To the rational mind, the idea of reading the future in tea leaves is absolutely insane. The shapes that form in the residue at the bottom of your cup aren't to be taken seriously. It looks like that because of the laws of physics, and how the stuff in your brew bounced around and settled by chance. That's just common logic.
So why do so many people believe in this thing called "divination": the idea that patterns in tea leaves, coin flips, and other seemingly random things can be interpreted as messages from some higher intelligence?
It all boils down to how we see reality on a fundamental level.
Adding another influence
Under scientific rationalism, such occurrences are pure chance, determined by conditions in the environment or the triggering event. The result of a coin flip comes down to how you flipped it, whether there was wind, and other measurable things. Same goes for reading tea leaves. A tarot draw depends on how the dealer shuffled and dealt the cards which, rationally, is pure chance assuming an honest shuffle.
What happens if we add another influence into the occasion?
The practice of reading meaning into these so-called random events is called divination. The name comes from the idea, from the diviner's perspective, that a higher intelligence is influencing the outcome of the chance event, more so specifically when someone is listening for it. The divine influences the coin flip to guide the seeker to the "right" answer. In tarot, it influences how the cards are chosen, to provide the most insight to the dealer (who is usually also the interpreter) and the person receiving the reading.
Does that mean the higher intelligence bends the laws of physics to force the coin into one extra spin, just to land on the "correct" answer?
This is where the nature of the influence comes into question.
One with everything
The higher intelligence, god, is an aspect of our own being.
If you'll allow me to go out on a limb: let's say this higher intelligence is some latent part of our own being that we've grown unconscious of. A commonly proclaimed realisation of the great Hindu yogis is that they came to see themselves as one with everything, that the fundamental nature of their self is the same as what we'd typically consider outside ourselves: the external universe, the other. On that view, the higher intelligence, god, is an aspect of our own being. Our bodies and apparently limited mind and ego are temporary, changing mortal coils that provide differentiation within our eternal experience as universal consciousness.
Assuming that realisation is correct, that all of the external universe is an aspect of our own soul, and our own soul is our consciousness, then the whole universe is our own consciousness. This is a widely accepted view in new-age spiritual circles. The degree to which one feels this union depends on one's level of awareness, something that can potentially be increased through practices like meditation, self-reflection, and guided, intentional use of psychedelics.
Where am I going with this? If the external world is fundamentally consciousness, and that consciousness is a latent part of your own, let's call it your superconsciousness, then it could hypothetically behave in ways directly influenced by your individual consciousness, not always obviously, as part of a single unified system.
The spectrum of connection
Those who claim to are generally viewed as being on some spectrum of psychosis.
With divination, recall that the whole practice involves handing some decision-making capability to the chance unfolding of the other, the "external" world. Depending on the capability of this superconsciousness, it could hypothetically influence outcomes of natural events, to send you messages, or unfold in your favour when asked.
I say "depending on the capability" because one's integration with it could sit anywhere on a range. At the bottom end, someone may be totally detached from it, your typical salt-of-the-earth person. Next is the beginner spiritual seeker who, through research or their own experience, has come to believe such a connection exists whether or not they feel it as a constant state. Beyond that is an adept who exists in a state of unity with their higher self, feeling "cosmic consciousness" so deeply it has virtually replaced their former identity, though even then the connection is mostly a union of feeling and awareness rather than the ability to influence events outside their body. At the far end is some divine being who has realised a power so godlike they can influence events outside their body with their thoughts, such is the profundity of their connection with the external universe.
To a large extent I'm being dramatic here: as far as we know, no one in that last category exists, and those who claim to are generally viewed as being on some spectrum of psychosis. Or, maybe I'm not being dramatic? Maybe I'm just saying that so this post seems at least slightly rational. But we are talking about divination and superconsciousness, so allow me to indulge myself.
Back to the coin flip
I seem to have gone off on a tangent explaining different levels of consciousness, so back to the topic at hand: what does all that have to do with divination? If a superconsciousness exists, it's always there. Whether or not we're aware of it depends on our level of spiritual awareness, but it's there regardless.
So you're about to flip your coin, placing your faith in it to give you the right choice. In the moment of asking, we call on something to give us insight beyond our current level of awareness.
I propose we can extend the notion of our superconsciousness to represent not just the totality of the apparent external world, but a kind of super-intelligence too: call it divine intuition, god-knowledge, whatever. This higher intelligence has some fundamental understanding of how nature unfolds on an energetic level, based on the seeds sown by our actions and the paths we take. Your individual ego consciousness learns and knows things on the human scale. If we take heed of the saints who proclaimed it, your superconsciousness exists beyond the timeframe of our earthly incarnations, with a wisdom that pertains to the transcendental dynamics of reality itself.
Tying it all together: the medium through which we ask the question, the coin, the tarot deck and dealer, the tea leaves, lives within the superconsciousness. It has both the ability to influence the outcome of external events, even where our union with it sits beyond our current awareness, and a divine knowledge that can accurately read our current situation and point to the best path forward, based on the energy behind each option. As such, the outcome of the coin flip, the tarot cards drawn, the pattern in the tea leaves, weren't chance outcomes at all, but were determined and made to happen by the superconsciousness.
Why reserve it for coin flips?
A few questions arise, the main one probably being: if we have such a divine power at our disposal, why is it reserved for influencing the outcome of coin flips and tarot draws? Why not use it to build an easy, grace-filled life outright? Well, the enlightened among us do indeed do that, but most people into divination aren't at that level yet.
Karma and the divide
We actually choose to lower our level of awareness.
We have to bear in mind that part of the reason we don't exist at a perpetual level of high awareness is low-vibration karma that commits us to a more limited existence. Think of it this way: we actually choose to lower our level of awareness when we commit acts out of step with the harmony of the universe. If we harm a fellow person, we can't exist at the level where we feel what they feel, where we are them, because it would hurt too much. So we write the person off as having some undesirable character flaw and justify our act with a self-righteousness that exists on the ego level, not the "one with everything" level. And when we create that distinction between who we are and the apparently malevolent external world, we engender ourselves to keep acting in ways that perpetuate it, because the divide is already there.
It's through meditation, which ultimately serves as the mechanism for resolving that internal division, and through good deeds, deeds that exist in the realm of harmony, that we can reclaim a higher level of awareness. Raising one's awareness can be painful, when we see how we've hurt the world and ourselves, but it ultimately leads to a generally more blissful state, as our actions start serving what is actually harmonious rather than what merely justifies our limited ego rulings.
Synchronicities
A phenomenon in which the external world mirrors aspects of our inner world in ways not rationally explainable.
Those who have cultivated such a high state of mind do indeed have incredible luck, bring situations into their lives in line with their highest dreams, and experience synchronicities: a phenomenon in which the external world mirrors aspects of our inner world in ways not rationally explainable. This is because they act in harmony with their higher selves, which brings great fortune into their lives, and as a side effect gives them higher awareness of the superconsciousness, and with it the ability to perceive synchronicities. These people use their influence on the superconsciousness to benefit their lives, and indeed the world around them. The rest of us are stuck hoping for good answers when we flip a coin.
For the typical coin flipper, one may indeed temporarily enter a state of higher awareness to receive a good answer. Bear in mind it's us who choose to lower our awareness into limited human minds, and in the same way we can choose to raise it. The moment of asking for higher guidance, when practising divination, is itself a temporary state of increased connection with the superconsciousness, reached by the will of that moment. We give permission, for a time, to ourselves and to our higher minds, to receive and transmit, respectively, messages of transcendental wisdom.
The great game
For the angels there is no right or wrong, and all existence is play.
Another related question comes up: why are we limited human beings in the first place? This touches on the idea that at some point, through our karma, our action, we entered a path of being "less" than our true divine selves. All this time in eternity can beat you up and down, right? You can't expect us to stay perfect forever. For the angels there is no right or wrong, and all existence is play. As Alan Watts said in his description of Lila, the process in which the eternal self plays an eternal game of hide-and-seek with itself: we, as human souls, have merely entered a transient state of that eternal game, in which we've mostly forgotten our true connection to the divine. And there's nothing wrong with that. It's all part of the great game.
To conclude
To conclude: all of what I've just said is a fairly elaborate and fantastic exploration. We've considered what may be underpinning a reality in which divination conveys real messages from a higher intelligence, as well as touching on the latent potential of human consciousness. As for your tea leaves: the irony of the whole thing is that whether or not there's a message in there comes down to whether you believe there is. If you believe you'll get your message, by the thesis I've elaborated in this post, you've already opened an awareness channel with your higher self and enabled the communication of a message. If you're a sceptic, you likely never willed a message in the first place.
So apologies for the unsatisfactory explanation. I guess all I can say is that divination exists if you believe it exists.