, or bleed easily.

Dry mouth without thirst, or thirst for warm drinks only. Aphthae, ulcers, or bad breath with metallic or bitter taste [Allen]. Tongue may tremble when protruded, appear coated yellow, or develop deep cracks. Toothache worse from cold drinks and better from warm. Gums recede and bleed easily. Complaints of sour taste or sour eructations.

Sensitive, especially during menses or pregnancy. Caries develop quickly despite good hygiene. Teeth may crumble or loosen prematurely. Neuralgic pain in the roots, especially in the evening. Grinding of teeth during sleep in anxious children.

Dryness and burning in the throat with a sensation of a plug or ball, especially when swallowing solids. One-sided soreness (often right to left). Tonsils enlarged, with follicular inflammation or caseous plugs. Difficulty swallowing, worse for warm drinks. Hoarseness and chronic catarrh in speakers and singers.

Oppression of chest with dyspnoea worse at night or from warmth. Dry, tickling cough with scanty expectoration. Rattling in chest without ability to cough it out. Asthmatic complaints in children who look old and thin. Right-sided lung affections with stitching pain. Breathlessness when lying down.

Palpitations from emotion, eating, or lying on the left side. Pulse irregular and weak. Fluttering sensation, worse from anticipation. Pain in the chest or heart area radiates to right shoulder or arm. Heart complaints with gastric symptoms.

Shortness of breath, especially on exertion or from bloating. Chest feels constricted or compressed. Asthmatic episodes that begin after suppression of eruptions or discharges. Cough worse in warm rooms or in the evening.

Lycopodium is a major digestive remedy. There is a constant feeling of bloating and fermentation, with a loud rumbling of gases. The abdomen distends after even small meals [Clarke]. There is craving for sweets, warm drinks, and oysters, though these often aggravate. Hunger returns soon after eating, or there may be satiety after just a few bites. Acid reflux, sour eructations, and heartburn are frequent. Pain is often right-sided and worse from 4–8 p.m. [Kent]. Useful in peptic ulcers, sluggish liver, and gallbladder dysfunction.

Marked fullness, distension, and flatulence. Gurgling and rumbling of gases in the lower abdomen, especially right side. Pain is crampy, drawing, or stitching and may alternate with urinary or back symptoms. Constipation alternates with diarrhoea. Liver region may be sensitive to pressure. Abdomen cold to the touch.

Constipation with ineffectual urging is a keynote [Boericke]. The rectum feels paralysed or inactive. Stools may be dry, hard, and passed with difficulty even when soft. Alternating diarrhoea and constipation is seen, especially in the elderly. Haemorrhoids protrude and are painful after stool. Burning, stitching pain in the anus.

Slow to begin urination; must wait long for the stream to start. Flow may stop and start several times [Clarke]. Frequent urging, especially at night. Urine may be cloudy, offensive, or red with sediment. Incontinence in children during sleep. Retention in post-partum women or after catheterisation.

Craves sweets, oysters, warm drinks, and farinaceous food. Aversion to cold food, onions, and bread (which causes flatulence). Appetite variable—may feel full after a few bites or ravenous at night.

Weak or absent sexual desire, often linked to self-esteem. Erections may be difficult to maintain. Impotence from performance anxiety. Emissions without erections, or sexual dreams without desire. Prostatic complaints in older men with frequent, ineffectual urging. Right-sided testicular pain.

Delayed or suppressed menses with abdominal bloating. Menses may be profuse but short. Pre-menstrual headaches and digestive complaints. Polycystic ovarian tendencies. Dryness of vagina with pain during intercourse. Difficult conception despite ovulation. Hot flushes with weakness and irritability.

Pain and stiffness in the lumbar region, especially in the morning. Weakness or fatigue in the back, particularly after digestive disturbances. Coldness in the sacral area. Sciatic pain, often right-sided. Children may exhibit spinal weakness or scoliosis.

Right-sided complaints dominate. Joints may crack, feel stiff, or be swollen. Gouty nodes and deformities. Feet cold and sweaty. One foot hot, the other cold. Nails become thick, ridged, or brittle. Hands tremble when writing. Paralytic weakness of lower limbs.

Dry, rough, or scaly skin. Cracks form in folds or between fingers and toes. Eczema with thick crusts and yellow discharge. Ulcers that are slow to heal. Skin itches in the warmth of bed. Herpes and chronic eruptions, especially with digestive complaints.

Lycopodium is often compared with Nux vomica, as both exhibit gastrointestinal disturbance, irritability, and business-related stress. However, Lycopodium’s complaints are generally right-sided, marked by lack of confidence, and tend to worsen between 4–8 p.m., while Nux is more impulsive, aggressive, and worsens in the morning.

It also closely resembles Sulphur in digestive sluggishness and skin conditions, but Sulphur is more neglectful of hygiene, more intellectualised in pride, and worse from bathing, while Lycopodium is more reserved, with internalised fear of failure.

With Argentum nitricum, both may suffer anticipatory anxiety and digestive upset. Yet Lycopodium’s anxiety tends to be silent and internalised, while Argent-n. is hurried, impulsive, and extroverted.

In female complaints, it may be confused with Sepia, especially in hormonal and menopausal complaints. Lycopodium is more intellectual, withdrawn, and right-sided, whereas Sepia is colder, indifferent, and more focused on disconnection from loved ones.

• Complementary remedies: Carbo vegetabilis, Graphites, Sulphur, Calcarea carbonica
• Antidotes: Camphora, Pulsatilla, Coffea
• Inimical to: Nux vomica (should not follow it immediately)
• Follows well after: Calcarea, Sepia, Sulphur
• Precedes well before: Pulsatilla, Silicea, Sulphur

Lycopodium is indispensable in cases of bloating and flatulence where even a small quantity of food causes discomfort. It is a first-line remedy for anticipatory anxiety, especially where fear disappears as the event begins. In children, it is helpful when they are bright but lack confidence, or where there is right-sided otitis, tonsillitis, or constipation. It shines in the management of chronic liver, gallbladder, and gastric complaints, particularly when right-sided and worse late afternoon. Men with impotence from performance anxiety, or women with difficult menopause marked by digestive and urinary issues, benefit greatly from this remedy. Lycopodium is also useful in chronic fatigue states, urinary retention, and eczema with crusty eruptions. When selected on clear keynote symptoms, its depth of action is remarkable.

Mind

• Anticipation, ailments from
• Anxiety, evening, 4–8 p.m.
• Fear, undertaking new things
• Dictatorial, commanding disposition
• Weeps from music
• Timidity, appearing confident
• Fear of being alone, yet avoids company

Head

• Headache, right-sided, evening
• Hair, premature greying
• Vertigo on rising or turning

Eyes

• Vision blurred after mental exertion
• Lachrymation in open air
• Pupils unequal

Ears

• Earache, right side
• Roaring, buzzing
• Hearing, impaired during cold

Nose

• Coryza with crusts and dryness
• Obstruction alternating sides
• Nosebleeds, morning, right side

Mouth & Throat

• Dryness without thirst
• Taste bitter or metallic
• Throat, sensation of plug
• Tonsillitis, right to left

Stomach & Abdomen

• Appetite, ravenous yet emaciates
• Bloating, after small quantity
• Rumbling, flatulence
• Craves sweets, warm drinks
• Liver, congestion, right-sided

Rectum & Stool

• Constipation, ineffectual urging
• Haemorrhoids, protruding, painful
• Diarrhoea, alternating with constipation

Urinary

• Hesitant urination
• Retention after delivery
• Urine, red sediment

Male

• Impotence from anxiety
• Emissions without erections
• Prostatitis, right side

Female

• Menses, late and scanty
• Menopause, bloating and heat
• Dryness, vagina

Chest & Heart

• Palpitations with anxiety
• Cough, dry, worse 4–8 p.m.
• Dyspnoea, lying down

Extremities

• Cold feet
• One foot hot, the other cold
• Gouty joints, right-sided

Skin

• Eczema, crusty, offensive
• Ulcers, slow healing
• Cracks, hands, feet

Sleep & Dreams

• Wakes unrefreshed
• Dreams, falling, humiliation
• Sleep disturbed by bloating

Generalities

• Right-sided complaints
• Aggravation 4–8 p.m.
• Worse from warmth, tight clothes
• Better for uncovering abdomen

Hahnemann, S. Materia Medica Pura
Kent, J.T. Lectures on Homœopathic Materia Medica
Hering, C. Guiding Symptoms of Our Materia Medica
Allen, T.F. Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica
Clarke, J.H. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica
Boericke, W. Pocket Manual of Homœopathic Materia Medica
Nash, E.B. Leaders in Homœopathic Therapeutics
Farrington, E.A. Clinical Materia Medica