Thursday, February 4, 2010

The Magic Ritual of the Coin Flip

When you have a really crucial decision to make, what do you do? I don't know about you, but I use a very deep and complex magic ritual:

I flip a coin!

Of course I'm being a little sarcastic here, but the truth of the matter is that I do resort to a coin flip as one of my magic rituals of choice when I have to make an important decision.

Why? Because I figure the Universe knows better than I which decision best fits my needs and desires, so I let the coin guide me to the "correct" decision.

Why Trust Important Decisions to This Silly Magic Ritual
This magic ritual definitely sounds a little trite for big decisions, I'll grant you, but you have to see the coin toss for what it really is:

A channel through which the Universe communicates with us.

It is a way for the Universe to offer very clear guidance. After all, the coin toss can only have two options, heads or tails.

The relatively silliness of the coin toss also works in its favor. It's silliness takes the pressure off the decision, so to speak. If you use a really complicated magic ritual that takes a lot of planning and a lot of effort to do, you may end us being too "invested" in the outcome. Plus, a ritual that takes a lot of planning gives you many opportunities to "skew" the results with your own energies of fear, worry, and anxiety.

Most importantly, the coin toss is a sign that you "trust the process," so to speak. By entrusting an important decision to an utterly simplistic magic ritual like the coin toss, you are announcing that you trust:
  1. the Universe to provide clear and correct guidance
  2. your own ability to follow that guidance
The Coin Toss Magic Ritual Builds Trust
The Universe unfailingly provides us with clear and correct guidance, but often the answer we get isn't the one we necessarily want to hear, at least in that moment. So we tend to second guess ourselves, perhaps by tossing the coin a second or third time, or resorting to a magic ritual which has results that are more open to subjective interpretation, such as meditating with the firebowl.

But if you really want to learn to trust the process, try the coin toss, at least once on a truly important life decision. If you manage to see the decision through, based on guidance from the coin toss ritual, you will be surprised at the twists and turns of your path, and no doubt pleased by the result.

Dare you risk it? I would hope so ... trust is what magic is all about!

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Photo credit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/icma/ / CC BY 2.0

3 comments:

  1. I keep a silver dollar in my wallet at all times... I call it "The Decision Maker" I've used it for years Thanks for this post! :)

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  2. It's hard for some people to let go of having complete control over what happens to them in their lives. I bet this exercise would help "loosen" them up and accept that sometimes you have to let fate do its thing. Besides, sometimes it's refreshing to have a hard decision made for you. Great post!

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  3. @COSMOCTO: Love the silver dollar thing...keep up the good work with the coin flips!
    @Anonymous - yes, this exercises has definitely helped quite a few of my students "let go" and trust the process...thanks for chiming in!
    Alan

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