Synchronicity Cambray

of synchronicity is the first step in seeing the field one is in. When this
is refused then the (archetypal) enactment is passed on; one cannot
become identified with a god without great risk of sharing the fate
of that god. This is a likely course for abused synchronicities, they
become enactments that have a fated repetition about them. Perhaps
we are reaching the place culturally that we can begin to metabolize
these enactments and so more fully appreciate the significance of the
original synchronicities.
In passing it should be noted that the image/metaphor of the mirror
returns as a leitmotif in these pages. Recall Pauli’s mirror complex
that came to the fore when he could not accept the breaking of parity/
symmetry in the events associated with weak nuclear forces. Or, how
Jung’s diagram of the layers of the psyche in his private letter to Victor
White was restricted to mirror symmetry, much lower than the rigid
symmetry of the figure published in Aion. Then, there are the mirror
neurons that seem to form the physiological basis of the capacity for
empathy. Now we arrive at cultural mirrors and the difficulties of discerning
the “other” across gaps that seem initially unbridgeable. What
one ends up seeing in these situations seems to be more an uncertain
reflection of one’s own unconscious concerns than a true picture of
the other. I believe one function of synchronicities is to alert us to
these gaps, to challenge us to see the emergent rather than magical
wishes or fears.
In passing, a similar example can be found in the story of Captain
James Cook’s eighteenth-century encounter with the Hawaiians, where
he was mistaken for the god Lono. This time, however, there were several
sets of synchronicities, and the results were quite different for the
European. Cook’s arrival in Hawaii in early 1779 apparently coincided
with rituals that were associated with the return of the year god Lono,
a time of peace. 29 Cook subsequently left the Hawaiian Islands safely
but due to the need for ship repairs he returned about a month later.
However, the ritual season had shifted and it was now the time of Kū,
the god of war, and Cook may have been less than welcome. Strife with
the Hawaiians broke out and Cook was killed in the skirmish. Insensitivity
to shifts in mythic patterns resulted in tragic coincidences, again
suggesting caution in reading emergent patterns.
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