Jaundice: spiritual meaning and emotional causes

What jaundice is

Jaundice, or icterus, is a yellowing of the skin and the whites of the eyes. It happens when a yellow pigment called bilirubin builds up in the blood. Bilirubin is made when old red blood cells are broken down. The liver processes it and sends it out in the bile, through the bile ducts and into the gut.

Jaundice can start at any point along that path. Red blood cells may break down too fast, as in some forms of anaemia. The liver itself may be inflamed or damaged, as in hepatitis, alcohol-related liver disease or a reaction to a medicine. Or the bile may be blocked, most often by gallstones, sometimes by pancreatitis or a narrowing of the ducts. Dark urine, pale stools and itchy skin often come with it. Gilbert's syndrome, a common and harmless inherited condition, can cause a mild yellow tinge at times of illness or fasting.

Yellow skin in an adult is never something to wait out. The cause needs blood tests and often a scan, and treatment depends on what is found.

Jaundice in newborn babies

Newborn jaundice is very common. Many babies look a little yellow in their first days because their liver is still immature, and it usually fades within two weeks without harm. It still needs checking by a midwife or doctor, especially if it appears in the first 24 hours or lasts longer, because some babies need light treatment or further tests.

The emotional meaning of jaundice

In French, faire une jaunisse, "to get jaundice" over something, means to be eaten up with vexation or envy. You "turn yellow". Spiritually, jaundice is linked to cleaning: the liver clears the blood, and you may find it hard to clear your emotions.

Bitter feelings that are not cleared

Jaundice is linked to intense, bitter emotions: jealousy, disappointment and frustration, so strong that a situation turns you yellow. A great deal of rancour, of resentment, may have built up.

Opinions that become sharp

You may become so cutting and so extreme in your ideas and opinions that you cling to them. That rigidity creates an imbalance inside. A negative state of mind narrows your view, and it becomes hard to see the whole of a situation, or of your life.

Authority, your place and the wish to run

There may be a conflict with the power that authority holds, and with your place in society. Rather than finding your place, you would rather run away. You want to get out of a situation that has become unbearable, and at the same time you refuse to change.

Trapped, guilty and tired

Guilt and shame may be part of it. You feel trapped in a straitjacket, emotional, social or physical. You question the road to follow and who you really are. You have lost courage, and you feel so imprisoned by emotions you have not expressed that you need to be alone to recharge.

Newborn jaundice: what the family carries

Spiritually, a baby's jaundice is linked to frustration, disappointment or rancour in the atmosphere around the birth. A baby may seem to want to get away and cannot, tied to a situation or simply to its mother. A child may also take on its parents' thoughts. If the parents hoped for a boy and a girl was born, for example, the child may feel responsible for their disappointment, and feel short of protection.

This is not a reason for parents to feel guilty. Newborn jaundice is mostly a matter of an immature liver. The question, if it speaks to you, is simply whether your baby is welcomed exactly as they are.

A gentler way to hold it

The aim is not to blame yourself for a yellow skin. Blood cells, the liver, the bile ducts and medicines play a real part, and jaundice always needs a doctor. The emotional perspective invites you to look at what has gone bitter inside.

• Open up to the people around you. You have a great deal to learn from them.
• Name the bitterness. Envy, disappointment, frustration: saying which one it is begins the cleaning.
• Loosen an opinion. Choose one idea you hold fiercely and look at it from the other side.
• Look for your place instead of the exit. Ask what finding your place, rather than running, would take.
• Rest without hiding. Time alone to recharge is healthy. Coming back towards others is part of it.
• Welcome a child as they are. If you are a parent, let them know they are wanted just as they came.