How to Read Tea Leaves
Hey you guys! As you know, I love tea. I love the smell of tea, the look of tea, and of course, I love the taste. Iced tea in the summer, hot tea in the winter, I’m never without a nice cup of tea, and a steaming teapot somewhere nearby. I’m a tea freak or something!
But hang on there—did you catch that I said I like the “look” of tea? Did you wonder that that meant? You should! Of course, I love the way tea leaves look before you throw them in the pot. They’re so…natural and crispy, and you can almost literally see how good they are for you! But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about how much I love looking at them AFTER you’ve made your tea. In fact, I have started checking into telling fortunes based on looking at tea leaves. Cool, huh?
Yeah, it’s called Tasseography, which is just a fancy word for “tea leaf reading.” All my friends are totally asking me to tell them their fortunes, and we’re having tea parties all the time, and they love me so much! It’s so fun and it makes you the life of the party.
So since I’m such a nice girl, I’m going to tell you guys a few things about it, so you can be the life of YOUR tea party.
- You have to make your tea the right way. That means loose tea only! No tea bags, since the little chopped up bits don’t really work for making shapes and stuff to read. I don’t do tea bags anyway, since loose leaf tea tastes so much better, but especially if you want to know the future, this is important. And you have to leave the loose tea leaves in the cup—don’t strain it out with a tea infuser or anything.
- Use a white teacup so it’s easier to see the leaves. It should also be plain on the inside and have a wide base. That way there will be room for the tea leaves to settle and make shapes that you can interpret.
- Have your subject drink the tea (tell them not to drink the leaves!) leaving just a little bit of liquid at the bottom. Then they have to swirl it around clockwise three times in their left hand. It’s all very specific. Next have them turn the cup over into the saucer for seven seconds while the liquid drains out, leaving the leaves stuck to the bottom of the cup.
- This is where the magic is. Now you stare at the leaves and interpret what you see. There’s a lot of ways to do this, and lots of sites to get the lowdown on what represents what. I’ll leave that to you. But in large clumps of leaves means trouble, tea stalks represent people, letters represent names, and any leftover liquid represents tears. The larder something is in the cup, the more important it is to the subject.
- The handle of the cup represents that moment, and go around clockwise to represent a year. So, if you see a bird across from the handle, you can tell them good news is coming in six months. Of course, there should be a lot more theatrics—maybe a crazy accent, or some sort of trance—but that’s just my approach. You can do…whatever!
There’s so much more to it, but that should get you started. Before you know it, you’ll be having to set up a guest list for your tea parties! And maybe some big hunky guy with a clipboard. That’s when you know you’ve really made it!
Tags: fortune telling, future, loose leaf tea, tea cup, tea leaves, tea reading, teapot
