I asked a friend to proofread a blog post a few weeks ago. She knows very little of homeopathy, but she knows grammar. When you see a topic well, it’s easy to forget that not everyone knows what you know. She asked if I meant to have the letters “c” and “x” after the remedy names; I was reminded that this terminology is not so obvious to a beginner. So, in continuing my goal of educating on homeopathy, let’s dig into the Homeopathy Alphabet Soup and gain an understanding of the letters and number and their meanings.

When you buy a bottle of homeopathic remedies, you may have wondered what the letter after the number indicates. The strength of most conventional medications is measured in milligrams, and some vitamins and minerals are in International Units (IUs) or micrograms. But what does 200C, 10M, or 20X mean?
It’s All Greek to Me
Actually, it’s Roman numerals. The “x” stands for 10. This means that a substance is diluted in a ratio of 1:10. The “c” represents 100, meaning a remedy with a “c” means that a substance is diluted in a ratio of 1:100. The number preceding the letter indicates the number of times a substance has been both diluted and succussed. “Succussed” is a homeopathic term meaning agitated or banged on a hard surface.
Suppose that after a consultation, I give you a moderately high potency of a remedy, a 200C. Let’s say the remedy is Chamomilla. To make a 200C, the homeopathic pharmacy takes one drop of the herbal tincture, or as we call it, a “mother tincture,” and mixes it with 99 drops of water or alcohol. The alcohol acts as a preservative. The resulting dilution is succussed, producing a 1C potency. Then the cycle is repeated, mixing one drop of the 1C with 99 drops of the solution, which, after being succussed, yields a 2C potency. After 200 cycles of dilution and succussion, a 200C solution is produced, which can be dropped onto milk sugar pellets, which I then hand to you.
Christians Beware?
This process of succussion is what most Christians get hung up on and worry that it is not Biblical for them to use homeopathy. I have heard rumors that some believe this act of banging the remedies imparts something demonic into the remedies, and by using them, you involve yourself in witchcraft.
Rest easy, Brothers and Sisters. Samuel Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy, was a man of science. He discovered he could dilute a substance and still create a healing response in the body. He was a medical doctor in a time when harmful substances were used as medicines, and pharmacies were getting rich by giving out prescription after prescription. Uh, this was in the 1840s, not 2024, FYI.

He had a wooden crate of remedies he would use when making house calls. He soon discovered that those remedies worked better. So he began with a hypothesis: was the jostling around in the carriage the cause of this improved function? If he banged remedies, would they work better? He continued this with experiments. Would one bang do it? Ten? 20? 100? He learned that those remedies banged on a surface, he used his leather Bible, were more effective.
In his writings, he never assumed he was infusing the remedies with demonic energies. Or any energy. Some New Age homeopaths will tell you this is what is happening, but that’s their worldview speaking. Hahnemann never writes that he said spells over his remedies. And frankly, you can’t accidentally become a part of the occult. If you use a remedy and your child’s sore throat is gone, that’s not the work of the devil. You’re a family healer. Give glory to God for the gift of homeopathy!
What About Those Other Letters?
What’s an “M” potency? “M” is the Roman numeral for 1,000, so a 1M means the cycle has been repeated 1000 times. Similarly, 10M yields a high potency where the dilution and succussion process has been repeated 10,000 times. Frequently prescribed remedies can be obtained in potencies as high as 50M and CM, diluted and succussed at a 1:100 ratio 50,000 and 100,000 times over, respectively.
Wait, Where Did It All Go?
How can diluting a substance make it stronger or more potent? This is another hang-up that Christians and non-believers alike struggle with. When I first started learning homeopathy, I was told that after 12x, there isn’t any of the original substance left in the remedy. However, we now have nano technology that can identify nanoparticles. It can seem like a paradox that the highest potencies have the least amount of the original substance.
This paradox is resolved when we understand that a remedy acts not as a chemical or material factor but as an informational field. Through a process that we are still just beginning to understand; the repetitive dilution and succussion imparting a patterning to the diluent molecules. The pattern varies depending upon the nature of the substance to which it is exposed and carries information related to the nature of that substance. The more the solution is diluted and succussed, the more the pattern becomes coherent, intense, and detailed.
Consider this analogy: A slide projector sitting a certain distance from a screen. As we move the projector further away from the screen, the image becomes larger, and we can perceive more details. The image is like the remedy. Consider how powerful a picture can be! The saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” indicates the imagery’s rich, informational quality.

A Remedy is Like a Roadmap
When an organism’s vital force is presented with the information conveyed by an appropriately selected image, it can use that information to bring itself back to a position of health and balance. A remedy is like a roadmap, illustrating exactly how the organism traveled off its intended course. Now that it has this information, it can turn around and retrace its steps.
I hope this has made this issue more clear. While the Homeopathy Alphabet Soup can seem confusing, it is a simple answer.
I
Ah, this makes more sense! And thank you for addressing the dilution thing, because that is exactly what I was thinking!
Thanks for proofreading and giving me the topic idea!
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