Synchronicity – coincidental occurrences or events with meaning?

A Church and some Snowdrops

Synchronicity – a concept introduced by the psychologist Carl Jung almost a 100 years ago, who stated that events are meaningful coincidences if they occur with no causal relationship, yet seem to be meaningfully related.

The term has enjoyed a renaissance in recent years within the paranormal community, but it is actually phenomena that the Psychic Questing community has been acutely aware of for over 40 years and plays a significant part in their activities.

Throughout our research, we’ve encountered many instances of synchronicity, many of which we’ve only been aware of after the event, but does it really have any deep meaning?

Snowdrops

To illustrate the point, recently, we visited a churchyard in a neighbouring village to photograph the first emerging snowdrops of the year, prompted by a post that we’d seen on social media the previous day.

We were honestly expecting more......

It was a cold, damp day, so our focus was purely to take a couple of photographs and get back home as quick as we can.

Having taken all the photographs of snowdrops that we’d ever want for, we decided to return to the car, walking back through the churchyard, near to the Church, when we noticed a handyman appear out of the gloom of the impressive porch, so we approached him and politely asked if we were able to go inside.

Without hesitation we were curtly told no, as there was a funeral taking place in 30 minutes. The response was abrupt, leaving the impression that the funeral was simply a convenient reason and that our presence inside the Church wouldn’t have been welcome regardless.

Taking the hint, we went to continue our walk to the car, disappointed at the refusal.

A lady in black

Without warning, a smartly dressed lady, clearly there for the funeral, came over to us, having overhead the conversation and informed us that it would be fine and there would be plenty of time to view the interior before the rest of the mourners arrived.

Thanking her, we entered the church, the handyman’s stare burning uncomfortably into the back of our heads.

The inside was very grand, but we knew that the church was a former wing of a Priory that used to exist on the site, so this did not surprise us as much as it should have.

We restricted our tour to the rear of the nave, the altar area being prepared for the funeral and decided to leave, to give the mourners that were now arriving time for themselves.

As we went to leave, we approached the porch exit, the same handyman, now back inside the church, came over to us and told us that we needed to go and look at what was at the other end of the church.

He appeared rather proud of whatever this was and was quite insistent that we had to see it.

Laura, ever supporting, walked off at this point and left the church, leaving me to it.

With time running out, I quickly walked to the front of the church and immediately spotted what the handyman’s excitement was all about.

Well I thought that she looked like a knight.....

Above me, high up upon a window ledge, lay the stone effigy of, what I took to be at the time (due to my viewing position), a praying knight, which is relatively common in local churches, although this appeared to be one of the earliest examples that I’d seen to date and was exhibiting a bit of wear.

Disappointed, I walked back to the Porch to join Laura outside the Church, passing the now beaming handyman. “Did you see it?” he asked me, his large smile still in situ.

“Yes”, I replied, “it was interesting”, not wishing to disappoint him and bade my farewell.

Synchronicity?

Later that evening, my thoughts turned to the effigy that I’d seen in the Church earlier that morning.

With growing curiosity, I decided to establish exactly who’s effigy it was that I’d seen in the Church. I suppose it was the least I could do, taking into account how keen the handyman was for me to view it. I didn’t wish to appear ungrateful, even in his absence.

Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long for me to establish that the effigy was not of a knight (which was a surprise to me), but that of Maud 'Athelida' De Ingelrica (1032 – 1100AD), the founder of the Priory, the remains of which form the Church today, as previously referenced.

It was believed that the effigy was the lid of her sarcophagus, the only surviving remains of her tomb, which was originally located in the chancel - before being destroyed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, in the 16^th Century.

There the story ends, but the synchronicity?

You see, Maud 'Athelida' De Ingelrica is my 32^nd Great Grandmother (on my mother’s side).

Whilst I was aware of her connections to the village we visited, I had never researched her any further and, had absolutely no idea that she was buried in what is now the Church there.

We had no intention of going inside the Church during our visit to the Churchyard and, we wouldn’t have done so without the intervention of a complete stranger, who had overheard our chance conversation with the handyman.

Likewise, even inside the Church, we avoided the area where her effigy lay and if it wasn’t for the handyman’s return as we left the Church, insisting that we went to see what turned out to be Maud’s effigy, we would have departed, without any plans, nor any need, to return in the future.

Now, when do we go back?

L&M