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Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy, tassology, or tasseology) is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments.
The terms derive from the French word tasse (cup), which in turn derives from the Arabic loan-word into French tassa, and the respective Greek language suffixes (writing), (divination), and -logy (study of).
Western tasseography can be linked to medieval European fortune tellers who developed their readings from splatters of wax, lead, and other molten substances, (2026). 9781438126845, Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438126845 which are related to many similar and established rituals in Asia such as pagtatawas.
According to different sources, coffee fortune-telling first appeared in the Ottoman Palaces in the 1500s. Arabic coffee is a coffee culture that later spread from Yemen to the rest of the Middle East, Ottoman Empire and the Balkans, and then to many parts of the world. Coffee started somewhere in the Arab world and West Asia. When they were bored, the concubines in the Ottoman harem used to drink coffee and tell each other fortunes to chat and gossip.
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.
Regarding interpretation of leaves, according to James Randi, "Leaves on the bottom, we're told, indicate the distant future, those on the rim the immediate future. Tea leaf stems represent persons. Fat stems are fat people, for example."
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."Your Future in a Cup of Coffee". Turkish Cultural Foundation. 2011. Web.
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 collectively for a prediction as well as acknowledging their individual meanings.
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.
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