New qualitative remedy grading in colour

Symptoms which have been added to the Online Repertory have been given one of the following colours: Magenta, orange, green, or violet. This also means that only quality symptoms have been considered worthy of being added.

It is necessary to make a thorough analysis of a symptom before it is added to a remedy. There are four types of symptoms which are worthy of being considered:

• the essentials
• the very reliable and characteristic
• the verified and
• the analytically logical but not yet properly verified

symptoms.

The colour magenta denotes all symptoms which are the essentials of the remedy. They form the foundation of the remedy and thereby give you the basis for the prescription. Most of the remedies that are new are nosodes. Therefore, at the moment, the majority of the symptoms that are in magenta will be appearing under the nosodes. For the most part the drug pictures of many nosodes are purely clinical and on this basis they have been used in the practice. The main source of their symptoms is Julian’s book on the nososdes. I have been working with a great many nosodes and have been able to verify the general action of these nosodes. This has allowed me to put together much new useful information. In the Online Repertory you will find the essential symptoms I use when making my prescriptions. Also the description of the diseases has been used to work out some of these symptoms.

The colour orange has been given to all the symptoms which have not only been well verified in practice but are also characteristic of the medicine. For this reason, they can be used with certainty. Rubrics in orange are important either because they are very significant or because they will direct you to the correct remedies. Naturally, we have to keep in mind that merely because a number of a patient’s symptoms correspond to some reliable and characteristic symptoms of a remedy does not mean that it is the correct remedy for the patient. Prescriptions must be based on the present pathology of the case. The orange symptoms tell us that this remedy is important and might be required now or in the near future. The colour orange is given only when the author or I myself have verified the symptom clearly.

The colour green is given to those symptoms which have been verified in the practice and the general direction of the medicine is present. Symptoms in green are either of a more general nature and therefore do not belong to the characteristic, needing to be worked out much more, or symptoms in green signify cases when of the characteristic nature not yet verified enough to be put in the category of orange. Many symptoms can be verified but do not have a high value. Therefore, they cannot be orange. In a certain sense, these symptoms still have to prove their worth and the manner in which they fit into the remedy has yet to be, in many cases, worked out. When the general direction of the medicine is already clear, then the symptoms in green can be very valuable in making one’s remedy selection. There may be a number of symptoms which are green and should be orange. But the colour orange is given after much careful evaluation.

The colour violet characterises important symptoms and rubrics which need further verification. Though drug provings form the basis for prescription in the beginning, a drug proving alone does not ensure that all the symptoms are accurate. Thus, in reality, all drugs are initially unverified until they are used in clinical practice and their efficacy is ascertained. Further, though certain specific symptoms may not have come out in the proving, the essence of the medicine can logically show us where the said drug may be of good use. And, the essence of the medicine can be seen in the proving, giving a basis for our analysis. As our knowledge of the essence of a medicine becomes continually clearer and more distinct, even practical use of the medicine will provide more and more violet symptoms. Violet symptoms are in the process of being gradually verified, and though still in a state of development, these symptoms can be very good hints of a remedy’s use in certain cases. A great number of symptoms, especially of nosodes, which were violet for me 20 to 30 years ago have now become orange or magenta. Some still remain violet even though they are in a certain sense verified, but I am not able to get more details out of them. I have noticed, (e.g. with some Silicea violet symptoms) that I have not been able to find out good details regarding feelings, thoughts or situations. It is not enough when the patient only says that he is feeling good or that he could get along better in life. The details do not come out. But sometimes details are combinations of some very "banal" symptoms, which I call symptom complexes.

Most of the symptoms in the Online Repertory are blue because they have to still be screened and checked as to their true value. Still, there are a number of symptoms in the provings which may be useful, but clinically we have no experience with them or the analysis cannot decide with certainty that the symptom can be put in violet. Blue therefore means unknown character but may have its usefulness. Such symptoms when added to the repertory will be given the colour blue.