Magickal Synch:
The Necessity of Synchronicity in a Magickal Reality
by - Frater Fnordboy

"…a descriptive term from the link between two events that are connected through their meaning, a link that cannot be explained by cause and effect."
- Carl Jung's definition of Synchronicity

     When I first began to consciously work on creating my own system of magick, about eight or nine years ago, one of the key influences on my ideas was Carl Jung. I was reading quite a few books on quantum physics at the time and there was a fair amount of mentions of Jung and his ideas of synchronicity and the collective unconscious, so I decided to look into Jung further. The ideas that Jung put forth were invaluable tools to me, and the fuel for going further and further into my own belief system.

     Here I will go into a little bit about Jung and what influenced him to develop his ideas on synchronicity. Carl Jung (1875 - 1961), was an analytical psychologist and in the beginning a colleague of Freud's, till their split due to differences in thought. He became interested in the occult and paranormal at a very young age due to a few factors. One of which being that he witnessed, along with his mother, a solid oak table split right in front of their eyes, and shortly after a steel knife broke into pieces, all for no apparent reason, or with any force used by anyone. Later on he began attending seances with other family members, as a roundabout result of these occurrences. He came up with synchronicity to:

"...strip off the fantasy, magic, and superstition which surround and are provoked by unpredictable, startling, and impressive events that...appear to be connected."
       Carl Jung, R.F.C. Hull (translator). Synchronicity, An Acausal Connecting Principle, ( page V)

     I personally half agree with Jung on this, here is my own spin on the above quote: I agree that the fantasy, magic and superstition need to be stripped away from certain seemingly synchronic events. There are definitely times when there is an acausal principle, or atleast seemingly acausal principle, at work. A causal principle would be through the Magickian's own inflection of their Will upon 'creating' a synchronic event, consciously or not. Regardless if it is causal or acausal, a synchronistic event is only such when it gives meaning or insight, the unconscious, or archetype, communicating with the conscious in a form of guidance.

     What surprised me the most was that when I was first really getting into the idea of synchronicity, I found many examples of it occurring around me and the people that I associated with at that time. In the beginning I figured it had to do mainly with just now "knowing" about the idea I was noticing it more, but I found it happening too often to just chalk it all up to that. What most got me excited about synchronicity was that after I would do a working or ritual, no matter how big or small, I would see glimmers and hints of the working in all aspects of my life. Granted, I am sure a fair majority of those glimmers and hints were causal, inflected by myself, but that in no way lessens the validity or impact it had on the working, or my growing belief system. I have never been a firm believer in the idea of the "prepare>cast>forget" method of working, I don't feel it is necessary to forget the idea of the working, or the expected outcome, for it to work. So, by seeing all these synchronic events occur around me it strengthened the idea that I was on the right path, atleast for myself.

     I feel, through my own experiences, that the observation of synchronic events, not only those that 'come' from magickal work, but all synchronic events helps one grow magickally and/or spiritually. Especially at the earlier stages of magickal experimentation it is important to be aware of these events. These events show that you are, as a magickian, having some effect on the reality around you, even if your workings do not come to full fruition. When first starting out as a student of magick and the occult, successes maybe few and far between, synchronicity helps strengthen the idea that you are actually having an effect. Synchronic events in my opinion can and should be counted as at the very least a half-success, and should be definitely noted in your magickal diary.

     Synchronicities are also great indicators that you are in tune with what is going on around you and that it may be a good time to do a magickal working or ritual. This goes, of course, for the initiate, adept, and all in between. The Magickian could also use the synchronistic event as a divination tool, using the event as a guiding message to describe what has or will happen in the past, present, and future. You would have to use your own judgement on how to take the synchronicity into account, generally I find initial instinct as the best judge.