Riding On Dragons

“Temporally coincident occurrences of acausal events.” That barely comprehensible phrase is how Carl Jung once described what he called “synchronicity.” Fortunately, it isn’t all that hard to understand: improbable events happen that did not cause one another, and that seem connected in some way that appears to mean something that isn’t immediately obvious.

Here are three improbable events that seem connected and have happened to me recently.

First, I have been hanging out in and around the new Rio Salado Audubon Center in Phoenix, doing research for a book. I say it is improbable because, if you had told me three months ago that I would be doing that, I would have said something like, “Huh?”

Second, I opened the front door of my house last week and there was a Congo African Gray Parrot standing on the doormat. If you missed the whole story, it is HERE. This may not seem improbable to you if you live in a place frequented by parrots, but this parrot was in a quiet neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona. Parrots do not frequent Phoenix. Presaging the third event, a friend asked, “Was there a pirate under it?”

Third, last Saturday was Talk Like A Pirate Day. The fact that there is a Talk Like A Pirate Day may or may not seem improbable to you (it does to me), but the really improbable thing is that I found out about it the day before while wandering aimlessly through CNN news stories. My sister and I, and a friend and I, have celebrated Talk Like A Pirate Day for the last several years by sending one another silly emails in pirate language. None of us keeps track of the day.

Those three improbable events did not cause one another. They seem connected–the Audubon Society, a parrot, and pirates. And they do appear to mean something. What they mean isn’t immediately obvious to me.

Those who are really into synchronicity use a quote from Alice In Wonderland which was favored by Jung. The quote is below along with an explanatory note from Alice In CommunicationLand. The Queen is speaking to Alice:

“It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards.”

Memory and imagination are intertwined. Listening and hearing set the foundation for projection. By careful attention to what has been said and through observation, perception can assign accurate meaning and apply logic to generate valid knowledge of the future.

Jungians suggest that my unconscious is proposing a connection between these events, but the meaning in the connection is not obvious to me. I really haven’t a clue. Yet.
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Tags: Audubon Society, Jung, parrot, pirate, Rio Salado, synchronicity

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 2:40 pm by Dick Richards and is filed under Life Happens, Noticing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.