Hi Valerie,

Noone is meant to memorize ALL the symptoms. Characteristics do become more familiar with time, especially when you have the opportunity to witness them in person clinically. There is always a sense of amazement when you hear a patient report a "keynote" symptom straight from a text book, but really, the important thing in homoeopathy is how to *perceive* a characteristic symptom , making sure you have understood what the patient has said to you in the proper context, and then find the relevant rubric in a repertory.

To begin studying a remedy I personally tend to get an 'overall' view from Boericke, as a start, for this purpose - Boericke is already a composite of various sources and clinical verifications and easy to read. From there I look at other sources, MMP or CD if it is in there, but it is always important to try to locate symptoms of the remedy in the repertories. This has the double advantage of understanding the meaning of the rubric itself, - not always an easy task - and understanding why the remedy has been placed there in the context of that rubric.

You really do need to know how to source any symptom you read about. Find its real context. Homoeopathy is all about symptom similarity - but in proper context. This is not always a black and white absolute literal context, but you need to be <sigh> somewhat contained in your interpretation in the meaning of words and descriptions. Keep asking the patient why, what, how, when, where, they mean by such and such until you understand how it is for them. Don't assume you know what they mean, it could be two totally different realities. If your patient complains you are driving them demented, feel satisfied you are doing a competent job.

So if you know how to perceive a characteristic symptom from what your patient displays or reveals, you can then discern whether it is relevant to the case at hand via directions in the Organon, locate the symptom via a rubric in a repertory, then a smaller relevant symptom group will be revealed to you (if you have a reliable repertory). Then it is a matter of matching the proving symptoms to the small group of remedies in your profile. Try to avoid the pitfall of merely relying on the results of a repertorization alone, or selecting a remedy from those included in one rubric. The repertory is not the presiding factor in a prescription. It is only part of the process.

So it comes full circle...get an overview of a remedy, learn the substance of it, study the characteristics from the texts, glean clinical verifications to make it all fall into place in your mind, learn how to apply the characteristics to the rubrics in the repertories, then when you can take a case you can look at the results of repertorization, and look for those characteristic symptom similarities in the provings to substantiate your selection.

It's not that you have to memorize every symptom of every remedy. The *method* to finding the smaller group of remedies containing the characteristic symptoms is more realistic. Sorry if this is too convoluted, it's late, and a sad sorry day for humanity, maybe someone else can say it more simply tomorrow...