Times, Depths and Synchronicity

This is not my usual poetic style blog. Today I want to speak to something different. In The Red Book, Carl Jung writes of “the spirit of the depths” and “the spirit of the times”. Spirit of the times means current cultural beliefs and values of the external world on a collective level. It represents religion, political values, monetary values etc. He suggested that at the time, 1913, people were focused on the pursuit of money and religious doctrine in a way that prevented them from really going into the spirit of the depths.

Jung envisioned the spirit of the depths as a person’s inner experience of spirituality, emotions and intuition. He valued the psychology of the depths as significant to living. While the spirit of the times suggested to people that they focus on masculine, external matters, Jung was studying his own personal depths through the interpretation of symbols and mythologies that presented to him in his dreams.

Why do I bring this up? Because Jung found a way to communicate with his higher self by studying his dreams and visions. In his view, dreams and wakeful visions were not just nonsense, but messages from his unconscious side, his spiritual side, his depths. He learned to develop a sense of connection to his higher self by becoming aware of symbolism and synchronicity. He would notice a common vision throughout mythology included black serpents after he had dreams of black serpents. He studied until he could find interpretations of his dreams and in doing so began to understand the language of his higher self, of God, and understood the messages.

By communicating with higher self, whether through dreams, visions or journeys, and learning to notice synchronicity, you awaken your depths and move that much closer to accessing the Christ within. There are others ways of making that connection too, but this is one that most people can accomplish easily.

Begin keeping a dream journal. Ask your partner and friends about their dreams and you will learn to discern which dreams are personal and which are of the collective. Notice if you sneeze at a particular thought or if your dog barks when you are having a significant conversation. Synchronicities can occur in any form and every form. What makes them synchronicities is your ability to extract meaning from them.
The film Fools rush in is a good one for this. The main character played by Matthew Perry, sees signs everywhere telling him what to do. They are only significant signs because he notices them.