Show Me Where the Transcendent Octopus Touched You
A companion piece to “On Synchronicity” (Altered Mates Episode 28)
Show Me Where the Transcendent Octopus Touched You
A companion piece to “On Synchronicity” (Altered Mates Episode 28)
In the latest episode of Altered Mates (Episode 28 — On Synchronicity) Tobias and I examined the phenomena of ‘synchronicity’, which is a term used by Carl Jung to refer to the meaningful coincidence of a psychic state and a physical event, which have no causal relationship to one another: in other words, we can describe synchronicity as an acausal connecting principle.
According to Jung, such synchronistic phenomena occur, for instance, when an inwardly perceived event (dream, vision, premonition, etc.) is seen to have a correspondence in external, material reality. It is only a synchronicity when there can be no casual explanation for the connection between the two occurrences. Jung writes, "I chose this term because the simultaneous occurrence of two meaningful but not causally connected events seemed to me an essential criterion. I am therefore using the general concept of synchronicity in the special sense of a coincidence in time of two or more causally unrelated events which have the same or a similar meaning, in contrast to 'synchronism', which simply means the simultaneous occurrence of two events."
In this written piece I shall offer a brief account of some of my most interesting personal synchronicities (those I mention in Episode 28, at least), and provide the irrefutable photo evidence for all to see…
The Car
It was April, 2021 and my 20-year-old Nissan Pulsar had finally died, so I was on the look out for a new car.
I’d been researching various makes and models and one of the cars on my shortlist was the Mitsubishi ASX. On the particular day in question, I had visited my mum at her house in Churchlands. After we had shared a cup of tea, I took a stroll around the neighbourhood, eventually meandering towards the nearby Herdsman Lake (which was the site of a very important magical operation I performed, which I will share in my next written piece).
As I was walking past a local primary school, I noticed in my peripheral vision an ASX parked in the school carpark
It was certainly curious that the very car I should be thinking of purchasing would appear in my environment. Although this can easily be explained by the simple idea that because I had been thinking of ASXs I would be more likely to notice if them in my surroundings. Especially considering I had been discussing options with my mum over a cup of tea.
But as I turned to face the car I noticed something interesting—there seemed to be a badge of some kind. I walked to take a closer look and to my shock, there was indeed a badge. It was custom badge, positioned immediately under the “ASX” badge.
The badge was “ALEX”, which is of-course, my first name.
Homer’s Odyssey + Alan Chapman’s Advanced Magick for Beginners
This one will take a little longer to convey.
I was sitting in DaRaw Cafe in Fremantle in mid 2024 drinking a pot of green tea. Usually I’d be drinking black coffee but I was weening myself off coffee in preparation for my upcoming trip to South America and an ayahuasca retreat at a centre in Iquitos, Peru.
I had taken two books to the cafe: The Odyssey by Homer and Advanced Magick for Beginners by Alan Chapman.
First, I read a passage from The Odyssey.
I read from Book 5 (of 24).
At this point in the story, Odysseus alone remains of the contingent that he led at Troy; his crew and the other boats in his force were all destroyed during his journeys, and he is now held captive alone on Calypso’s island.
The scene takes place on Mount Olympus. Zeus is hearing the requests of the other gods. Poseidon—who had a long-standing grudge against the hero of the story, the Ithacan king, Odysseus—is absent, so Goddess Athena petitions Zeus to allow Odysseus to return home.
Athena praises Odysseus then states that he should be released to assist his son, Telemachus, who is plagued by suiters trying to wed his mother. Zeus agrees to Athena’s requests and dispatches Hermes to the island of Ogygia, where the resident divinity Calypso has imprisoned Odysseus. Calypso delivers an impassioned indictment of the male gods and their double standards. She complains that they are allowed to take mortal lovers while the affairs of the female gods must always be frustrated. In the end, she submits to the supreme will of Zeus.
A victory to Athena.
I put down The Odyssey and picked up Advanced Magick for Beginners, turning to Chapter 13.
Chapman writes:
“Any magician worth his or her salt will tell you that your desire will manifest as a synchronicity; everyday events appear to lead to your result. The idea that the event is a coincidence becomes a moot point when for the one-hundredth rite you get your one-hundredth coincidence. To lay the cause of the event at the feet of the chaos of the normal world is symptomatic of a person unable to assimilate the story of magick into their narrative…
“If you are experiencing magical results without the magical practice, what does this say about *the practice itself? *****If we look at what occurs in an existential sense, we do not actually experience a cause. We see two consecutive events that share the same meaning—i.e. a synchronicity. There is no difference here between a full-blown rite and a thought, other than a certain amount of effort. You are simply experiencing an increase in synchronicities, or to put it more precisely, your world has become more meaningful…
“At the beginning of a magician's career, synchronicity will occur as a peak experience. The magician performs a ritual in the temple, and later a real world event will occur sharing the same meaning. Causality is perfectly apt as a model for describing this experience.
“With continued daily practice, synchronicities will begin to occur that are not strictly related to specific magical acts. Synchronicity becomes a plateau experience, and the magician experiences periodic bouts of high weirdness. At this point it should become obvious that something far stranger than causality is required to account for this kind of magical experience.
“Eventually, synchronicity will become a permanent adaptation. The advanced magician inhabits a world completely saturated with meaning, and the prophetic narrative has replaced causality as the magician's modus operandi.’ “
I put down Advanced Magick for Beginners and downed the last of the tea from my cup. Before filling the cup again, I glanced to the printing at the base of the cup.
Mantis
I was staying at an ayahuasca centre in Iquitos Peru in late 2024. I woke in the morning and stumbled out of my cabin and onto my deck to smoke a mapacho on the hammock.
On the deck was a large, green praying mantis. I’d never seen a mantis in the wild before so I sat and watched it while I smoked.
At this centre it was common practice for the participants to draw a card from a “rainforest animal” themed oracle deck in the evenings before each ayahuasca ceremony. That evening when I drew a card from the deck, I drew the Mantis.
The following morning I walked out onto the deck again to find another, smaller mantis. This time I rushed back into my cabin to grab my phone and snap a picture before it disappeared:
Months later, when I had returned home, I was once again having a cup of tea at my mum’s house. I was telling stories from my trip and got to the mantis synchronicity. My mother said that she had just the other day she had been visited by a mantis entity during a meditation. I mentioned my own mantis encounter from a few years past during a San Pedro ceremony.
The Transcendent Octopus
In March of 2022 I was drinking a beer and reading the novel ‘Lovecraft Country’ by Matt Ruff at a bar by myself.
The waiter walked out with my food. My gaze switched from one page to the next in the same moment as the waiter placed my food down on the table. I read the first two words of the new page, which were capitalised: “DROWNING OCTOPUS”.
I had, of-course, ordered Octopus for dinner…
The significance of the octopus synchronicity was not immediately clear. In fact it wasn’t really a synchronicity because it didn’t really have a meaning, yet…
The meaning took a little over three years to fully manifest, which it finally did during the recording of Altered Mates Episode 28 “On Synchronicity”.
Big Mind, Little Mind, Transcendent Octopus
In the recording of the podcast episode I found myself trying to articulate the mechanism by which synchronicity “works”, by drawing (somewhat loosely) from the Zen Buddhist concept of "Big Mind, Little Mind", which is a way to describe two ways of experiencing the world.
Big Mind is a a high-level, universal perspective. It’s a state of awareness that transcends the individual self and sees the interconnectedness of all things. Little Mind is the personal self, where the ego resides, with its own separate thoughts and desires.
I also have a hunch that there are specific parts of the brain — regions and networks — that have areas of interest, either in processing information that is of concern to the day world, default, ego, conscious self (or, Little Mind). And there are other regions and networks that seem to be responsible for maintaining a bigger picture, our place in the broader network, broader environment; or Big Mind (which eventually stretches out to touch the Godhead).
In applying this concept of Big Mind, Little Mind to synchronicity, I wondered if Big Mind has an awareness of overarching patterns in reality. In my specific case of the Octopus, I suggested that Big Mind has the image of The Octopus stored somewhere in a folder marked ‘important archetypal images’. Big Mind has an awareness of the interconnectedness of reality at a fundamental level. Little Mind focusses on the minute details in my immediate field of perception. Little Mind ordered grilled octopus for dinner. Little Mind is reading the novel, Lovecraft Country. Little Mind identifies the words “DROWNING OCTOPUS” written at the top of the page of the novel, Lovecraft Country. In the same moment, Little Mind notices the waiter gently lowering the plate of Grilled Octopus onto my table.
Big Mind makes the connections and rings the alarm bells.
Little Mind tries to figure out how this connection is causally related—to no avail…
In contemporary thought we have split reality into two. Mind and Matter. Ideal and Material. Imaginary and Real. To split reality like this is to create a false dichotomy. There is only one reality and it is comprised of both mind and matter—they are of the same reality.
In the middle of recording Episode 28 “On Synchronicity” I came to the realisation that the synchronicity of the Octopus was only fully realised when I came to the above understanding. The final ‘event’ of the Octopus synchronicity was the realisation of the ‘One Transcendent Octopus’, during the conversation with Tobias.
Consider now the Transcendental Octopus from my synchronicity; one tentacle of the Octopus is the words DROWNING OCTOPUS at the top of the page of the novel ‘Lovecraft Country’; another tentacle is the plate of Grilled Octopus being gently lowered onto my table. In my human perception it seems as though these are separate events but the Transcendent, Archetypal Octopus turns to me and says, “I’m the same Octopus.”
There is only one octopus.
In Scott Hill’s work**,** Tobias and I found a good model for psychosis — of the Conscious Ego being overwhelmed by the images swelling up from the Unconscious. (Please see Episodes 12 and 13: Confrontation with the Unconscious Parts 1 and 2). But this model also works for what is happening in the psychedelic experience. When we use high doses of psychedelics we have an intentional calling in of this overwhelming of the conscious, or overwhelming of the Little Mind, by the images from the unconscious; the Big Mind.
When we engage in this practice of high dose psychedelic use, we intentionally peal back the veil, we dissolve the fabric of the ego, the film that holds the individual separate from the images of the collective unconscious.
Perhaps we are witnessing a similar process take place when we notice synchronicities. Perhaps we have images from the unconscious resonating with images from the material world. It may be that synchronicity is a resonance between the conscious and the unconscious, revealing the deep truth that these are the same world.
The Octopus has many tentacles. Some tentacles appear to us as thoughts or images of the conscious mind, some appear as images of the deep mind, some as a physical manifestations in the material world. But these are all tentacles of the One Transcendent Octopus.
References
Carl Jung (1962) — Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Carl Jung (1960) — Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle
Scott J. Hill (2019) — Confrontation with the Unconscious
Altered Mates Episodes: