Magic is synonymous with what Jung calls "synchronicity." Carl Jung, in his introduction to the Wilhelm/Baynes edition of the I Ching, Jung says that when we successfully consult this Chinese oracle (which we may consider an act of magic) we are experiencing the principle which he termed "synchronicity."
Synchronicity is defined by Jung as a meaningful coincidence of an external event with a psychic event, such as a dream, fantasy, or thought. These events coincide in time in a way that gives them meaning for the observer. That is, they seem like communications between a divine force and ourselves, and they confirm that there is a connection or interaction between our psyche and physical reality.
Jung gives a personal example of synchronicity in his memoirs, Memories, Dreams, Reflections. First, he describes a dream that leads up to the incident. In the dream, he was introduced, for the first time, to his inner mentor archetype, a wise old man that he called Philemon. Philemon took the form of a Hellenistic Gnostic who wore an ankle-length robe, had a long gray beard, and had the colorful wings of a kingfisher. The following quote describes an event that took place a few days after the dream, while Jung tried to capture Philemon's image in a painting:
We can see that the event described had a magical quality for Jung. It might seem that Philemon had sent the kingfisher to Jung to confirm his existence, but Jung feels that these occurrences are not part of a cause and effect relationship. Instead, he insists that they are acausal acts of pure creation.
He adds that when synchronicity happens an archetype - such as the internal mentor - is activated, but we should not think of the archetype as causing synchronicity.
Synchronicity is simply what happens when the archetype emerges into consciousness. With this, we are breaking with the previous definitions of magic. They all try to define magic as a cause and effect relationship instigated by the magician. This is typical of our culture, which is predisposed to view all events as cause and effect. However, here we are coming to a deeper and more profound view of reality. This is where magic lives and this is why it is connected to the quest for higher consciousness.
It seems that if we are going to understand fully what is meant here we must also define Jung's term "archetype." Archetype is a term that Jung borrowed from Plato. Plato was searching for what is real and constant in the world - he felt that these two terms should be interchangeable. As a result, he did not trust his five senses to give him accurate information about reality - the exact opposite viewpoint from modern empirical science. Instead, he reasoned that the sensual world was entirely composed of temporary, time-bound objects and that the forms or patterns that these objects posses are timeless and therefore real. These are the archetypes.
In other words, if we look at our house cat what we are seeing is a creature that will die and disappear in a brief instant when its life span is compared to all of eternity. Yet, this cat contains a form that we can distinguish from other animals and that we can see is consistent with others of its species. If allowed to reproduce, it will pass this form onto its offspring, and they, in turn, will pass it onto their offspring. This form is like an immortal or divine cat, because as long as there are cats, it will not die - this is what Plato calls the real cat or archetype. The real cat is the actual intelligence responsible for the direction of the individual cat's life. We tend to call the decisions that it makes for the individual cat instinct or intuition.
Humans are caught in the same illusions about themselves as they are about other animals. The part of themselves that identifies with this individual physical life is what Jung calls the ego. The ego thinks that it is in charge because it can manipulate the world to attain its desires, but it can not decide what to desire. This decision is made for it by the real self.
Plato said that number is the bases of form and the essence of the archetypes. This view is confirmed by modern scientists who have discovered that this archetypal form is communicated to each living creature through a numerical pattern of molecules, called DNA, which are contained in the center of each cell. It would seem that science has found an empirical location for the acualization of the archetypal self.
When Jung explored the unconscious mind, he discovered that at its deepest layer there emerged psychic patterns or personalities that were the same in all individuals and that can be found in religions and myths in all peoples throughout time. He called these the archetypes. At the deepest level of the unconscious, he, like the quantum physicist exploring matter, found that he lost sight of the archetypes as they merged into the vast sea of the collective unconscious. For this, he used the alchemical term "Unus Mundus".
When we use an oracle, such as the I Ching or the Tarot, we bring these unconscious archetypes into consciousness through the use of symbols. The archetypes, or we may call them the Gods, are a more immediate manifestation of the place where the patterns are being formed that will become our future physical reality. Therefore, this gives us the opportunity to intervene and create the future that we desire. This brings us back to the initial problem of defining magic.
When we perform magic, we use symbols to manipulate the inner world of the psyche, and thereby, change happens in the outer physical world. When we succeed in doing this, the changes seem miraculous - that is they seem to happen outside of the normal cause and effect relationships of the physical world or to intervene in them in some mysterious way. By using symbols to manipulate the psyche we are activating the archetypes - in fact in many magic rituals we deliberately contact them as gods, angels, or demons. Therefore, the magical event is the manifestation of an archetype, in other words, synchronicity.
