Design for Auto da Alma by Gil Vicente, created by Pedro Ribeiro Simoes
Characters in a play called Upstairs Downstairs
Who are you?
Homeopathy is full of characters. We understand you, the human, through observation. Every medicinal substance within the homeopathy cabinet has its own character and style of healing. Its element is unique. Each character, whether it be a Phosphorous luminescent star, a Sulphur intellect or indeed an embittered Ammonia, can be perceived via analysis. We, the practitioner of much thought and wisdom can perceive a Mercury resting amongst the leaves of a Calc Carbonate. We see a Glonoin uncovered by Sol, the egoist and so on. Remedies are full of colour and interest. The homeopathic practitioner has an arsenal of wounded soldiers to heal, and they do so via Mother Nature’s cabinet. The Earth is a place where many people fall ill. That is a wound, not only to the soul but also to the physical body. What wonder then that an element, a flower or indeed an imponderable, such as Sol, can heal that wound. We all recycle one way or another.
A doom ridden personality
Everyone of us will start off fine, and then, as we gradually mature. The rot sets in. Arthritis, menopausal issues and so on. Age will indeed age our bodily cavities, and then we believe we are beginning to fall apart metaphorically. It is not so. We are merely becoming elderly. But there is hope. The human condition starts with purity. It is only later that we come to understand that we are no longer whole, fit and then a perfect state of thought turns to immature meandering through the war fields and gluttonous excess of self fulfilment. We lose our natural ability to remain calm, creative and self sufficient in our understanding that life goes on, and we should obey the natural law to love one another. This is known upstairs in the heavenly areas of the world as the doom ridden state.
To mature with wisdom is our purpose, and yet it rarely occurs. Homeopathy is here to heal you, the person with the twisted stem from a birth tragedy, or indeed the convalescent character whose true personality is missing for a while. Homeopaths are healers, not clairvoyants and certainly not psychoanalysts, and yet they also can be so observant that it may appear so to the average human in the street that we all are marvellous and wondrous in our doings. Homeopathy is a miracle worker to some..
The personality type
No one can understand a personality like a homeopath in full throttle. We watch you, the person in the street, and prophesy who thou shalt be in a homeopathic constitutional role. I make fun of the Christian understanding of prophesy here, for I believe all natural elements to prescribing are intellectual reasoning and not wonder in the least. And yet it appears that we can tell you your constitution by just gazing at you. We can. We have to know you in detail though, and then we pin to you some of the extra traits which are inherent within your character via guesswork. We get it right mostly, although some guesswork can erroneous if the original network is far too superficial. That is where the NHS went wrong with a homeopathic department. The doctors took notes at speed, as they do, and neglected to understand that the real personality beneath the calm exterior could, indeed should I would argue, be a very different character from whom they believed they saw in 15 minutes flat. Then the prescription goes awry. Character and homeopathy are entwined to such a degree that no one can do a correct prescription without much thought. Unless, of course, you are a psychic. Then, as here, you are on a very different trajectory and speed level. You know much more, and can jump the queue in terms of prescribing the correct remedy, for everything falls into place fast and yet splendidly logical and accurately portrayed via the repertory we all know and love. It simply means I can move faster and more correctly than others in my analysis of the Bellamy household, so well and beautifully acted in the early 1970s.
Plays
In a play such as Upstairs Downstairs there are strong wilful characters. The entire show is full of orgasm, plaintiffs and might. It is a full throttle and powerful show, zooming to eternity with its playful characters. It is a psychic play that sounds real. That is the beauty of the scripting. You accept the characters without reason. They are true, simple and yet profound. So how does that occur? Well, I would say that the scriptwriters are all very psychic indeed, and they can portray accuracy. People are real. Not only that, but the actor or actress is excellent. They also portray accuracy. The entire show is exceptionally good at being real.
James, the son of the household
James Bellamy is a Phosphorous constitution to a homeopath. He is fun, good looking, tall, willowy (his physical structure matters) and he is also very empathetic. This means he has purpose at birth, and yet he despairs at his fellow man. He is strong but his thoughts about life on Earth let him down. He never succeeds. This is the phosphorous character. Someone who knows easily, for he is empathetic and exceptionally psychic, but fails to achieve a material purpose. He was meant to become a healer. You can see that in his reasoning after the war. He so wishes to heal the world order, but he cannot. Phosphorous is a psychic constitution. He simply understands that the world is a mess, and despairs. This brings him down in the end, and he bows out of the series through suicide. He cannot take life any further. He has no purpose.
A Phosphorous will always wish to achieve ethereal wonder. He is a seeker, and yet here James’ material background prevents him from that goal. He cannot find the path he was born to. He is a lost soul. He is trapped in a material world, wondering at why so many of his colleagues are either dead or frivolous. His course is curtailed through death. He moves forward into a higher being on death and may return as a simple soul left to his own devices in a new life form.
James is a character, but his soul is real. That makes Simon Williams a truly great actor, for he has portrayed much wondrous ideal, to coin a phrase, and is also a gentleman to the bitter end of his play. He takes his character into the Great War and out the other end and feels much self-loathing. To do this you must be a fine character actor who can feel into the soul issue above. He is quite simply a brilliant actor, for Simon himself is a Sulphur constitution. There is nothing phosphorous about the real man behind the script, except for an exceptional sensitivity to his fellow man. That is the Sulphur constitution. A man with a huge ego and a strongly sensitive egocentric mentality, who can then hold the script and intellectually decide how to play the character of James. Nothing is simple when it comes to acting. You must be aware of your own inner needs, dismiss your personal feelings, let go of all confused thought and just be ed by your common sense. Be the man hidden beneath the wording of the script line.
Mrs Bridges the cook
Other characters in Upstairs Downstairs include Mrs Bridges, the cook. She is an Ammonia personality, all embittered and yet friendly. Her bitter thoughts portray themselves on occasion when discussing meals with the parlour maid. She is strong, loving and yet embittered beneath the sunshine ray she gives to the young. She is feeling her age is how I would consider the typical Ammonia character. Kate, or Mrs Bridges as she prefers to be known, looks back at life with much sudden dismay when it becomes clear that death could be nigh. She longs for her family back home. She wishes to return to her youth.
Richard, the father of James Bellamy
Richard Bellamy is a Sulphur constitution. He has much to give to society and he reasons intellectually. He never allows his own thoughts to interfere with parliamentary debate, and yet he is true. That is the Sulphur character. They are debaters ethereal, a term which means they philosophise down here but legally they are away with the fairies on high. Sulphurs simply know what to do. They have a strong sense of what is right on high. That makes a judge a possible past life for Richard here. Or he could have been a patrician in ancient Rome. He is a healer of man, and his Christian status gives him a creditable background in the series. He is kindly. That is not a Sulphur trait, and yet it is here. The Christian overlay is often portrayed by scriptwriters when using a historical setting, because Christianity was everywhere back then.
The political animal
Politicians have their own considerations, but they tow the party line. They are feudal. They will never allow their own rocky status to interfere with their parliamentary position in society, so you could say they are great actors. And yet they are not. A parliamentarian simply never engages emotionally. If they did, a nervous breakdown might occur. So intellectual reasoning is the thing that attracts most politicians to the bar first. They are lawyers and have trained their own egos to play the game successfully without emotional despair setting in. They hold true to their platform. They convince themselves that the party comes first. They are intellectual and Richard is an excellent example.
There are various sulphurs, but Richard is a good one, for he can be seen on TV even today.
Lady Marjorie Bellamy, mother and society figure
Lady Marjorie is maternal. She has no political ambition, but she is logical and wily on occasion. She can make it up when necessary. She is a creative character choice, and her place in society is to be someone worth knowing. Her ego is strong. Marjorie is a creative Sulphur. A similar character to Richard and yet softer and more welcoming. Her creative instinct comes through with her clothing, and her huge array of ornaments. She is a homemaker and a very good one, for she understands how her servants may feel. She is the psychic Sulphur. Her knowing is strong. She understands her place and performs it without concern or mismanagement. She simply understands the hierarchy on Earth. She is a psychic soul. The is not found in James and yet he is very sensitive. Marjorie looks through the ether and determines how to counteract the servants’ well meant advice without offending anyone. She never puts a foot wrong. That is not easy for anyone to achieve.
Virginia, the second Lady Bellamy
As for Virginia, Richard’s second wife, she is a Sulphur as well. Virginia flirts with her eyelids and understands you inside and out. She is self willed and has a strong ego to boot, and yet she can be cautious. This means she has a subservient aspect to her character. She can become morose, so she dolls up her dressing and goes out on the town. Her Ammonia aspect is strong, for her son died unexpectedly. She is embittered by the hierarchy of souls abroad who dictated that outcome. Virginia is a Christian and should believe, although it is not stated explicitly, that God dictated her son’s wrongful death. She does not show her bitterness, for her Sulphur ego is powerful, but her hidden Ammonia will out one day. No one can accept a son’s death without remorse, hatred or despairing of life’s eternal flame. She will become Ammonia one day, maybe when the partying stops and the arthritis sets in. Elderly arthritics are often Ammonia constitution for they feel the weather and the loss of love in their lives hugely.
Egos
These are all characters which represent the ego. James has no ego. He is a despairer of the human world. That is the Phosphorous who chooses to float around musing on life. A Sulphur will never muse further than reality. Sulphurs prefer to get on with the game. Another name for this is karma. Sulphurs intuitively understand we are here for a reason, and that could be something to do with the Wheel of Karma, or the Wheel of Life as it is known elsewhere. We are all a part of God’s plan. That is what a cleric would have told James when he was wounded at the Front in World War One. We are here for a purpose, he will call benignly from behind the lines. There is a purpose to your life and wounding. However, James can never accept that, for he has no purpose as yet. He becomes mentally maladjusted, and it takes years to climb out of his Natrum Muriaticum constitution. This means he takes a dive emotionally, and ends up in despair. James regrets. He is sorrowful, and his egocentric mentality has increased. The Natrum character is self sufficient, which is why James spends hours, if not days, back at home in his bedroom. He never leaves the premises. He is throughly depressed after the war is over. James leaves the war with sorrow and despair at his fellow man. Later on his frivolous side returns, and he climbs out of the hole he has created via sorrow and dispels his wisdom on the family. That makes him a patrician in the making.
Psychic souls
There is no one remedy which is more psychic than any other. It is simply a fact that the Phosphorous character is not real. He is a medley of anyone he meets, for his empathy can be too extreme. Phosphorouses love you. A Sulphur is very real, and yet he senses another era in time. He is a good play actor. He can choose to place himself in the etheric area of life called the astral layer and become another person on occasion. That is how a politician can be so polite and yet change direction without a single thought for humanity. He simply enfolds his wing in a new thought area, holds tight and believes everything from now on will be fine. They are true optimists.
Angus Hudson, the butler
Probably the most famous character in Upstairs Downstairs is Hudson, the butler. He is another Ammonia character. His embittered thoughts twist and turn. He tries to subdue them with intellectual resolve to be good. He is Christian. And yet it never quite occurs. Hudson’s outbursts happen all over the square. He feels his reasoning and be is disquieted through his patrician background to hold tight, have an argument, and then become calm. No wonder Hudson had a minor heart attack later in the series. He simply could never contain his embittered state, which is fundamentally a heart condition on the rise, forever. He needs a revolution to lead, and then his heart would be broken, for even though he would feel infinitely better intellectually, he could never square leading the menfolk into battle and death. He has too much loyalty towards the proletariat, and his leadership skills are poor. He dictates via his Ammonia background of kilt, frock, and orgasmic waste. In other words, he is a frustrated older bachelor with no female to help calm him down. He needs help. Ammonias are embittered revolutionaries at heart.
Status and homeopathy
You can see here that the Ammonias are the embattled chefs and butlers of earlier days. They are also the underdogs out there today. The sulphurs on the other hand are the successful entrepreneurs or those born to status enhanced by wealth. The phosphoresces are the calm and benign characters who wish to heal society. This is my understanding of the characters and plotline of Upstairs Downstairs. It portrays every morsel of society correctly and absolutely. You can learn about character analysis from it.