Author Topic: Do you believe in coincidence? (Read 5295 times)

EJay · « **on:** August 28, 2012, 03:26:56 am »

Do you believe in coincidence?

Personally, I don't. I believe coincidences are a way for other beings to tell us to wake up or for our own self to tell us to wake up.

Either way, I don't think a coincidence should be ignored.

Faemon · « **Reply #1 on:** August 28, 2012, 07:04:57 am »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Yes. I believe that some things happen, that aren't caused by what we think or hope they were caused by-- that do not lead to the purpose that we hoped, that might not even have any purpose behind it, that we can't even give a purpose to... and I'm all right with that. A few are amusing, most aren't even.

But most of the time I think most people are actually very good at attaching significance to an event that will help them achieve a goal. Failing that, I very often like to think that there's some grand cosmic karmic plan or purpose in the end, even if it has a few springs loose, or something is slowed down by the jostling of co-creators-of-the-future human and divine. I look, as hard as I can, for the causality in what looks like an important correlation.

And I don't have a nice-sounding concluding sentence.

Tana · « **Reply #2 on:** August 28, 2012, 07:20:32 am »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Mmh.
No.

I think that coincidence in the sense of 'it just happens without any connection to something larger', does not exist.

But, I don't think that every coincidence is meaningful.
So everything is connected, yes. Everything that happens has a deep meaning, no.

The trick is to find out which is which.

veggiewolf · « **Reply #3 on:** August 28, 2012, 11:42:40 am »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Hmmm.

I think coincidence appears to happen but is a way to identify the connections around us. At the same time, I don't think every coincidence is a huge, meaningful thing.

F'ex, if I am interested in connecting with a deity symbolized by crows, and I start seeing a lot of them once I become interested in that deity, the coincidence may actually point to something mundane rather than something profound. There is a connection but, to paraphrase, it may not mean what I think it means.

DancesWithHorses · « **Reply #4 on:** August 28, 2012, 02:36:52 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

No. There's always a connection of some sort. Because if my life was filled with coincidences, I'm going to be concerned! A lot like "the first time is a mistake, the second a lesson and by the third time, its a habit." (or however that saying goes).

I've ignored a few 'coincidences' and I should not have. I personally believe things happen for a reason even if there is no explanation.

fjfritz · « **Reply #5 on:** August 28, 2012, 02:58:41 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

No but I do believe in synchronicity.

:

NibbleKat · « **Reply #6 on:** August 28, 2012, 03:57:19 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

I believe in both. Sometimes, I think there are definitely things that are linked together for a purpose.

However, I think a lot of times, like Triple said up there, we simply just look too hard. It's like how you can look at two flat surfaces. Both of them will have a figure of a woman standing in 2-D on them.

One's been painted, deliberately, and one's just a mass of mold that has happened to have grown in a certain way not because an otherworldly force created it that our minds make into something that looks like a figure. Human minds try to make sense of things like this to help them through their everyday existence, and there's nothing at all wrong with that.

That's how I see it. It makes it easier to think, "Well. My dog just got run over by a German car, and someone threw a strudel at me, and that guy who stepped on my toes had on a hat sort of looks like it could have been made near the Matterhorn, so WHAT'S MY DEITY TRYING TO SAY TO ME?" Than saying, "Man. My life is crap for no reason."

How does one tell the diff? I'm still trying to learn.

Sage · « **Reply #7 on:** August 28, 2012, 05:33:07 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Yeah, I do. I think everything has the potential for meaning - but I'm also an existentialist, in that I think we give our lives meaning. Even though I believe in gods and such, it's really super important for my theology (and my mental well being) to believe that I have more free will than not. Anything can potentially connect me with the Sacred. Awesome. But I start getting squirrelly with ideas of fate or destiny, especially when they're personified too much.

Laveth · « **Reply #8 on:** August 28, 2012, 06:01:15 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Not for a very long time. Although we may never be aware of the purpose or meaning behind those events, sometimes they're just teaching signals and a way for us to tie things together that need to be noticed.

dragonflydreamer68 · « **Reply #9 on:** August 29, 2012, 12:47:38 am »

Quote from: Tana;71103

very well said!

EJay · « **Reply #10 on:** August 29, 2012, 03:11:51 am »

Quote from: Tana;71103

There. That's a better way of saying what I was trying to say.

There's coincidences, and there's coincidences.

Some, tho, I just feel aren't a mere coincidence. They're just too... coincidental!

Sophia C · « **Reply #11 on:** August 29, 2012, 03:15:40 am »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Yes.

Research shows that human beings are very, very talented at finding patterns in things where there are no patterns. It was probably useful to us at certain stages of evolution, but now that it's less useful, we're still determined to read meaning into everything. It's hard-wired into us.

And I think that's great, because it's something the gods and spirits can use. A lot of divination would be useless without that talent, for example. I find it helpful to use the patterns I observe as a kind of divination. But I try to remember that that's all I'm doing. Most coincidences are perfectly natural occurrences and not as statistically rare as we think - balanced with the fact that my gods are part of the natural world, of course, so could be part of them.

I used to think that running into an old friend on the London Underground was 'a sign from God' that I should do something with them (attempt to convert them, probably, given the ideas associated with the god I believed in then!) - but now I know it was more surprising, statistically, that I didn't run into old friends there more often.

But I still find patterns interesting and useful. The very fact that I'm noticing them could be something the gods are using. I just got back from Ireland, where there were more references around me to a particular goddess than I expected. She's associated with the area, so it's not that surprising really. But she's not *that* strongly associated with it, at least in the form I kept encountering her in. She might have been speaking to me, but I'm keen to test that theory by seeing if she continues to be in my awareness. I think that's being responsible, not being rude to her.

Euryalus · « **Reply #12 on:** August 31, 2012, 04:14:00 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Yes and no. While I believe that coincidence is one of the major ways the gods communicate information to us, (along with dreams, emotions, ideas, hitting people over the head with tree branches, etc.,) I speak from personal experience that when it comes to coincidence, not everything is some big meaningful message. Sometimes weird circumstances arise without any reason.

Jabberwocky · « **Reply #13 on:** August 31, 2012, 09:42:52 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

I certainly think you can find a deeper meaning in absolutely any coincidence. Some times, you have to look pretty hard though.

HeartShadow · « **Reply #14 on:** September 01, 2012, 06:28:18 pm »

Quote from: EJay;71087

Let's turn this around.

No coincidence would mean that EVERY event that happened to EVERY person had meaning FOR THEM.

.... so how would me walking by knitting be a spiritual message for someone else? Either I have the choice to be knitting while I walk, and choosing to go to place X, or I'm being controlled for someone else's non-coincidence.

That there can be meaning I don't see in things? Sure. But that everything has some kind of cosmic meaning? No, because people aren't object lessons for other people.

The Cauldron: A Pagan Forum

News:

Recent Posts