kali then and now and when?

Kali, artist unknown, ca. 1865, Victoria & Albert Museum

What goes around, comes around. Kali first showed up for me in 2018. She stood behind me, in her fierce aspect, and as she hovered over me, black India ink filled my body, eradicating me. Was that fierceness? or love? or both? That experience remains vivid in my memory. An image very close to the one above is what arose when I sensed into her presence.

Then, last month, Kali shows up again. But this time is different.

I am listening to a podcast recommended by a friend. Half-listening, really. Then he starts talking about Kali. Oh, Kali! Now I'm listening. Of all the experiences he describes, this is the one that galvanizes my attention.

The next morning, I am reading a newsletter from a group I follow, Morbid Anatomy. Their articles are eclectic. That morning, there is an article featuring...Kali. This is not their regular fare.

The next day, I am going through a box of books that I culled from my bookshelves a year or more ago, deciding what to sell and what to give away. In the box is a book about Kali, which I had forgotten I had.

Many of us would call these events "synchronicity." I certainly did, although I don't anymore. What does "synchronicity" even mean? Do you know? What are we saying when we use the word, "synchronicity"?

We have Carl Jung to thank for this use of the word. His description of synchronicity was an "acausal connecting principle," linking inner experience to the outer world. Sometimes, these experiences have "a certain numinous quality." I hear someone speak about Kali, then I serendipitously encounter an article about her, and then a book. It kind of gives me shivers.

Some people take experiences of synchronicity to be signs that things are proceeding well. They are on the right track. I'm not quite sure where this comes from, but it seems common. We give meaning to experiences.

But what if synchronicity isn't acausal? What if there is a cause? What if the overlapping of experiences in time, in ways that seem uncanny, are actually something else? And what if our determination to find meaning in them is an add-on to the bare experience? What would you think about an alternative explanation? Would it deprive you of something meaningful? Or would it open new vistas for you?