Mouth ulcers: emotional and spiritual meaning

What mouth ulcers are

A mouth ulcer, or aphtha, is a small sore on the lining of the mouth. It is often a white or yellow spot with a red rim, and it hurts when you eat, drink or speak. Most aphthous ulcers are minor, last a week or two, and come back in people who are prone to them. Triggers include minor injury, stress, some foods, and a lack of iron, folate or vitamin B12. Similar sores can appear on genital mucosa, which is a different picture and needs a clinician. A single ulcer that does not heal is not something to watch at home.

The emotional reading below does not replace that check. It asks what the closed mouth has been holding.

The emotional meaning of mouth ulcers

An ulcer here is tied to a fever that does not come out. You react easily. You are sensitive to the people around you, to the "vibrations", to the atmosphere of a situation. You suffer in silence, with the mouth shut. It is also read as difficulty taking root, and as being unable to express yourself, to say what you think, or even to react, because you do not believe you have the power to do it. You do not feel fit for large things.

Insecurity makes you mute about what you are living. You know that saying it could bring a major change, or could turn against you. Something in the mouth burns, and you have to keep it. You cannot spit it out. You may have felt a nastiness and had no answer. It is as if you had no choice but to digest it. That can have been lived through sexuality. As a child you may have known of a situation that felt wrong, and been unable to react or to stand your ground. A similar situation today, even if the memory stays unconscious, is when the ulcers are said to appear.

At the end of your tether

Your words come out vain and unfinished because you are too nervous. You stay mute, without even thinking of revolting, and yet you cannot take any more. You are at the end. Sensitivity is very high. You wear masks. You play a part, afraid of coming into contact with what you deeply feel. You are anxious and everything irritates you. Guilt can follow, and with it a low opinion of yourself. You would so like to accomplish things, and you resist so hard.

You notice that you usually refuse any new idea, even one that could change your life for the better. If you are living an injustice, a disgust, or a hidden dissatisfaction, if you want to empty your heart, you can do it while staying open and in harmony with yourself. The words still have to be chosen. Cruel, false, destructive sentences can turn back on you. You are responsible for speaking without violence. And because the white spots are very painful, the moment you open your mouth to speak, you feel them.

The teeth bite and filter. The mouth, here, is the place that will not let the sentence leave.

A gentler way to hold it

An ulcer is a small wound with ordinary medical causes. The reading is about the silence around it.

• Speak before it hardens. Open, calm speech now is the direction this sore is given, rather than waiting for a worse return.
• Replace guilt with trust. Trust in your capacity to adapt, in your understanding, and in an intuition you listen to a little more.
• Find the form that fits. Taming the feeling includes taming the way you express it.
• Ask what you swallowed. A burning thing you "had" to digest is the image.
• Notice the mask. Playing a part keeps you off the feeling, and the mouth pays for the performance.
• Have a sore that lingers examined. Meaning does not decide whether a patch is harmless.