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Signatures, Miasms, AIDS shows how a deeper knowledge of two key concepts in homeopathic theory - miasms and the doctrine of signatures - can enrich our understanding of remedies and the states we encounter in our patients.

Part I presents some of the historical and alchemical background of homeopathy, placing this system of healing firmly within the context of the ancient, unchanging and eminently practical truths of the 'eternal philosophy'. In an Appendix, we show how an understanding of this knowledge gives a model for potency selection, based on observation of how vital energy expresses itself in individual patients. New light is cast on Hahnemann's original miasms of Psora, Sycosis and Syphilis, creating the foundation for an understanding of the 'newer' miasms posited by modern homeopaths.

Part II examines some polycrest remedies in the light of their signatures and miasmatic tendencies. The concept of signatures is expanded to include the origins, stories and myths surrounding the use of medicinal substances, as well as their cultural, commercial and scientific applications. Remedy pictures are underpinned by extensive clinical experience. Readers who are familiar with the journals Homeopathic Links and The Homeopath may be acquainted with some aspects of the remedy pictures, but these have been reworked to include new insights.

Part III looks in detail at the AIDS miasm through the nosode of that disease and the sarcode Falco peregrinus. Important new information is included from the provings of the AIDS nosode and the polycrest remedy Falco peregrinus, clarifying their clinical application. Further observations on the AIDS miasm are developed based on the homeopathic provings of the AIDS nosode undertaken at the School of Homeopathy.

Because the AIDS nosode and Falco peregrinus are new remedies, their materia medica 'pictures' are not established in the same way as those of the polycrests. The 'Natrum mur type' and the 'Silica type' have become familiar enough for us to fold our signature insights into the well-known remedy themes that have emerged from decades of clinical experience and evolving materia medica. But while Falco peregrinus and the AIDS nosode have been extensively proven and used curatively in some clinical cases, we cannot yet tell how the 'types' of these new remedies will present. Nor do we yet have a full clinical picture of the disease states that will respond to the remedies.

Our treatment of the AIDS nosode and Falco peregrinus in this book is therefore very different from that of the older polycrests. We present background information about the remedy substances, linking them to the themes that emerged from the provings. As these remedies are used by more homeopaths in future years, clearer pictures of the remedies will form themselves out of the raw material presented here, just as they have for the polycrests. However, in our experience, familiarity with the 'stories' of these remedies as presented in this book (in addition to repertory work and materia medica searches) has proved sufficient both to recognise corresponding disease states in patients and to bring about a curative response. We therefore thought it useful to include our existing knowledge in the hope that others will subsequently give it a more defined shape.

Part IV looks at the 'newer' Tubercular, Cancer and AIDS miasms within the context of a developmental model that helps us to locate patients and remedies on the miasmatic map, and also provides a summary of the developmental model of miasms used throughout the book.

Appendices include a model for potency selection based on an elemental model of constitutional types and a homeopathic glossary of commonly used terms for those who may not be familiar with all of the terms used in this book.