Tea Leaf

How to Do a Tea Leaf Reading

There are so many types of divination or ‘fortune telling’ out there but in my opinion, none of them are as easy and relaxing as tea leaf reading. Anyone can have a go at it, it’s a fantastic excuse to stop anything that you are doing, have a nice cup of tea and reflect on your future prospects! Don’t take it too seriously though, be open minded and remember that human choice is far stronger than little specks of brown on a teacup!

I sometimes use a special divination teacup with symbols and lines for detailed readings, but it is not neccessary to have one of these. Use an old fashioned teacup but If you don’t have one then just use a small mug. However it is important that the inside of the cup is a light colour so you can see the tea leaves later on.                                                                                                                                                                 Now for the actual tealeaves. It can be difficult getting hold of Loose Tea these days, but it would be worthwhile to use it. Tealeaves from bags can be too uniform in shape and size, but nevertheless it can still work. Put a flat teaspoon of tealeaves into the cup and wait for the kettle to boil. Pour the boiling water into the cup and wait for the tea to infuse. Traditionally a Teapot would be used in this process, so if you do own one, add the tealeaves to the pot. I wouldn’t advice you to add milk to the tea because it makes the liquid opaque and you may sip up some tealeaves which can be quite unpleasant! Although add sugar if you prefer.                                                                                                         As you wait for the tea to cool for a minute, reflect on what you want out of the reading. Are you worried about your career path? Do you want to know if a friend is being deceptive towards you? Anything that is on your mind can be considered for the reading. Just make sure that you are in a peaceful and relaxed frame of mind.                                                                                                                         Sip the tea slowly, thinking about all the issues you may want to appear in the reading. Remember that the tealeaves cannot give you a clear cut yes or no answer, but they can give you a nudge in the right direction. Sip the tea until you have the dregs of the cup at the bottom. If the leaves begin to stick to the side when you swirl them about, then you can stop drinking.                                                                     Flip the cup over quickly on a plate or saucer so that the dregs don’t splash out. Leave the cup facing down for one minute and then lift it the right way up. You should have a thin sprinkling of tealeaves in your cup, not huge clumps of soggy brown mess.                                                                         Now this is part where you begin the reading! Have a close look at the leaves inside the cup. Yes they are tiny little brown bits that look totally insiginificant at first, but concentrate on small patches at a time. As children we would look at clouds and see that shapes that they make, tea leaf reading is exactly the same. By looking closely at small sections of the cup you’ll start to see patterns, lines and shapes in the leaves.                                                                                                                                                     Almost anything can crop up in a tea leaf reading: lines, basic shapes, letters, numbers, animals, objects and it’s up to you to figure them out. Use a notepad and write down whatever you see in the tealeaves. The amount of ‘signs’ can vary dramatically, you may be bombarded with symbols or have very few in your cup. Either way, as long as you can spot something then it doesn’t matter.                        When you have listed all the shapes you have seen in the tealeaves then you begin to unravel the meanings. The cup’s surface is divided into three parts. The rim represents the present time and very near future, the sides of the cup show events that will happen in weeks or months, and the base is the distant future which can be in months or even up to a year. Depending where the tealeaves fall will depend on when certain events will occur.                                                                                                        Now look at the actual signs that you have found. Remember that not every tealeaf is a message. Some shapes should pop out at you, ‘Oh a frog!’ but if you are staring at a clump of tealeaves that just look like tealeaves, then move on.                                                                                                                              You can buy books that tell you what all the symbols mean in a tea leaf reading, however they can differ a lot and won’t give you a very personal reading. I believe tea leaf reading is more about the subconscious, what we see in the cup actually represents a solution or issue we already have hold of but what our consciousness usually screens out. This also applies to the analysis of the reading.         I’ll give an example: You find a shape of a dog in your tealeaves. You think of the first words that come to mind when you think of a dog. Happiness, friendship, innocence. Maybe the dog signifies a childhood friend coming back into your life?                                                                                                              Now someone else has a tea leaf reading and looks into their cup to find the image of a dog. However, this person was bitten by a pet dog when they were young  and now sees these animals negatively. The dog in their cup could symbolise a betrayal of trust or agression.                                        Hopefully this should illustrate how meanings can differ greatly depenading on what you might see in your cup and how you decided to decode it. For this reason I always recommend that readings be done individually.                                                                                                                                                            Write down the words that you associate with each sign you have seen in the tealeaves. You should be able to summarise what they mean and how they relate to your earlier reflections. For example: You question if your job is right for you at the beginning of the reading. You find the image of a flower in the middle of the cup. Flowers to you symbolise spring, fresh beginnings and growth. Therefore you could conclude that this symbol is a positive one, that despite hard work or menial tasks in the workplace you may be rewarded with a promotion or given a chance to ‘blossom’!                 All the best in your tea leaf readings!

About the Author

I’m an English student at the University of Kent, England and I have a real passion for literature and the creative arts. I have wrote for two local newspapers and I am part of the student newspaper.

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