“Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle” was a book that I picked up from my local library on a bit of a whim. After getting into the Hellier series and examining the concept of Synchronicity in several pop culture instances (called Synchronicity in the Hell Raiser Comic Series and Hitsuzen in XXXHolic) I thought it would be interesting to read a more historical context. Carl Jung is best known in collective culture in his Psychological contexts. But, I had never actually come across him in the context of an occultist. (My bad.)

Thus, I felt that I should familiarize myself by at least reading one text by him as an occultist. Anyone seeking to read this book should know a few things. First, this is structured like a research journal. Second, it is written in the style of a research journal. So the text itself is rather opaque and very precise—but this is not the kind of writing that a normal person is used to. This is the sort of thing I often read in Graduate School. It is not easy to parse at first glance if you are not in the practice of doing so.

Important Notes: This is a historical text from the 1960s, and thus suffers from the limitations of its time including, but not limited to, language we consider to be racist now, the racist trope of Mystical Asians, etc. 

Synopsis

The first section of this book can be considered a Literature Review, wherein Jung discusses previous incarnations of the concept of Synchronicity across the occult sphere and references these uses and concepts in different writings. In essence, this is Jung’s justification for the importance/necessity of his article. 

The second portion consists of Jung’s personal theory regarding aspects of the Synchronicity phenomenon, along with several examples. In this section, he specifies that Synchronicity is specifically ‘acausual’ in that there is no cause and effect within Synchronicity. He also explains that this concept differs from events that take place at the same time. Rather, Synchronicity is the same meaning/symbol/image populated across time but with no logical cause/effect or relation between each instance. If Jung has written this argument in the 2020s, he might have called these instances ‘memetic’ in that they self-replicate in slightly different forms with no apparent reason behind them that can be explained by science as it currently is. 

Part of Jung’s description of Synchronicity is that it also does not bend to the convenience of modern science in that it is not something that can be reproduced for observation. His theory is essentially that part of the unpredictability of Synchronicity relies on the infinite possibilities available in the universe at any given time—and trying to narrow the phenomenon into an easily observable state in a laboratory destroys most of the potential ways Synchronicity can manifest. Or, to put it plainly, you can’t observe something that has no obvious cause and effect, because a lab is not ‘wild’ enough to allow for it. 

This is an interesting point, as within the psychological sciences you essentially have two choices when conducting studies: go for as close to ‘real life’ and sacrifice numbers that are easy to crunch and do math to, or sacrifice ‘realism’ and get nice, tidy numbers to run in data sets.
The third section is an example of attempting to measure occult phenomenon (astrology as related to married and unmarried couples in the same way one would measure a scientific study. In essence: the math all comes out to a giant nothing-burger. And I am not surprised. Although I have been forced to run statistics by hand, I hate it and I cannot imagine how much crunching this required. The data sets I ran where nowhere near as large as the one mentioned in this text was. 

The fourth section covers a variety of other texts that Jung argues connect Synchronicity to the concept of As Above So Below within the occult. His argument is essentially that if every microcosm has within it the macrocosm, there can easily be repetitions of an infinite number of potential meanings—and within them the possibility of Synchronicity. 

Jung’s conclusions include a handful of charts that Jung uses to organize phenomenon. He does mention that Synchronicity is a ‘self-substantiative’ form of event. That is, the event / phenomenon itself provides evidence of its own existence. He essentially argues that Synchronicity can be considered the macrocosm (the greater world) reflecting back significance from the inner world. These reflections can continue through time, like the same signal being bounced back and forth between multiple towers. 

As I said before—it seems somewhat memetic in nature. Now, to the review. 

Clarity 0/20 : 5/20 : 10/20

This section is highly dependent on whether or not the reader has: no experience reading occult texts or scholarly articles, experience with reading one of the two, and experience reading both. As I said previously, this is not an easy read. For the average layman, I would not suggest this. 

Necessity 5/20

I think that this text does have value. First, it is a historical text and it does provide a history of the development of the concept of Synchronicity—which is a term in common use in current occult circles. Second, I think it provides a very good example of just how attempting to examine occult phenomenon / The Mysteries the way you would observe scientific can go wrong. I was very much guilty of this when I was younger. So I get the urge. I also think the theories are interesting. In another time, this book would have had a higher necessity rating. It think the most interesting tidbit for me actually came in the forward—where Jung’s ‘Black Books’ were discussed. Unlike his scholarly writings, these were described as Jung just ‘letting his imagination go completely wild’ and seeing where that got him. 

Enjoyability 5/20

Aside from the anecdotes and descriptions of personal experiences with Synchronicity, this was not an enjoyable read. I found myself thinking about giving up on this admittedly short book several times, and it felt like a slog. 

Actionability / Inspirational Quality 5/20

Aside from the concept of Black Books and the argument against trying to put a scientific lens onto the occult, I don’t think there is a ton you can do with this. It was interesting to learn about Jung in the occult context as opposed to his psychological one. But, this was by far not it for me. 

Inclusivity 10/20

Points for this category are largely given because Synchronicity is not described as something super special that can only really happen to certain individuals. But, the general racist tone of several sections did bother me. 

The Final Score is a whopping 25, 30, or 35 out of 100. This is not a text I could ever recommend to a beginner. And it fits solidly within a category I would only suggest to the most pedantic of us nerds. 

Several members of the Clow Craft Discord Server also brought up a good point when I discussed criteria for occult book reviews with them. And that’s the factor of citations. This book does pass the Citation Sniff Test in that Jung does list his sources, including when those sources are his own personal experiences.

There is a major issue in the occult community with people just not stating what their sources are. Or, people flat out lie about their sources in order to make a gambit for more clout.

For fun: how many of you have experienced synchronicity? What was the symbol or meaning? In a goofy but recent example: my gaming group keeps getting beaten the fuck up by snails in game. First, it was a Flail Snail in a short 5e that nearly killed one of the party. Then, my character stepped on a venomous snail that happened to also be an invasive species from another dimension and ended up in the hospital. The third game unrelated game with a new game runner where someone gets jumped by a snail, I swear I will just scream.