{"id":9708,"date":"2014-04-01T01:10:14","date_gmt":"2014-04-01T06:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=10038"},"modified":"2014-03-23T18:49:53","modified_gmt":"2014-03-23T23:49:53","slug":"seeing-the-signs-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2014\/04\/01\/seeing-the-signs-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Seeing the Signs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Tea Leaves<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My grandmother, my mother\u2019s mother, read tea leaves. \u00a0She was a devout Roman Catholic, but she knew all kinds of ways of telling the future, from tasseography to nature\u2019s omens to playing cards. \u00a0Gramma was also a wealth of common-sense sayings.<\/p>\n

Tea-leaf reading was a kitchen event; a woman activity. \u00a0She would make a pot of tea, and pour out cups for each of us and tell us each to think of a question \u2013 something that we might have been praying for. \u00a0She explained that the tea leaves often told us what Jesus and Mary and the holy saints had in store for us. \u00a0She said to sip carefully, so as not to drink the tea leaves down. \u00a0I was always drinking my tea leaves when I was little. \u00a0I still do. \u00a0I often don\u2019t have enough leaves to tell me what I need to know. \u00a0But maybe that\u2019s what the way it\u2019s supposed to be.<\/p>\n

I have both my grandmother\u2019s collections of tea cups, as well as two lovely tea pots, but they have been packed away in the attic for several years. \u00a0One of these days, I\u2019m going to buy a china cabinet so I can display these beautiful heirlooms. \u00a0I would love to be able to use the mauve tea pot to brew tea and use one of the delicate cups in a tasseography ritual.<\/p>\n

Generally, though, I use my everyday apple mug and a matching saucer. \u00a0As a solitary practitioner, I wouldn\u2019t make an entire pot of tea even if I had a tea pot at my disposal. \u00a0I used to use a tea bag with a hole cut in the bottom to allow the tea leaves to float free, but \u00a0the website tasseography.com (http:\/\/www.tasseography.com\/stepone.htm<\/a>) has a better idea. \u00a0They suggest pouring boiling water into your cup and then pouring the tea leaves from your tea bag into the cup. \u00a0I use a spoon to stir the leaves, and I chant a chant which reflects what I want to learn. \u00a0Then I sit and sip and meditate on what the answer might be.<\/p>\n

I have a handy little book called The Fortune-Telling Book, by Gillian Kemp, which has a chapter on tasseography. \u00a0It has a small section of meanings, which is fine as far as it goes. \u00a0There is also<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.tasseography.com\/stepone.htm<\/a>, as well as hundreds of other internet sites to explore. \u00a0The main thing to consider is what the pattern of the tea leaves mean to you.<\/p>\n

You may see one pattern or picture, or you may see several patterns. \u00a0The last two times I consulted the tea leaves, I saw the pattern of a bearded man quite distinctly. \u00a0Like all divination systems, the more you do it, the better you get at it. \u00a0So go brew some tea and see what the leaves have to say to you!<\/p>\n

Blessings!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Tea Leaves   My grandmother, my mother\u2019s mother, read tea leaves. \u00a0She was a devout Roman Catholic, but she knew all kinds of ways of telling the future, from tasseography to nature\u2019s omens to playing cards. \u00a0Gramma was also a wealth of common-sense sayings. Tea-leaf reading was a kitchen event; a woman activity. \u00a0She would make a pot of tea, and pour out cups for each of us and tell us each to think of a question \u2013 something that we might have been praying for. \u00a0She explained that the tea leaves often told us what Jesus and Mary and the holy saints had in store for us. \u00a0She said to sip carefully, so as not to drink the tea leaves down. \u00a0I was always drinking my tea leaves when I was little. \u00a0I still do. \u00a0I often don\u2019t have enough leaves to tell me what I need to know. \u00a0But maybe that\u2019s what the way it\u2019s supposed to be. I have both my grandmother\u2019s collections of tea cups, as well as two lovely tea pots, but they have been packed away in the attic for several years. \u00a0One of these days, I\u2019m going to buy a china cabinet so I can display these beautiful heirlooms. \u00a0I would love to be able to use the mauve tea pot to brew tea and use one of the delicate cups in a tasseography ritual. Generally, though, I use my everyday apple mug and a matching saucer. \u00a0As a solitary practitioner, I wouldn\u2019t make an entire pot of tea even if I had a tea pot at my disposal. \u00a0I used to use a tea bag with a hole cut in the bottom to allow the tea leaves to float free, but \u00a0the website tasseography.com (http:\/\/www.tasseography.com\/stepone.htm) has a better idea. \u00a0They suggest pouring boiling water into your cup and then pouring the tea leaves from your tea bag into the cup. \u00a0I use a spoon to stir the leaves, and I chant a chant which reflects what I want to learn. \u00a0Then I sit and sip and meditate on what the answer might be. I have a handy little book called The Fortune-Telling Book, by Gillian Kemp, which has a chapter on tasseography. \u00a0It has a small section of meanings, which is fine as far as it goes. \u00a0There is also http:\/\/www.tasseography.com\/stepone.htm, as well as hundreds of other internet sites to explore. \u00a0The main thing to consider is what the pattern of the tea leaves mean to you. You may see one pattern or picture, or you may see several patterns. \u00a0The last two times I consulted the tea leaves, I saw the pattern of a bearded man quite distinctly. \u00a0Like all divination systems, the more you do it, the better you get at it. \u00a0So go brew some tea and see what the leaves have to say to you! Blessings!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9708\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}