United Kingdom · Ireland
Tea Leaf Reading — Tasseography
The Victorian parlour art of finding omens in the leaves at the bottom of a teacup.
When a cup of loose-leaf tea is drunk and swirled, the scattered leaves settle into shapes. Tasseography reads them clockwise from the handle: symbols near the rim speak of the present, those at the bottom of the further future.
Flourishing in Victorian Britain and Ireland, tea-leaf reading travelled with emigrants across the world. An anchor promises stability, a bird brings news — and every cup is a small, warm ceremony.