HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy, tassology, or tasseology) is a
divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...
or
fortune-telling Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical w ...
method that interprets
pattern A pattern is a regularity in the world, in human-made design, or in abstract ideas. As such, the elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable manner. A geometric pattern is a kind of pattern formed of geometric shapes and typically repeated l ...
s in
tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of ''Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and north ...
leaves,
coffee grounds Coffee preparation is the process of turning coffee beans into a beverage. While the particular steps vary with the type of coffee and with the raw materials, the process includes four basic steps: raw coffee beans must be roasted, the roaste ...
, or wine sediments. The terms derive from the French word ''tasse'' (
cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...
), which in turn derives from the Arabic loan-word into French ''tassa'', and the respective
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
suffixes -graph (writing), -mancy (
divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...
), and
-logy ''-logy'' is a suffix in the English language, used with words originally adapted from Ancient Greek ending in ('). The earliest English examples were anglicizations of the French '' -logie'', which was in turn inherited from the Latin '' -log ...
(study of).


History

Tasseomancy followed the trade routes of tea and coffee and was practiced by both Baltic and Slavic nations. It is closely related to the Romani people, whose nomadic lifestyle contributed to the spread of the practice, though its exact origins are unknown. Throughout its history, different regions have practiced it with slight variations which indicates that this form of divination was an oral tradition. It is not considered a closed cultural practice, but oftentimes it is traditional to ask permission from a Romani elder as a sign of respect. Western tasseography can be linked to medieval European fortune tellers who developed their readings from splatters of
wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...
,
lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
, and other molten substances, which are related to many similar and established rituals in Asia such as
pagtatawas Pagtatawas is a divination ritual in pseudomedicine in Filipino Psychology (but considered superstition in Western psychology), carried out by the mangtatawas (literally "user of ''tawas''"). It attempts to diagnose an affliction or psychologica ...
. According to different sources, coffee fortune-telling first appeared in the Ottoman Palaces in the 1500s. Turkish coffee is a coffee culture that later spread to Bosnia, the Middle East and the Balkans, and then to many parts of the world. But coffee fortune telling is mostly a form of fortune-telling belonging to Turkish culture. When they were bored, the concubines in the harem used to drink Turkish coffee and tell each other fortunes to chat and gossip.


Method of tea-leaf reading

The ''Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology, Fifth Edition, Vol. 2'', edited by J. Gordon Melton, notes: Melton's described methods of pouring away the tea and shaking the cup are rarely seen; most readers ask the querent to drink the tea off, then swirl the cup.


Fortune telling tea cups

Although many people prefer a simple white cup for tea leaf reading, there are also traditions concerning the positional placement of the leaves in the cup, and some find it easier to work with marked cups. Beginning in the late 19th century and continuing to the present, English and American potteries have produced specially decorated cup and saucer sets for the use of tea-leaf readers. Many of these designs are patented and come with instructions explaining their mode of use. Some of the most common were those that were given away with purchases of bulk tea.


Coffee reading

Coffee reading (; fa, فال قهوه; tr, kahve falı; el, καφεμαντεία; sr, гледање у шољу) is traditionally practiced using
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
or
Turkish coffee Turkish coffee is a style of coffee prepared in a ''cezve'' using very finely ground coffee beans without filtering. Preparation Turkish coffee is very finely ground coffee brewed by boiling. Any coffee bean may be used; arabica varieties are c ...
, as they produce a very thick sediment. The coffee in the cup is consumed, and the sediment is left to settle. There are several variations of coffee reading. They commonly require for the cup to be covered with the saucer and turned upside-down. In the Turkish tradition, coffee-readers often interpret the cup as being divided into horizontal halves: symbols appearing on the bottom half are interpreted as messages regarding the past, and symbols on the top half are messages regarding the future. The cup may also be interpreted in vertical halves to determine "yes" or "no" answers as well as the overall outcome of the events represented by symbols. For example, some fortune tellers may "read" symbols in the "left" half as "negative" events or outcomes, while symbols in the "right" half are "read" as "positive". Other readers may adhere to the belief that the cup is capable of revealing insights about the past, but it cannot predict events beyond forty days into the future. The saucer may also be incorporated into the reading. As with the cup, different variations exist for what the saucer represents, including whether the saucer sticking to the cup indicates a "positive" or "negative" outcome.


Symbols

When a cup of tea or coffee has been drunk, a sediment often remains. This sediment can be known to form patterns or symbols within it, leaving a perfect canvas for interpretation. There are many possibilities of images appearing in a cup. Images formed in a cup are created and uniquely seen by the reader, so it is often said that the only limitation for cup reading is the imagination of the reader themselves. Symbols can be many things, including physical objects and abstract concepts. Often, the reader will interpret symbols together for a prediction as well as acknowledging their individual meanings. Symbol interpretation can be drawn from history, statistics, pop culture references, and often nature or how we interact with the world. There are also many classic image interpretations that were developed in Great Britain in the late 1800s as tasseomancy gained popularity as a parlour game.


In popular culture

*''
Qari'at al-Finjan Qari'at al-Finjan (; "''The Fortune Teller''") is a poem written by Nizar Qabbani and performed by Abdel Halim Hafez. He sang it for the first time in April 1976. The song is considered to be one of the classic Arabic songs, and one of the most ...
'' (قارئة الفنجان), a classic Arabic song *In the ''
Harry Potter ''Harry Potter'' is a series of seven fantasy literature, fantasy novels written by British author J. K. Rowling. The novels chronicle the lives of a young Magician (fantasy), wizard, Harry Potter (character), Harry Potter, and his friends ...
'' books written by
J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...
, the divination teacher Sybill Trelawney practices tasseography with tea leaves


See also

*
Pareidolia Pareidolia (; ) is the tendency for perception to impose a meaningful interpretation on a nebulous stimulus, usually visual, so that one sees an object, pattern, or meaning where there is none. Common examples are perceived images of animals, ...
*
Rorschach test The Rorschach test is a projective psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both. Some psychologists use this test to examine a pe ...


Notes


References

*Fenton, Sasha ''Tea Cup Reading: A Quick and Easy Guide to Tasseography.'' Red Wheel / Weiser, 2002 *Fontana, Marjorie A. ''Cup of Fortune: A Guide to Tea Leaf Reading.'' Wis.: Fantastic, 1979. *Kent, Cicely. ''Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves''. 1922 *Posey, Sandra Mizumoto. ''Cafe Nation: Coffee Folklore, Magick, and Divination.'' Santa Monica: Santa Monica Press, 2000. *Sheridan, Jo. ''Teacup Fortune-telling.'' London: Mayflower, 1978 *Yaman, Beytullah. ''The Art of Turkish Coffee Brewing.'' Ankara: Bilkent University Press, 1987 *O'Reilly, Annie. ''Tea with Annie, a divinitive guide to Tasseomancy and its artistry''. Melbourne: Whiteslaw Press, 2014. *O'Reilly, Roxy. ''The Lady of the Cup''. Perth, Quality Press, 2009.


External links


Turkish Coffee-Fortune Telling - Meaning of Figures and Symbols
* *
Tea-Cup Reading, and the Art of Fortune-Telling by Tea Leaves
', by 'A Highland Seer', from
Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tasseography Divination Magic (supernatural)