Synchronicities often involve archetypes or archetypal situations that we all share – being picked on by the schoolyard bully in elementary school, loss of childhood innocence, the birth of a child, a wedding or divorce, the death of a parent. These types of synchronicities can startle us so deeply that we are forced to recognize them as something more than random coincidences.
Mythologist Joseph Campbell experienced a startling synchronicity that was reminiscent of Jung’s scarab while he was reading about the praying mantis, a hero symbol in the Bushman mythology. He was at home on the fourteenth floor of a building in New York City, and had an urge to open a window, which he rarely did.
Off to the right, a praying mantis stood on the rim of his window. Campbell, whose career focused on Jung’s collective unconscious and mythology, said the mantis was huge and looked right at him. “… its face looked like the face of a Bushman’s face. It gave me the creeps!
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This synchronicity is similar to the classic plum pudding tale, where incredible odds defy imagination. Think about it. How many praying mantises hang out on the 14th floor windowsills of Manhattan apartments?
on manifestation and LOA, i totally agree, trish, marlene –
Marlene – I've come to think of manifestation and the law of attraction as the same thing.
I guess if we are deep in thought about something..the mind can manifast sometimes times what you are thinking about..Could it be our minds energy manifesting these things? I have had several instances in my life..where I have seen something related to my thoughts right after I had been deep in thought about it…
MUSING – THANKS FOR THE LINK. Off to check it out!
As I read through this post on the mantis I was reminded of the Wayne Dyer "butterfly story" that I heard him relate on PBS about a year ago. Then I came back later today and read the comments and was so tickled to read of Gypsywoman's experience. So, of course, I googled "wayne dyer and the butterfly story."
Just on the first page alone are great spin-off/related stories by others, but here's the url for Dyer's story. I hope I'm crediting this properly; the url is not Dyer's site.
https://passion.edu/elearn/mod/resource/view.php?id=1709
I had to go back and re-read the plum pudding one. Wow – you are absolutely right – how many praying mantis do you find on windowsills in Manhattan?? At that exact moment??
gee, fascinating!
D – I had to ask rob what pychopomp meant! Shaman. And that's what campbell was writing about – bushman mythology, shamanism.
Your blog makes my morning. Synchronicity and a cup of coffee!
Re: gypsiewoman's comment on the ET/Mantis being: there is mention of a mantis being that one emcounters during a certain level of soul transition in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It's only in the Penguin Arkana edition, by E.A. Wallis Budge. Pages 247 & 310. He is a positive omen, a psychopomp.
Andd now after the comments on the Apollo 13 post, we have to wonder if Campbell's 14th floor apartment was really on the 13th!
Great story, Gypsy. To me, butterflies represent transformation – caterpillar to butterfly. I've heard other stories about butterflies similar to yours. Also heard stories about hummingbirds.
Campbell must've been blown away!
WOW! That is a really wild one! Campbell must have taken a long pause over that one.
exactly – how many, do you think? the mantis on the 14th floor reminds me of when a close friend died after a long battle with cancer many moons ago – 1985 – she was a free-spirited woman with long red hair, pale skin and a voice you cannot imagine – she and her husband had their own band in which she did the vocals – in any event, elaine and i had worked together for a couple of years and then she had left there under circumstances about which i had always felt very badly as i was part of management who had made this business decision that had to be made – i was saddened by that and then by her illness – and when she died, i had not yet moved past the unhappy employment situation of several years prior – but several days after her death, i was sitting in my office which was on the fifth floor – my desk was placed so that my back was to the huge wall of windows but this day, i turned my chair to gaze out the windows as i thought of elaine – and there, fluttering right at eye level, was a beautiful monarch butterfly – right at the glass, as if it were trying to come through – i sat spellbound as it flitted about there – just hanging out – outside my window – and then, it flew off into the blue sky – upward – i've never forgotten that moment all these years later – now, i am unsure about butterflies and the height at which they may be found, but i have always, regardless, believed this butterfly to have been a sign from elaine –
oh, and you know, the mantis reminds me of the drawings one sees of the extraterrestial entities drawn by witnesses –
great post!
it pays to notice things like these.