AUTHOR’S NOTE: Be advised that I’m really letting my imagination loose on this one in the Douglas Adams tradition of absurdity. As my German friends used to respond impishly (now we would call it a “dad-joke”) when asked “Was ist los?” (“What’s going on?” or, literally, “What’s loose?”): “Die hund ist los.” (“The dog is loose.”) Pardon my unleashed yapping here.
While reading Robert Anton Wilson’s discussion of synchronicity as he related it to UFO phenomena, I became absorbed in his concept of “outside” and “inside” reality (not a new idea by any stretch since his focus was “observation-vs-hallucination”). The former is signified by the global “reality-tunnel” that all living human beings occupy more-or-less concurrently, while the latter defines the private “reality-tunnel” that each of us maintains “on the inside” (i.e. in our head). One is recognized as externally relevant by communal consent (it’s acknowledged that we can’t survive unaided in some hostile regions, but we can live unmolested [apart from politics, racism and xenophobia] almost anywhere else we choose); the other is self-created and functions only at the internal level.
Suppose we divide the experiential world into an upper and a lower zone. The first is the objective Universe of overarching space that we crawl around beneath like semi-intelligent ants (the dumb half reflects our atavistic, unconscious response to provocation); the second is represented by a deep well of subjective consciousness at the bottom of which our innate personality dwells, peering upward for hints of celestial activity that might have individual meaning for us (seasons, solstices, eclipses, comets, meteorites, solar flares, UFOs, falling space junk, etc).
Synchronicity could be whimsically imagined as lowering a theoretical bucket full of coincidence-bearing “thought-fish” into the well and releasing them to swarm us with all kinds of tantalizing insights and inspirations for our subconscious emulation (Wilson calls them “weirdities”) that we instinctively reach for and occasionally catch, puzzle over, and then try to trace back to their numinous source as a way to figure out exactly what is going on: are we actually living the reality thus impressed upon us by the Universe or are we just imperfectly mimicking it, assuming we have nabbed the slippery fish?
Another fanciful analogy would be a “mental virus from space” that infects us, as proposed in the old Poul Anderson sci-fi story Brain Wave, in which every person on Earth suddenly became super-intelligent after being irradiated by an extraterrestrial “ray” . . . yikes, sounds rather “Mensa-maniacal” to me! As a long-ago member (and also as a former adherent of Ayn Rand’s “Objectivist” philosophy), I’ve been down that road before and it ain’t pretty.
We can surmise the presence of “reality connectors” linking the zones that attempt to bring the two together into some kind of rational coherence, like the tarot Magician and his “as above, so below” gestures. (On the occult front, such correlating devices include astrology and tarot cards). Here is a tarot spread that purports to show this in graphic form.
Begin by shuffling the deck while concentrating on a question or topic that has both spiritual and secular dimensions to it.
Deal Cards #1 and #2 as shown in the image to represent the spiritual influence and the secular impact, respectively.
Deal Card #3 as the “Reality Connector” between the objective and subjective sides of the matter If you choose, you can calculate a “numerical essence” card from the values of Cards #1 and #2 to serve as Card #3; this will always be a trump card of the number thus derived, which may require numerological reduction to fall within 22.
Deal Cards #4 and #5 as the “Auspicious” and “Adverse” modifiers of Card #1. For this step, place the most fortunate of the two random cards in the “Auspicious” position and the less favorable card in the “Adverse” position. (There is no rule that says we can’t have a “guided” pull, and this seems to be the most logical approach under the circumstances.) Read this triplet as a “blended” influence, using various forms of “dignity” to judge the potency of Card #1 when modified by the other two.
Deal Cards #6 and #7 adjacent to Card #2 in the same manner. Read the triplet as a “blended” impact statement between Card #2 and the modifiers to assess the potency of the former, according to dignity.
Read Cards #1 and #3 as a pair to determine whether Card #3 provides a cooperative “channel” for the combined influence of Cards #1, #4 and #5 to emerge from the spirit world. If Card #1 is “blocked” by the resistance of Card #3, the influence of spiritual forces on secular consequences will be minimized for “good or ill,” depending on the nature of the three cards “above the line.”
Read Cards #2 and #3 together to determine whether the pair is favorably aligned to deliver the impact of the spiritual realm to the secular domain of the bottom triplet. If Card #3 is “blocking” the receptivity of Card #2, there will be no significant merger of the secular and the spiritual implications, and the former will dominate “for good or ill” depending on the nature of the three cards “below the line.”
From this analysis, decide whether the Objective Reality of spiritual affairs or the Subjective Reality of secular considerations is best-served by the interaction of the cards on its side of the equation with Card #3. ” Ideally, there will be uninterrupted flow across the “Reality Connector” such that synchronicity prevails and both zones benefit to the maximum degree.
There is no “outcome” card in this spread, just an effectiveness call as to whether the remote stimulus or the local reaction will be most prominent in the give-and-take between influence and impact. From this the querent’s status in the matter can be affirmed.
I performed a test reading that I won’t post here, but it was interesting for the “Reality Connector” position (Card #3). I asked casually whether an initiative I’m contemplating would have spiritual implications or whether it would be entirely secular. The rest of the the cards were mostly inconsequential, but I populated Card #3 in two ways: first by random draw and second by “numerical essence” calculation.
The random pull gave me the Hierophant as the “Reality Connector,” which is a card of conventional values and morals. I read it as formal religious constraints preventing the ingress of spiritual stimulus into the “Subjective Reality” side of the picture. The calculated trump card was Justice, which conveys the idea that legal restrictions will do the same thing. The only other card of note was the reserved High Priestess in the “Adverse Secular Modifier” position, doubling down on the Hierophant’s interdiction. The initiative will be rebuffed at the border by universal decree. (I won’t be trying to sell any articles to Christianity Today.)
