Tasseography or tasseomancy is the art of reading tea leaves. It is a divination method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds or wine sediments. No one is really sure what makes tea leaf reading a powerful method for revealing the future, past, and present. Some say the person being read for influences the tea when drinking it. Others claim it is a form of psychometry – a psychic ability where you gain information from inanimate objects through clairvoyance.

Making Your Pot of Tea

You will need to use actual loose leaf tea leaves. You will not get an effective tea leaf reading by pulling apart a tea bag and adding this to your cup.

1. The general rule of thumb for making a pot of tea is to add one teaspoon of tea leaves per person having a cup of tea plus one for the pot. Then you fill up the teapot with hot water.
2. Leave the tea to steep in the pot for approximately 5 minutes (or longer if you like it stronger).
3. Pour your cup of tea from the tea pot, you can add milk and sugar but if you plan to read the tea leaves it is a good idea to not dunk biscuits in your cup of tea.
4.  For tea leaf reading you need to drink as much of the tea out of the cup, leaving as little liquid as possible in the cup when done.
5. Once you have finished drinking, gently turn your cup over onto your saucer so the cup is upside down.
6. Then make a wish whilst turning the cup 3 times clockwise (make sure that the cup remains upside down on the saucer)
7. Now your cup of teas is ready to read.

Reading your cup

The Handle

The handle represents you or the person who is receiving the reading. Traditionally, the tea leaves are read starting at the handle and moving clockwise around the cup. Any tea leaf shapes or groups that are close to the handle describe things presently effecting the person having the reading. It might indicate something on the person’s mind or events they are experiencing. Anything to the left of the handle is the past and is leaving the person’s life. Anything to the right of the handle is the present and immediate future.

The Bowl of the Cup

Symbols near the rim and the top third of the cup will occur quickly, usually within days. Symbols in the middle third of the cup are in the near future, usually a couple of weeks. The bottom third and base of the cup are in the more distant future, possibly a month away. In all three cases, the closer the symbols are to the handle, the sooner they will be occur.

Guide to Reading

1. When you lift the cup, firstly examine what liquid may be sitting in the saucer. Tea in the saucer may signify that tears are on the way! Most people will have some liquid, but if you can easily get this liquid to move around on the saucer then this is usually a sign for tears. A lot of liquid means a lot of tears are on their way.
2. Note carefully the shapes and figures assumed by the leaves. Turn the cup and view from different angles until the symbols become clear. Be patient and search carefully for symbols and not their position. The more you search, the clearer they become.
3. Note the resemblance to various objects, and their relation to each other. Sometimes bad omens will be offset by good ones, good ones may be strengthened or weakened by others and so on.
4. On a time scale, the bottom of the cup is the farthest away e.g. 12 months, the lip of the cup is around now or very soon and around half way down the cup is approx. 6 months. Use your intuition to determine time frames outside of this.
5. The handle represents home – so items/symbols that point away from the handle can mean moving away from home and items/symbols that point towards the handle can mean heading home. This can be important for things like travel where you see someone moving out of home, travelling away or coming home etc.
6. Use your intuition to determine what symbols are in the cup and then ask your intuition/guides what these symbols mean. For example, I see a fish – what does this mean? Could it be abundance? Could it be a holiday? An example is that traditionally roosters can mean something good being heralded into their life and small lots of tea leaves that look like parcels can be good news coming.
7. Try to avoid too much looking up symbols but instead intuitively get your own meanings
8. Look at the cup and therefore the blobs of tea in all directions – turning your cup frequently and re-reading tea leaves from different angles
9. A line of tiny leaves can link items/symbols together in the cup. Small tea leaves frequently form lines. A line means a journey, a long line a long journey, etc. The direction of the journey may be determined by the direction of the line. For example, if a line should approach and reach the handle and the sitter should be away from home it would mean that they would return. If the line should end before it reaches the handle it would mean that the “sitter” could move to another residence. A wavy or broken line may mean delayed journeys and straight-line could mean quick journeys. If a number such as “6″ should be observed it would mean a journey of six days or six weeks; or possibly a journey to be taken in six weeks etc.
10. Dots surrounding a symbol indicate money in some form depending on the symbol. Should a leaf cling to the edge or rim of the cup some event foretold by the symbols in the cup is imminent. Someone may be thinking of the “sitter” at the very moment. Look for a letter to find a clue to the identity of this person.
11. Observe the complete picture given by the leaves as a whole as well as individual symbols for often-bad omens may outweigh good omens or vice versa. One large distinct good omen may outweigh several smaller hazy bad omens. Good and bad should be balanced against each other in determining the entire reading.