Jung, the Scarab and the Fox?

"The 'something' is bound up with them
and is also independent of them"

"Jung’s life practice of paying attention to coincidence and symbolic popups in the world around us is a model of how to navigate by synchronicity" Robert Moss.

Robert Moss About Coincidences & Synchronicities

When most people explain Jung's meaning of the word "synchronicity" to someone they will invariably tell you about the "scarab" beetle incident.
I just wish someone would start off with the fox incident for once.
But I guess even people who claim to "be into Jung" aren't that familiar of that chapter in Jung's life.

In the excellent little book 'Introducing JUNG: A Graphic Guide' they tell of both encounters, as does Robert Moss in his post -

The scarab and the fox: how Jung navigated by synchronicity

"When he saw patients in his house at Küsnacht, on Lake Zurich,, he liked to sit so that they both faced the garden, the poplars at the edge of the lake, and the water beyond, noticing what the world was saying.

 He found significance in every shift in the environment — a sudden wind whipping up the lake water, the shape of a cloud, the cry of a bird.
He was especially intrigued by how animals or birds sometimes seemed to participate in a human exchange.

 On one occasion, he walked in his garden with a woman patient.

As they wandered beyond the garden into light woods, she was talking about the first dream of her life that had major impact on her; she said it made an “everlasting” impression.

“I am in my childhood home,” she recalled, “and a spectral fox is coming down the stairs.”

She paused and put her hand on Jung’s arm, because at this moment a real fox trotted out of the trees, less than forty yards in front of them.

The fox padded softly along the path in front of them for several minutes.

 Jung noted that “the animal behaved as if it were a partner in the human situation.”
Jung’s willingness to trust an unexpected incident — and accept it immediately as guidance for action — was evident in a meeting he had with Henry Fierz, who visited him in hopes of persuading him to support the publication of a manuscript by a recently deceased scientist.

Jung had reservations about the book and opposed publication.

The conversation became increasingly strained, and Jung looked at his watch, evidently getting ready to tell his guest he was out of time.

Jung frowned when he saw the time.
“What time did you come?” he demanded of his visitor.
“At five o’clock, as agreed.
Jung’s frown deepened.

He explained that his watch had just been repaired, and should be keeping impeccable time.

But it showed 5:05, and surely Fierz had been with him for much longer.

“What time do you have?”
“Five thirty-five,” his visitor told him.
“Since you have the right time and I have the wrong time,” Jung allowed, “I must think again.”

He then changed his mind and supported publication of the book."

Life's a ball of shit, when you think of it?
 Think again, maybe?

Yes, life can seem like a big ball of s#!t at times, but that depends really on just how you look at it.
Look closer when life seems shitty and take time to smell the ... roses;-)

I'm always amazed at HOW (ever noticed that "how" is an anagram of "who"?) much people don't see when it comes to life.