The Knots of Anxious Living

The knots of egocentric thinking and behavior stifle the creative flow of true feeling. These knots form in the mind/body complex when the "I", or the sense of separate selfhood, fails to truly channel energies and metabolize energies. Energy becomes stuck, entrenched, slow, inert, and slothful. It can even atrophy in the body, and become toxic, cancerous, and inimical.

The only way to rid the mind and body of knots is to dethrone the tyrant king, the "I" sense. The alchemists advocate the formula, "solve et coagula". Dissolve the corrupt matter, and then distill and coagulate the purified matter. The "I" sense is burned away by the awakening of the serpentine energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine. The energy travels up the vertical axis of the body and dissolves the "I" sense at different points. The energy cleanses the psychic nodes with a subtle fire. When the "I" sense leaves these psychic nodes, energy can properly move once again, and the idea of egoic ownership over the self vanishes.

The binding part of the alchemistic formula, "solve et coagula," involves the awakening of spiritual grace. The body is flooded with a grace that descends from a supernal reality. This grace transmogrifies the mind/body complex. The body becomes a light vessel. The mind becomes a sublime center of liquid consciousness. The self becomes the Philosopher's Stone.

The existential crises of the modern world are all crises of self. The knots have hardened. These knots create an anxious attitude towards life. Let's just think about the psychic body of the US government, and its relentless wars on terror, drugs, and individual freedom. The wars are never ending because the anxiety at the core of the US government's psychic body is inexorable and volatile. It blames others for its own shortcomings. It kills because it has lost the formula of alchemy: solve et coagula.

The rise of technology seems commensurate with the rise of mood disorders and anxiety in general. This rise in technology also adds to the existential crises of our modern selves. Technology makes life easier, and enables us to live longer, but it also creates harmful perturbations in the self. We're oversaturated, overstimulated, and overworked by technology. This obviously affects our nerves. Our nerves are fried. Fried nerves leads to slow metabolism at the visceral and cerebral levels of being. Slow metabolism leads to anxiety.

In a nutshell, anxiety is a state of being where unproductive energy beats out productive energy. It is destructive and unenviable. But it is also the status quo. It is built into the stock markets, the monetary system, and every picket fence in the suburbs. We can't come to proper terms with it because it has become us.

The war on terror is a war perpetuated by the anxious and paranoid. It will end when a alchemical approach is taken to political, economic, and ecological issues. When the lead of the zeitgeist is transmuted into the gold of utopic space, all knots of the being shall become superstrings. The symphony will be heard in matter. The cosmic task shall reach its conclusion. Matter will be made spirit.