Suspending Disbelief: We All Do It All The Time

Let me tell you about my favorite rituals. They are ones that people do every day, even your friends, your parents, and the little children in Sunday school.

I love the ritual of baking a birthday cake. The gathering of friends, the lighting of candles, the lights dim, everyone sings, and the birthday person makes a secret wish while sharing this lovely cake with the whole group.

Equally, who doesn’t love wishing on dandelions? The act of using one's breath to scatter seeds into the world is deeply symbolic. Wishing on shooting stars, or the first star we see in the sky each night, is the first intentional magic I ever started doing as a child. Throwing spilled salt over your shoulder is one of my most frequently practiced superstitions. I loved tossing coins into fountains as a child.

Believing in Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy are common rituals that we act out with our children. Praying the light will stay green or that traffic will move quickly enough that we can meet our destination on time is an attempt to impose our will upon the world around us. We knock on wood to prevent misfortune, or “jinxing” ourselves.

These are a few of the ways we all foster or practice magic, even if we don’t recognize it, or it's under the guise of superstition. We are suspending our disbelief in those moments without realizing it. I personally find life more interesting when I get to bend it to my will. You’ve got to be in the right mindset to make miracles happen, both in the material plane and the metaphysical one. Believe that anything can happen, and it might.