TASSEOGRAPHY: FINDING CLARITY IN THE BOTTOM OF A TEACUP

In uncertain times, familiarity offers comfort. Simple acts like wrapping your hands around a warm cup of tea and sipping the nourishing contents date back thousands of years into human history. Imagine the steam rising from the ceramic mug, the wholesome brew of leaves, flowers, and herbs swirling in the hot water. Now, imagine that your trusted tea can also offer you answers and insight. It’s all there on the bottom of the cup!

At its most basic level, tea leaf reading is interpreting random symbols and putting them into a storyline.

People use tea leaves, coffee grounds, cacao, or unfiltered wine sediment, or in more modern settings, fresh juice grounds. Also know as tasseography, tasseomancy, tassology, or tasseology, tea leaf reading is as ancient as drinking tea, and the truth is that no one knows the true origin of this form of divination.

Tea leaf reading is considered a randomized form of divination.

As the seeker drinks their beverage they infuse it with their energy. The inversion of the cup, that is tipping it upside down into the saucer, makes tea or coffee leaves/grounds cling to the sides and base of the cup. A skilled tasseographer will then read the symbols in the cup. Of all the divination practices commonly performed, this one is always entirely personal.

Seekers come to the cup for countless reasons. Many want guidance in love and romance. Some want previews of their professional opportunities or money situations. Still others hope for health, family, or pet insights. At its best, a tea leaf reading can tell a complete story, perhaps even touching on all these topics. There are usually both “good” and “bad” omens in every cup, but life is rarely simple. Unlike other forms of divination, tasseography is fully open ended. Every cup is unique and the clarity depends entirely upon the vision of the reader as they view the symbols presented in the cup.

Tasseography can offer clarity and insight into any and all aspects of the seeker’s life.

The symbols may offer a different perspective or even a warning. It may highlight areas upon which the seeker should focus their attention, such as personal health or emotion acceptance. After all, everyone can improve their situation, no matter how good things are already. A reading can bring attention to those areas where we are still lacking in skill or depth. Sometimes readings offer the seeker peace. It is not unheard of for very specific messages to reach through the cup and find an audience of one, such as symbols known only to the seeker and a deceased loved one.

No divination can entirely predict the future, as all beings have free will and can make unexpected or out-of-character choices suddenly. But tea leaf readings can offer guidance and even hope. In complex situations, symbols may come through that lead the seeker in the best direction for their relationships, home, or career situations.

As a form of divination, tasseography has a fascinating history.

Drinking tea dates back many centuries BC to China. Historians don’t agree if tea leaf reading originated in China, India, or the Middle East but the most popular legend tells us that in 2732 B.C. Emperor Shen Nung discovered tea when leaves from a wild tree blew into his pot of boiling water. He was immediately interested in the scent of the resulting brew, and drank some. Shen Nung named the brew “ch'a." We do know tea arrived in Europe via the Silk Road, trade routes that criss-crossed between East and West from 200 BC through the 18th century. The Silk Road trade played a significant role in the development of the civilization and tea, as well as many other goods and ideas were exchanged, including religions, philosophies, sciences, and technologies like paper and gunpowder, and diseases too - like the black plague. So in addition to economic trade, the Silk Road was a route for cultural trade and scholars believe this is how tasseography arrived in the Middle East, where coffee grounds were more commonly used for divination. Instead of the cup, coffee grounds are often read in saucers.

When tea first made its way into Europe in the 1600s, it was an aristocratic beverage. Enterprising tea parlor purveyors soon found ways to offer tea to the general population by thinning the leaves with other things. In Europe, the Romani people were best known for fortune telling, including tea leaf readings. Tea leaf reading took off in Europe, as methods of divination such as reading the shapes formed by molten metal (molybdomancy), hot wax (carromancy) or ash from fires were already known to the public.

The Spiritualist movement also launched around the Victorian era in the 1700s. People became obsessed with the occult, divination, and death. Tasseography thrived, reaching its American and European heyday (at least so far) during the 1800s. Reading Tea Leaves, by a "Highland Seer," is the oldest book on the subject in English. Written in the 18th century, it offered sets of symbols to interpret tea-leaf patterns to tell of things to come.