Entry 2 in my baby steps blog posts about homeopathy as well as how to use it for self-care. [Entry 1: How Homeopathy Started.] Maybe I should call it my Homeopathic Empowerment Series.
For me, homeopathy is empowering. Even knowing how remedies are made is empowering: If you understand how remedies gain potency, you are able to better understand and fine-tune dosing for yourself and your family.
Homeopathic remedies are made by first grinding up a substance, then serially diluting it and succussing it. Succussing [pounding] also is referred to as “potentizing” because it is here that the remedy gains its potency.
This results in a liquid sometimes called the medicating potency. The medicating potency is then applied to various kinds of sugar pillules or into a liquid formula.
Tip: Because there is no additional protective coating [such as one might find on Advil], we typically pour the requisite pillules into the remedy’s vial cap, then directly under the tongue. This reduces the likelihood that some of the remedy will rub-off on your hand, etc. It also means that this rule is not rigid–it is only an optimization technique!
More details ….
The grinding process is called trituration, and it’s much like grinding spices or grains with a mortar-and-pestel.
How often a remedy is serially diluted and succussed determines its potency. The more dilution-succussions a remedy undergoes, the more potent it becomes. So, the higher a remedy’s potency, the more diluted it is.
Tip: In a pinch, when you need a higher potency but only have a lower potency, you can recall this information to increase the potency by putting the remedy in water and then pounding it to increase potency.
Potencies are given using a number and a letter [or letters]. The number represents the number of dilution-succussions, and the letter represents the potency scale used.
The potency scale is determined by how much a remedy is diluted in each dilution-succussion. Three potency scales are employed in homeopathic practice, though the most typical scale is the centesimal scale. The centesimal scale is represented by potencies that are followed by a c/C, ck/CK, CH, or M [M being 1000C and above]. In the centesimal scale, the dilution is a 1:100 ratio.
Typical potencies in self-care are 6c, 30c, and 200c.
Thus, a remedy such as Arnica 30c would be made by taking the whole Arnica plant, grinding it up [typically with milk sugar], then diluting it 1:100 and pounding 10 times. This dilution-succussion process would be employed 30 times for a 30c.
A side-note: although homeopathic remedies reach Avogadro’s Number by the 30c potency [meaning none of the original substance exists in it], newer technology is now able to recognize energetic imprints of the original substance in higher potencies.
So, a little background helps us understand why many people refer to homeopathy as a form of energy medicine–it is essentially the energetic imprint of the original substance which offers itself in a homeopathic remedy and brings our vital force one step closer to full health.