Signs, Symbols & Synchronicity

All around us are messages, hints and clues that help us reach every milestone along the path of life. If our role on planet earth is to evolve, to follow our own pathway to enlightenment then I believe we are given plenty of help along the way. This short article is part of an e-book available soon. Here, I just tickle the surface of following signs, symbols and synchronicity and show you how to participate in living magically.

You can use anything to help you in finding answers to life - dreams, divination cards, random extracts from books, a single word that reappears in different ways, people, animals and birds, even traffic lights. Signs can appear in any form, something you hear in a conversation, a book that falls open at a certain page, signs on a passing van, patterns in the shadows or the clouds...be open to the possibilities.

We receive messages all the time, but in the form of symbols and these need to be interpreted. The most important thing to remember is that the answer lies in what that symbol means to YOU individually: my interpretation of a tree may be completely different to yours. On the other hand there are many useful books and charts that can give you a heads up start - so use them, just be discerning, not everything that appears in print is "gospel". If you read something and it just doesn't "feel" right then trust yourself. Try looking at it in another way until you "recognize" the truth that is relevant to YOU. Always remember we are each perfectly unique - that's part of the magic.

So, where do the messages come from? For me there are two possible explanations.

That your Universe sends you help. You don't even need to ask but it does help. Unfortunately the universe is unable to communicate to you in clear language, so everything arrives in the form of images, signs and symbols. The trick is deciding what it means.

That the messages come from within yourself, from your inner self. We certainly have much more wisdom than we give ourselves credit for and perhaps this is simply your inner self cutting through the barriers we all erect.

Scientific stuff: The human brain consists of two sides, the left and right hemispheres. The left side is the logical side, the one that is the loudest, that thinks it does all the work. It is logical, rational, and linear. The right side of the brain is the intuitive, creative side. If you prefer it, is the "Eureka" side that supplies the answers in huge leaps without any indication of the path that led to the answer. Apparently we use only about 10% of our brain capacity which opens up the exciting possibility of how we can use the other 90%. I like to think of it as the magical side, full of wonderment and retaining some of that innocence we had as children.

To me it is the right side of the brain that we access once we decide we want to acknowledge the signs, symbols and synchronicities that are possible, once we decide we want to hear the messages that help along the journey.

Here too, the messages arrive in symbols since the right side of the brain cannot communicate in clear language, remember it is the left brain that is verbal. Ultimately, it is conceivable that the right side of your brain can answer any question you have, you simply have to access it. If you learn to listen really well you are listening to what you really want or to what is best for you in this life.

For me, it is the combination of both of these, I think we are totally and completely inter-changeable with the Universe, we are the Universe, part of it and it is part of us - I don't know how to separate from it.

What is synchronicity? Synchronicity is that wonderful state when everything comes together and you can clearly see the pattern, when answers emerge without any conscious effort. Examples are everywhere. It is all part of the pattern of life talking to you. There is a saying in metaphysics, that if you listen to the whispers, life doesn't have to shout at you. Like the day the council raised the rates on my shop in Perth by £2000 and this was the same day a shop in Crail became vacant which was where I wanted to be anyway. Or the day I was despairing of where my future lay and I walked into a tiny crystals shop tucked down an obscure alley and met Chris who introduced me to crystals.

Synchronicity is when you are trying to decide whether to move house or not and an advert for an estate agent appears on your doorstep: synchronicity is where a book falls off the shelf in front of you at the bookstore; synchronicity is where someone tells you about a course she has done that you have been thinking of. Synchronicity is being sent the same poem by ten different people within days of each other. Yes life definitely talks to you.