Notebook Navigation: The Strange World of Synchronicity

Let's hit the (note)books and do some writing. Notebook Navigation is a series of creativity prompts and exercises to spark the writing process

In this installment of Notebook Navigation, we will play with the Jungian theme of synchronicity, an acausal connecting principle.

The Notebook Navigation series is intended to be reminder to write something in your notebook today, a quick refresh for your creative writing process. Today, writer and editor Crystal Cox joins us to offer this prompt.

---

A synchronicity, theorized by psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung, is “an acausal connecting principle, whereby internal, psychological events are linked to external world events by meaningful coincidences rather than causal chains” (Cambray).

Often, these synchronicities are connected to an image. “Perhaps the most well-known case involved a patient’s dream of being given a piece of gold jewelry in the shape of a scarab beetle being told as a knocking on Jung’s consulting room window drew his attention to a scarabaeid beetle (a rose-chafer) seeking entry. Jung caught the beetle, handed it to the patient which had a positive, transformative impact on the case, as it broke through her defensive rationalism according to Jung” (Cambray).

Mandala from early 1700s Tibet

Image courtesy of Cleveland Museum of Art (public domain)

For this writing exercise, we’re going to dive into the strange world of consciousness and repetition.

First, if in reading about synchronicities, an image or situation popped immediately into your head — follow that as far down the rabbit hole as possible. If you dreamt about a red dress with buttons down the side, and you came across a woman whisking such a dress down the street, then consider the significance of this coincidence. How might you be connected in subconscious ways to this person, to this image?

If you’re not immediately thinking of something, then we’re going to create our own synchronicity (forgive me Jung! I know this is the opposite of your theory’s intent). Think of your recent dreams or daydreams. Is there an object that sticks out to you? A voice or phrase? How about a person, real and identifiable or perhaps a hazy amalgamation of several characteristics?

Once you have your focus, then place the object/voice/person/etc. into as many situations as you can imagine. Would your beetle be going for a walk down Hollywood Blvd? Would your beetle tell your friend a secret that you’ve been keeping from her? Would your beetle be a terrible roommate and eat all your food?

Then, try plucking one of these scenarios and writing a poem or prose piece. Feel free to put yourself into your own work — why is this image following you? What meaning could it be trying to communicate?

---

Crystal Cox was born and raised in mid-Missouri. She holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Idaho. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Shō Poetry Journal, Tiny Spoon, Phoebe, The Shore, Nimrod, and elsewhere. Her poems have been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. With seven years of literary publishing experience, including as the former Editor in Chief of Fugue Journal, she serves as co-editor of Outskirts Literary Journal. Website: crystalcox.online / Instagram: @crystalxcox.

---

Paid subscribers get access to writing feedback each month, a Zoom Q&A for editorial consultation, and free submissions.

Click below to join!