Tasseography - Predicting the Future from Tea Leaves

What the future holds has been a question that has perplexed mankind ever since the dawn of conscious thought processes. As a way of answering questions related to the future, a separate form of knowledge emerged known as divination. There are hundreds of methods of divining the future, some of which are left to experts while some others are more popular with amateurs – and one of the latter is Tasseography.

Tasseography is a form of divination whereby the future is interpreted according to the shape of tea leaves or patterns of sediments left in a tea cup after the beverage has been consumed or poured away. Tasseography is variously known as tasseomancy, tassology or simply tea-leaf reading. The terms derive from the French word tasse which means cup, which in turn derives from the cognate Arabic word tassa, and the Greek suffixes ‘graph’ or writing, ‘logy’ or study of as well as ‘mancy’ which refers to divination.

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In the most common practice of tasseography, after the tea has been consumed, the cup is placed upside down on the saucer to drain it completely; the shapes formed by the leaves are then observed by the seer and interpreted as pointers to the way things will be. The serious practitioners of tasseography believe that the kind of cup and tea are also important for effective tea leaf reading. According to them the cup should have a wide mouth and sloping sides; the inner surface should be smooth, free of decorations and white, ivory or neutral in color so as to better observe the tea leaf patterns. The best reading is performed with loose, large tea leaves which is why a tea-bag should be avoided for tasseography.

For an even more complicated version of tasseography, the tea is consumed until one teaspoon of liquid remains in the cup; the cup is then slowly moved three times in a circular, counter-clockwise motion. After this, the remaining liquid is slowly poured into the saucer so that the leaves remain at the bottom and on the sides of the cup. Finally the shapes and symbols made by the leaves are prophetically interpreted by the diviner.

According to experts, the interpretation of tea leaf patterns in tasseography is largely a matter of personal intuition and references; thus the same symbol or design can be read differently by two separate diviners. However in most cases, practitioners refer to a standard system of interpretation which has been handed down for generations if for nothing else, to make their task simpler. According to this, the shape of an apple indicates acquiring knowledge like a degree or completing school. The symbol of a cat can mean a deceitful friend or relative while that of a dog usually implies someone familiar who is loyal. Also a kite may mean that a wish will come true, a candle refers to enlightenment while the symbol of a raven can indicate misfortune or even death. Some experts do not advise use of a general symbol dictionary in practice of tasseography since tea-leaf reading has its own historic system of symbolism that may not correspond exactly with other systems, such as symbolic dream divination.

The practice of predicting the sediments at the bottom of the cup as a pointer to the drinker’s future is quite widespread, no matter what the contents of the cup. Thus like tea leaf reading, the sediments at the bottom of a cup of coffee or the dregs at the bottom of a glass or goblet of wine also form the basis of different kinds of divination. In case of wine, the practice is known as oenomancy and was supposed to be a favorite method of divination among the ancient Romans.

Coffee grounds have long been part of divination practices in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cultures. For this process, the usual choice is Turkish coffee or any method of coffee brewing that leaves grounds sitting at the bottom of the cup. Most of the coffee in the cup is consumed, but the sediments are left to settle and then omens for the future drawn from its patterns. In the Turkish tradition, coffee-readers often interpret the cup as being divided into horizontal halves: symbols appearing on the bottom half are interpreted as messages regarding the past, and symbols on the top half are messages regarding the future. The cup may also be interpreted in vertical halves to determine "yes" or "no" answers as well as the overall outcome of the events represented by symbols. Unlike Turkish or Middle Eastern methods, some Romanian methods require that the sediments be swirled around until they cover the majority of the cup's inside surface. The interpretation of symbols usually follow the same system as in tea leaf reading and oneomancy. Sometimes after a session of coffee ground reading, the querent may be asked to "open the heart". This is done by placing the right thumb at the inside bottom of the cup and twisting clockwise slightly. This leaves an impression behind that the fortune teller usually interprets as the querent's inner thoughts or emotions.

The origins of reading tea leaves are obscure, but it is known to have been practiced in China for thousands of years. This is hardly surprising since the history of tea drinking in China goes as far back as 3000BC. Indeed in China, tea was considered to be one of the elixirs of long-life and, it was thought to have come out of an egg when the Divine Artisan was creating the world. According to Buddhist legend the first tea leaves came from the eyelids of the meditating Holy One who cut them off to prevent himself from falling asleep while he was meditating. Tea was used for divination in the Orient from almost the beginning and the tea ceremonies still practiced in Japan today have their roots in meditation and creating that quiet space in which divinatory insight can come spontaneously. From China the secrets of its cultivation and divination spread to India and Sri Lanka, the former Ceylon. From India, western travelers probably brought tea to Europe which then became familiar with the practice of tea-drinking and eventually tea-leaf reading.