Tasseography: Tea Leaf Divination ๐Ÿต

A very warm welcome to all! :heart:

Make yourself a hot cup of tea and relax :blush: Itโ€™s time to learn about a topic very close to my heart-Tea Magick! :tea: :sparkles:

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A warm cup of tea is a panacea for all kinds of problems- even without the added benefits from tea rituals or spellwork! As one of the worldโ€™s most-loved beverages, tea is savored and served in various forms all around the world :earth_americas:

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From The Atlantic: โ€œCountries That Drink the Most Teaโ€

Tea is of great importance to many cultures, is considered by many to be an essential part of daily life, and has earned a place of significance in various religious traditions and ceremonies.

I have always been fascinated by tea and its cultural significance. While studying, I had the pleasure of learning about the Japanese Tea Ceremony for 4 months under a Candian tea master. While Japanese Tea Ceremonies appear very simple and minimalist- I can assure you that each and every aspect, right down to the degree of movement of your body must be carefully analyzed and executed with the utmost of awareness! There is a lot of thought that goes into each cup of tea! :tea::brain:

A few years back, I took the chance to also study Meditative Chinese Tea Ceremonies :coffee: , enjoyed some incredible Taiwanese Bubble/Boba Tea :white_circle: , and was scolded for my unintentional โ€œpoor American etiquetteโ€ during posh Afternoon Tea Time in England :sweat_smile:- there is always so much to learn and enjoy in each cup of tea! :two_hearts:

I would like to share with you today one such tea ceremony of immense cultural importance that I have been studying as of late. This is a tea practice dating back many years that carries a unique power, respect, and magickal purpose: Tea Leaf Readings! :fallen_leaf:


:coffee: Tasseography: A Form of Divination :face_with_monocle:

Tasseogprahy (sometimes called Tasseology or Tasseomancy) is the practice of reading substances left in the bottom of a drinking vessel in order to answer questions or peer into the future :crystal_ball:.

Although most people commonly think of tea leaf readings when they of reading fortunes from a drink, it is also possible to search for and interpret messages in the leftover sediments of coffee grounds or even wine! :wine_glass:

There are many different styles and ways to perform tasseography, but they all begin with first enjoying your drink! :coffee::yum: Tasseography is popular in Turkey, where drinking tea or coffee together is a social event that can stretch over many hours. After you finish relaxing and chatting with your host, and your beverage is finished- then it is possible to begin the ritual and then the reading! :open_book: .

The โ€œquerantโ€ or drinker, will drink their beverage until only a small amount of liquid remains in the cup. They will then swirl the cup three times, and invert it onto a saucer.

The โ€œseerโ€, or person who is tasked with finding meaning in the leaves, will look for shapes in the sediment left on the bottom of the cup.


Allure has a very thorough guide to How to Read Tea Leaves

Here are some common shapes or symbols that can be read, from the Mistress of Magicโ€™s very helpful blog post on Reading Tea & Coffee:

One of the most helpful and traditional guides for possible tea leaf symbols is the old book Reading Tea Leaves by a Highland Seer. The book is available for free through The Project Gutenberg, you can find it here: Tea-Cup Reading and Fortune-Telling by Tea Leaves :open_book::sparkles:

Depending on what style of reading you are following, the meaning of each symbol, and itโ€™s importance in your past/present/future, may depend on where in the cup it appears. There are many possible ways to divide up the cup, and different cultures and practices tend to take different approaches with this. Here is one possible guide to the regions inside your cup:

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From the Bahati Tea Companyโ€™s guide on How to Read Tea Leaves

A few more helpful resources:

For those interested in learning more about Tasseography and other methods of divination around the world, I highly recommend the free online course from Harvardโ€™s online school: PredictionX: Omens, Oracles, and Prophecies :crystal_ball:

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Beyond Tasseography: Tea Meditations and Rituals

For those with a love of tea, I also recommend the following tea spells, rituals, and meditations. Feel free to use loose leaf tea leaves, complete the spells, and then try a reading from the leaves left in your cup afterward :yum:!

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For a list of many great tea spells and meditations, visit: Guided Tea Meditations.

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Have you used tea as part of your magickal practice? :tea:
(multiple answers are allowed!)

  • Yes- I have tried Tea Leaf Divination
  • Yes- I have tried Tea Meditations
  • Yes- I have tried other types of Tea Magick
  • No- But Iโ€™d like to try
  • No- Itโ€™s not for me
0 voters

A Fun Fact: In every Japanese tea room, there is a small alcove where a hanging scroll displays a message. For each tea ceremony, this scroll is chosen with immense care to reflect the occasion, the current season, and the mood. My personal favorite is the following:

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Ichi-go Ichi-e roughly translates to "one time, one meeting ". It is a reminder that every time we have a cup of tea :tea: , the situation is completely unique. Savor each sip and treasure every moment- because the same scenario will never happen again. There is a heavy but delightful value in each experience we have in our lives.

Do you have any tea wisdom or experiences to share? :heart_eyes: I am very passionate about tea and always eager to learn more- whether you have an interesting cultural tip, a different style or type of tea divination, or any advice to share, please feel free to do so! :heart:

May you find sweet serenity in each cup, and may the leaves inside always guide you forward to a future as warm and pleasurable as your tea!

Happy Drinking, and Blessed Be! :sparkles::tea:

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Thank you for this amazing information - and the details from you travels! Iโ€™ve never read tea leaves before - or my coffee grounds for that matter - but it is something that I do want to try. I have to get over the idea of the loose leaves or grounds still being in my cup. I have a tendency to justโ€ฆdownโ€ฆmy coffee or tea instead of sip, so if there are any grounds or leaves it always gets caught in my mouth and freaks me out (itโ€™s a texture thing).

Iโ€™ll try it eventually!

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Please tell me you didnโ€™t put the milk in first or tap the teaspoon on the cup :joy: Cardinal sins @BryWisteria :rofl:

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This is wonderful :heart: Iโ€™m going to try this this week- do you think this would fit in with the thrifty witch challenge? As I have a cupboard full of teas :blush: and Iโ€™ve never tried tasseography, which is strange when you consider how much tea I drink :joy:

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This is super interesting, thanks for sharing :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:
Also, Iโ€™m reading this as Iโ€™m sipping on my nightly chamomile tea :tea: :laughing:

Reading tea leaves sounds like quite a science in itself though, I definitely want to read a bit more about it before giving it a try!

The online course sounds super interesting! I have a long train trip ahead of me next week, perfect timing for some new reading material :blush:

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I was being too loud with my booming American voice :joy: Iโ€™m sure there were plenty of other mistakes at the time too, but my hosts were very polite and understanding of my limited afternoon tea time etiquette :laughing:. Iโ€™ve been watching William Hansonโ€™s Tea Etiquette videos on YouTube and BBC- very enlightening! Itโ€™s really amazing about all the little details- I find it fascinating now, but also horrifying as to how many I broke during my first trip to England! :sweat_smile:

Absolutely!!! :star_struck: I think tasseography would be a great entry to the challenge- itโ€™s an exciting new practice and you can use the tools and tea you already have :blush::coffee:

I highly recommend it! :+1: I took the course on a whim because it was free, but thereโ€™s a lot of great information and so many methods of divination I had never even heard of! You can skip through and just choose the ones youโ€™re interested in- no pressure when the course is free! :grin: :+1:

Happy and safe travels, @christine4! :two_hearts:

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Thanks for the Tips! Iโ€™d rather be classy!

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Hi, I tried the Tea leaf divination for the first time today and I saw 3 symbols depending on how I looked at the cup.

A bat, a mushroom and a house. I like the info about those symbols that I found online. If you have any thoughts on it though, Im curious to read them. :smiling_face:

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Congrats on your first tea leaf divination, @sarah_poe! :partying_face: It sounds like it went well and that you found some symbols jumping out at you in your cup- very exciting!

There are many great resources out there for finding the meanings of symbols (and it sounds like you found some good ones, hooray!) :blush:

I would recommend checking a few sites and taking whatever correspondences/meanings call to you. In addition to what is listed in outside resources, I would strongly urge you to consider your own personal meanings for these symbols as well. When you think of each of these things, what comes to mind: a memory, a moment, a person, a feeling? These are your personal symbolic meanings and, as these symbols appeared for you, Iโ€™ve found they are often the best way of interpreting the reading in a way that applies to you and your situation :+1:

While Iโ€™m strongly in the school of thought that the tea leaf readerโ€™s interpretation is the most applicable to their situation, I would be happy to share some of my personal symbolic meanings in the hope that they might spark new ideas or connections for you! :grinning:

Here they are:

:bat: BAT - night, darkness, a loss of vision or inability to see something clearly, finding new and creative ways around a problem, thinking outside the box, freedom, being unconventional.

:mushroom: MUSHROOM - autumn, interconnectivity, a greater web of connection, the cycle of life and death, higher truths, seeing beyond what your eyes can see, spreading across distance, passing beyond barriers

:house: HOUSE - home, family, generations, ancestors, safety, respite, haven, warmth, your place within a community, hearth

Perhaps some of these definitions relate back to your question/focus for the reading! I hope they are able to offer some additional inspiration for you :blush:

Lots of love and blessed be! :sparkles:

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