Web of Wisdom: Synchronicities and Philosophical Practice

Whenever we take up the work of LoveWisdom, synchronicities inevitably appear. I used to see this even in the limiting context of the university. Students would report synchronicities throughout the school term. Working with clients outside the university, the synchronicities can be even more powerful, because we can go a lot deeper. They are among the most joyful and magical elements of philosophical/spiritual practice and realization.

The scientific study of synchronicity happens today in part under the heading of “the Pauli-Jung conjecture”. This name indicates the main scientific progenitors of the contemporary notion of synchronicity (the psychologist C.G. Jung and the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Wolfgang Pauli), as well as its nascent state—a “conjecture” rather than a full-fledged “theory”. We simply do not understand synchronicity, though we do know it challenges our current paradigm (this paradigm-busting character can leave us skeptical about and resistant to synchronicities, at least at first). Pauli viewed the synchronicity principle as containing or potentially leading us to deeper truths about the nature of reality.  

Pauli also thought that synchronicities tend to correlate with our spiritual development. Pauli suggested that synchronicity, or “the Σ phenomena” (Σ is used as abbreviation for synchronicity), 

often arises in conjunction with a transition from an unstable state of consciousness into a new stable state, when consciousness has expanded and an equilibrium with the unconscious has been established. During the unstable state, i.e. during the transition, it seems as if the new insight has to be reinforced by the appearance of physical marginal phenomena. When the new conscious position is attained and has stabilized, the marginal phenomena disappear. Pauli took this from his personal experience. He emphasized that with him the synchronistic phenomena always occurred in connection with certain states of consciousness and in relation to certain stages in life, especially when the ‘opposites keep in balance as much as possible’. On one occasion he even states that the synchronistic phenomena disappear when consciousness cannot ‘keep pace’ with the ‘required’ development of consciousness. It seems like an effect from a ‘higher’ plane: something that demands widening of consciousness. This ‘something higher’ corresponds to Jung’s concept of the Self, which is the self-organizing principle of the psyche. There is therefore a direct relationship between the state of consciousness of the subject and the Σ phenomena. (from Gieser, The Innermost Kernel, p. 284) 

Nietzsche said, “One must have chaos in oneself to give birth to a dancing star.” But the chaos of a dancing star is not mere chaos. Rather, it comes altogether with a union of opposites. It is a dance of criticality, a dance of openness, a dance of liminality in which we touch something that transcends the ego. (“Criticality” relates to phase transitions, e.g. the moment when ice suddenly gives way to water. As we shift from stuckness to unstuckness, we may go through such moments, and synchronicities may either trigger the phase transition or in some other way associate with them.) 

It seems essential to notice that “consciousness” has to “keep pace,” that we have to muster the courage and the passion to stay at the edge of our practice (i.e. renouncing all forms of self-deception), otherwise the magic of synchronicities can effectively begin to dry up. And we cannot limit the “something higher”that meets us in synchronicity to anything bound by the skin. To call it our “Self” (even with a capital “S”) could lead us to think of it as localized, when in fact synchronicity directly demonstrates the non-locality of the cosmos, the magic of total interwovenness. The “something higher” transcends the self as we know it, and leads us into the inconceivable.

Recently, some artists I have worked with shared synchronicities related to our work together. One artist has an aerial silks practice. She has had a variety of questions about how to practice art in general, and how to practice her art in particular, especially given our ecological context. How can artists make art that heals rather than degrades ecologies?

An aerial silks artist might also wonder about using “silks” that essentially come from petroleum. Many fabrics we wear and use in our daily life are nothing more than plastic—i.e. processed petroleum. I remember the first time a grocery store offered me a reusable bag made, not from natural canvas, cotton, hemp, or something along those lines, but from polyester—which creates micro-pollution every time one would wash it or even brush against it while walking, let alone the fact that it has the same lifecycle as all other plastic in general. Plastic’s a major problem. 

The aerial silks artist revealed that her home has a major black widow spider infestation. This seemed extraordinarily resonant: An eight-legged aerial silks artist who uses natural fibers for her silks. Moreover, we speak often about the need to handle all LoveWisdom the way we would handle a poisonous snake—or, the same care we would use around a poisonous spider. The mind of non-neglect (the mind of true care) is a precious thing, and more rare than we might like to admit. A spider infestation may not be the kind of synchronicity the ego wishes for, but it may be the kind of synchronicity we need. The nature of synchronicity tends to involve a relationship between outer events and spiritual/philosophical transformation, and that means some of them can feel charged in a way the ego finds unpleasant.

Human beings live in a world we have infested with dangers, and navigating our way back to sanity and sacredness, back to health, healing, and wholeness, involves freeing ourselves from a tangled web of self-deceptions, and it requires facing our fears as well as facing the real dangers of further delusions and the consequences of the delusions we have so far propagated. The synchronicities of this process may feel delightful at times, and at other times may feel fierce. On the other side of the transformation, we will always celebrate them with a sense of wonder and gratitude.

It might be especially lovely, in light of male privilege, white privilege, and human privilege, that this artist got visited by the black widow in particular, with her red warning to humans, her beautiful black body, her skill in weaving seemingly chaotic webs, her unusually potent venom, her reputed willingness to eat males (not a reality in some of her species, but almost a rule in others . . . in any case, the female can be 160 times bigger than the male, and she demands serious care and respect on his part, a real shift in perspective regarding feminine power, which we very much need right now).

This synchronicity brought the story of Arachne and Athena to mind . . . 

Athena as an archetypal image shows us aspects of wisdom, which means the basic nature of reality. She therefore reveals the supreme creativity of the cosmos and thus of our own mind. When we learn deeply from archetypal images, we learn about ourselves and about Nature. 

Athena presides as goddess of wisdom and crafts. This may at first seem strange. Why crafts? In part because wisdom doesn’t appear “by itself,” so to speak, but always manifests as skillful means, as artful, compassionate activity. Wisdom manifests in our relative, relational world, and thus always manifests concretely, pragmatically, and gracefully. 

Among these crafts, weaving reminds us of the interwovenness of all things, and Athena was seen as particularly adept at weaving. Here we see a simple example of studying the archetype to learn something about our own nature and the nature of reality: Wisdom means insight into and wonderstanding of our interwovenness. Indeed, synchronicity directly reveals to us the inconceivable intimacy of the interwovenness of things. Things are too interwoven for the ego to conceive them, and the rational mind can actually take offense at this interwovenness. It’s why synchronicities can rupture the chains of habit, belief, and “knowledge” that bind us, for the synchronicity directly reveals the mystery and magic of interwovenness. 

Arachne, a shepherd’s daughter, learned to weave with extraordinary skill. She bragged that her weaving rivaled that of Athena. Like many humans, she engaged in all manner of activity then said, “I did that,” missing the reality: We are lived by powers we pretend to understand. Wisdom, love, and beauty do the best things in our lives, thus they fulfill us, and we realize our true nature in mutual liberation, inspiration and insight, mutual nourishment and care.  

But the ego fears its true nature. We do a great deal to get ground under our feet, and to maintain a sense of control over life. We want credit for our successes, and we want to place blame for our failures. The cycle of praise and blame is the cycle of suffering itself.  

And yet every artist, and maybe every human being, has had the experience of their best ideas, best work, best moments arising beyond their control. The best things we have ever done happened precisely because we didn’t do them. They happened. We had to participate. But our intimate engagement in the moment amounted to the ego’s stepping aside. We got out of our own way. Arachne represents the part of us that still wants to take credit, that wants to have a sense of control, when in fact what makes us feel most alive and alove, most fulfilled and authentic, happens outside of our habitual sense control, when we participate in something that transcends the ego.  

Athena kindly appeared as an old woman—another face of Sophia, wisdom itself—entreating Arachne: “Child, no one is the superior of the goddess of wisdom. Renounce your ego, regain your humility. The goddess will heal and forgive you.” She wanted to bring this one back to sobriety.   

Arachne reacted as many in our culture do. We ignore our countless blessings and try to take credit for the mysteries that work through us, as us. Recent research indicates the harms of the myth of meritocracy and the many delusions related to economic inequality. We do, do, do, unable, often unwilling to see male privilege, white privilege, wealth privilege, and also—importantly—human privilege. If we don’t have to acknowledge the sacredness all around us that supports our life, if we don’t have to let ourselves be lived by sacred powers and inconceivable causes, we can do whatever we want.  

This has to do with how we use life, how we use the world, how we use our own body and mind. We have developed a way of relating to the world and to our own soul that doesn’t properly acknowledge the sacredness of all things, including our own soul and the soul of the world. We have a lot of hubris. 

After Arachne’s insistence on her ego’s control over things, Athena reveals herself and challenges Arachne to a weaving contest. A sort of spiritual paradox unfolds: Wisdom, as source of both tapestries, could find no flaw in the human tapestry. Wisdom wove both tapestries. It is not that Arachne’s weaving surpassed Athena’s, but that wisdom did the weaving in both cases. Only, Arachne cannot see that. So, Athena then strikes Arachne 3 times—like a Zen Master striking a stubborn student. 

Arachne suddenly experiences radical shame and humility, entering a hell-realm of guilt, and hanging herself. Athena turns her into a spider. 

This spider doesn’t take credit for her work, yet her web long remained unrivalled in its strength and lightness. How often have we stopped to marvel at her tapestry, glistening with dew in the morning light like the jeweled Net of Indra glowing with the sun of wisdom?

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