Instructions
From Mystic Tea Room
A question i am often asked is, "How did you learn tea leaf reading?"
As a child in the 1950s, i learned primarily from a particular older woman, a neighbor of ours, who was also a card reader and numerologist. She told me that i would become a professional psychic, and she taught me many things. Her name was Mrs. Hare.
My parents owned an antiquarian book shop. Around 1959, my mother, a librarian, decided to compile an annotated bibliography of cookbooks and recipe pamphlets that had been published in California. This was published as "California in the Kitchen" in 1960. As her eager teen-aged helper, i scouted thrift stores for rare and obscure cookbooaks, and brought her many a startling find. While searching through the piles of these undervalued treasures at the Goodwill, Saint Vincent de Paul, and Salvation Army shops, i became fascinated with the illustrated recipe pamphlets issued by food companies from 1880 through 1940. Among these pamphlets there were many not published in California, and so of no interest to my mother's project, but i could not bear to see them left behind, and thus i began my life-long accumulation of such ephemera. Among these pamphlets i found quite a few issued by tea companies that contained instructions in tea leaf reading.
Around 1964, through one of those marvels of synchronicity which make life ever so interesting, my parents purchased the personal library of a female occultist and metaphysician who had recently died. They gave me the part-time job of cataloguing the books for resale. In going through the incredible collection of "The Mistress of the Lotus Lodge," i discovered her copies of the tasseomancy instruction books by The Highland Seer, Cicely Kent, and Minetta -- and, carefully wrapped in with them, an Aynsley Nelros Cup of Fortune from 1904. This served as my introduction to the subject of marked fortune telling cups and saucers, and i have collected them ever since.
My story is unusual, and few tea leaf readers who come after me will live the kind of life i have, so rather than try to take you through my voyage of discovery, i will open a few doors for you on your own path toward tea leaf reading. In doing so, i will change the question from, "How did you learn tea leaf reading?" to "How is this system of divination transmitted?"
Here are the paths of knowledge.
Contents |
Learn From Family and Friends
Divination by means of tea leaf reading is a long-cherished form of domestic fortune telling. It may be performed at home for oneself, family, or friends. For generations, learning to read the leaves from a cherished old grandmother or auntie was a tradition kept alive in many families, particular those with cultural connections to Scotland, Ireland, or England. In a similar way, the reading of coffee grounds was transmitted within families of Greek, Turkish, and Arabic descent. My childhood study with our neighbor, Mrs. Hare, was of this nature, and if you look at the section of this site that deals with tea leaf reading in art. you will see many examples of younger and older women leaning their heads together, inspecting the dregs of a cup of tea,
Learn from Company-Issued Instruction Booklets
Brief instructions in tea leaf reading come primarily from two sources -- tea leaf reading booklets issued by tea companies as promotions for the drinking of tea, and tea leaf reading booklets issued by pottery companies with their fortune telling tea cups, for the ease of understanding the unique designs and methods that are found on cups decorated with symbols from other divination systems, including astrology, cartomancy, numerology, and folkloric signs or omens.
Learn from a Professional Tea Leaf Reader
Over the years the oral transmission of the methods and "rules" of tea leaf reading travelled from Scotland, Ireland, England and Wales to North America, Australia, New Zealand, and other regions that were populated by English-speaking colonists. In the United States, close contact between enslaved African people and their "owners," led to a strong interest in these methods among African American diviners and mediums. After Emancipation, many Black women read tea leaves for clients, both Black and White.
When the Tea Room Movement took off in the early 20th century, the field for professional tea readers suddenly expanded. This was the era of the "free reading with every meal," a brief reading offered at many tea rooms in America.
Although the days of the subsidized "free reading areProfessional tea leaf readers who will brew a cup for you, allow you to drink it, and read your leaves for you; if you express interest, they may teach you how it is down, if you offer to pay for lessons..
- Tea Rooms
- Harry Roseland
Learn from Books, Cards, and Web Sites
The information in my article on How To Read Tea Leaves will help you get started.
