The angel in annunciation and synchronicity : knowledge and belief in C.G. Jung

Fear grips those who doubt that their existence has meaning, and the prevailing notion that humans are situated on a dot in the middle of a dark, cold universe leaves people shivering in cosmic insignificance. Many would argue that science and technology have separated individuals from God while others would say that people have lost their faith, and some would assert that God is dead. Many simply do not know what to believe. Today’s self-help industry is a testament to the search for meaning in an age of uncertainty and faltering religious structures. The truth is that technology and science now answer many of the questions that used to be left to God. This development has confounded people’s ability to integrate what is known today with what was once thought. The disparity between past and present beliefs may be observed in the concept of the angel. There are many who claim that any lingering belief in angels is merely the residue of imaginary or wishful thinking, and there are others who hold that angels (wings, halos, and harps) literally exist. How is one to reconcile such contradictory beliefs? C. G. Jung’s theory of synchronicity (meaningful coincidence) provides a vehicle for the exploration and possible reconciliation of such questions. Rather than echoing the skeptic who says angels cannot exist or the religious enthusiast who affirms their immanence, one might reframe the entire discussion. Like the biblical concept of annunciation , in which an angel delivers a heavenly message to an earthly individual, synchronicity defines the moment at which the eternal touches the temporal. List of Illustrations and Tables; Preface; Acknowledgments; Introduction; I: Definitions; 1 C.G. Jung's Theory of Synchronicity; 2 The Concept of Annunciation; 3 Revelation in Annunciation and Synchronicity; II: Challenges; 4 Synchronicity and Its Skeptics; 5 The Challenge of Acausality in Synchronicity; 6 The Miracle and Its Skeptics; 7 The Challenges of the Miraculous; III: Correspondences; 8 Psyche and Soul; 9 Symbols of Spiritual Wholeness; 10 The Archetype in Synchronicity; 11 Angels and Archetypes; 12 Shadows and Daimons; 13 Individuation and Redemption; Conclusion. Content: I Definitions 1 -- 1 C.G. Jung's Theory of Synchronicity 3 -- 2 The Concept of Annunciation 11 -- 3 Revelation in Annunciation and Synchronicity 23 -- II Challenges 29 -- 4 Synchronicity and Its Skeptics 31 -- 5 The Challenge of Acausality in Synchronicity 35 -- 6 The Miracle and Its Skeptics 43 -- 7 The Challenges of the Miraculous 49 -- III Correspondences 55 -- 8 Psyche and Soul 57 -- 9 Symbols of Spiritual Wholeness 61 -- 10 The Archetype in Synchronicity 71 -- 11 Angels and Archetypes 81 -- 12 Shadows and Daimons 91 -- 13 Individuation and Redemption 105. Addressing people in an age of faltering religious structures, C. G. Jung asserted the potential for bridging the gap between scientific knowledge and religious belief through analytical psychology. The concepts of annunciation and synchronicity and the role of the angel in relation to both provide the vehicle through which an exploration of Jung’s process of individuation becomes possible.