Tea Leaf Reading

Also Available Tea Leaf Reading

Fortune telling tea cupsTasseography

Although many people prefer a simple white cup for tea leaf reading, there are also traditions concerning the positional placement of the leaves in the cup, and some find it easier to work with marked cups. Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing to the present, English and American potteries have produced specially decorated cup and saucer sets for the use of tea-leaf readers. Many of these designs are patented and come with instructions explaining their mode of use. Some of the most common were those that were given away with purchases of bulk tea.

Zodiac cup and saucer with zodiac signs and shamrock.

An example of a tea leaf reading, showing what may be interpreted as a dog and a bird on the side of the cup.

Here, tea leaves are concentrated near the handle. 


The person whose fortune is to be told, call the “sitter” or “consultant”, should then take the cup by the handle in the left hand, rim upwards, and move it in a circle rapidly three times from left to right some of the tea leaves will seem to cling to the sides of the cup while others remain in the bottom. Next slowly invert the cup over the saucer and leave it there until all liquid drains away.

The “sitter” should approach the oracle in all seriousness and during the ritual should concentrate on his or her future destiny and “wish” that the symbol shall correctly represent happenings to come.

The handle of the cup represents the “sitter” in his or her own “sphere” or “residence” and is the “south” point of the compass. This fixed point designates “letters to” the consultant or “journeys away from”, “visitors to be expected”, distance “to and from”, etc.

The cup is divided into three parts. The rim designates the present; the side, events not far distant; and the bottom the distant future. The nearer the symbols appear to the handle the nearer to fulfillment will be the events foretold.


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