Madame G's Tea Room 
The Virtual Teacup
Above you see a sample teacup with the wet leaves forming symbolic shapes. Carl Jung believed that symbology was the key to our unconscious, and that every culture and ethnic group had an innate sense of imagery.
In the cup on the left above, we see a man's shoe at the 2 month position, a dog and a bird at the 6 months area and an airplane at 10 months' time. One could interpret this as a man's job bringing in more money in 2 months, a visit from a dear friend in 6 months, and a trip in 10 months. The idea here is to use a meaning for the images that has emotional impact for you. There is no right or wrong answer ! Try to develop a personal "dictionary" of images that are meaningful to you when you read tealeaves.
The cup on the right illustrates a general type of reading in which the cup indicates events close to home (at handle), events leaving you (to left of handle) and events coming up (to right of handle). Here we see an ice skate to the left, indicating a change of season soon and an end to winter sports. Coming to you is a fun ocean voyage (butterfly + cruise ship) with lots of photos (camera) ! But first you have some housecleaning (broom) to
do.
NOTE: please use loose tea, and brew it for 2-5 min. in a teapot without a strainer. Heat the water to just boiling before use.
A Brief History of Tea
Reading tea leaves…
The very phrase stirs up images of a bejeweled gypsy honing her craft, or perhaps of a kindly old grandmother pouring a spot of tea for guests in her cozy front parlor:
Matrons, who toss the cup and see
The grounds of fate in grounds of tea…
The bitter dregs of fortune’s cup to drain.
- Alexander Pope
This mysterious art most likely had its origins in the Middle East and the Orient, when camel caravans of spices and silks carried exotic wares between China and the Mediterranean. Trade routes began to appear in the third century A.D. in order to procure horses for the Han Dynasty, which extended from China to the Arabian Sea.
The earliest record of tea appeared in China, circa 350 B.C. By the time of the Sung Dynasty (960-1279 A.D.), tea was being fashioned into portable bricks of currency, prized among merchants and rulers alike. In 1600 A.D., England grabnted the Dutch East India Company a monopoly, and "chai" first began to arrive in Europe in 1610. The tea was imported from Java, where Dutch tea brokers bought it from Chinese merchants. When the tea was first introduced into Europe, it was an expensive beverage reserved for the wealthy. Tea was such a prized commodity in those days that it was kept locked up in beautiful wooden tea caddies or in cabinets ! By the 1700’s, tea had become a very popular beverage of the British Isles. We all know the story of the Boston Tea Party of 1773, when patriots disguised as Native Americans tossed a cargo of tea into the Boston harbor, rather than be subjected to the English tax on tea.
As a fortune telling art, reading tea leaves seems simple enough, yet it is surprisingly complex. Anyone can gaze into a messy jumble of leaves and attempt to divine a meaning, but like the Greek Oracle, a woman’s intuition is perhaps best suited to the task. A true reader must be able to translate her client’s fate, and the leaves never lie ! Psychologists believe we may possess an innate sense of symbolism, but I believe there is more to it than that. The questioner’s energy literally infuses the cup, and a skilled reader can interpret the patterns with astounding accuracy.
I invite you now to enter into my Tea Room ! Allow me to entertain and educate you as I bring you stories, bits of psychic lore, links to interesting sites, and, of course, your own personalized tea leaf readings should you desire them. I encourage your questions and comments as we embark on this mysterious adventure.
Madame G bids you Welcome !
