Tea Leaf Reading and the Cup of Fate

As a little girl growing up, my mother would tell me stories about all our far flung, distant relatives and about her ancestors. My favorite was the story of how her great-grandmother learned the fine art of tea leaf reading. Great-great gran's name was Elizabeth and as a little girl, she befriended a tribe of Romany who made camp on the edge of land her father owned. Most folks back then were susperstitious and would have run off the gypsy trespassers, but not my ancestor.

He broke bread with the men of the camp while his daughter and son played with the gypsy children. At the time, this would have been highly unusual on both sides. Unless the tribe was performing, they never mixed or mingled with the villagers or farmers. But something about my ancestor must have appealed to them and he was welcomed.

I could easily picture a girl my age, with bright red curls playing merrily with the barefoot gypsy children. The smell of burning wood and roasting fowl, the joyous tones of the mandolin and the flicker of orange flame against the black velvet of night.

According to my mother, young Elizabeth had the gift and the tribe's fortune teller recognized it. With her father's permission, she learned the fine art of tea leaf reading. Over the course of that summer, she perfected her skills, learned to focus her sight. She was sad when the tribe finally left. She continued to practice on anyone willing to participate.

And when she married and had children of her own, she taught them all she knew about foretelling the future using nothing but a teacup and steeped tea leaves.

Can someone really just empty a cup of tea and see the future unfold? Some people say the practice of tea leaf reading is nothing more than hocus pocus. I mean, how could a few wet tea leaves possibly predict the future?

Tea leaf reading, also known as Tasseomancy, Tasseography or Tassology, is an ancient method of divination, dating back to medieval times. The practice became wildly popular in the Victorian era.

The tea is brewed without a strainer, and some liquid must remain in the cup so the leaves can move easily.

This last bit of tea is slowly moved around three times clockwise in the cup by holding the handle and then the cup is turned over into a saucer. The handle represents the person getting the reading done (the querant). Leaves closest to the handle are the things which are closest to that person and have the most influence, while the leaves on the opposite side are least important.

Any leaves left on the rim of the cup are said to be the near future and any at the bottom are considered far off. This gives the reader a sort of imaginary time line. Sometimes actual numbers are formed by the leaves. When this happens. they are usually indications of time. If they appear at the bottom of the cup, they represent time in years. At the top, the tea leaf numbers mean hours or days. Letters from the alphabet will also emerge on occassion. These are usually initials of a person or persons who influence the querant in some way.

Today, there are several great books on tasseography if you've a hankering to give it a swirl. And some of the cup designs already have the symbols painted right inside, to help eliminate the guesswork. But for the interpretation to be really accurate, you have to focus inward and decide what the symbols mean to you.

Wishing you adventure, magick and love,
Cassandra Curtis

To read an excerpt from my paranormal erotic romance, Cup of Fate, or to purchase it, simply follow the link: http://www.amberquillpress.com/CupFate.html

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