Synchronicity: A Deep Dive and Navigation Guide

Today we’ll be delving into the kinds of coincidences that take our breath away, give us goosebumps and make us go, “did that really just happen?”

An animal you feel a strong connection with keeps appearing at the same time as important or emotionally charged events take place in your life.

You see the same number repeated seemingly everywhere when you’re about to take a pivotal step in your creative or professional development (multiples of 11 are big contenders here, but not the only ones!).

A loved one you haven’t been in touch with for a while is going through the exact same life challenges as you, at the same time, down to eerie details.

You happen to hear about the same book in three unrelated circumstances in the span of 48 hours. You decide to read the book, and it gives you valuable clues to resolve the exact problem you’ve been facing. 

In those moments, we might not make a big deal out of the uncanny coincidence. Maybe we let the moment pass, or maybe save it as a fun story to tell our friends the next time we see them.

“Haha, you’ll never believe what happened to me. Reality is stranger than fiction. Just weird, isn’t it?”

Which makes total sense to do in our world, even if we personally believe in “spooky” stuff. Somewhere along the line, most of us received the message that coincidences only appear meaningful because our brains are biased to see and respond to patterns so much so that we’ll read patterns in randomness, like seeing faces on everyday objects. All well and good — it’s helpful to hold the kind of discernment that can tell apart when we’re seeing a face which isn’t there, or when we see a snake on the ground but it’s really just a stick. When we notice something startling or out of the ordinary, it’s best to ask questions and investigate rather than jumping to knee-jerk conclusions. 

But the thing is that, as an extra add-on to our legitimate lessons on objectivity, most of us have also received other, more nefarious messages. We might have learned that if we experience something magical or miraculous, and we tell others about it, we’ll get laughed at, ridiculed, called crazy. That we’ll get a certain kind of look, you know the one, with subtle contempt baked right into it. That our small miracle will be met with awkward silence or explained away. That we’ll risk our professional credibility. That we’ll be hurt in a deep, secret place that blooms with awe, hope and unabashed enthusiasm when Mystery is present.

Collectively, I feel we’ve had enough of casting healthy discernment as the polar opposite of the enchanted, communicating Cosmos. Instead, let’s go exploring where those voices have told us not to look. Doing so can help us crack the code to some of the most magical, awe-inspiring ways we can be in relationship with all of life and with our deep soul. My hope is that even if you already take messages from the Universe seriously, that you’ll come away with new jumping-off points to deepen your ongoing dialog with them!


Wording

As we’ll touch on below, mysterious coincidences arise from various sources. However, it’s really common for us to refer to “the Universe” when we discuss them; as in “I think the Universe is telling me to pay attention to this”. Through this article, I’ll be leaning into using “the Universe” as a shorthand. By doing so, I’ll be, maybe unfairly, lumping together many of the invisible forces that help weave the fabric of our reality. Perhaps alluding to the Multiverse instead would be far more accurate! Still, the term is intuitive for many of us and easy to grasp, so I’ve kept it, alternating with “Cosmos” and “(spiritual) forces” to mean the same collective of often-unseen intelligences that weave the threads of existence with us.

Synchronicity

You probably know the coincidences I described above as “synchronicities”. Synchronicity, or meaningful coincidence, is when two or more completely unrelated events co-occur in unlikely ways, while signaling a connection to something relevant to us personally at the same time— giving us a sense that there’s a deeper meaning, beyond just the isolated events. 

They surprise and shock us, inspire awe, and at times, seem to defy the laws of the universe as we know them. In a strict sense, a synchronicity is a highly improbable event, whose odds of taking place are lower than chance— and yet, there it is, happening right in front of us. However, many of the more everyday variety of synchronicities that get our attention aren’t always extremely improbable. They capture our attention, instead, through poetic resonance, and deserve to be taken into account, as long as we know how to be discerning and not lose our sense of consensual reality in making everything into a synchronicity.

The word synchronicity originates from the Greek roots “syn-”, meaning together, and “khronos”, meaning time. This doesn’t mean that synchronistic events only happen at the exact same clock moment. Synchronicity in practice often involves events taking place in broader time spans– for instance, in my example above, hearing about the same book three times within two days. There is however, a sense of rhyme and rhythm, such that uncanny experiences repeat, “cascade”, or “call-and-response” one after the other in intervals. We might also encounter “bendy time”, such as eerie coincidences that connect events—even across years —-backwards or forwards.

The term synchronicity first originated with Carl Jung, who described it as an “acausal connecting principle” — meaning, the chain of events we’re witnessing isn’t linked by a readily measurable cause and effect. 

You think of a friend you lost touch with twenty years ago. That same friend emails you the very next day to reconnect. There’s no obvious, “Newtonian physics, linear-time” explanation for the two events happening in close succession. But also, as I understand Jung’s words, he meant “acausal” to  mean two things. One is in line with the above: the event doesn’t follow the scientific laws of causation as we know them. The other precludes the idea of a single higher intelligence (“God”) making the thing happen by pointing a finger from on high, unilaterally deciding our fate. Instead, I take his words to mean a kind of emergent co-firing of the cosmic neurons in the infinite, invisible network that underlies reality.

Yet I believe that synchronicities are not without cause — it’s more that in a great number of cases, we can’t determine a cause through a mechanistic, scientific-materialist view of the world.  My take on synchronicities is that they do point us to a living, breathing, interactive Cosmos, and are communications and overtures to co-create a more artful, grace-filled, bold, loving and creative life here on planet Earth. 

Maybe, just maybe, they’re a really key thing we need to be paying attention to, in order to find ourselves at the right place, at the right time, doing the right things— as we move through the chaos of our crumbling systems of oppression and exploitation, and into a more just and mutually enriching way of being on Earth and with one another.

Synchronicities tend to be evolutionary in nature — engaging with them helps us become greater in spirit than whatever our current state happens to be. They point us to the next transition, point us in the right direction to get unstuck or find needed support in hard circumstances, prepare us for potential danger, or connect us to our loved ones.

These communications can come directly from the Source of all Existence, from our own wise soul assisting us in navigating the adventures and difficulties of being in a body; from more-than-human beings such as plant, animal and fungi, as well as our family in spirit: whether we call them our angels, guides, beloveds, ancestors or teachers. Author Sharon Hewitt Rawlette, in her book “The Source and Significance of Coincidences”, reviews a large body of evidence, which points to synchronicities being created by a staggering variety of beings and intelligences.

By now, you’ve likely called to mind one or more interesting coincidences that happened to you or someone you know. There’s a real spectrum when we think about synchronicity: from the subtle nudge from that song playing on the radio, which appears to perfectly describe the dilemma you’ve been trying to make up your mind about for weeks; to spooky paranormal events such as apparitions from the deceased, inexplicable hunches that turn out to be true and life-saving dreams about future accidents — to name a few.

In Rawlette’s work, we see reflected the fact that synchronicity can’t really be pulled apart from the expression of our psychic nature. Meaningful coincidences often take place with or around our receiving psychic messages, precognitions, or important dreams. Conversely, those of us who engage our psychic senses purposefully will tend to see an exponential increase in the waves of synchronicity coursing through our world.

In this way,  we humans have been weaving our lives around the messages contained in omens and signs throughout time — signs from the gods, from our kin amongst the non-human animals, from the weather, from divination, from oracles and dreams. We’ve been using meaningful coincidences as a way to navigate important decisions and chaotic or unpredictable circumstances since forever— long before Jung made a serious study of them. 

Let me tell you about one that happened to me about a decade ago.

Fuzz Attack


It was a hot Summer evening, much like today as I’m writing this. 

I was sitting on the back stoop of the apartment I was subletting, overlooking an unkempt backyard leading to a narrow alley. The landscape was mostly concrete, gravel, wildflowers and vines pushing their way into urban golden light. 

A rough sketch of the yard as I was looking out at it at the time. 

I was engrossed in a conversation about hopes and dreams. At the time, I made a scant living doing freelance design work. I found myself verbally analyzing my various gigs and contracts, and saying something to the effect of,

“I wish I could make it to $2000 a month. I don’t think that’s realistic though. I don’t  think I can expect to make $1500 a month, even.” (that was Canadian dollars in the early 2010’s, FYI).

No sooner had these fateful words left my lips, than one of the many fuzzy, placid bumblebees all around stopped minding its business to fly straight at my face, and started stinging my cheek with a vengeance.

(Bumblebees can sting multiple times, I learned that day).

I swatted the offender off my face. She kept clinging to my face and chest. She furiously pursued as I ran for cover indoors, butted her tiny head against the glass door I barely managed to close behind me. I watched in disbelief as her little body hit the glass over and over for what must have been at least five minutes — she wouldn’t quit.
You might be wondering what I’d done to deserve the attack. Let me assure you, I hadn’t made any sudden movements, or done anything a bee would find threatening. In fact, bumblebees are known for their peaceful disposition— they’re not a stinger-happy folk. As an avid gardener and documenter of pollinators, I’ve spent countless hours in close proximity with all kinds of bees, and now at age 37, this was one of only three bee stings I’ve had my whole life (the other two were each from me stepping on a bee walking barefoot on a lawn, at ages 8 and 26).


My only crime was, it seemed, to have pronounced out loud that I probably couldn’t expect to make any more money than I was currently making.

Do You Trust Life?

Ink sketch, inspired by my bumblebee encounter

Today, I’m a person who encourages others to dream boldly, disrupt oppressive situations and ways of thinking, listen to their soul’s promptings, befriend life within and without, and know that the Universe has our back. I’m inspired by something akin to astrologer Rob Brezny’s Pronoia, from his book Pronoia: Is the Antidote for Paranoia, (pg. 4):

DEFINITION: Pronoia is the antidote for paranoia. It’s the understanding that the  universe is fundamentally friendly. It’s a mode of training your senses and intellect so  you’re able to perceive the fact that life always gives you exactly what you need,  exactly when you need it.  

HYPOTHESES: Evil is boring. Cynicism is idiotic. Fear is a bad habit. Despair is lazy.  Joy is fascinating. Love is an act of heroic genius. Pleasure is your birthright.  Receptivity is a superpower.  

PROCEDURE: Act as if the universe is a prodigious miracle created for your amusement  and illumination. Assume that secret helpers are working behind the scenes to assist  you in turning into the gorgeous masterpiece you were born to be. Join the conspiracy  to shower all of creation with blessings.   

And yet, a decade ago, I have to confess I didn’t trust life, certainly not in the ways Rob Brezny outlines above. I’ve had to earn that trust, working hard on my relationship with life, almost in the same ways we’d work through issues with an intimate partner. 

There were very good reasons for me to doubt that life wanted me to thrive, or even cared, not least of which were: a history of relational trauma and abuse, a financially precarious existence and lack of social support — tangible issues that millions of us live with as inescapable realities.

But through the cracks in the facade of the monolith that’s our failed and failing socio-economic system — always with the propaganda that says it is the only source of life and meaning available to us, that nothing else is to be found beyond its dim imaginings— a deeper reality was making itself known in the chiding of a bumblebee.


I remember, more than anything, the feel of those imagined $1500-a-month I spoke of right before the bee dove for my face. It was barely enough to cover my costs of living, yet to me, it was the promise of a haven of stability compared to what I’d known throughout my early adulthood. The harbor seemed ever just out of reach.

I remember, too, visceral shrinking in my core as I spoke out loud that making a basic living was not an option for me.

I couldn’t see it at the time, but this was about so much more than just money.

I inhabited the trance so many of us share, of an unsafe, hostile world. This dark lens was not all of my experience: I also had juicy, life-connected, joyful and hopeful parts that hardship couldn’t snuff out. But these parts didn’t get a say in many decisions. I was at a stalemate within myself: the exuberant, ecstatic self was always subordinate to those parts whose role was to protect me at all costs — always looking over my shoulder and going the extra mile to keep things under control. My fire was at risk of going out. 

Eight of Swords: a Tarot card that symbolizes situations where we can liberate ourselves, but don’t know or don’t trust that we can. Depiction from the Rider-Waite-Smith Tarot; public domain image from Wikipedia. 

Perched in a corner of my world, trying to take up so little space that no one would notice enough to challenge me, I undercharged massively for my work. I accepted abuse from more than one individual. I acted in big and small ways that undermined my own sense of basic dignity.

That’s the bigger backdrop against which I doubted my chances of even making $1500 a month. 

While I don’t believe now that all I needed to do was “get over my fear” and “manifest” a more abundant life; nor that I “just needed to heal my trauma”; nor that my situation was separate from real systemic issues… I was also cooperating with my chains a little too much.

The bumblebee stinging my face was just so unlikely, so weird, so totally nuts, it forced me to consider I might be wrong in believing that making myself that smallwas the best way for me to be in life. It introduced a question, where before I could only see the certainty of negative outcomes.

Holding on to that newfound unknowing created an almost-imperceptible turning point. While I can track events in my pre-bumblebee sting past that clearly bear all the signs of the Universe knocking on my door, inviting me out to play, I wasn’t receptive enough for the magic to take hold. But afterward, I began to entertain possibilities beyond what my mind could anticipate and control. I started to heed the little uncanny coincidences with a new ingredient in the mix: a sense that life might just be on my side, that it might be worthwhile to build a relationship with this entity that cared enough to respond to my routine self-deprecation with a firm and unmistakable “Stop it this instant. Enough of that!”

And so, slowly and gradually, I began a period of years learning to align with the flow of Kairos. It started to become second nature — or, I should say, it connected me more deeply to the core nature we can all tap into, which senses the currents of the Cosmos. Eventually, synchronicity became a trusted ally in finding my way through life. It’s not all doom and portent: it’s more like a playful, sometimes humorous, ongoing conversation I can rely on to accompany me daily, often pointing me to secret exits, warning me about coming challenges, inspiring me to leap into the unknown and illuminating luscious opportunities.

Beyond isolation

Let’s hone in on the fact that synchronicities involve something more than simply two or more events coinciding in surprising, improbable ways. Whether it’s the greater intelligence of our soul, or one of the many possible spiritual agents I mentioned above, something appears to respond directly to what’s happening within us. Suddenly, our inner world and the world out there don’t feel very separate at all.

Synchronicities often occur at a crossroads — whether that’s a life question, a concern, a knotty issue, a dream, an urgency, a cry for help, a desire longing to be expressed. The bumblebee stung me seconds after I spoke words that perpetuated my felt sense of scarcity and the futility of imagining anything more for myself. 

Something from our heart manifests itself in 3D, of its own accord, plain as day. If you catch the moment, you could take a video on your phone and post it on social media.  It’s this twinning of the inner and outer worlds that stirs something deep within us, letting us know we’re not isolated inside the hard shell of our skulls.

In making meaning of synchronicity, here are some of the things I hear people express over and over:

A feeling of being seen and heard by something greater than ourselves, by something or someone with a multidimensional perspective far bigger than ours. When the Cosmos responds to our emotions, thoughts and dreams, we suddenly feel connected; plugged into the grid that powers everything. This is especially poignant when we experience that Something or Someone suddenly responds where we had assumed indifference, impersonality or randomness in the order of things.

An intense curiosity to understand what that greater Someone is saying — what’s the Universe telling me with this weird, special or numinous occurrence? With that question, our “gates of perception” open to let the new in: we are intrigued, receptive to expanding our pre-existing horizons, perhaps even craving more. Our minds engage in a learning process, paying closer attention and going down productive or unexpected rabbit holes as we investigate.  

A blurring of rigidly defined boundaries between self and non-self, especially, for instance, when a meaningful coincidence connects us to another person’s inner world, or to important or fateful incidents in their life. Through dreams we may learn that someone we care about is in trouble, or experience their true emotional landscape. Other times, the blurring is even stronger, such as when multiple people come up with the same creative ideas simultaneously. In those times, we get glimpses (or blasts!) of the transpersonal nature of reality, where we can’t know for sure if an experience or message is individual to us, or if it’s a collective energy or purpose moving through us — or both.

A unique kind of “high”: the synchronicity is felt as a “peak experience” where the coherence and mystery of it brings us into a singular state of Flow, elation and inspiration. We feel carried on boundless currents toward purposeful action, heightened creativity, and a sense that we’re participating in a design much vaster and richer than that of our individual lives.

Seeing the moment of coincidence as a guidepost, much like a traffic sign on the road, letting us know which direction we’re going. This can feel like nudges of confirmation that we’re on the right track — that perhaps a bold decision or uniquely uncharted path we’re taking is in fact, the right way for us to be going. Or in my case, a sign saying “Wrong way, turn around, wake up, not this!”


This last one is what author Robert Moss, in his book “Sidewalk Oracles” (pg. 27), calls Kairomancy: 

It combines the Greek words kairos, meaning a “special moment,” and manteia, meaning “oracle” or “divination.” Kairomancy (not to be confused with chiromancy!) is the art of divination through special moments, in the Kairos time of special opportunity that puts a thrill of possibility in your mind and body and can set your world trembling.

Kairos time is when you are released, if only for a moment, from the breakable laws of linear time and space, when things come to you, and you to them, by a different logic. In such marvelous moments, things may unfold in ways the new physics, as well as ancient shamans and seers, can recognize and for which contemporary science even has names, like “entanglement,” or “retrokinesis,” or “quantum effects on a macro scale.”


Based on what synchronicity evokes in us, it strikes me as a potent antidote.

First, an antidote to the hyper-individualist nightmare of our culture, which not only hypnotizes us with a trance of separation from our fellow humans, but with an overarching hallucination that the Universe and all who inhabit it couldn’t care less about us.

Second, an antidote to the tyranny of hyper-linearity — our collective belief that we’ve figured out how to control and “hack” the systems of life, always from the top down — and that there’s no other way to be than to be controlling, calculating, competitive, ahead of the curve. The alternative is to be denied our most basic needs.

Inside this nightmare, we come to see time itself as the non-stop accelerating slavemaster. This is the very negation of Kairos as described by Moss, a denial of surprise, of multi-dimensional realities, of awe and of the miraculous. Within this particular hypnotic trance, we feel the weight and dullness of a game of life that’s nothing if not rigged, where hope, creativity, possibility and imagination are either dismissed as flimsy and ludicrous, or co-opted to give the game some sparkle, a glossier feel, more consumer buy-in.

(BTW, what I’m not saying here: that exploitative, oppressive systems aren’t real. What I am saying: that those same systems, overtly and covertly, make us believe there is nothing to be found outside their limits, nope, no alternatives, don’t even waste your time, better get good at playing the game).

But letting ourselves dive into the currents of synchronicity can deeply heal our experience of being-in-life: giving us an undeniable “yes but it really did happen” knowing of being held, linked with others in transcendent ways, and with Source in a cosmic sense. Surfing these waves is a medicine for our faith that each of our lives can be meaningful: that we get to be (not only) recipients, but also attractors and agents of blessings on behalf of our families, our communities, and the more-than-human beings with whom our fate is intertwined.

Surfing the Tides

From my own series of paintings on embodiment. Gouache on paper, 2021

Next, I’d like to share with these eight principles that helped me gradually, over several years, to build up my trust in synchronicity-surfing. My hope is that some of what’s been useful for me will serve as a springboard for you to experience even more inspired and magical coincidences.

My little story of the bumblebee stinging my face was, at the time, not the most spectacular coincidence I’d experienced, by a long shot. For instance, by then I’d married my husband, and the way we happened to meet — during an event in Sweden, while I lived in Canada and he in Germany —- was so chock-full of of unbelievable big and little serendipities that we still hang between laughter and disbelief whenever we tell the story.

But the difference for me was that encountering that bumblebee began a series of conscious experiments in learning how to engage mindfully with synchronicities, with more agency and purpose than just floating along and letting the moment pass. Soon I started to see the magical signs and symbols all around me multiplying into real big waves!


Feel free to “remix” any of these suggestions, which in parts overlap with one another. Some of them are straightforward, while others require building up additional skills in tandem. Take them as inspiration, try them in any order, and see what happens. These are not prescriptive, but only jumping-off points and contemplations I’ve harvested through personal experience.

No matter how you decide to approach your synchronicities, I’ve found a good learning tool is to keep a record of them, whether in an old-fashioned journal or digitally. That way, you’ll notice patterns and interplays between your experiences. When you look back on what you’ve written, you’ll be able to spot helpful and not-so-helpful habits and patterns in how you engage with your synchronistic experiences, and tweak accordingly.

1) Take them seriously, hold them lightly


This one was step zero for me — it should go without saying that if we don’t give enough weight to startling coincidences in our life, we’ll miss the proverbial boat. But the paradoxical flipside is that we might become too intent on deciphering and knowing “what it all means” in a linear, one-to-one translation of sign to message. I really get it— I’ve done both: the minimizing and the obsessing!

Instead of trying to make up my mind right away, I learned to have a patient dialog with my synchronistic moments: literally saying out loud or in my mind “OK; here’s what I think this means. Did I understand you right, Universe/Soul/Spirit? If so, let me know in an unmistakable way. If not, show me in a different way where I won’t miss your intention.”

Then, I check with my inner sense, seeing if the signs and my gut feeling align. If not, I wait for further clarity, keeping the synchronicity in question “in observation” without overthinking it. I’ve learned I’m in the driver’s seat when it comes to deciding if/how to utilize “intel” from signs — we’re always free to choose how to respond! Where appropriate, I’ll look for further clarification through other means, including confirming with other people.

For example, there came a point in my coaching practice, for example, where I started having dreams and synchronicities “about” my clients, and by extension since then, also about people in my life I am able to offer mirroring or support in other ways. This is not a daily occurrence, and I’m very mindful to have boundaries between my professional practice and my own private life  —- but it happens often enough that I learned to trust these dreams and magical events. 

When it feels appropriate to do so — and the dreams typically have a special, vivid signature that tells me the dream is not (purely) about my own process— I gently ask my clients if they’d like to hear what’s coming through on my end. Those transpersonal events are inevitably enriching for both parties. But I apply the same principles I’ve shared above: I assume the event could be meaningful, yet I hold what’s coming up lightly and always check in for confirmation in a way that makes the other person feel like they can just let me know if this isn’t for them or if they don’t want to explore it together.

2) Take concrete action even when the message isn’t clear 

Early on, as I learned the language of synchronicity, I was very much in my head. When signs appeared on my path, I needed to pin down an understanding of why something was happening as the prerequisite to any kind of engagement with it. And for many magical occurrences, that meant I did nothing. Today I take a much more interactive approach, which can often include gentle, calculated risk taking.

One of the best ways I know of to tell the Universe, “I’m listening” seems to be doing something concrete as our answer —a tangible acknowledgement of the coincidence we’ve  experienced.

This doesn’t mean you should make important or hard to reverse decisions only on the authority of an omen and nothing else. Your own needs, preferences and values need to factor into the equation. Instead, let’s imagine that our taking action can be more of a ceremonial exchange. We invest the currency of our energy and physicality in mirroring back to the Universe that we acknowledge the communication, and that we put stock in it, even if it’s not yet understood.

This is a great opportunity to do something as simple as light a candle with a small prayer of recognition and gratitude. Creativity is our friend here too: I’ve found fantastic things unfold when making art that represents a synchronicity — or doing the same with liminal or mystical encounters and events.

We can make music about it, dedicate a session of yoga or movement practice to it, or bake a tray of muffins to honor the occasion. The mythical and poetic currents of the world love it when we respond in kind. This approach has the added benefit of acknowledging that in many cases, we’ll never crack the code of a synchronicity: not in the way we might use a dictionary to translate a foreign language. It might remain a mystery that enriches our lives precisely because of its non-explainability. Dancing with these enigmas through our art and creativity amplifies them, adding to the world just as much (maybe more?) than if we decode them as literal messages.

Now, let’s shift our attention away from symbolic action, which is just one option on the menu: depending on your situation, it might even make more sense to take concrete, doable steps toward a goal or decision.

Suppose a series of improbable events seem to be conspiring for you to move to another city. Acknowledgement, prayer and asking for clarification are probably called for — everything we covered above. Additionally, if it was within your means to travel and visit the city in question for at least a few days, this would be a great time to start planning that trip. While there, you’d be keeping your feelers alert for further signals — first and foremost from your animal self: how do you like it there? How does your body feel?

Psychologist and dream researcher Henry Reed, PhD, reports in his book “Dream Solutions” that this same approach applies when working with synchronicity’s sibling and close collaborator: the dream. Help and guidance from our dreams responds to our applied, experimental problem solving, rather than what he calls the “armchair speculation” trap,

“ (…) where a person sits back and speculates about the dream, but ventures no further than entertaining an interpretation that feels right. The best interpretation of a dream, and the one which will help you to further your understanding of dream interpretation generally, is the interpretation that you apply. By testing out your interpretations, by putting them into practice, you receive feedback on your interpretation and are guided into a more refined understanding.”

This might be the point in the process where you just know in your bones what to do next. And even though I advise caution and discernment before jumping into anything with both feet based on our read of a sign or omen, I also know that sometimes we have to do exactly that! 

3) Imagine the most benevolent intention 

So far, I’ve invited you to entertain that there are benevolent, loving, playful, creative and compassionate forces working to empower our wholeness, our authentic belonging, our compassion and connectedness.

It matters that we think this way. When it comes to co-creating with these forces, our freedom to choose our next step—-our free will—is upheld as inviolable. We will not be “made to” embrace any view or course of action by those very forces and beings — although they might make a compelling case. If we give them the green light however, they are free to act on our behalf.

This opens the doors for us to experience the luxurious joy of stepping out of the pervasive existential loneliness of our time, into a knowing that we’re held and partnered in the most miraculous ways.

It’s true that some synchronicities originate with beings and forces that don’t have our best interest at heart. These are more rare — and not a cause to be paranoid, but discerning. We’ll know them because the experiences obviously hurt us, make us feel fearful, anxious or uneasy, or repeatedly make us suspect ill-intent. All of this would warrant further investigation to discover where the issue originates and the best course of action, possibly with the help of one or more spiritual practitioners of integrity. 


At the same time, I see us too often projecting an image of punishing authority, conditional acceptance — “only if we’re good and pure enough, or meditate just right or live up to X or Y standard” —,  or tit-for-tat “karma” onto the messages the Universe sends our way, and so we interpret them askew. Barring the above tell-tale signs that something is amiss, it helps to assume that healing, wholeness, well-being and thriving are what we’re being invited into, when synchronicity arises.

4) Dig deeper into the dream angle


But before we do, let’s bear in mind that part of integrating this more affirming view of coincidence includes a keen awareness that oftentimes synchronicities (and dreams as well) aren’t metaphorical, but quite literal. They’re not always “trying to teach us something” in a didactic way.

Because of this, it makes sense to check first, when possible, if the strange happenings on our hands are pointing us toward something concrete.

Only a few weeks ago, I had an intense dream of a tornado. The next day, images of tornadoes and allusions to raging winds appeared to me multiple times in weird, unrelated ways, and I first wondered about the symbolism of it all. However, soon enough I learned that an actual massive storm was hitting the coast of the North Sea, headed for my area with hurricane-level winds— and indeed, we had tornado warnings, which are rather uncommon here. There was severe damage in the wake of the storm, so the message from my series of coincidences turned out to be more of a warning than an allegory.

That all being said, our next stop is all about the ways synchronicity can be dream-like and symbolic.

I’ll often put on my “dream glasses” to look at synchronicity, blurring in my mind any feeling of separation between sleeping and waking. I might then ask questions such as:

  • What would this event mean to me if it was happening in a dream?
     
  • What colors, names, numbers, dates or other elements with a possible symbolic component stand out?
  • How do I feel in this situation? What is the mood?
  • What do the elements in the situation remind me of?
  • Is this a call-back to something else that recurs in my life?
  • Do I notice allusions to character archetypes, myths, poetry, folklore or pop culture?

Asking these kinds of questions can also get me to notice details that seem peripheral to the actual event, but which turn out to be key to making sense of it.

Let’s remember that symbolism, for each of us, is informed by a mix of collective, archetypal and cultural associations, and by our individual lived experience.
I’ve seen time and again that the means the Universe uses to communicate with us are a) whatever gets us to pay attention and b) something we’re likely to be able to decode based on the information available to us. Sometimes the messages are so unsubtle, we’re more likely to miss them due to overthinking than due to their cryptic nature.

For those of us who love Tarot, we might see a lot of Tarot-related synchronicities. For those of us who love reading fiction, the messages might come from books that randomly fall out of shelves or through allusions to favorite characters or passages. An interesting thing that happens for me, is that I’ll find that synchronicities that have me looking up dates and meaningful passages of time will take on new meaning when I look at those dates in my dream journals. Oftentimes, the dreams from “way back when” will now show up in a completely fresh light, as though they were meant to be clues to my present day mystery all along!

Interlude: Advanced Navigation

The principles and tips that follow have one thing in common: they ask (quite a bit) more of us than the preceding ones. I’m calling them “advanced”, as they require additional skills and an expanded repertoire of knowledge — and wisdom too — to fully make sense. Still, I’ve found them so worthwhile that I decided to list them here to give a complete picture of what I’ve done myself to integrate synchronicity into my daily life in a robust and meaningful way. However, they do challenge us to go much further afield than “just” the topic of synchronicity. For that reason, please know that I’m touching on the themes below in a cursory way and they deserve much more time and attention to do them justice!

5) Nurture the glow of the felt sense

You’ve probably gleaned so far that my approach to synchronicities is a practice in being in an embodied relationship with life itself: exploring, dialoguing, responding, acting, listening. This next tip puts our felt sense front and center, and perhaps, challenges us to deepen our access to our felt sense if we’ve had to cut off from it in self-preservation, as I had in my story above.


Felt sense is a term coined by psychotherapist Eugene Gendlin, and it indicates a “gestalt” of sensations and knowings in our body— not necessarily our emotions, but interplaying with them. These are emergent, unique feelings: for instance, we may know we’re “angry”, but what does this specific experience of anger feel like? Maybe it feels like a searing heat on one side of our ribcage; like pressure and buzzing at the base of our throat, or like a molten current rushing upward from deep in our pelvis.  (You can learn more about how to access the felt sense through Gendlin’s book Focusing, as well as the resources compiled in the International Focusing Institute’s website.)

When a meaningful coincidence occurs, it may put us at a crossroads. How we interpret the invitation makes a difference as to which path we’ll take. In those moments, it can be crucial to take a moment to listen for our felt sense, even if (or especially if) it doesn’t match the external read we’re getting of the situation.

The felt sense informs us of our in-the-moment state and acts as a faithful inner compass to navigate complex information. When we attune to our felt sense often, we begin to recognize what is true and right for us at a visceral level, no matter how it conflicts with our environment’s expectations, or with our mental images and aspirations of “what should be”.
The right way forward —as revealed by the felt sense— in my experience often feels like a blazing, living glow, pulsating with possibility.

Take this situation, for instance:

You’ve been feeling increasingly jaded with your line of work. You’re good at it, you’ve mastered the craft and all the ins-and-outs, but no matter what you do, you can’t recover the enthusiasm you once had about it. You haven’t told anyone about this. You continue to do your job faithfully. But privately, you’ve journaled for months about the pros and cons of possibly switching careers. One day, you finally make up your mind and decide that you’re quitting your job this week, maybe even taking some time off to pursue a passion you’ve put on the backburner for far too long.

Monday rolls around, and you get wind that your boss is planning to offer you a promotion that would give you incredible levels of freedom and flexibility. Songs play randomly wherever you go— songs that seem to be written just for you, telling you to stay. Your acquaintance happens to gossip about someone you both know who just attempted to start a new career from scratch, and how poorly it’s going for them. In short, it seems the Universe is set on convincing you not to take that leap you just decided to take.

Is that the right answer for you?

Let’s say then you take some time that same week to tune into your felt sense for each option: staying and leaving.

Staying feels like there’s a solid, metallic wall right in front of your face. In fact, it feels like your face has sort of grown into the wall, and the edges of you and the edges of the wall feel merged in places. Leaving feels like you can breathe, and inside your belly is a warm point, like a little fire. It’s so small that you can barely make it out, but it’s there. Your felt sense tells you that leaving is still what you want to do: you want to breathe life into that little fire.

So, who’s right, you or the Universe?
Trick question: the Universe and you are co-creating — you’re on the same side, as we saw before. The thing is, you and the Universe hold different perspectives, like in any partnership, and so, there’s a possibility for creative tension and friction in all our synchronicities. 

What you wouldn’t want to do in this situation, is slavishly let go of the desire you’ve nurtured for months because of a seeming Universe-whim. Your next step would be to decide how you make sense of the apparent conflict: asking questions, tapping into your felt sense again, and perhaps playing with some of the other approaches on this list.

Maybe that means that you tell your boss, when she’s ready to give you that promotion, that you’re on your way out one way or another — and you find out that it’s OK for you to take the promotion and still be gone in six months, giving you some leeway to transition into your new phase of life. 

Or maybe, you realize that you have a pattern of doing what others want you to do, instead of what you want to do. These synchronicities seemingly telling you to stay put are the Universe’s way of helping you develop assertiveness— by putting you in a position where you have to stand your ground despite the temptation to backslide. (This hypothetical scenario is, in fact, a very typical synchronistic pattern that tends to come up when we’ve made a decision to initiate big change, so if you’ve experienced this, you’re not alone!).

It may have turned out that you gleaned that the synchronicities telling you not to leave your job were doing so because the timing wasn’t right yet, for reasons outside your control. Even though you might stay at your job for a while longer, slowly you’d nurture the spark your felt sense showed you when probing the option of leaving. You might start taking up practices and activities that feed that glow, until the time for change was more favorable.

This mindful practice anchors us more firmly in our own sovereignty, as we choose to act as co-creators with the Universe, being inclusive of our inner guidance, rather than being swayed by any and all mysterious occurrences that pop in our path! 

6) Deepen your psychic and intuitive faculties


Meaningful coincidences multiply when we apply our psychic senses, often described as “the Clairs”: clairvoyance, clairsentience, claircognizance, clairaudience. These are, respectively, seeing, feeling, “simply knowing” and hearing through psychic means.

We don’t know exactly why this happens: some speculate that our ability to affect the material world through psychic means — which is often called psychokinesis in the paranormal research world— is “switched on” in tandem with our use of psychic perception. Others say this must happen through quantum effects such as the observer effect, where our intentions and expectations directly shift and create the state of matter at a subatomic level. Whatever the cause, I’ve found intentional psychic practice really does increase the amount of surprising coincidences happening in the world around me.

7) Karmic Synchronicities

This next section comes straight out of Evolutionary Astrology, though to be inclusive of my readers who aren’t astro-literate, I’m keeping my description very general and leaving astrological jargon out. However, it’s important to highlight that astrology is a fantastic set of tools for understanding and purposefully working with synchronicity! I recommend getting at least a passing acquaintance with evolutionary astrology for those of you who are wanting to study synchronicities in your life more in-depth.

So, what on earth are karmic synchronicities?

From this perspective, Karma has to do with the habits our Soul has acquired over lifetimes. If reincarnation is not your thing, then you can think about it in terms of family and culture: habits, ways of relating, and attitudes about life that are passed on from generation to generation. Over time, some of those habits will become stale or limiting, even though “in their time” they made sense and were helpful ways of navigating life. Evolution, from the Soul’s viewpoint, are the experiences that prompt us to integrate new, surprising ways of feeling and operating in the world — ultimately increasing our sense of wholeness and our “range” for experiencing all existence has to offer.

From this angle, we could say that meaningful coincidences come in two flavors. (This is a gross oversimplification, but bear with me for a moment):

One of them is all about helping us break out from soul-stagnation by offering new, innovative chances, avenues we have never tried before and perspectives we haven’t been familiar with.

The other “flavor” confronts us with the tried and true, with what we’re comfortable and familiar with, again and again, much like we might play a challenging level on a video game over and over, trying to “get” the right trick or the right timing to succeed.

In other words, one points us to the future, the other, to the past. Both of them give us an opportunity to learn and grow; the first by inviting us to “boldly go” beyond whatever our personal horizon may be. The second, by having us apply newly learned ways of operating in well-trodden circumstances, therefore producing new results where we may have felt nothing new was possible.

With our astrological glasses on, we’re able to differentiate each of these kinds of chances. We can also be forewarned about when these windows of possibility are about to happen, and make the most of them, or we can retroactively look at an important coincidence and extract new levels of meaning and understanding thanks to the symbolism astrology adds to the mix.

Let’s not forget that other symbolic tools can help us in this same way. Divination systems such as Tarot, oracle cards, runes and the I Ching, as well as dowsing can all aid in clarifying synchronistic events that we’re unsure about.

8) Growing our Discernment

Without a doubt, I am a champion for us collectively strengthening our access to synchronicity as a pathway to more joyful living. Still, I hope that with my explanations and examples, I’ve done justice to some of the nuances in the process of building that rapport. After all, synchronicity, deep down, asks us to build relationship with the animate Cosmos and some of its more unseen inhabitants — and all relationships carry both complexity and risk.

For instance, above I introduced the idea that some synchronicities could throw us for a loop if we follow them blindly, unaware that our best bet in the situation is to apply some new approach we’re unfamiliar with. Let’s say we jump into a new romance. We’re starry-eyed and the signs keep on coming that “we’re meant to be together”. The Universe seems to be leading us to each other… and long story short, a month or a year later, there we are: stuck with yet another disappointment. The miraculous promise does not pan out; whatever it is that we hoped to arrive at, it ended up being yet more of the same thing we didn’t want any more of. It’s enough to put us off signs and omens of all kinds for eternity!



Especially in these cases, a very close look is warranted. It doesn’t necessarily mean we were misled, but we can apply some case-by-case wisdom to glean further insight, and break the cycle. This doesn’t mean we should give up on trusting cosmic guidance. It’s a call for expanding our knowledge and building our toolkit — to keep ourselves well and whole in the spirit ecosystems we inhabit, the same way we maintain hygiene for our physical health.

Without becoming paranoid, we are also called to recognize that there are unfriendly or outright destructive non-human forces and beings “out there” who are perfectly capable of generating mysterious phenomena in our world. It’s important to know how to keep ourselves safe when sailing the currents of Kairos. We don’t have enough space to do full justice to the idea of hostile spirits here, as one example of a possible kind of uncomfortable encounter— but even in these cases, I feel the co-creative principle applies. How do we respond to meeting something we’d perceive as dark? Can we be both assertive and compassionate with beings whose motivations are harmful to us, or perhaps with those who are so foreign to us that our purposes can never align? How do we navigate meeting the vast multiplicity of the non-human with humility, respect and grace?

If we are able to navigate these encounters well, we emerge with a broader horizon and greater resilience than when we started. Some of the most transformative, empowering turning points have been about claiming my space and well-being from ill-meaning entities, whose presence in my life created cascades of negative coincidences.

Surfing synchronicity might not only bring a greater ease and flow into our world through blissful co-creation, but it can also confront us with needing to expand our preparedness for meeting the Other in a wild variety of forms, with attendant experiences of darkness, ignorance and confusion. On the other side of that, we have a chance to emerge stronger, sharper and more compassionate beings. Is it worth the risk? Absolutely.

Over to you

As always, if any of the above resonated with you, or if you have additional questions, nuances or experiences to share in the realm of synchronicity, feel free to let me know!

If there are any big or recurring synchronicities you’ve been wanting some help working with, consider working with me through a psychic reading, one-off consultation, or over some holistic coaching sessions. If you don’t know what would be most helpful, just drop me a line and we’ll take it from there.

Resources / Reading List

If you want to explore the fascinating world of synchronicities further, here are the authors and books I listed in this essay. It goes without saying that I don’t share these because I subscribe to everything these authors share in their books, but I hope that you, like me, will enjoy taking in their different perspectives to enrich your own.