Hi Anna,

I'm not so sure myself that the Nat Mur would not have worked--maybe not so well, but still done some good, perhaps over a longer period of time and with appropriate alterations. I'm beginning to feel that more than one remedy can help a patient. Some remedies are so close that I have a hard time believing only one could be the simillimum, but I also have a hard time shaking the possibility that even if they are so close, there must be only 1 simillimum. I've heard a lot of prescribers and teachers publicly wondering about this, too. The trouble with homeopathy is that it is really difficult for every prescriber to come up with exactly the same prescription for any particular case. I know there are a lot of homeopaths writing and working on how to solve this problem now.

In the clinic case I mentioned, the Aqua Marina was chosen because it presented itself in a rubric for a specific type of recurrent menstrual pain. It was repertorized on its periodicity (I cannot possibly find my notes from that time, but I do remember that there was a 21 to 28 day period between occurences) and in that rubric the remedy aqua marina was found, but nat mur, which was present in many other larger rubrics in the case, was not. The patient also had a dream in which she found herself standing in the ocean, slowly becoming engulfed by the waves. The feeling of the dream was not one of fear, but of a kind of happy resignation--that it would be okay if she drowned, or was completely overtaken by the water. As if she were literally in her element in the waves.

Its the remedies we don't know that come up in repertorization (and also in the dream!) which should command our attention--so aqua marina was researched further and given in 200c.

Aqua marina is not the same thing as Nat Mur, which is sea salt (really just sodium chloride). Sea water contains not just mineral components, such as nat mur, but also animal and vegetable components--minute fauna and flora. So it must have a different energy all together.

Wish I could locate those old notes to be more precise about that rubric--I know it was found using MacRepertory and Referenceworks (not sure whether the Phoenix repertory or the Complete Repertory was the source) but if pressed, I can look back and find it.

I've never prescribed the remedy myself, but I must say it did this patient wonders. Not that I'm a big proponent of this, but talk about a way to convert the mainstream medics! This patient is an extremely accomplished nurse in one of the biggest hospitals in Canada, who was also a professor of nursing at University of Toronto. All the specialists she employed to monitor her progress on the homeopathic remedy were amazed at her results, which they verified. She eventually took up serious study of homeopathy herself. I haven't seen her in over a year, so I wonder if she's still at it--but she'd be in a terrific position to promote a greater understanding of homeopathy among her own students.

Anyway, hope this helps,
Divina