Reading Tea Leaves Guide
By Cicely Kent

This tea book is a perfect companion to anyone who wants to read tea leaves for amusement. Unlike cards, tea leaves are open to interpretation. The dictionary and diagrams are easy to use. Very easy to do, and it certainly is a good tea party idea.

Fortune telling is not new to me. As a young man, I meddled with astrology, Tarot cards, I Ching, and palm reading.

Why wouldn't a young man want to know what the future holds? As I grow older, the head gets wiser, and I learn to channel my energy and fear more constructively. My teacher taught me "to help all other sentient beings" and trust this will work out for the best of all.

(By the way, the only divination method my teacher advocates is the I Ching or the ancient Book of Changes, as each symbol indicates a state of transition, which passes beyond what our fragile mind frequently mistakes as "good" and "bad".)

Reading tea leaves is less often used in Asia, where palm reading, astrology, divination sticks, and I Ching are more common. This must be the first guide to reading tea leaves I have ever come across, and Cicely Kent wrote it in 1922. 

Telling Fortunes by Tea Leaves is well written. Here is how Cicely introduced the art of reading tea leaves:

"Tea-leaves are habitually used by many people as a means of divination. To some it is an easier method than the cards (there is less to memorise) or the crystal."

"It is a very favourite method with the Highlanders, where it is customary for the "guid wife" to read in her cup of tea at breakfast the events she may look for during the day."

"Simple though they may probably be, there are to be seen in the tea-leaves, a letter, a parcel, a visitor, a wedding, and so on. It is said that no Highland seer would take money for making prognostications as to the future. This, no doubt, is one good reason for their powers as clairvoyants."

What is needed? According to Cicely, a wide, shallow cup that is white in colour works best:

"Indian tea and the cheaper mixtures, which contain so much dust and twigs are of no use for reading a fortune, as they cannot form into pictures and symbols that can easily be distinguished."

"Those who desire to have their tea-leaves interpreted should leave about a teaspoonful of tea at the bottom of the cup. It should then be taken in the left hand, and turned three times from left with a quick swing. Then very gently, slowly, and with care, turn it upside down over the saucer, leaving it there for a minute, so that all the moisture may drain away."

"At first sight the interior of the cup will show the leaves scattered about apparently haphazard and with no arrangement; just a jumble of tea-leaves and nothing more."

"In reality they have come to their positions and have taken on the shapes of the symbols for which they stand, by the guidance of the subconscious mind directing the hand in the turning of the cup."

"The seer has to find in the forms of the tea-leaves a resemblance, sometimes it may be but a faint one, to natural objects, e.g., trees, houses, flowers, bridges, and so forth. Figures of human beings and animals will frequently be seen, as will squares, triangles, circles, and also the line of fate."

Finally, here are some common patterns to watch out for:

"Among those which threaten misfortune, or sorrow, are the following: Crosses, snakes, spades, pistols, guns, toads, cats."

"Joy and success are indicated by such symbols as a crescent moon, clover leaves, flowers, trees, anchors, fruit, circles, stars."

The problem is: how I can tell? I can see pretty much anything I want. Now, let me see what I can see in my cup today...

PS: Currently selling at Amazon for $14.95, a download of the original edition of Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves is now available FREE for newsletter subscribers. Offer available ONLY for a limited period of time.

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