CHAPTER 3

How Divination Systems WorkThe Star
Hope, idealism, grace
Palladini Tarot© US Games Systems, Inc.

Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
Human beings must be known to be loved; but Divine beings
must be loved to be known.
—Pascalhe word coincidence describes the situationin which two or more events come together
in time. In common usage the term carries
the connotation that although things may seem and feellike they were arranged, their concurrence was basicallya meaningless accident, as in “just a coincidence.”
People who use divination, on the other hand, knowthat ultimately there are no accidents, and that coincidences are not meaningless. They also understand thatcoincidences can be useful as signs from above, if one
knows how to interpret the signs.
In reality, every moment is a confluence of coincidences. Your very existence is the result of a multitude ofcoincidences — your mother and father getting together,
the particular set of sperm and egg, supported by ovulation and fertility, that produced you! Your existence isthe result of many coincidental elements, but that does
not mean that you are not meaningful or important.
The human ability to notice and decipher the meaning of coincidental events and natural occurrences—theproverbial “signs and omens” of scriptures—is well
documented across cultures throughout human history.
It is a universal folk practice that has survived even inmodern parts of the world. If, for example, you’re debating whether or not to take a trip to Italy, and you win an
Italian phrase book in a raffle, you might interpret thatevent as a sign to go.
The Bible contains countless examples of the readingof signs and omens to interpret God’s will—one is thestory of Gideon who asks God to give him a specific signof an unusual nature, which he receives, to confirm what
he thought was God’s decision for him (Judges 6:3640). Some excellent books have been written about theinterpretation of signs and omens, and a few are listed
in our bibliography.

Coincidences are God’s
way of remaining
anonymous.
—Bill Moyers

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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
Divination systems, some of which are almost as
ancient as reading signs and omens, take a more deliberate approach. They were invented to generate coincidences that do not depend upon external events, which
can then be reliably interpreted. A system like Tarot,
or its more ancient cousin, the I-Ching, involves thedeliberate production of a coincidental pattern—thecards you happen to pick at that time, or the coins you
toss. The pattern consist of symbols—the images on thecards, the mix of yin and yang lines in I Ching—whichhave been interpreted by sages to help you further yourdepth of understanding in order to know yourself and/or make a decision.
Unlike the interpretation of signs and omens, theuse of a divination system does not rely on psychic
ability. Throughout history society’s leaders turned todivining specialists—shamans, seers and oracles suchas the famous oracle of Delphi—who used some typeof divination system to create a pattern that could beinterpreted to give advice regarding important challenges, opportunities and trends. For hundreds of years,
the power of divination rituals was reserved for the limited few who had power and money, and everyone
worshipped at the altar of Destiny.
In classical times humans personified Destiny
as a powerful goddess, and made great efforts
to stay in her good graces. The Greeks called
her Tyche. To the Romans she was Fortuna, theGoddess of Fortune, good and bad. Her symbols
were a nautical steering wheel and a horn of plenty. To stay in sync with this original Lady Luck,
it was necessary to let her steer the course and to
Tyche: Goddess of Fortune. follow her signals. For the most part, this required
Tyche was highly regarded by the paying attention to signs and omens, the meanresidents of ancient Greece. They
ingful coincidences or synchronicities of daily life.
honored, worshiped and celebratBy learning to notice and interpret patterns, one
ed her as their link to fortune,
would develop one’s intuition and improve one’s
good luck, and success.
fortunes.
Systems of divination provided humanity with amore reliable way to decipher the will of the gods,
because they include a body of knowledge to guide ourinterpretation. The inspired knowledge of astrologicalsigns, I-Ching hexagrams and Tarot archetypes was
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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
codified by ancient sages in order to satisfy our naturaldesire to make sense of human situations and relationships, to help us develop better timing that is in sync
with nature, and as a result make better decisions in themost important areas of our lives.
Through divination systems, humanity has been
gifted with symbolic languages to interpret divine will.
The symbols and archetypes that form the heart of all
divination systems represent the dynamics of human
life, including social and political interaction. Because
it employs the language of archetypes and symbols, a
divination ritual is more than a meditation technique. It
can stimulate insights, provide timely advice and direction from the divine.
In my experience as a meditation teacher, I haveheard prayer described as talking to God, with meditation as listening. Since divination is a process of not
only communing with the divine but also interpreting
divine will, it is a form of meditation that also delivers
insights and advice. This type of meditative listening
has a distinct advantage, because it is possible to receive
information from the Divine when there is an organizedlanguage of symbols that we can interpret coming backto us, via the magic of a coincidental pattern we are
generating for that purpose.
The academic question of how divination works has
been taken up by a wide array of people, from philosophers to educators, psychologists to skeptics. Opinions
have come from a broad spectrum of self-appointed
experts—from New Age gurus to religious fundamentalists. Some fundamentalists purport the “fallen angel”
theory—that the devil possesses diviners in order to leadpeople away from God.
Then there’s the order-out-of-chaos theory promulgated by skeptics: We have such an urgent need to findorder for ourselves in this chaotic world, that we arenaively susceptible to inventing meaning in an oracle’s
random patterns. Humanity’s greatest psychologist,
however, was able to reconcile the scientific and the mystical, while advancing the sophistication of psychology
in the process. His name was Carl Gustav Jung.

We are Divine enoughto ask and we areimportant enough toreceive.
—Wayne Dyer

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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems WorkJUNG’S INSIGHT
Despite the skepticism of thereligious and scientific establishment, the perceived gap between
the empirical and the mystical has
been closing now for over a century.
Major credit for bringing these twocamps within hailing distance must
go to the founder of depth psychology, Carl Jung. Jung has done more
for the understanding and promotion of divination than any otherscientist. As part of his psychology,
Jung made it a point to study theCarl Gustav Jungworld’s religions, mythologies, andCarl Jung was an avid user of astrology, as evidivination systems, rather than todenced by this excerpt of a letter to B.V. Raman,
focus on pathologies, and simply
a world-renowned Hindu astrologer, about
dismiss the spiritual as irrational or
Astrology and Jung’s Synchronicity principle.
irrelevant.
“Since you want to know my opinion about
Sigmund Freud (who also usedastrology I can tell you that I’ve been interested
in this particular activity of the human mind for
the Tarot) took an early interest in
more than 30 years.
Jung’s ideas. The men compared“As I am a psychologist, I am chiefly interested
and debated ideas for years throughin the particular light the horoscope sheds oncorrespondence. Freud described tocertain complications in the character. In cases
Jung his theory of the unconsciousof difficult psychological diagnosis I usually get amind—the reservoir of forgotten
horoscope in order to have a further point of viewor repressed energies and experifrom an entirely different angle.
ences, often of a sexual nature, that
“I must say that I very often found that thereappear in adulthood as the variastrological data elucidated certain points which I
ous kinds of neuroses. But Jung’s
otherwise would have been unable to understand.
psychology would not only focus
From such experiences I formed the opinion thaton psychological forces emanating
astrology is of particular interest to the psycholofrom an individual subconscious,
gist, since it contains a sort of psychological expebut also from what he termed ourrience which we call “projected”—this means thatcollective unconscious.
we find the psychological facts as it were in theconstellations.
Jung explained how this collec“This originally gave rise to the idea that thesetive unconscious included mytholfactors derive from the stars, whereas they areogies and belief systems inherited
merely in a relation of synchronicity with them.”from the culture. This collective
unconscious was a sort of psychic
reservoir of accumulated knowledge, cultural conditioning that informs all of us, and in fact defines who we
68Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Workare as a species. The following is a bit of Jung’s explanation of his ideas from The Archetypes and the Collective
Unconscious:
While the personal unconscious is made up
essentially of contents which have at one time
been conscious, but which have disappeared
from consciousness through having been forgotten or repressed, the contents of the collective unconscious have never been in consciousness, and therefore have never been individuallyacquired but owe their existence exclusively toheredity. Whereas the personal unconscious consists for the most part of complexes, the content
of the collective unconscious is made up essentially of archetypes.
Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious madethe entire unconscious realm much larger—and considerably more positive—than Freud’s vision of a dark,
foreboding nether land of demons and insatiable sexual
hunger, ever eager to overcome our will and devour us.

ARCHETYPES
Jung’s collective unconscious is populated by what hecalled archetypes. His fascination with divination systems
like the I Ching, Tarot and Astrology stemmed from his
perception that each of them comprised a balanced setof universal archetypes, and that they actually worked!
The way Jung saw archetypes was similar to Plato’s
concept of Forms—the ideal forms that provide thetemplates for all of nature, including human beings.
Jung took this concept, refined it, and applied it to his
formulation of depth psychology. Jungian archetypes are
the common landscape of attributes and psychologicalforces that human consciousness is shaped by.
Individuals manifest different archetypal qualities indifferent proportions, but to some degree the energy or
attitude of every archetype is contained within everyoneof us. There is something reassuring in knowing that weall contain different combinations of the same stuff—
the same instincts, desires, needs, impulses and fears.
Viewed positively, this means we all share the same great
potentials; only the proportions of factors are distributed

Being conscious of how
you express energetic
archetypes allows you to
guide them in a positive
direction.

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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems WorkZeus
The gods of ancient
Greece and Rome—
mythological personalities manifesting somepowerful quality or
characteristic—were personifications of archetypes, often appearing
in dreams. Their powerover the human psyche
was enormous.

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differently. We also have all the same problematic tendencies too—again in different proportions.
Astrology, when properly understood, illustrates theuniversal nature of archetypes. Because of the tabloid“what’s your sign” treatment by popular media, mostpeople don’t realize that according to real Astrology,
everyone has each of the twelve signs active in theirchart—in different placements and proportions for different individuals.
Archetypes represent qualities of consciousness orenergy that inform human experiences, situations androles. For instance, when we think of a Queen as anarchetype, we are thinking not of an actual queen, but
of feminine energy in a position of great influence.
According to a Jungian understanding of archetypes,
such queen energy is one element within every individual’s psyche, as is every other archetype. One of the
Queen cards in Tarot, for instance, could be referring
to a personal realm or social context—like a nurturingmother.
Throughout the world there are many different setsof archetypal images which are modified by culture, andno single representational system is the correct one foreverybody. Also, the use of archetypes to understandpersonal dynamics is more art than science. In fact,
Jung believed that archetypes, by definition, cannot be
pinned down. Due to the fact that they reside in thecollective unconscious, they can only be expressed. If abehavior or action is consistently present across cultures
and throughout history, it is a manifestation of a universal archetype.
Jung explained that archetypes have a dark side as
well as a positive side, and he called this dark element
the shadow. The shadow is a fitting image for all thathumanity represses, fears or denies in itself. Shadow
energy can emerge most powerfully when an individualis ignorant of her or his own psychology, and it usually
manifests as a projection of evil onto others. As Laurens
van der Post, a friend to Jung for sixteen years, writes inJung and the Story of Our Time:[Jung] called… the “shadow” a pattern that
had at its disposal all the energies of what man

Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
had consciously despised, rejected, or ignoredin himself. One sees immediately how aptly theterm was chosen, because it is an image of what
happens when the human being stands between
himself and his own light. …The trouble started
only when the part of the human personality which was conscious behaved as if it were
the whole of the man. There was nothing thisunconscious world abhorred more than onesidedness. …Coming to terms with the shadow,
the problem of reconciling the opposites in awhole greater than their parts, was an ultimate
goal of his seeking.
Self-integration is one way of stating an overall goalof psychological healing. Jung’s psychology used theconscious mind to mediate the mysterious contents of
the unconscious, and bring more of the shadow into
the light. Archetypes in and of themselves are neither
positive nor negative. Like electricity, they are awesome
sources of power that cannot be fully understood, andwhich must be carefully applied, in order to be healing rather than destructive. If the human ego identifies
too much with an archetype—is “overshadowed” by
it—rather than consciously tapping its energy, serious
problems can result.
No matter how conscious we are, difficulty and pain
will occur in life. Sometimes the only power we have isin the way we choose to respond. People are referring toarchetypes when they say, “I don’t know what came overme… I was not myself.” Jung acknowledged the destructive power of archetypal energies when they operate
outside of awareness, and take over to the point that anindividual becomes out of control. He realized that if
archetypal forces within the psyche are not recognized,
respected, and channeled carefully, an individual’s sanity, if not his life, could be in danger. Hitler, Stalin andall the other tyrants throughout history have personified the destructive power of archetypal energy when it
overpowers and destroys the individual, in extreme cases
taking with it millions of other innocent beings.
Awareness and respect are required for the skillfulchanneling of archetypal energies. Only when we recognize an archetype operating within or through us, are we“No matter how muchof a mess we may havemade of our lives, it isalways possible to tap
into the part of the soulthat is universal, theinfinite field of purepotential, and change
the course of our destiny.
This is synchro-destiny—taking advantage ofthis connection between
the personal soul and theuniversal soul to shape
your life.”—Deepak Chopra,
The Spontaneous
Fulfillment of Desire.

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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
able to channel the energy carefully. The art of powerful living is
Significant work has been done correlating Jungian
to be able to connect our unconarchetypes and psychological conditions to the Tarot
scious power centers—the archedeck. In his last book Man and His Symbols, Jung
types—with conscious choices,wrote, “Four functional types correspond to the obvi- commitments and actions. Thisous means by which consciousness obtains its orienis how we become more of alltation to experience. Sensation (i.e. sense perception)
we can be, and develop greater
tells us that something exists; thinking tells you what
self-knowledge and integrity, theit is; feeling tells you whether it is agreeable or not;springboards for wisdom andand intuition tells you whence it comes and where it
success in life. Awareness plus
is going.” These four states have been correlated toeffort was central to Jung’s psythe suits of the Tarot as follows:
chotherapeutic style. They are
SUIT
ELEMENTTYPE
also a result and requirement ofIntuition
Wands
Fire
successful divination, an ancientFeeling
Cups
Water
self-therapeutic approach which
Thinking
SwordsAir
Jung was the first psychologist
Sensation
Coins
Earth
to explain.
For deeper information on
the Jungian theory of archetypes or the Shadow, seeCarl Jung’s collected works, edited by Joseph Campbell
in The Portable Jung.

Jung and the Suits of Tarot

A Balanced Set of Archetypes

72

Our need for greater spiritual awareness and better
intuitive decision-making has spawned the invention ofbrand new divination systems, available for sale in toy
stores as well as New Age book stores. By definition,
a divination system—whether it is called angel cards,
soul cards, stichomancy or whatever—contains a set ofarchetypes. In most cases of newly invented divination
systems, this is represented by a deck of cards. Some sets
are more inspired than others.
For a divination system to be a useful tool for reflection, its set of archetypes needs to be balanced between
light and shadow, as is the case with the classical systems we focus on in this book. Numerology, Astrology,
Tarot, I Ching and Runes predate the age of marketingand they pass the test, instinctively reflecting a balanced range of human experience, including the darker
tendencies of human experience. A collection of warmfuzzy archetypes might make people feel good—and
therefore sell better—but it will not serve as an accurateChapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
reflector of human conditions, or a good tool for decision-making.
A system of archetypes needs to be a complete andbalanced set of universal forms or ideas. For instance,
the I Ching offers sixty-four primary archetypes—in
the form of calligraphic images and associated text (ourwebsite, I-Ching.com, also has original paintings foreach hexagram)—each representing a unique situation
or attitude related to personal relations, business dealings, social situations and the like. For example, thetwelfth hexagram P’i or Standstill is described as follows:“Heaven is above, drawing farther and farther away,
while the earth below sinks farther into its depths. It isa time of standstill and decline” (Wilhelm/ Baynes version). One would never find the expression of such direstraits in the cards of most newly invented divination
decks, even though this represents a common humanexperience that we have to deal with from time to time.
Like the I Ching, the other four classical divination
systems reflect a realistic proportion of life’s shadow elements, and as a result can offer useful advice on how
to deal with challenging situations. Runes represent
the range of human experiences in a set of twenty-four
inscribed stones. The rune hieroglyphic named Hagalaz,or hail, for instance, describes sudden dramatic change,
disaster, loss and destruction.
Tarot decks contain seventy-eight cards, each representing an archetype or universal human condition.
Each card has a shadowy aspect along with a forwardmoving message. This is easy to see, starting with thefirst card of the Tarot deck, the Fool. While this image
is now usually interpreted as signifying innocence andopenness, the character in older Tarot decks is portrayed
as inept, uneducated and ridiculous—in short, as foolish. Tarot offers a particularly rich matrix of archetypes.
Every card has a numerological component as well as an
astrological component. Tarot’s twenty-two trump cards
also reflect the twenty-two highly symbolic characters ofthe Hebrew alphabet.
Probably the best-known set of archetypes is
Astrology’s collection of the twelve signs, houses andthe planets, which represent elements of human nature,

Wands

Fire

Cups

Water

Swords

Air

Coins

Earth

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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work

“Synchronicity gives us
a sense of hope, a sensethat something bigger ishappening out there thanwhat we can see, whichis especially importantin times like this when
there’s so many reasonsfor despair. If your belief
system is such that intuition and synchronicity
are real and significant,you will notice them. If
your belief system is thatthey’re hogwash, you
won’t.”—Carolyn North inSynchronicity: The
Anatomy of Coincidence.

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with both positive and shadow qualities. For instancethe Leo character, which can be seen as a generous
benefactor, can also express egocentricity and arrogance.
Another classical system, Numerology, assigns meanings
to numbers. Based on an understanding that the entire
universe displays numerical properties, Numerology’s
meanings can be described by a base set of numbers. For
instance, the number 11 represents intuition, idealism,
invention, insensitivity, and fanaticism—a list of characteristics that includes darker manifestations.
It cannot be overemphasized that archetypes aremetaphorical, not literal. One does not expect tobecome Queen of a monarchy because a queen card isdrawn. Likewise, physical death is not the meaning of
the Death card, as those who fear death could imagine.
The Beltway Snipers of 2002 were a prime exampleof literally interpreting a Tarot archetype. The Deathcard was found at the scene of one of their randomshootings, with the words “Policeman, I am God” written on the back of the card. Occult groups around thecountry responded appropriately, pointing out that,
despite the killer’s use of it, the Death card actuallymeans transformation, and is often seen as indicativeof a positive event. ABC News even published a special
report called “Tarot Novice?” by Michael James. The
author wrote, “If a serial sniper sought by police leftthe ‘death’ tarot card found near a shooting scene in
Maryland, he or she likely doesn’t have much of anunderstanding of tarot….” Indeed, when I was asked by
the press to comment, based on my position as founderof Tarot.com, I stated my suspicion that the sniper
might be subconsciously using the Death card to project
his own death wish (a wish that is coming true at thetime of this writing by means of a death sentence).

The Synchronicity Principle
Jung not only articulated the role of archetypes inthe subconscious, dreams, and divination, he defined asecond factor to explain the “meaningful coincidence”
of divination systems, which he named synchronicity.
Jung first used this term publicly in 1930 at Richard
Wilhelm’s funeral in his description of how the I Chingworks. Synchronicity relies on a subtle relationship that

Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
exists in time—between two or more different events,
which could include inner events of insight or creative
inspiration synchronizing with the outer events of one’s
life. Jung gave credit to Albert Einstein as his inspiration
for the theory of synchronicity. Like no scientist before
or since, Carl Jung explored the territory connecting
objective behavior with a person’s inner experience,
including the spiritual dimension.
In Jung’s essay entitled “Synchronicity, An Acausal
Connecting Principle,” he contrasted the Western mindset—influenced by early Greek philosophy with its
focus on cause and effect—with the Eastern perspective,
which views details only as part of a whole.
This ... involves a certain curious principle that
I have termed ‘synchronicity,’ a concept that
formulates a point of view diametrically opposedto that of causality. Since the latter is merely
statistical truth and not absolute, it is a sort ofworking hypothesis of how events evolve oneout of another, whereas synchronicity takes thecoincidence of events in space and time as meaning something more than mere chance, namely,a peculiar interdependence of objective events
among themselves as well as with the subjective(psychic) states of the observer or observers.

I can say that being
prepared for an
opportunity is only
part of the synchronicity. Besides being
qualified and experienced, uncontrollable
elements such as timing and luck often
play heavily.
—Randy West

To Jung, the Eastern approach provides a more holistic viewpoint, reaching beyond the linear approaches
and tunnel vision of the unassisted intellect. Jung pointed to a power of discernment that can take advantageof “the irrational functions of consciousness…sensationand intuition.”
This was obvious to the sages of ancient cultures.
In modern times, we have excelled at applying a logical, objective line of inquiry toward discovering andinventing many useful mechanical tools. We have been
obsessed with the question, “What are things made of?”
As my friend the late Terence McKenna pointed out,
the ancients were interested in a different question than
this materialistic one. They wanted the answer to thequestion, “What kinds of things go together in time?” In
other words, what is the relationship between subjective
experience and objective reality at any given moment?
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The consideration of time, and the value of having
good timing, is more useful than logical analysis when it
comes to politics, social rituals and affairs of the humanheart. Even though the Chinese made momentous technological inventions like moveable type and gunpowder
hundreds of years before Europe, the Eastern cultures
have been just as interested in the practical challenges ofhuman happiness.
Everyone has experienced amazing coincidences thatturned out to have carried great meaning in their lives—
synchronicity in action. Let’s look
“I was walking down the street thinking aboutat three kinds of synchronicity.
a friend I hadn’t seen for some time, and when I
The first occurs when an indilooked up, there was my friend standing at the corner with his wife and he was looking at me in some vidual has a thought, and thensurprise, for as it turned out they had been speaksome related external event occurs
ing of me in the same moment that I had beenat the same time, and within theirthinking of him, and so we congratulated ourselves
field of perception. We immeon having arrived there at the corner at just thediately sense the meaning inright moment for these facts to be revealed to us.
these occurrences. In her article
We talked for a while... and when we parted I had“A wink from the Cosmos,” Meg
the happy sense that the substance of my day had
Lundstrom
wrote about the phebeen revealed. Only later did I recall that none ofnomenon. “Art was sitting at his
us had referred to our fortunate meeting as a coincomputer typing an e-mail missive
cidence, which is what it was, of course. But coinwhen his cat Coal jumped fromcidence is a word that we have learned to distrust,a term of mild derogation employed by parents,
his lap onto the keyboard. Before
teachers and other grown-ups to dismiss the marArt’s startled eyes, as the cat shifted
vellous: ‘only a coincidence’ was the way they usufrom key to key, its paws tapped
ally put it, and in that word only we understoodout the word ‘emerson’ on themeaning and significance to lie not in the world
screen. ‘To make it even weirder,of the coincidental, but elsewhere, in a more real
I’ve been studying Ralph Waldo
world of non-coincidence, in which events could be
Emerson intently for the past year,
held accountable according to an iron law of cause
and the study has taken on a very
and effect.”
symbolic meaning to me,’ he says,—Stephen Osborne, “The Coincidence Problem,”still in shock.”
Geist, Winter 2002
The second type of synchronicity occurs when an internal mental process corresponds
to an event that happens concurrently, but at a distance.
For example, Sarah was just finalizing her divorce, andwent to Asia for a little soul searching. While visitinga Buddhist temple, she had her fortune read. “Yoursecond love is your true soulmate,” was the message shegot. Upon returning home a week later, she received an
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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Worke-mail from an old friend describing a powerful dreamhe’d had the previous week about searching for her, andhad to locate her just to put his mind at ease. He had
been Sarah’s boyfriend in college and her second lover.
The last type happens when an internal thought
relates to an external event that hasn’t happened yet,but where no causal relationship seems possible. For
instance, a friend of mine was telling me about a series ofdreams she had been having in which the ocean suddenly rises, flooding above the windows. In her dreams, she
was safe, but she couldn’t figure out what made the waterrise so fast. A few days after she told me of her dreams,
the 2004 “Boxing Day” tsunami devastated Asia.
The last two types of synchronicity cannot be known
immediately, they can only be verified later. In Jung’seyes, the occurrence of such meaningful coincidences
points to an interconnected union of the material andconscious worlds.
We in the west have also had the idea that events
tend to cluster around a moment in time, as evidenced
by folk sayings like, “good things (or accidents) happen in threes.” In today’s world, we tend to dismiss
such notions as merely superstitious. However, Jungpointed out that events in our lives, especially emotionally charged ones, could stimulate archetypes within
us, which can attract similar events, in turn providing
meaningful synchronicities.
How does synchronicity apply to the divination process? Art Rosengarten, in his book Tarot and Psychology:
Spectrums of Possibility, describes how divination is atechnique of “applied synchronicity.” He writes, “Ineffect, Tarot, like I Ching and other such oracularmethods, intentionally manufactures the probability of
meaningful connection to occur via (seemingly) random
selection.”
When you formulate a query for an oracle system,
you are deliberately entering a mental state of receptivity for a synchronistic response to the inquiry. Then,by picking particular cards, throwing coins, and so on,
you are injecting a seemingly random element into theequation, but a personal one that is activated by yourenergy—your choice of cards, tossing of the coins, tim-

Any attempt to determine the nature of theunconscious state runs
up against the samedifficulties as atomic
physics: the very actof observation alters
the object observed.
Consequently, there isat present no way ofobjectively determining
the real nature of theunconscious.
—Carl Jung

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Serving as a guide without an interfering ego,divination systems canprovide immediate accessto profound resources.

78

ing or rolling of the dice.
My introduction to divination as a UC Berkeley
undergraduate is a prime example of how important
one’s attitude and approach to divination can be. A
spiritually oriented female classmate, with whom I was
flirting, offered to show me how to cast an I Ching reading. Skeptical, but using the opportunity to spend moretime with her, I went along. She asked me to write downa subject of personal concern. I scribbled somethingthat didn’t mean much to me, in a lame attempt to behumorous. I certainly was not taking my first encounter
with an oracle very seriously.
After I tossed the three coins six times, she showed me
how to look up the pattern in the large Wilhelm/Baynes
version of the I Ching which she had. The I Ching’s
response to my frivolous inquiry was to return its fourth
hexagram, entitled “Youthful Folly.” It was immediately
obvious that the I Ching was ignoring my question. It
seemed to reflect my flippant energy instead. Chastised,but still unconvinced, I consulted the oracle again—thistime to test it. Once again it ignored my frivolous queryand returned a reading “questioning the sincerity of theseeker.” Once again it reflected my energy—I had tried
to test it and it tested me right back. Through its oracle,
Higher Power was displaying that divine quality known
as a sense of humor!
The sudden realization that divination reflects andclarifies one’s intent as much as it dispenses practical
wisdom was a great lesson for me—one that changed mylife. Since that day over thirty-five years ago, I’ve used
the I Ching and other divination systems like Tarot as
intuitive decision-making aids that help me see beyond
my ego and exercise better timing in my life.
A form of what I call applied synchronicity, divination
offers a systematic way to produce a meaningful insightexperience. It is a spiritual practice that can be used
deliberately for expanding awareness and personal transformation. As Jung put it, the I Ching oracle interprets
an “inner unconscious knowledge that corresponds tothe state of consciousness at the moment.” What a gift;
what an opportunity!
Jung was fascinated by how the I Ching provided aChapter 3: How Divination Systems Worksystematic methodology for understanding any humansituation—not by analyzing its components, but byviewing individual elements in context, as part of aseamless cosmic whole. As he put it, “There is no need,”
he wrote, “of any criteria which imposes conditions andrestricts the wholeness of the natural process.... In the I
Ching, the coins fall just as happens to suit them.”
This is key to understanding Jung’s worldview. The
world is an interconnected web of the subjective andobjective, with synchronicity providing a link between
the two. Jung overlapped with the new quantum physics
of the 20th century in his explanations of synchronicity
and consciousness. He showed how quantum physics,
which empirically demonstrates behaviors that can only
be described as “paradoxical synchronicities,” contributes
to understanding how divination systems work too.

THE SCIENCE OF MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
Science relies on reason and logic, valuable tools tobe sure, but when we depend on logic alone to divine
the workings of the universe—or even to manage a relationship—we fall far short. Intuition is something otherthan reason, so it is no surprise that the role of intuitionis grudgingly accepted in scientific circles. While logicalanalysis has contributed to unraveling nature’s secrets,
intuition has helped us make discoveries beyond thedomain of rational processes. Fortunately, a number ofpeople—including prominent scientists and businessleaders—have rediscovered ancient technologies for
intuitive decision-making and creative problem-solving
known as divination systems.
The discoveries of modern physics seem to validate
the synchronicity principle, as they overthrow assumptions about the universe being strictly mechanical.
Thomas McFarlane discusses this in Quantum Physics,
Depth Psychology, and Beyond.
Although scientific materialism provided thedominant worldview of modern Western culture, it did not exist to the total exclusion ofother alternatives. Nevertheless, these alternatives did not succeed in fundamentally challenging the dominance of materialism. Instead, thisAs far as the laws ofmathematics refer toreality, they are notcertain; and as far as
they are certain, they
do not refer to reality.
—Albert Einstein

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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Workchallenge largely came from within empiricalscience (i.e. the new physics) itself.

Quantum Physics converges with Jung's synchronicity theory—everything that happens in agiven situation at a given
time participates with,and affects, everythingelse at that time.

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When a person consults the I Ching, he or she generally tosses sticks or coins and records the way theyland as a six-line pattern called a hexagram. Naturally,
we ask, how can any sort of truth be divined from such
happenstance? Such moments are not entirely random,
however. An event in the external world triggers innerknowledge, and the two realities merge within our working consciousness. L.T. More wrote of one such incident
in his book Isaac Newton:
On one memorable day, an apple falls with aslight thud at his feet. It was a trifling incident
which has been idly noticed thousands of times;
but now like the click of some small switch
which starts a great machine in operation, it
proved to be the jog which awoke his mind toaction. As in a vision, he saw that if the mysterious pull of the earth can act through space as far
as the top of a tree ... so it might even reach so
far as the moon.
The dynamics of synchronicity might seem to fly inthe face of scientific method—based on the ability toobjectively measure and predict cause and effect—yet
the synchronicity principle was validated by the basic
discoveries of quantum physics. In the proof of theirUncertainty Principle in 1927, which still stands, Werner
Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger demonstrated that,in the realm of sub-atomic particles, the act of perception influences what is being perceived, and objective
measurement is impossible. Some things just happen
together in time!
Thomas McFarlane, in another book, which wasentitled Einstein and Buddha, further describes the contrast between Newtonian physics and the new findings:
Electrons—which were previously thought to beparticles—were found to exhibit the propertiesof waves. Conversely, light—which was previously thought to be waves—was found to exhibit
some of the properties of particles. This confusion of classical distinctions between particles
and waves was resolved by Niels Bohr’s principleof complementarity, according to which theChapter 3: How Divination Systems Workwave and particle concepts are understood to be
mutually exclusive but both necessary for a complete description of quantum phenomena.
The discoveries of the new physics can be interpreted
to describe the essence of synchronicity. Substitute theterminology of physics with Jungian terms and you get,“the collective unconscious and the material world areunderstood to be mutually exclusive but both necessary
for a complete description of reality.” Everything that
happens in a given situation at a given time participates
with, and has an effect, however subtle, on everythingelse. Bohr, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and many others
who have dedicated their professional lives to exploring
quantum physics have done much to emphasize the connections between matter and mind. In fact, Heisenberg
incorporated into his family coat of arms the ancient
Taoist yin-yang symbol, which signifies the interconnectedness of all things in time and space.
Ultimately, when one extends Heisenberg’s mathematical proof of the Uncertainty Principle beyond subatomic physics, it becomes clear that ultimately scientificobjectivity does not exist, only statistical probabilities. As
Jung put it in his foreword to Wilhelm’s I Ching, “every
process is partially or totally interfered with by chance,
so much so that under natural circumstances a course of
events absolutely conforming to specific laws is almost
an exception.”
In his book, New Directions in the I Ching, mathematician Larry Schoenholtz points out several scientifictheories that also validate the synchronicity theory:
The spontaneous disintegration of certain atoms
through radioactive emission is an event for
which modern physics cannot provide an answer.
But it is quite in keeping with a synchronistic
view of things. No less a figure than the physicist
Sir James Jeans says of this mystery, ‘Radioactive
break-up appeared to be an effect without acause, and suggested that the ultimate laws ofnature were not even causal.’
If we add the radioactivity puzzle to those of quantum theory—such as the Bohr’s complementarity principle, and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, as wellas much of Einstein’s general theory of relativity—the“When it comes to scientific evaluations of astrology, the pickings areslim. There is only one
figure to my knowledge
who has tried to evaluate
astrology in anything
like a scientific way: theFrench researcher Michel
Gauquelin (1928-91).
After scrutinizing thousands of birth charts,
Gauquelin came toconclusions that discomfited both conventional
scientists and astrologers. He discovered thatprominent membersof various professions
did indeed tend to havecertain planets in certain
places in their charts.
Doctors often had Mars
in a particular position,
while politicians had
Jupiter, and writers, themoon. Control groups
taken from the general
population had no suchcorrelations.”—Richard Smoley in“The Stars We Are,”
Gnosis, Winter 1996.

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Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work

We can never fullyknow the collective
unconscious because it
exists outside of ourconsciousness.
—Carl Jung82

argument for a nonlinear worldview becomes unassailable. So it happens that the answer to a long-unsolved
quandary can just pop into our heads. So it happens thatevents oozing with connective portent appear to have nocausal relationship. But meaning does arise, and it is no
accident.
This mutual interplay between matter and mind is
key to future pursuits of knowledge and understanding. When the unified field theory is finally worked
through—and the evidence is mounting—the clockworks of the cosmos will reveal a set of unifying equations, and the synchronicity principle will come intofull recognition among all scientists. We look forward
to that day.
In terms of managing the practical affairs of everyday
life, looking for the meaning in synchronistic events
works better than striving to predict things according
to strict notions of causality or statistical probabilities.
Perhaps ancient observers, who lacked our computational and record-keeping technologies, realized thisand devised the I Ching, Astrology, Tarot, Runes andNumerology to put their understanding to work. Using
the magic of applied synchronicity within a rich set of
traditional archetypes, they strove to predict and cooperate with the way events are destined to happen, with theway things tend to go together in time.
Carl Jung did more than anyone to help us understand how divination systems work, and how they
combine ancient wisdom with modern psychology. By
defining and explaining the concepts of archetypes andsynchronicity, he gave us criteria by which to better
manage our lives, and he showed how divination systems can truly be helpful.
Jung realized that the nature of the principles hedescribed was paradoxical. In Psychological Reflections,
he wrote:
Microphysics is feeling its way into the unknownside of matter, just as complex psychology ispushing forward into the unknown side of thepsyche. Both lines of investigation have yieldedfindings which can be conceived only by meansof antinomies, and both have developed con-

Chapter 3: How Divination Systems Work
cepts which display remarkable analogies. If
this trend should become more pronounced in
the future, the hypothesis of the unity of theirsubject-matters would gain in probability. Of
course there is little or no hope that the unitary
Being can ever be conceived, since our powersof thought and language permit only of antinomian statements. But this much we do know
beyond all doubt, that empirical reality has atranscendental background.
So, while it is possible to investigate and explore therealms of the mysterious—even to use them in our personal quests for wisdom—it is likely that they will neverbe “proven” in the scientific sense. But isn’t the best proof
how well something actually works?
Once you learn how to use divination systems totheir best advantage, you will appreciate the supportiverole they can play in the cosmic dance that is your life.
When you dance with a skilled partner, the one who isleading has ways of signaling the next steps. Similarly, if
you want to develop a sense of rhythm in your life, youneed to stay in tune with signs and omens from above,
including the synchronicities produced for your guidance by divination. In his recent book, The Spontaneous
Fulfillment of Desire, Deepak Chopra refers to this skill as“synchrodestiny.” Dr. Chopra shows how meditation canhelp us become more sensitively attuned to synchronistic
signals as they arise in our lives. Divination is a form of
meditation specifically designed for this.
Traditionally, meditation was called raja yoga, theroyal yoga. Meditation makes everything better, including the twin benefits of divination—self-knowledge andskillful decision-making. When you learn how to systematically tune into what Dr. Chopra calls the universal
soul to divine your destiny—and then make the rightchoices on your highest path—the fulfillment of yourHeart’s Desires will emerge almost effortlessly.

The universal orderand the personal order
are nothing but different expressions andmanifestations of acommon underlying
principle.
—Marcus Aurelius

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