TasseographyMostly from the Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, Vol. 2 Ed. J. Gordon Melton. "One of the most popular forms of fortune-telling, depending largely upon psychic intuition. After a cup of tea has been poured, without using a tea strainer, the tea is drunk or poured away. The cup should then be shaken well and any remaining liquid drained off in the saucer. The diviner now looks at the pattern of tea leaves in the cup and allows the imagination to play around the shapes suggested by them. They might look like a letter, a heart shape, or a ring. These shapes are then interpreted intuitively or by means of a fairly standard system of symbolism, such as: snake (enmity or falsehood), spade (good fortune through industry), mountain (journey of hindrance), or house (change, success)." Sources : Fontana, Marjorie A. Cup of Fortune: A Guide to Tea Leaf Reading. Wis.: Fantastic, 1979. Sheridan, Jo. Teacup Fortune-telling. London: Mayflower, 1978 Additional material not from the encyclopedia: Tasseography Also called tasseomancy Don't just cut open a tea-bag or substitute coffee (which are both possible but not ideal). Use loose tea because bagged tea leaves are cut too small and uniformly to create really varied patterns. Also there are the taste and cool factor to consider. Don't buy in to the symbol dictionaries, etc. unless you have some idea how to work with symbols already (i.e. practice in TRULY not taking symbols literally, as equivalent to some meaning rather than suggestive of a complex of images). Allow the configurations to suggest free associations (ala Hermann Rorschach's - inkblot).
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