The Art of Tea Leaf Reading

The Art of Tea Leaf Reading 

If you're not digging out your car or driveway from the blizzard, perhaps you're indoors enjoying a cup of hot tea and dreaming about being on a warm island somewhere. I know I am. The winter is not my thing. Instead of stressing about whether or not my trees will ever be the same, I thought I'd get my mind off it, write my blog, and look to the future...the future which just may be found in that cup of tea! 

A week ago I took a workshop at the Huntington Library on the art of tea leaf reading. Back when I was sixteen, my aunt took me to a psychic fair where I had my tea leaves read. Tea leaves? How can you get information about who I am, or what the future is by reading tea leaves? I thought it was very odd indeed. I sat down and watched as a woman stared into a murky cup, and I must say, she did tell me things that most definitely came true.  

All these years later, I've never had another tea leaf reading, but I still have always wondered about it. How does it work exactly? Since I study a variety of metaphysical and paranormal topics, my interest was piqued when I saw the workshop offered.  

There were about a dozen women at the workshop, and each of us were given a Styrofoam cup and bowl. Holding the cup, we had to move it in a circle to the right three times. We then were told to place the bowl over the top of the cup and turn everything upside down. Whatever remained in our cups is what you "read" from. Our partners were whoever you were sitting next to, and we would "read" from each other's cups. My partner and I had some technical difficulties. Somehow too much tea remained as a clump at the bottom, so the teacher had to come over and correct the situation. Once we were all set, we stared into each other's cups and then at each other. We weren't quite sure what we were looking for. Again, we needed the teacher's assistance. She told us to slowly turn the cup and look for pictures, symbols, numbers, anything we could pick out. She said it's like searching for hidden images in a child's picture book.  

Wouldn't you know, as soon as she said that, we actually did see real images. In my partner's cup I clearly saw a cat. According to the interpretations list we were given, a cat means independence. I asked my partner about this, and she said that she was extremely independent and that people often said things to her about her independence. In my cup there was an arrow pointing up, meaning that things are looking up, and there was also the image of a boat. The teacher came around and saw the boat too. She told me that I spend a great deal of time by the water, and that's where I go for solace, which is true. Hmmm...maybe there is something to be said about this. 

The art of tea leaf reading began in China. The Chinese would say that when you drink the tea, your spirit is left in the tea. Tea leaf readings in America did not become popular until the 1800's. I asked the teacher why did we have to turn the tea cup to the right three times. She told me, "because that's your future. You bring what's in your cup."  

The readings we did for one another were very basic obviously, but we did get the idea and I was happy we at least picked up on something.  

So if you've had it with the snow, make yourself and your significant other a nice cup of tea, and find out just what your future may have in store.  

Hopefully you won't see the image of a snow shovel.