The Bright Side of Synchronicity
New Age thought frequently recognizes synchronicity as something akin to the flow state—a kind of spiritual alignment where life feels effortless. Everything clicks. We meet the right people at the right time, stumble onto unexpected opportunities, and experience a wave of meaningful coincidences that seem to confirm we’re on the right path. It’s a feeling of being “in the zone,” as though the universe is subtly rearranging itself to support our intentions.
In these moments, synchronicity feels like a gift. A sign that we’re in harmony with some larger intelligence or natural rhythm. And it’s tempting to think that this is what synchronicity is supposed to feel like: smooth, supportive, and sweet.
But that’s only one face of it.
Synchronicity can also appear during the darkest, most desperate moments of our lives—when nothing is flowing, when everything has broken down, and when we feel completely alone.
And yet… it shows up.
Synchronicity in the Darkness
I learned that synchronicity doesn’t only come when life is smooth. In fact, it can erupt—like lightning from a clear sky—when everything is falling apart.
A few years ago, after the loss of my life partner, I found myself in deep emotional and financial trouble. Her children challenged the probate and stripped the bank accounts. I was in devastating grief, virtually penniless, and desperately needed to sell the house we had shared.
And then the pandemic hit. Real estate offices closed indefinitely, and we were all quarantined for months.
I was suicidally depressed and felt completely hopeless. But in the midst of all that destruction, small miracles kept happening. I was able to see a wonderful therapist who helped keep me alive in the darkness. When I was down to my last bag of rice and a single can of beans, an uncashed check would float up from the back of a drawer. A few pieces of my art sold. I was even able to write a book.
Every time I reached what felt like rock bottom, something—or someone—would throw me a lifeline.
It felt very much like what Sonia Choquette describes in her book, “Ask Your Guides”: a kind of a guardian angel effect. As though some invisible presence was stepping in to help. For the first time in my life, I genuinely felt I was receiving spiritual help.
The Tower: Crisis as Awakening
In the Tarot, The Tower is one of the most feared cards in the deck. It shows a tall, rigid structure being blasted by lightning, flames pouring from its windows, and people falling through the air. It’s a card of shock, collapse, and sudden upheaval—those moments when the structures we’ve built our lives around come crashing down.
But The Tower is not a punishment. It’s a wake-up call.
The old structures fall because they’re no longer sustainable. Illusions, attachments, or false beliefs are struck down by truth—sometimes painfully, sometimes without warning. It can feel like a violent loss of control. But it also clears the way for something real, something truer to emerge.
In many ways, The Tower mirrors what I lived through. My life, as I knew it, collapsed. And yet, that collapse seemed to activate something—a kind of spiritual circuit that had never been switched on before. There was no comfort, no predictability, but there was also an undeniable sense of presence, a guiding intelligence operating just beyond the chaos.
That’s the secret of The Tower: what looks like destruction is often the beginning of liberation.
Jung, Crisis, and the Language of Synchronicity
Carl Jung, who first coined the term synchronicity, believed that these meaningful coincidences were not random at all—but messages from the deeper layers of the psyche, or even the soul. He observed that synchronistic events often intensified during times of emotional upheaval or transformation. In fact, crisis seemed to invite them.
As psychologist Richard Tarnas writes:
“Jung observed that in the therapeutic process of his patients, synchronistic events repeatedly played a role, sometimes a powerful one, especially during periods of crisis and transformation.”
It’s as if the breaking open of the known world allows something greater to break in. When our ego defenses collapse—when we’re too exhausted to pretend we’re in control—an opening appears. And through that opening, insight, grace, and symbolic guidance can flow.
These aren’t just random lucky breaks. They’re messages from the unconscious. From spirit. From the soul.
And often, they arrive only after something old has been destroyed—just like the crumbling tower.
When the Tower Appears in Your Life
If you’re going through a Tower moment right now—where everything seems to be falling apart, where the future is unclear and the ground beneath you feels unstable—I want to offer this thought:
You may be closer to grace than you think.
It’s not easy to see when you’re in the middle of it, but the collapse may be clearing space for something new, something more aligned with who you really are. Synchronicity often doesn’t show up instead of hardship—it shows up through it, like gold veins running through broken stone.
So pay attention.
That unexpected phone call. A book that practically falls into your lap. A dream that won’t leave you alone. A stranger’s words that strike you like lightning. These are more than coincidences—they’re the whispers of the sacred trying to help you rebuild, not what you had before, but what you actually need.
The Tower may shake you. But it also strips away what no longer serves. And in its wake, you may discover a deeper kind of support—one that’s always been there, just waiting for the old walls to fall.
Just the Tarot 