The Art of Tea Leaf Reading

Before the days of therapists and counselors, we used to simply sit down with a dear friend and a good cup of tea.  There at the kitchen table, we would pour our hearts out and spill our secrets into the saucer with our tea.  Wonderful insights would occur to us as we would share our stories.  Our dear friend would take them all in and tend to them, carefully and with as much depth of consideration as if she were holding one of our new born babes.

This beautiful kitchen table magic is not lost to us.  And it can be even further enhanced when combined with the fine art of tea leaf reading.  Tea leaf reading, similar to the I-Ching, the Runes and the Tarot is a form of “Giving Divination.”  It is very like looking at clouds or gazing into a crystal ball.  Images appear and they can help us gain insight into a given situation.  The seer uses their soft vision, not a hard focus, to let shapes appear to them and then shares impressions that may accompany their impressions. 

Though we can certainly do tea leaf readings for ourselves, it is very nice to nice to do this with a friend or a companion.  Like the wise stranger we once met on a bus or a train, sometimes our best advice can come from someone that we don't really know. 

For tea leaf readings, you need a loose leaf tea.  It can be herbal, black or green, but it must still have some shape to the plant parts and not be powdered.  Then, while sipping the tea, the person who is having some difficulty shares their problems with the listener.  They tell the whole story, all the ins and outs, everything they can think of and how they feel about it.  All the while, they are sipping away at their tea. 

When their cup is almost empty, holding only one or two more swallows, they focus silently on the entirety of the problem and formulate their ideas into a question.  It can be something like, "What is the best course of action for me to take here?' or "What would be in accordance with the highest good for all concerned in this situation?"  Then they take just one more little sip so there is just barely enough liquid left in the cup to enable them to lightly swirl the leaves around.  And then they turn the cup upside down, spilling it's remaining contents into the saucer.  Some of the leaves will spill with the liquid into the saucer but some of the bits of leaves will remain on the sides of the cup. 

The friend who has been listening then takes the cup and using their soft eyes, they look at the leaves, just like how they might look at the clouds, to see if they can imagine images there.  Similar to laying out a card deck, areas within the cup can be used to represent: the past or the future, a base of family support or destiny coming from on high.  The bits and globs of soggy tea leaves located on one side of the handle area might represent where you have been in your life, while the bits located on the other side of the handle might represent where you are headed.  It is all very arbitrary and each seer develops their own ideas regarding the of placement of the remaining leaves within the cup.

Some bits of tea may look like birds swirling on thermal drafts or airplanes in flight.  Just like with dream images, these can mean different things.  For me, birds and planes represent spiritual flight.  Bicycles can be balance, cars or buses can represent our bodies.  It is all good.  Trust the process and let it flow. 

I like to encourage beginning tea leaf readers to just keep talking.  Whether you think you are only making stuff up or you think that you are accurately perceiving psychically, just keep on talking.  It gets the ball rolling and the information will begin to come to you.  Try not to judge it.  Simply trust it.  And I'm sure that you will be pleasantly surprised by the feedback you get from your friend.  Most likely they will be blown away by how perceptive you are, by the insights and wisdoms you were able to share and by the accuracy of the information that you were able to give.

So have some fun.  Let your consciousness align with that all knowing, all seeing part of you that is a part of us all.  Get out some tea, a little cup and saucer and put the water on to boil.  Enjoy.


© Josephine Laing, 2016