   tasseography (also known as tasseomancy or tassology) is a divination or fortune-telling method that interprets patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds, or wine sediments. the terms derive from the french word tasse (cup), which in turn derives from the cognate arabic word tassa, and the greek suffixes -graph (writing), -logy (study of), and -mancy (divination). divination attempts to gain insight into the natural world through intuitive interpretation of synchronistic events. ==history== the first inklings of western tasseography can be traced to medieval european fortune tellers who developed their readings from splatters of wax, lead, and other molten substances. this evolved into tea-leaf reading in the seventeenth century, a short time after dutch merchants introduced tea to europe via trade routes to china.guiley, rosemary. "tasseomancy." the encyclopedia of witches, witchcraft, and wicca. 3rd ed. n.p.: infobase publishing, 2008. 341. print. scotland, ireland, wales and england have produced a number of practitioners and authors on the subject, and english potteries have crafted many elaborate tea cup sets specially designed and decorated to aid in fortune-telling. cultures of the middle east that practice divination in this fashion usually use left-over coffee grounds from turkish coffee/lebanese coffee/greek coffee turned over onto a plate. ==method of tea-leaf reading== thumb|an example of a tea leaf reading showing a dog and a bird on the side of the cup. the encyclopedia of occultism & parapsychology, fifth edition, vol. 2, edited by j. gordon melton, notes:  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. likewise, his noti
Divination Magic_(paranormal)