The law of cause and effect underlies modern science, using almost entirely causal thinking to prove the theories it develops. As a type of thinking, it considers the world and everything that happens in it as a set of “simple events” that have no connection with the other processes happening in parallel with them. It also excludes the idea of a universal interconnectedness between individual events.
Development of the concept of “synchronicity” in the Western world
According to the analytical psychologist CG Jung, “this has an increasingly unfavorable effect on the acquisition of knowledge about large-scale relationships and the unity of the whole, because everything that happens becomes a fact in the same world and belongs to it. On this basis is the assertion that all events should have the aspect of unity. This is also stated by the Hermetic Principle of Correspondence – “As above, so below; as below, so above”. This principle is one of the pillars on which astrology is built as a science, and in the modern world it provides an opportunity to look at situations that could not be explained within the principle of causality.
Briefly, causal thinking considers a series of events A, B, C, D, etc., where each of them occurs as a result of the previous event. In this case, the cause precedes the consequence and therefore time has a linear structure of “before” and “after”. On the other hand, more and more research in the field of physics shows that sometimes the consequence precedes the cause and this principle is not universally valid at the microphysical level. In turn, this means that it is not an absolute law, but rather a trend or probability. As a result of his in-depth research in the early twentieth century, Jung introduced the term “synchronicity” to describe coinciding events over time that have no causal relationship and are therefore generally described as “significant coincidences.”
Which came first: the chicken or the egg?
The classic way of thinking in China is the synchronistic or so-called field thinking, which includes a group of probable events coming together in a common center, like a mandala. In Chinese civilization, the question is not how or why something came about, but what kind of things tend to happen at the same time. On the other hand, in Western causal thinking there is a separation between mental and material events and usually physical events are expected to cause another physical event or psychological event, for example, “I had a hard day at work, so at the moment I have a headache and I don’t want to go anywhere”.
It was not until the twentieth century that the interaction between the two lines began to be observed in reverse order, or precisely the possibility of mental activity to cause a physical phenomenon. In this way, the “happening” of things could be observed as an energy phenomenon that flows freely in both directions – between the physical and psychological dimensions of things. This is the subject of study in the growing popularity of psychosomatic medicine.
In the synchronistic Asian way of thinking, it is important to observe both lines or areas of reality and how at certain moments when someone thinks or dreams about something (meaning there is a psychological event), objective physical events occur. This, in turn, shows that the time element is very important for the synchronistic thinking, because it is a unifying factor that focuses the observation on a complex of events in a kind of center.
A modern concept of synchronicity
For many people, the term “synchronicity” means the simultaneous occurrence of certain events. Jung emphasizes that this coincidence is relative, noting that it can only be understood through individual subjective perception. We can add another semantic aspect to the understanding of the concept – the feeling of significance in the connection between the individual events.
In other words, the creation of spontaneous associations between events and encounters from the conscious life and images from dreams and fantasies arising from the unconscious psyche, are key to the perception of synchronicities, which are to be interpreted as signs. A sign can be a person who looks like someone from the past, an animal that appears during a walk, or a song that evokes a certain feeling. It is possible to talk about synchronicity when there is more than one sign to associate with the same meaning.
In his essay “Synchronicity: A Non-Causal Connecting Principle,” Jung considers the emergence of the phenomenon of synchronicity as arising from the collective unconscious and the archetypes or universal symbols on which it is built (more on the subject in Symbolic Language and Astrology). According to him, this collective, unconscious mind that we all share, contains active and theoretical knowledge as well as everything that has ever happened and everything that will happen. Thus, synchronicity describes the governing dynamics that underlie all human experience, including social, emotional, psychological and spiritual, and at the same time is responsible for the order between the micro and macro cosmos.
This is exactly the same connection, that is mentioned in the principle ” As above, so below; as below, so above”. Thus, those whose conscious mind uses symbolic thinking and studies the great events in the heavens have the key to the astrological method of “reading” the small events on Earth. In itself, this points to a controlling principle or transcendental unit known as God, which is worshiped in all possible religions in the world, regardless of their names. This transcendent being is beyond our understanding of time and space and at the same time beyond human capabilities to be understood in depth. Jung says that “this background of the universe as a whole is part of both physical and mental realm, and therefore does not belong to any of them, but rather forms a third thing that is neutral in nature and one could have only a faint idea about it, because it is transcendental itself“.
Reading the signs in life brings what is called intuition or clear vision. Practicing it helps a person realize that the reason for everything he attracts in his life – people, messages, events, is themselves, and taking responsibility is the only way to be able to make free choices in life. This is the way a person begins to create his own future; through the choices he makes in the present.
More about the signs in life as a tool, read here.
If you have specific questions about your experience, such as events, meetings, or dreams, and need help reading and interpreting it, feel free to contact me at the phone number and email listed on the page.
