What does a Tea Cup hold for your future?
Tasseomancy (also known as tasseography or tassology) is a divination or fortune telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds or wine sediments.
History
Tea leaf reading began many centuries ago in Ancient China. It developed from tea drinkers interpreting the shapes that tea leaves left in the bottom of their cups, evolving in to a very favoured and accurate method of divination. The tea leaf reader is known as a “seer” and the client receiving the reading is known as the “querent.” Most commonly used today the beverage of choice is either loose leaf Tea or Turkish Coffee that when used by an experienced Tasseomancist can foretell a large array of areas of the querent’s life. The simplicity and accuracy of a tea leaf reading can be very enlightening and at times quite literal.
The symbols and the positioning of these symbols in the cup is what forms the storyline of what is to come in the future. Tea leaf symbols are endless and there is a great variety of different interpretations of the symbols available, however it’s the combinations of the symbols and where they are located in the cup that is always the exciting part.
During the late eighteenth century there were specially made china tea cups with symbols for tea leaf readers and these cups are highly collectable in their own right. Most were decorated with symbols or playing cards and came with instructions interpreting their symbols. These were often given as beautiful gifts and not used as serious divination tools, more what we call today a “party favour.”
During the eighteenth century people used coffee reading or Tasseomancy cards much like a parlour game and these cards had simple images drawn on them in old pen and ink. Tea leaf reading cards are fabulous for the non tea drinker and portable enough to use anywhere at anytime.
Today
It is wonderful to see that in modern times that tea leaf reading is once again being received as a serious form of foreseeing one’s future. For example, Harry Potter and the character “Trelawney” often consulting the leaves to see what lay ahead for the students of Hogwarts. Thankfully many young people are now discovering that tea leaf reading actually was around long before Harry Potter. Seeing the experience firsthand is a great delight, to see wonderment and awe as people step into a tea room for a firsthand experience at this ancient form of divination.