Synchronicities are often hailed as ‘signs from the universe’. Loosely speaking they are, but I would also draw a distinction here, describing them more precisely as a sign that you are in a flow with the universe. As much as the surface language of both expressions may sound quite similar, the wording belies fundamentally different attitudes. A sign from the universe implies that the universe, the outer world, is responding to something you’re doing. Actually, though, the process taking place is not one of cause and effect. You aren’t acting with the universe reacting. The process is rather one of synchronicity in the truest sense of the word’s Greek etymology: syn (‘same’) plus chron (‘time’). In other words, because the two events take place synchronistically – at the ‘same time’ – the process is not and cannot be one of cause and effect, which must take place in a sequence, over time. The same is true of coincidence, which by definition similarly lies beyond the realm of cause and effect, but whereas coincidence occurs through sheer chance, synchronicity takes place inevitably, because a deeper, invisible link already bonds the two events together.

As your flow and that of the universe begin to converge, merging together, the distinction between subject and object, ego and other, me and you, begins to disintegrate. As you increasingly recognise and accept the mirror between inner microcosm and outer macrocosm, the cosmos itself will begin to mirror your inner experience in ever more concrete ways. Your actions will seemingly materialise in the actions of the cosmos, just as the creative flow of the cosmos will reveal itself in what you create. In this sense, synchronicity bonds outer and inner worlds no less profoundly than the way that gravity bonds individual objects within the physical world. They are both fundamental laws in their own sphere.

The key to whether or not synchronicity appears and, if so, to what degree, is determined by a very simple relationship between space and energy: that between ego and the strength of the flow in question. Ego, of course, is the archenemy of synchronicity. It wants to control everything, rather than let things flow as they would naturally. It closes you down, narrows your space, makes it harder for universal energy to flow through you. This is why following a spiritual path – and especially the Way of the Heart, which deals directly with how you relate to ego – opens you up to the possibility of experiencing synchronicity ever more profoundly in your life…