Synchronicities

Well hello, and here we are, having survived another hellacious full moon. This was a big one. I can confidently say that we are all feeling this one in our own ways and to differing degrees. Even folks who aren’t paying attention to the moon cycles are remarking that the energy is really intense, that moods are very temperamental, that everyone has just gone buck wild.

Pisces moon, too, so like. Double trouble. If there is going to be some emotional depth surrounding a full moon, it is damn well gonna be  Pisces moon. That’s okay though. That’s good. There’s nothing wrong with feeling things and feeling them deeply and if it takes a Pisces blue moon to wrench those emotions out of us, then so be it.

 

I’m not mad about that. What I am excited about is that it is September tomorrow. Thank the gods for that. I don’t have the strength for too much more summer, I gotta be honest. I am so ready for autumn. And yes, that’s basic witch shit but I can’t bring myself to care. It was 102 degrees here yesterday. That is hateful. And it’s sweaty and unsanitary and I’ve done my time. Goodbye and good riddance.

 

So what is on the agenda for today? We are gonna talk about synchronicities. This is another one of those concepts that come from psychology, in particular one Mr. Carl Jung. He not only defined the concept but also coined the term. We talked a little bit about him during our Shadow Work episode. And it is interesting that Jung was a proponent that these synchronicities could sometimes be paranormal in nature. 

 

In his book Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle, Jung wrote:

 

“How are we to recognize acausal combinations of events, since it is obviously impossible to examine all chance happenings for their causality? The answer to this is that acausal events may be expected most readily where, on closer reflection, a causal connection appears to be inconceivable.… It is impossible, with our present resources, to explain ESP, or the fact of meaningful coincidence, as a phenomenon of energy.”

 

He believed that synchronicities were real, and that they could not all be explained away as people simply seeing what they want to see. And this is pretty cool. A lot of Jung’s contemporaries were not so open minded about the possibility that the universe, or spirits, or our own extrasensory perceptions were sending us messages, but the father of analytical psychology was a believer. 

 

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Synchronicities, for the purposes of our discussion, simply describe circumstances that seem to be meaningfully related. In Jung’s analytical psychology, the recognition of seemingly-meaningful coincidences is a mechanism by which unconscious material is brought to the attention of the conscious mind.

 

So, let’s give some common examples of synchronicities. Thinking about a friend you haven’t seen or spoken to in a while and suddenly that person calls you on the phone out of the blue. Seeing the same repeating numbers or a series of numbers over and over again in different places, such as license plates, or phone numbers on billboards. Seeing the same animal over and over again, like a crow or a black dog, to the point that it gets your attention and you can’t help but really pause and notice it.

 

There was a movie back in the 90s it was called Fools Rush In. It’s not a particularly good movie, it’s a pretty standard 90s romcom and the premise is that this kind of straightlaced button-up guy meets a beautiful free-spirited girl. And at the beginning of the movie, the female main character is on the phone telling her friend that like, it’s not gonna work out with the guy she’s been seeing because the necklace that he gave her broke. Like, it was a bad omen, right?

 

So the male main character overhears this conversation and is intrigued but kind of teases her about it because that’s such a dopey reason to break up with a guy. But this girl is like, no, this is a sign, and you have to watch for signs and trust them when you see them. But apparently it doesn’t put too much of a damper on his impression of her because they end up having a one-night stand.

 

I won’t give a whole rundown of this movie, it’s like 25 years old and it’s easy to find I’m sure, but there’s a third-act break-up and while the guy is trying to figure out if he did the right thing by ending it with her, suddenly he starts experiencing all these synchronicities that are specifically related to her and the time they spent together. And he chooses to give them credence and to reevaluate where his head is at and ultimately he does the right thing.

 

And of course they end up together in the end because like, he’s Matthew Perry and she’s Salma Hayek and he’s a goddamn dumbass if he lets a woman like that slip through his fingers, but I really like the representation of those signs, those synchronicities. It’s nothing overdone, like he doesn’t hear a voice from beyond the grave or anything, but like, he meets a little girl with the same name as Ms Hayek’s character, and runs into a street preacher who warns him that there are signs everywhere and he needs to pay attention, and stuff like that. 

 

And again, like, nobody gave this movie any awards or anything and I am not even recommending it, I’m just saying that I really love the way synchronicities are portrayed. Because that’s what it usually comes down to, is deciding that a sign is in fact a sign. It’s a matter of deciding that these messages are meant for us and they have something important to tell us and we have to get over ourselves and do a little detective work and decide if they mean anything and then what they mean.

 

So that’s cool, synchronicities are real and for the duration of this conversation, we are just agreeing that that’s the case. So where do they come from? Who is sending these messages? Well, I tend to believe that they come from a few different sources. I believe that the universe, or spirit can send us synchronicities. It is my experience that these messages are going to be related to larger, more consequential issues. Not always, but generally. Again, in my experience. Your mileage may vary.

 

We sometimes get these little messages from our own intuition and our own psychic abilities. This goes back to the example of thinking about someone you haven’t seen for years and then suddenly they call you. Is it a premonition? Yeah, probably, but it falls under the loose definition of a synchronicity. It’s a thought of a person that syncs up with real life communication with them. Ipso facto synchronicity.

 

I think we also receive synchronicities from our guides or our ancestors. I had a personal experience where I heard a song over the radio that I had never heard played before in my entire life, but a deceased loved one used to sing it all the time. That’s the only time I’d ever heard this song, it was obscure and it was old as hell. And I heard this song on this loved one’s birthday. This was for me a validation that this loved one was close, that I was still in his heart, and that he wanted me to know it. Could this have been a coincidence? Yeah, it totally could have been. But I don’t believe that for a second. I know in my heart what I felt at that time and that was total love and comfort and peace.

 

If it’s a guide or a deity trying to get your attention, you may see the same animal over and over again. Take a look at a book of correspondences and see what deities are associated with a raven, or a bear, or whatever the animal may be. These spiritual entities have to work a little harder and a little more symbolically to make themselves heard.

 

So how do we begin to recognize these messages? How do we recognize them as significant and not  a simple matter of coincidence? Well, we just have to start. Part of the process of realizing these signs are signs is by stopping to notice them. Seeing signs begets seeing signs. The more we pause and acknowledge these messages, the more we will begin to receive messages. We have to first open ourselves to the possibility and the reality of synchronicity.

 

We can’t simply blow this off as mere coincidence. If, when, something gets your attention, stop and give it your attention. If you keep seeing the number 333 all day, stop and recognize it. Acknowledge it. Say out loud, “this is the third time I’ve seen this number today, what is the message I’m meant to receive?” Even if nothing comes to mind, keep doing it. Notice what you’re thinking about or doing just before you get these messages.

 

The law of attraction assures us that the more weight we give to these messages, the more attention that we pay, the more of these messages we will attract. And this is an act of faith in itself. It’s an act of confidence in our own abilities. It’s a show of faith that there’s a greater power. It’s an act of trust that we are powerful, spiritual, psychic beings.

 

And, okay, but what is the purpose of these synchronicities? Beyond the actual message itself, whether it’s a message to start worshiping Hekate or to call your granddad, what is the point of receiving strange messages in strange ways? In my opinion, in a nutshell, synchronicities are evidence that we are not just out here alone. That we are not out here just flailing around, with no outside guidance, with no higher power watching over us.

 

To me, the synchronicity is evidence that this is all related. There is a long, beautiful silver thread that links all of us, and it links our past lives, our future lives, it links the actions we take and the effects that we have on others. It calls attention to the fact that sometimes we are put into another person’s path to advance their spiritual journey. It is a damn humbling thing to see synchronicities. 

 

And maybe I read it differently than some other people do. Maybe for some, the idea that the universe is invested in their outcome is an ego boost. I don’t really see it that way, it’s actually more like, me and this dog, which is identical to the dog I had as a kid and whom I’ve missed and loved for 30 years, were put right in each other’s path at this one moment in time so that I could stop and take a breath and remember that all my bullshit isn’t that important or special. What’s important is that I miss that old dog, and he was a good boy, and he used to get a lot of ear infections and now that I think about it, Johnny has been acting kind of weird, I wonder if he has an ear infection. And I’ll be goddamned he did have an ear infection. 

 

So you see, it’s not always all that serious, but it can be. So we just need to keep ourselves as open to all of the messages, the big ones and the small ones, and we just have to trust ourselves. We can’t ignore or discredit ourselves when something gets our attention. We are psychic beings, and it’s a muscle. We either use it or lose it. We gotta pay attention when it happens, and we gotta keep looking for those synchronicities so that we’ll recognize them when they come. And they will come.

 

Have a wonderful day, a wonderful rest of August, and we’ll talk again in September. Thank you for joining me today. My name is Eli Ro, and this has been the Middle-Aged Witch podcast.

 

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