Start learning homeopathy

I encourage everyone to start learning homeopathy because it's a great way to take charge of your health. But which book should you buy first? The question is daunting because there are many homeopathic books, some better than others, so I'm happy to make some suggestions.

Learning homeopathic first aid is a wonderful place to start. It's relatively easy and comes with an added bonus: You can buy many of the first-aid remedies in your local heathfood store. I recommend getting Dr. Dorothy Shepherd's Homœopathy for the First Aider. (*) She not only covers every concievable remedy for first-aid situations, but she also shares cases from her many years in practice.

But if you're ready to go beyond first aid, what then? You will need to understand the philosophy behind homeopathy. George Vithoulkas' Homeopathy—Medicine of the New Man (*) is a concise but thorough introduction that is written in easy-to-understand language. Vithoulkas is still alive today, so the antiquated language of the 19th century homepaths is bypassed, removing that barrier to learning.

Once you understand homeopathic philosophy, you will be ready to get your first repertory so that you can begin to group symptoms and see which remedies fit that grouping. Which Repertory should you buy? I personally love Boericke's Homeopathic Materia Medica and Repertory since it contains not just symptoms, but a detailed description (materica medica) of each remedy. It also contains a therapeutic index, connecting ailments to remedies to consider, and so much more! The book was written in the 19th century, which means that it doesn't contain the newer remedies—those that have been added to the homeopathic materia medica since then. But it contains hundreds of remedies—all those tried and true remedies of Hahnemann, Hering, and Lippe's time, which successfully treated a multitude of conditions—everything from toenail fungus to tumors.

What do you do with the symptoms that you gather from the repertory for a particular case? If you're not ready to invest in a software program that will organize the symptoms for you, you will need to enter your gathered symptoms into a chart by hand. I have a chart that I used before I got a software program, and I'm sharing it with you HERE (you will need to print it out). The "Case" is the name of the person for whom you are repertorizing; the "Rubrics" are the symtoms you have found to use for the person's particular problem.

(*) If you don't feel like buying a book, you can also search the internet to find information about homeopathic first aid and philosophy. There's a lot of free information to be found.

I hope you have fun exploring homeopathy! If you have even half as much fun as I've had over the years (and continue to have), it will be well worth your time and effort. And don't hesitate to write to me if you have any questions about anything you've read here today.