The Mandorla Pathway: Synchronicity’s Regenesis of the Human–Nature Relationship

Abstract

Many Indigenous cultures view synchronicities as the voice of the cosmos borne of sacred reciprocity between all living beings. In 1925, founder of analytic psychology, C. G. Jung first encountered this concept while meeting a Pueblo elder in Taos, New Mexico. In 1951, Jung assimilated synchronicity into Western scientific thinking with the publication, “On Synchronicity,” defining it as acausal. This Jungian arts-based research asks, “What are the implications for the human–nature relationship when viewing synchronicity from within its original context in nature?” To answer this question, three paintings were created and analyzed: The Tree of Life, The Tree of Knowledge, and The Mandorla Pathway to discuss the impact of the origin story of Genesis on within the context of ecopsychology. Using Jungian arts-based research, seven emergent themes were identified, cultivating: (a) interconnectedness, (b) a gift economy, (c) psyche-nature relationships, (d) a return to the divine feminine archetype, (e) active grieving for the decline in human–nature synergy, (f) an ability to hold the tension of opposites, and (g) a call to metamorphose moving from independence to interdependence. From the perspective of the Indigenous kinship worldview and from quantum information panpsychism, this study suggests synchronicity may be spiritually causal.