Conference hydra::dejavu

    Hi Peter,
    
> Does anyone have any information on the current status of Tea Leaf reading
> in the Psychic world ? 

    Well, I don't know what's going on in the Psychic world :-) at the moment
    but my gran used to read tea-leaves. However, she's dead - so
    that probably doesn't help.

    My theory about tea-leaf readings is that they provide a kind of
    visual 'pink-noise' which allows the sub/unconcious parts of your
    mind to communicate more easily. In much the same way as you might
    use tortoiseshells, goats' entrails or crystal balls.

    Try phoning Watkin's bookshop, just off Charing Cross Road, they
    usually have something on any given topic.

    Tell us a bit more about why your asking perhaps.

    John D.

    ...that one mustn't stir the tea in the
    pot because that would be 'stirring up trouble'!

    John D.

    
    My mother has a special cup that my aunt gave to her for reading tea
    leaves.  It has a book that accompanied it, the cup has pictures inside
    and a four leaf clover on the bottom of the inside cup.   My mom used
    to read the cup for my ex-mother-in-law, but that was with Turkish
    coffee.  I believe that after you drink the tea/coffee, you invert the
    cup and turn it clockwise 3 times and allow it to settle for a few
    seconds, when you grasp it to read it you do so by the bottom of the 
    cup not the handle, the amount of drops of tea water that fall freely 
    indicate how many times you will be sad with in the time between
    readings.  Then you look into (this is if you use a plain cup) the
    cup sides for pictures to form the fortune of the drinker.
    
      I don't know how accurate this is, we used to drink tea and do this
    for fun, thought my kidney's would break with all the tea..
    
    Patti
    

Thanks for the replies, I was asking because it came up in conversation when
discussing the Tarot and someone said they remembered their mother (it seems
to be an art predominantly practiced by women) spent all her tea breaks
at work "reading the leaves" with other women. It was mostly looking for
pictures in the patterns left by the leaves (a sort of Rorschach I suppose).

I just wanted to know what had happened to a practice that was once popular
widespread (was it the advent of the tea-bag that finished it off). 

This special cup (.3) sounds great.

Peter

PS I wonder if "storm in a tea cup" and other such sayings are related.

    Re.4 (Burden)                          
    
    Hi Peter,
    
    Hm...'tempest in a tea cup' perhaps?
    
    Have no idea where it comes from though.  
    
    Cindy