Retrocausality, Synchronicities and Astrology PART 1

"We live in a twilight world..."

This can be considered a rant from someone lost in translation, in an in-between state, not sure if he is dreaming or awaken.

The ideas presented here could induce schizophrenia-like states.

If you already have a hard time maintaining a “normal” social life since getting into Astrology, be aware that the following will further reduce your ability to engage in standard human interactions.

Retrocausality and the Arrow(s) of Time

Contrary to what many people may think, most of the fundamental laws of Physics remain true whether the Time variable in the equations is considered to go “forward” or “backward”. They are said to be Time-Reversal Symmetric.

From that observation emerges the concept of Retrocausality or “backward Causality” if you will. Not only do causes have effects and precede them, but effects could be the cause of precedent “causes”...

There are some exceptions often cited to contradict this idea of the possible existence of two Arrows of Time, the main one, commonly known, being the Second Law of Thermodynamics, more precisely Entropy.

Entropy could be described as a measurement of the disorder of a system.

Let’s imagine that you shuffle a deck of cards, there is only one way to have the deck perfectly ordered (Ace of Spades, 2 of Spades and so on until the King of Hearts), while the possibilities of the deck being seemingly “messy” are much much more numerous.

Each one of the possible configurations (ordering, in the previous example) can be called a Microstate. A system with high Entropy is a system where the Microstates leading to a “disordered state” are vastly more abundant than those for the “ordered” one, making the probability of the system getting spontaneously ordered almost zero.

As such, what the Second Law of Thermodynamics states is that the Entropy of an isolated system cannot decrease and always tends to increase. This ever increasing characteristic implies an irreversibility and thus, the existence of an Arrow of Time. The direction of Time then becomes the direction where Entropy increases.

But as one can understand, it is not a “hard-coded” fact. It is just a statistical law, not an absolute one. Also, for small systems, and under specific conditions, decrease of Entropy has been observed.

On a side note, isn’t it poetic that the Cosmos is seemingly heading towards more disorder and that ordered states are the least probable ones ? Could humans potentially be Negentropic entities, meant to hopelessly try to counter Entropy’s expansion ? A Sisyphus-like cosmic purpose... That’s not how I currently view humans’ role but I find the idea entertaining.

One fundamental law of Physics that seems to indicate a “preferred” Arrow of Time is the Weak Nuclear Force (or Weak Interaction). It is the law that describes the radioactive disintegration of subatomic particles (what is at the origin of the nuclear fusion in the stars for example).

It would be too long to go into a detailed explanation of the CP-violation of the Weak Interaction, but basically it does show a “built-in” preference for a specific direction of time at the subatomic level. Yet, it is so rare, weak, and at such small scale, that it can’t be the justification expected.

Even though those two could indicate the existence of a preferred or more easily observed Arrow of Time, it doesn’t deny the possible existence of a second (inverted) one.

Of course, the notion of Retrocausality is not only present in Science, it has been intuited since a long time outside of the Scientific realm. For example, Jitāri, a 10th century Indian Buddhist, wrote a treatise about the concept of Bhāvikāraṇavāda (”future cause” or “backward causation”) where he would argue for the validity of such idea.

Also, we have to keep in mind that Retrocausality could exist in different manners. For example, some scientists suggest an informational type of Retrocausality.

Some of you already know that I am not a proponent of trying to backup Astrology with Science. The reasons for that have been presented multiple times across various pieces of content but I will lay them in single future post so that it could easily be referenced to, in case someone needs it. Simply put, by taking as a premise that Astrology is not causal but symbolic/synchronistic/fractal, most of the objections made against Astrology are dissolved. It cuts out any need to justify the practice at the root. Then, Astrologers can continue working on their craft and expanding the domain without losing time and energy in senseless debates.

So why take Science as a starting point you may ask ? In order to facilitate the breaking of the linear-time-perception mold. Those chains have been so firmly limiting our mental processes that realizing that even the tenants of the sacrosanct Science are by no means denying (or able to deny) the existence of Retrocausality (whatever its form) might be liberating for some people. You can dive into the research about Time Symmetry problems and see that nothing is resolved.

A lot of self-called “rational” people are just bots that are, unconsciously, gatekeeping a long due paradigmatic shift. Also, despite all I just said and while I don’t feel any need to get the “approved by Science” stamp, I still very much enjoy and respect the Quest for Knowledge, however it is done.

So, now that we are free, we can focus on the concrete consequences and applications. From here on, we will accept as a premise that Retrocausality exists, at the bare minimum on an informational level. This means, for example, that the future could be sending us “messages” or that we could have memories of the future.

It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards

— the White Queen, Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll

I saw you dancing on a chessboard in a room full of clocks, did you notice me ?

Synchronicities, or Retrocausality in Action

If Retrocausality indeed exists, then we could say that it must be an agent of Coherence.

The unfolding events are arranged in a certain order not only from the past towards the future but also from the future towards us, its past.

Grasping this concept can be quite clumsy at first, but remember that Time is just another dimension. Visualize a straight line on the floor with a cross at each extremity, let’s call one of the cross A and the other B. If you place yourself on point A and then move towards point B, is B non-existent because you still haven’t arrived there yet ? No, it is already there, but you still have to attain it. The same thing happens with the Time dimension (with few variations that will be addressed).

For us to reach a point in the future, that point has to somehow exist.

As such, we could say that Retrocausality’s role is to make sure that the path between our present point A and the future point B exists in order to be trailed on. It is needed for the time line to be coherent.

Then, a legitimate question arises : if a future already exists, is it necessarily always the same future ? The never ending Fate/Free-Will debate appears... We will get back on that.

Now, what are Synchronicities ? Simply put, they are events that have apparently no cause-to-effect link, yet are, for you, connected through Meaning.

Another characteristic often noticed about Synchronicities is that they tend to appear after a form of “randomness”, “out of the trail” action, was introduced in our “system”, our normal “causal” routine life.

Example : you always take the same subway line to go to work but one day, for X reasons, you have to walk to get there. During that walking commute you happen to stumble upon an old acquaintance about whom you have been thinking about the previous day and who was not even supposed to be in town.

My theory is the following : Synchronicities are signals that Retrocausality is acting, when a new potential future is emerging.

Synchronicities are the external indicators that the future we are heading towards has changed and, thus Retrocausality, fulfilling its role, is carving a new path from it towards us. The time-path is rearranging itself and by doing so is reordering events in a coherent manner. The future is cascading towards us and by doing so, “rearranging” the path of events in a way that would make possible its advent. In a sense, this future is making itself born.

Imagine a potent flow of water suddenly forced to change its trajectory. It will drag and push elements, stones, whatever is on its way and create a new riverbed. Retrocausality is the very same phenomenon.

When one steps out of his/her current “causality” which dictates what future point you will end up reaching, a new potential future emerges as the new most probable outcome and Retrocausality sends the notification backwards in Time which you end up perceiving via the Synchronicities.

In the point A / point B example, let’s rename point B as B1. If, for whatever reason while walking on the line connecting point A to point B1, you change your direction, a new future point B2 has to exist. Thus, there must be a path between B2 and A.

Why do Synchronicities end up fading away (and maybe reappearing after a while) ?Because the new time-line path becomes your normal “causal” path. It is carved and you are now set in it, not deviating anymore.

Besides this explanation of what Synchronicities actually are (or, let’s say, could be), there are also two important ideas often expressed in the New-Age or modern Esoteric space that I do not necessarily agree with :

• “Synchronicities are always indicating a better path”. There are seemingly no reason as of why a moral or subjective quality should be added to the phenomenon. It is not because an event feels out of the ordinary that it is necessarily good (or bad) for us. It is not because we suddenly feel more “in tuned” that the new path will grant us a “positive” outcome.

• “The more Synchronicities you live, the more connected to the Universe you are”. It is a common pitfall when one starts living amazing Synchronicities to feel that we are on some special “path” and thus, that we should seek to experience even more Synchronicities. We may end up chasing them like if we were running behind the white rabbit, always late. I am not denying that perceiving those is an indication of being potentially more aware than the masses. Also, with some practices, comes a point where you can start distinguishing the interweaving of all, past present future but it can quickly become unbearable for the mind. Though, it is important to understand that there is no moment where you are disconnected from the rest, no moment where you aren’t enacting your birth chart (more on this in the next section). There could be specific circumstances in which searching to create the circumstances for the continuous emergence of Synchronicities might be useful, but it would be akin to constantly reshuffling the potential futures. The usage of such conditions is tied to the Trickster and a Liminal way of living, which I will not expand here but maybe in a specific post.

There are experiments that everyone can run in order to potentially cause Synchronicities. This will be presented in PART 2.

Will you dance with me until the clocks are broken and the pieces completely scrambled ?

The Astrological Chart as the Map

Having said all that, one could think that :

• We can create any future we want

• We can’t have any idea of what future we are creating

And here is where Astrology comes into play.

Instead of having one simple straight line between point A and point B (or B1, B2, etc.), there is a complex, full of details, landscape. There are mountains, valleys, rivers, tracks, bridges, the weather is changing, etc etc.

The Astrological Chart is basically a representation, or map, of that landscape, not only geographically but also temporally. This map shows us the whole terrain upon which are situated all the potential time-line paths we can create.

Imagine that the Cosmos/Source/God, whatever you want to call it, speaks. Its words, sentences, are what is behind everything in existence, for example, the movements of the planets.

What Astrology allows us is to have a glimpse of the past, present and future of that discourse. It is a tool that allows the translation of the language of the Cosmos.

Yet, its speech is so profound and multi-layered that, at any given moment, the interpretation that can be made of a specific word (or, if restraining ourselves to Astrology, of a specific planetary configuration) is almost endless.

What does that imply ? that Free-Will and Fate are the two sides of the same coin. We are free to interpret (this time in the sense of “enacting”) what is indicated by the planets “how we want” (this need to be commented) but within the frame imposed by the symbolism (or “word of the Cosmos” if you will).

When I say “how we want”, there is a nuance needed as it is much easier said than done. Though, I actually have identified three pillars necessary for such possibility to take place : Self-Knowledge, Sacrifice and Creativity. I have already talked about it in a previous post so I won’t expand more on that here, but maybe in another dedicated piece.

What are the consequences of what has been exposed ? Can we manipulate those cogs to our advantage ? We’ll see in PART 2...

Did anyone make it till the end ? Was it clear enough ? Or is it that...

“...there are no friends at dusk”