Diminishing Light
The word luxation refers to a joint that has been displaced. The Latin lūxus (“dislocated”) and the Greek loxós (“slanting”) both refer to something that is obviously and painfully not where it is supposed to be.
In chiropractic, our central focus is on something we call the subluxation. The misalignments that indicate biomechanic, neurologic, and energetic compromise to an area of the spine are, by definition, less than a luxation. Subluxations are an intelligent response of the nervous system experiencing stress beyond its capacity to integrate in the moment. This stress can be physical, chemical, mental, emotional, and/or environmental. Since the spine houses the central channel of communication between the brain and the body, the presence of subluxation indicates the brain and body are not effectively coordinating. The effect, which advances with time, is a diminishment of function, especially in the parts of the body that are directly and anatomically linked through the nerves that serve them.
What, you may ask, does this have to do with the shortest day of the year?* Simply this - in Latin lux also means “light.” Subluxation, more specifically (but less technically), represents where and how the central nervous system has dampened its light. Less light means less life. The purpose of the chiropractic adjustment, therefore, is to clear the neurologic interference to the expression of the light within.
May you find the space and time on this winter solstice to connect to your inner light, that wisdom within, for inner light warms night.
*This post was originally published on the winter solstice in the Mutter Chiropractic Newsletter.
Call It What It Is
I do not use the word treatment when talking about chiropractic.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that it is the practice of medicine to diagnose and treat medical conditions. I am not a medical doctor. The second is that I understand a treatment to be a procedure one does in order to fix an ailment or condition. It might be therapeutic and it might even address the surface issue. There is nothing wrong or bad about treatments. They have a place and provide value to those who seek them.
By contrast, the chiropractic adjustment is a creative act. The adjustment allows the Innate Intelligence that communicates with and coordinates all spheres of the human experience to be unlocked, enticed, and reorganized. An adjustment is something that works co-creatively with the Resident intelligence of the body for the betterment of the individual and, by extension, all who will be affected by their greater connection to Source.
The clinical impact of the adjustment is profound. Since the chiropractic adjustment works directly with the mechanical and energetic integrity of the nervous system, it has the ability to affect any manifestation of dis-ease in the body or mind. This is what differentiates an adjustment from a treatment. The scope is far beyond the removal of an uncomfortable or undesired condition. To be clear - it can help with that, too. An adjustment takes as its starting point the premise that the the body is a connected, continuous, self-healing, self-regulating, living organism. The adjustment, therefore, is delivered to integrate and enhance the expression of intelligence, health, wellness, and sanity in the physical form of the human being.
This is why I use the word adjustment.
The Wheel Turns
From Faust to Frankenstein, the alchemical urge lives deep in us all. The power to transform is magic. We see it in Nature and imagine ways we can harness this power for ourselves.
Both life and the wheel of the year are cyclical. They revolve and evolve, phasing into and out of different rhythms and energies at different times. Samhain, usually halfway between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice, is traditionally a time to remember ancestors and those whose lives have transitioned beyond our plane.
Cycles by definition are not linear. Life has found a way to exist on the edge of instability because it dances in and within feedback loops that self-sustain. The balance requires participation. Every healthy cell in your body operates to maximize its advantage while also existing symbiotically with other cells. By contrast, humans have been operating as though a linear materials economy that extracts ever more resources from the finite supply of the earth for the sake of growth is sustainable. A closed-loop materials economy in which the “waste” can be meaningfully converted to new stuff reflects a regenerative model more in line with the cycles of the living world. There is no more obvious nor alchemical an example of this in Nature than healthy soil, for to dust we shall all return.
Death is a part of the cycle of life. Your carbon will be recycled, but the choice to create more light in the world is yours. This principle applies to everything from earlier versions of ourselves to nurse logs and whale falls. This month a full moon illuminates a thin veil. Honor the past, cherish the soil, cultivate the fire of transfiguration to temper the future, fear not the dark, and memento mori.