I am always interested in what people think about what they read in this journal. Sometimes, people like and comment, but I was excited and humbled to be approached by a reader with additional questions about my entry about Synchronicities. We had a great conversation and I asked for permission to do a follow-up post, since there may be others of you who have the same questions.

To distill down the gist of our conversation, it swirled around the questions:

• How does one recognize that synchronicity has occurred?
• How can one accurately attribute meaning to the signs?
• What actions should be taken when we recognize synchronicity?
• What can be done if synchronicity misleads us?
• Could synchronicity be mistaken for something else, such as foreshadowing, and vice versa?

Let me start by re-posting the definition of synchronicity that I used in my original post since this is what I use as the basis for my understanding of the phenomenon.

Really, I can’t answer the questions one-by-one, as there is a lot of overlap in those answers.

So, let me begin this answer by saying that at least in my experience, synchronicities are a way for your Spirit Team or for the Universe to send messages your way. They are occurrences to which your consciousness or subconsciousness recognizes or attributes a relationship and a meaning.

The synchs themselves are not conscious beings trying to push us to a specific action. Rather, they are signs for us to interpret. It’s on us to learn how they relate, how they are relevant to other aspects of our life, and absolutely on us to determine what actions we should take as a response.

So, how do we know synchronicity has happened and what meaning we’re supposed to take from it?

The meaning thing is both the easiest and most difficult question to answer. While there are so many books about spirituality and symbology and spiritual and metaphysical meaning, unfortunately, there’s no handbook to understanding signs because triggers and meanings vary by people’s individual experience.

The signs that the Universe sends you are for you, and only you, to understand. The connections of the dots that you recognize are not always yours alone — sometimes others can draw the same conclusions — but these dots and connections are in place so that you can complete the drawing. And so how do we know what it means? Intuition. And fucking trial and error.

Now how do we know it’s happening? And how can we ensure our meanings are accurate?

Here’s where I put in my warnings. Beware of looking for signs. Even when you ask for signs, do not look for them. And here’s why.

When we look for signs or try to actively assign meanings to things, rather than allowing ourselves multiple instances of “aha!”, we run the serious risk of misleading ourselves into finding what is not there. The best way it was ever explained to me is that if I am looking at the sky and want to see a dragon in the clouds, I will inevitably find a dragon in the clouds. How do I know the dragon I see, that I’ve been wanting to see, is not just a fucking cloud?

Our minds are so powerful, we can assign meaning to anything. To everything. But that doesn’t mean that the meaning is there. That the sign is there.

I find that I personally recognize synchs as moments of “aha!” It’s when multiple, unrelated things happen and then all of a sudden, my brain says “what the fuck, that seems randomly connected!” It’s like when you’re in the middle of a conversation and you mention the name of a friend whom you haven’t seen in a long time, and then they walk into the room. That feeling. Like, whoa, we were juuuuust talking about and you’re here!

So when you think you’ve recognized a synch (and remember, there has to be more than 1 occurrence of “coincidence” for it to be a synch), check in with yourself. Is this a sign you’ve been hoping to or wanting to see? Have you been “looking for a sign” that indicates something specific? If so, is it possible you’ve assigned meaning where there isn’t and that you’re leading yourself astray? And if you’re unsure, that’s okay — just let your Spirit Team know that you’re unsure and that you need more time to understand.

And if you’re pretty damn sure it’s a synch and you want to take action, cool. But what action should you take? Again, this is on you to figure out, but there’s value in checking in with your Spirit Team or the Universe to doublecheck that this is what they were trying to let you know and this is the action you think you should take. If you get a vague or unclear answer from them, don’t move, yet. Wait for clarity.

And what happens if the synchs mislead us? If the actions we took landed us in less-than-pleasant outcomes? 

Ultimately, the synch did not mislead us. Our actions are ours, so when our landing is less-than-pleasant, this is not the synch’s fault. It’s not our Spirit Team’s fault. It’s not the Universe’s fault. This is an outcome of learning about ourselves and a (sometimes inconvenient) opportunity to grow as a spiritual being.

Remember that the synchs are signs that we interpret, on which we take action. And so it is on us to also recognize that when things don’t seem to align, that it was also our decisions that took us down that road. AND that just because something didn’t immediately align doesn’t mean that this didn’t set up something else to align in the near (or far) future — that the action and immediate outcome were not the endgame, but just the stepping block to the next level.

And finally, could synchronicity be mistaken for something else, such as foreshadowing, and vice versa? 

Absolutely. There is so much overlap in all of this and there is no way for me to tell you when something is a synch or something else, because every single person’s experience is different.

So I caveat all of this, of course, by reiterating that this is what synchronicity is in my experience. And that all of us are different, so this may not be the same for you — and if you experience something different than I do, that’s totally cool and not incorrect. In fact, if you’re open to it, I’d love to know how synchronicity works for you!

And so I’ll end on this. All of this is a learning process. Synchs are super cool ways for more information to be shared with us. But they are also what we make of them. Be open to the meanings that they bring, but also understand that there may be no meanings at all. Sometimes there are dragons in the sky. And sometimes, a cloud is just a fucking cloud.

Hope that helps some of you. And if there are more questions, by all means, reach out!

And hey, super cool reader that reached out to me — this isn’t exactly the set of questions we discussed and this post definitely didn’t have the same tone as our conversation — but thank you for inspiring me to share more about this topic. I appreciate your willingness to share with me, your permission for me to share with others, and I wish you all the best on your spiritual journey.

Thanks for joining me on this part of my path.