A Brief History of Tasseography

Tasseography or tasseomancy as it is sometimes known is a form of divination.  There are various ideas as to where it originated.  Some believe the art goes back to ancient Greece, where they consulted the patterns wine sediment made when thrown into a metal bowl.  Others argue that the practise started in China where tea believed to have been used as early as 3000BC.

The secrets of its cultivation and insight spread from China to India and Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.  It was from there that the Romany gypsies brought the art to Europe.

Tea did not arrive in England until the mid-1600’s and was very expensive.  However the art of divination was practised much earlier with the dregs from wine and herbal remedies.

The art of tealeaf reading is a very old form of augury, or telling fortures by the symblos seen in objects.  These symbols are then interperated by the reader and their meaning discussed.