Read

July/August 2010 Cosmic
Chits: Get Answers to Your Questions

by Meg Lundstrom

Is this good for me or not? Should I keep going in this direction? Is there a better way for me to do this?

When we have pressing questions and don’t know which way to turn, we naturally ask them of someone in the know — our parents, our friends and teachers, or experts such as doctors, lawyers, and financial advisors. Depending on their expertise and insight, the outcome might work out — or not.

But in just this way, we can tap a deeper, wiser source. We can ask simple, direct questions of that underlying essence of life, love and wisdom that is called by many names: God, our higher self, higher consciousness or the universe.

By using a simple, convenient physical object — such as our fingers, a pendulum or folded pieces of paper — we can get a clear-cut Yes/No answer. Astonishingly, the response turns out to be just what we need. It weighs factors we have no conscious knowledge of, bypasses unanticipated obstacles, and fast-forwards us on the path to greater clarity and love.

Historically, this process is known as divination. The word comes from the Latin word divinus, meaning belonging to or relating to a deity — and when divining is done with care and reverence, it leads us ever more deeply into our innate divinity. Divining speaks to the dynamic, unfolding, in-the-moment, collaborative nature of asking for and receiving guidance.

Divining can be used in matters large and small — choosing a dentist or a destination, selling a house or an idea, devising a job shift or a shopping list, diving into our limiting beliefs or a new relationship.

As practical as divining is for even mundane decisions, at its heart it is a spiritual process — spiritual as opposed to material, in the sense that something is happening that can’t be explained by your five senses.

How is it that when you ask the question, the right answer comes? Where does the answer come from? There are many explanations, all of them a matter of belief. What is wonderful, however, is that divining requires no particular belief for it to work, just the ability to take a deep breath and jump in. The results will be in the immediate feedback you get — the appointments that fall flawlessly into place, the turn in the road that saves you from a traffic jam, the job or house that turns out to be exactly what you need.

It is also spiritual in the way that it leads you directly into your own profound depths. Divining helps you open up to the latent wisdom within yourself. It is through your own firing neurons, through your own muscular system, through the immense panorama of your own unconscious, that the answers arrive.

Chits Answer Questions

The chits are a randomized casting of lots that uses folded pieces of paper. This system of inner guidance gives you Yes/No answers without much “story” or interpretation. In fact, you’ll have a hard time not understanding the answer. This method differs from the I Ching and tarot cards, for example, which are symbolic systems based on metaphor and open to wide interpretation.

The chits are a little-known but highly useful form of inner guidance. They involve writing out your options for solving a dilemma on small pieces of paper, and mixing them up. Then you connect deeply with the divine, throw them and pick up one — typically the one that lands closest to you or a sacred object. You unfold it and read it. You follow that counsel.

It is a version of the casting of lots, perhaps the most ancient form of divining. Yes, No, Wait, Wrong question and Don’t choose this way are five easy chits you can make and throw to answer questions ranging from whether to invite that new guy to dinner, whether to buy a new house or what domain-name to choose for your website.

The chits have unique characteristics that make it useful for those all-too-common times in life when we’re emotionally caught up in a decision. This simple process, which has virtually no learning curve, can be applied easily in challenging times such as during a job loss, divorce or parenting crisis.

I find that divining stirs something deep within me — gratitude, connectedness, unity, as if all walls are down between me and the forces that move the universe. The answers feel right, uncanny in a way if I stand back and look at them, but correct and even inevitable, like the next step in a dance I’m remembering how to do.

Meg Lundstrom, author of What to Do When You Can’t Decide, uses divining for purchases as small as vitamins and as big as cars. Visit www.whattodobook.com. Excerpted with permission by Sounds True at www.soundstrue.com.