In all cases, homeopathy is a healing science based on the body, mind and spirit's natural intelligence and our ability for self-healing. Homeopathy can help a disorganized and confused organism rouse its resources to make a cohesive and direct defense against illness. There are however, different ways of applying this versatile form of medicine, and the four main categories of homeoapthy are outlined below.
Complex Homeopathy
Complex homeopathy uses combinations of medicines that to treat various conditions like colds and flu, arthritis, blood sugar disorders and so on. The individual remedies in the combination are the ones that are generally most effect in relieveing the symptoms, corrects the distrubed physiology and getting at the underlying causes of the condition.
Combination remedies are used in lower potencies (closer to their chemical nature and material form) for healing on a physical and metabolic level. If intelligently formulated (and many are not), they can improve the function of organs and tissues, and revitalize the weak areas of the body. They are also useful and sometimes dramatically effective for relieving symptoms, where the alternative is toxic and invasive medical drugs. For example, in head to head studies using several arthritis medicines that I formulated for Schiff, the homeoapthic combination was more effective in terms of relief of swelling, pain and stiffness than the most powerful medical anti-inflammatory drugs known.
Classical/Single Remedy homeopathy
This original form of homeopathy uses a single remedy, exactly matched to the symptoms of the individual, to stimulate the body to heal itself. Classic homeopathy is far more individualized that Complex homeopathy, and thus it is easier to make a mistake and use a remedy that is not as effective as one would have hoped. Classically presribed remedies can be given for both acute and chronic conditions, and can thus be used for short-term problems, or taken for prologned periods of time. One seeks a remedy that is exactly the right match for the condition and the unique make up of the perosn who has it. For any condition there are dozens of possible remedies to choose from, so it requires some skill for self-prescribing or expertise on the part of a practitioner. For example, even for cold or flu, there are dozens of possible remedies, depending on subtle symptom differences, and the person's invidualized biological and individualized psychological type. Single remedies are extraodinary for chronic symptoms and disease processes, such as arthritis, where medical treatement is largely ineffective, generally toxic and is only symptomatic, not curative.
Constitutional Homeoapthy
Simultaneous with curing an illness, homeopathy can also profoundly change one’s weaknesses and disease tendencies. To do this, one is prescribed a series of remedies that perfectly match aspects of one’s metabolic type, psychological type, and unique individual qualities and core patterns—not just one’s disease symptoms. A singe remedy is used from the plant, mineral or animal kingdom, with gradual but very deep results.
Archetypal Homeopathy
Archetypal homeopathy is a more advanced and subtle form of constitutional presribing. With this approach, the practitioner must perceive the trends and direction in which the individual is evolving, and understand the basic struggles in the person's innermost core. While many of the same remedies are used as in Consitutional homeoapthy, they are directed at a spiritual level, where ancient traumas, karma, and old blockages, have become obstacles to the further progress of the soul's journey towards full self-discovery and awakening. This approach places much greater emphasis on our spiritual nature, motives and values, as well as the archetypal meaning of the remedy we need. Horse’s Milk may be given to help liberate us from being held back. Diamond is used if we are a “diamond in the rough,”or Pulsatillsa—one of the first flowering plants—can help regain lost femininity. Rather than being facile or fanciful, this correspondence requires great perception and has profound transformative effects.
