Tasseomancy!

[Flar's Freyja]

Tasseomancy is the fine art of divination by reading tea leaves. Here's a suggested method:

You will need:

Loose tea, any flavor. “Loose” tea does not refer to its sexual proclivities; rather, it means that you’re using actual tea leaves that float loose in your cup instead of using a tea bag. We recommend that you use a Chinese tea or one with a minimum of fine-grained dust. If you like your subject (the one whose future you are going to read), let him choose a favorite flavor. If not, use the nastiest flavor you can find.


A white or pastel teacup with a wide brim. It needs to be white, or you won’t be able to read the dark leaves at the bottom, and it should have a wide brim so that the leaves have a greater area to stick to at the bottom of the cup. If you’re at work, a Styrofoam cup will do, but we’ll have to tell your boss that you’re slacking (…as if she doesn’t already know).


A wide saucer.


A teaspoon.

Now you’re ready to make some tea.

Place a teapot full of water on the stove. Oh, and make sure the stove is on.


Place the dry tea leaves on a saucer. Have your friend stir them around while the water is boiling. Murmur something unintelligible during this stage for drama’s sake.


Ask your friend to throw some leaves into the pot (the amount doesn’t matter).


Brew the tea without a strainer, making sure that the leaves are loose within the pot.


After the tea starts steaming, have your friend pour some into the cup.


Let it cool. Sit around, relax, work on your résumé, play poker, whatever

When the tea is almost at room temperature, have your subject sip it and concentrate on a specific question—perhaps something that’s been bothering him lately. If he can’t think of anything, then we’re sorry to tell you that your subject is a weirdo. But you probably already knew that. In this case, perhaps you’ll want to try your hand at a general prediction. Just have your subject clear his mind while sipping the tea instead of focusing on something in particular.


Tell your subject to leave a tiny bit of liquid and most of the tea leaves in the bottom of the cup. Since many people are used to drinking tea that’s strained through a tea bag as opposed to loose tea, a little coaching may be necessary. It’s really easy to just swallow the tea leaves, so make sure that he leaves some behind for you to read.


If you have problems, (e.g. your subject refuses to drink the loose tea leaves and starts making various vomiting noises), strain the tea out of the cup through a napkin stretched over the top, again taking care to leave a little bit of liquid and most of the tea leaves behind.


Take the cup in your left hand and swirl it around clockwise three times.


Cover the top of the cup with your right hand, making sure to swirl the leaves completely up and around the sides and rim of the cup. (A little bit of shaking is all right for beginners.)


When all this is done, peer into the cup and get ready for your performance… we mean your "psychic predictions," of course.

Info from:

http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/...tealeaves.html

[Flar's Freyja]

If you have swirled correctly (read: vigorously), the leaves should now be clumped together in several different places on the cup’s inside, including the rim, sides and bottom. These clumps will form the symbols that you will read. You should always begin the interpretation by looking for the simplest symbols first. Several of the leaf clumps may clearly form shapes, letters or numbers.

Shapes:

Triangles = good karma

Squares = the need for caution

Circles = great success



Letters: refer to the names of friends or relatives


Numbers: indicate spans of time, like months or years.
Most of the clumps, however, will form random shapes (a bird, an anchor, a spider, Regis Philbin). With a little staring and a bit of creativity, these shapes can easily be distinguished.

A more comprehensive list is contained within this site:

http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/...ealeaves3.html

[Flar's Freyja]

There are three different patterns that will tell you when something will happen:

The symbols are spread randomly around the cup
All of the symbols fall in a clear clockwise spiral within the cup
All of the symbols fall in a clear counterclockwise spiral within the cup

Further details:


http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/...ealeaves4.html

[Flar's Freyja]

The importance of each symbol is determined by the placement of the symbols on the rim, sides and bottom of the cup.


Symbols on the rim represent things that are very important. These are the BIG, life-changing moments.


Symbols on the sides of the cup represent things that are significant, but not life changing.


Symbols on the bottom indicate things that are subject to change. Some fortune-tellers believe that if a symbol is located smack-dab on the bottom center of a cup spell it spells tragedy, so if this happens during one of your readings, milk it for all it’s worth.

Symbols that lie in straight lines indicate a definite occurrence.


Curved or wavy lines indicate the possibility of change.


Crystal clear symbols are events that are more likely to occur than, shall we say, “stretches of interpretation.”


Check over your cup for lines, numbers, shapes or letters first, and interpret any clear symbols. Then follow the rules about lines above.


If the subject told you of any questions that he had before the reading, try to tailor your prediction to these queries. However, if nothing applies, just hint that the leaves are being mysterious. YOU are not, after all, responsible for the vagaries of the divine.


Don’t forget that it is the mysticism of the reading that wins out above all. Make sure you throw in a few gasps and feel free to faint dead away (taking care not to knock the cup).


Further details:

http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/...ealeaves5.html

[Emy]

Haven't tried tasseomancy yet, but I think I will give it a go sometime soon Thanks for posting this, Freyja.

[golddust]

freyja- your post just made me laugh my head off (i'm easily amused)

my dad drinks loose tea so i always tried to read his leaves- before i knew how, just cos id seen it done at a carnival- but he has like six teaspoons of brown sugar in there as well so it's impossible to see any shapes

[Flar's Freyja]

Golddust, thanks for making me

I was very impressed with that site, five pages of instructions....I copied some of it to post here because often I don't have time to click on the links and look at the sites ~and then I forget to go back and look at them.

Would love to hear from those who didn't have to worry about brown sugar getting in the way....

[Mithrea]

Oh Freyja fabulous info.

[Flar's Freyja]

Bump bump

[Azure]

This is both informative and hilarious.

I can think of lots of nasty flavored tea I would like to use. . .

I've never tried reading tea leaves, but I suspect it's really done by just engaging psychic energy from the person you're reading for, the way good palmistry is also done.