One of the most ancient ways in which the future can be read is my means of the tea cup. Long ago, wise men believed that bells were powerful for the working of charms, and they fell into the habit of looking into their bells, seeking marks there which might give them guidance.

Years later, and yet at a period when this old world of ours was young, the chinese sages realized that teacups were really bells inverted and they saw that the leaves which remained in the cups after the tea had been drunk made certain patterns and shapes in which they read what they wished to know. Thus gradually these wise men of old formed what i may call a regular alphabet, they noted and they worked out theories, they watched developments and so gradually what I call the language of teacups was evolved. I suppose I need hardly tell you tat through tea drinking is quite a modern habit in England, or indeed anywhere in Europe, being less than two hundred years old, in China, tea has been drunk as the national beverage for ages. Tea was drunk and the meanings of the leaves left in the cups were read many centuries before our Christian era.

The Best Shaped Cup To Use
It is far better to use a true tea cup for your purpose, not that of a shape intended for a coffee cup. The real tea cup is quite shallow and wide at the mouth; the coffee cup is upright and about the same size all the way down. I don't mean that no coffee cup can be used at all, a cup of any shape will do as a makeshift but it is much more difficult to read the leaves unless you have a wide, shallow cup to hold them. And above all avoid one of the fluted china. It is almost impossible for anyone including an expert to make anything out of the leaves in such a cup.

How To Start The Reading
When going to have the tea leaves read or to read them you drink all the tea in the cup except about a teaspoonful with is left in the bottom. That done take the cup in the left hand that is important, and turn it three times to the left with a swinging movement, so as to make the few drops of tea remaining swing around in the cup; then turn it upside down not quickly, but slowly and with car so as not to displace the leaves more than you can help, and place it in a saucer to drain.
Leave it thus for a minute or so, then take it up and hand it to the seer if someone else is going to read the leaves for you. If you wish to read them for your self, sit down quietly holding the cup in your hand and look long and earnestly at the leaves striving to make forms and figures out of the patterns they have left.

Which Leaves To Read First
It is better to start looking at the leaves with are near the rim and close to the handle then very slowly work right round the cup. The handle represents yourself or the person whose fortune is being told, or the house in which you are. The leaves near the rim tell of what is going to happen quickly, those half way down the sides denote events that will occur in a week or two, those at the bottom stand for the distant future.

If you can see nothing
Do not feel disheartened if at first you cannot make anything out of the leaves; with practice you will be able to distinguish many symbols that would have escaped your untrained eye.

Lines Formed By Tea Dust
Or the small tea leaves stand for journeys; while if the line is wavy in its outline it means there will be some doubt or trouble concerning a journey. Crosses near the line indicate vexation also.

To Know If You Will Get Your Wish
Some people use the teacup reading only as a means of finding out if they will get a certain wish. If the this case that wish should be strongly in the mind while the tea is being drunk and the cup whiled around. When it is taken up from the saucer after draining keep the mind absolutely on the wish still. The less your mind is distracted the better chance of decisive answer you will have.

How Often Should The Leaves Be Read?
Another question I am often asked is, How often should I read the tea leaves?
Now in the highlands it is quite common for many women to make practice of reading the cups every morning at breakfast and though I never advice such a frequent consulting of the oracle, no harm seems to come of it in these cases. But when people fall into the habit of consulting the teacups or any other medium three or four times a day, why will never get any satisfactory result only a mass of contradictions. Now when you have read those rules and are examining the cup, search for any of the following symbols and their meanings will be clear

Reading Coffee Grounds Instead of Tea
You can prepare coffee grounds for a reading in the same way as you prepare tea leaves, leaving same amout as you would tea in the bottom of the cup. The principles are exactly the same.

 

Find out what the symbols mean here (For example A for Angel)

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