Most synchronistic events do not provide such tangible answers
to a dilemma. Instead, they usually help resolve a problem by
providing emotional clarity or symbolic insight. For example, I was
pressured by a previous publisher to have this book rewritten by a
specific person whose task would be to shorten the book considerably
and express the ideas in a more popular style. The “it’s not good
enough” message that I had been receiving for two years had been
psychologically battering, and I was weary. Part of me (that felt like
a compliant Persephone) was ready to let someone else do it, just so
it would get done. And I was being influenced by wishful thinking
that it would turn out well. During a crucial week—after which the
book would have been turned over to the writer—a synchronistic
event came to my aid. A visiting author from England, whose book
had been rewritten by this very same writer under similar circum-
stances happened to speak to a friend of mine about the experience
that very week. He voiced what I had never put in words, and yet
intuitively knew would happen: “the soul was taken out of my
book.” When I heard these words, I felt that I had been given a gift
of insight. He symbolized what would happen to my book, which
cut through my ambivalency and freed me to act decisively. I hired
my own copy editor and proceeded to finish the book myself.
I heard the message of that synchronistic event loud and clear.
Events providing further insight or help then fell into place. Grateful
for the lesson I had been provided, I remembered the ancient Chinese
saying that expresses faith in synchronicity and transcendent func-
tion, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will come.”
The function of creative insight is also similar to the transcendent
function. In a creative process, when there is as yet no known solu-
tion to a problem, the artist-inventor-problem solver has faith that
an answer exists, and stays with the situation until the solution
comes. The creator is often in a state of heightened tension.
Everything that can be done or thought of, has been done. The person
then trusts a process of incubation, out of which something new can
emerge. The classic example is the chemist Kekulé, who discovered
the structure of the benzene molecule. He wrestled with the problem
but
Goddesses in Everywoman