Scrying and reading tea leaves

In this lesson: how to scry in water or a mirror, what John Dee used, how tea leaf reading works and how to stay safe while you gaze.

Scrying and tea leaf reading are both ways of looking until you see. They ask nothing of you except attention, and they work with things you probably already have in the kitchen. They also teach the core skill of all divination: noticing what your mind does with an unclear image.

Scrying

To scry is to gaze into a reflective or clear surface, such as still water, a black mirror or a crystal ball, until images or impressions arise. The most famous scryers in history are the Elizabethan scholar John Dee and his partner Edward Kelley, who in the 1580s held long sessions in which Kelley gazed into a “shew-stone” and reported angelic visions while Dee wrote them down.

The historian Deborah Harkness studies these records in John Dee’s Conversations with Angels. A polished obsidian mirror, made in Mexico before the Spanish conquest and later linked with Dee, is now in the British Museum.

You do not need an Aztec mirror. A dark bowl of water in a dim room works well. Soft focus is the trick: look at the surface, not at your own reflection, and let your eyes relax. Most people see shifting light, clouds or faint shapes at first. Those shapes are your mind making patterns, and that is exactly the material you read.

Famous scryers in history

Historical The most famous scryers in English history are John Dee (1527 to 1608), mathematician and adviser to Elizabeth I, and his partner Edward Kelley. From 1582 they held sessions in which Kelley gazed into a crystal or mirror and reported messages from angels, which Dee wrote down. Dee’s polished obsidian mirror, made in Mexico by the Aztecs and brought to Europe after the Spanish conquest, is now in the British Museum, along with his crystal ball and wax seals. Recent analysis has confirmed that the mirror’s obsidian came from Mexico.

Historical Scrying also appears in other cultures. Ancient Greek writers mention lecanomancy, divination by gazing into a bowl of water or oil. The French physician and seer Nostradamus (1503 to 1566) describes in his Prophecies sitting alone at night with a brass bowl of water on a tripod. Whether he actually scried that way or wrote it as a poetic introduction is debated.

Tea leaves and coffee grounds

Historical Tea became popular in Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and reading the leaves left in a cup, tasseography, followed. Popular books on it appeared in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as Tea-Cup Reading and Fortune-Telling by Tea Leaves, by a Highland Seer (published in the early twentieth century). In Turkey, Greece and the Middle East, reading coffee grounds, kahve falı in Turkish, is a well-known social custom. Turkish coffee culture and tradition, including its role in conversation and fortune-telling, was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage in 2013.

Why images appear

Modern Seeing shapes in random patterns is called pareidolia, the same effect that makes us see faces in clouds or electrical sockets. Staring at a dim reflective surface can also produce visual effects; in a 2010 study, the Italian psychologist Giovanni Caputo reported that people gazing at their own reflection in dim light for ten minutes often saw their face distort. These effects explain why scrying produces images. As with the pendulum, you can treat what you see as a mirror for your own thoughts.

A worked tea leaf reading. Brew loose-leaf tea in a cup without a strainer. Drink it, leaving a little liquid. Swirl the cup three times and turn it upside down on a saucer. Turn it back and look. Suppose you see a shape like a bird near the rim. Many traditional guides read birds as good news and the rim as the near future. You might also simply ask: what does a bird mean to me right now? Write both.

Tea leaves

Reading the shapes left by tea leaves or coffee grounds is called tasseography. It became a popular parlour pastime in Britain and North America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and coffee cup reading has a long living tradition in Turkey, Greece and the Middle East. You drink a cup of loose-leaf tea, leaving a little liquid, swirl it three times, turn the cup upside down on the saucer and then read the shapes clinging to the sides. Shapes near the rim are often read as sooner, shapes near the bottom as later.

A first water scrying session, worked through

Here is a gentle first session. Fill a dark bowl with water and place it on a table. Dim the lights, and set one candle or a small lamp behind you or to one side, so its light does not reflect directly in the water. Sit comfortably, take a few slow breaths, and decide on a simple, open question, such as “What do I need to pay attention to this month?”

Look softly at the surface of the water, not trying to see anything in particular. Blink when you need to. After a few minutes many people notice the surface seem to shift, darken or form vague shapes. Others see nothing but water. Both are fine. Set a timer for ten minutes and stop when it rings.

Afterwards, write down everything you noticed: shapes, colours, memories, feelings, words that came to mind. One learner wrote: “Saw nothing for five minutes. Then a shape like a curved road. Thought about the walk to my grandmother’s house. Felt I should call my aunt.” She called her aunt the next day and had a long, warm conversation. Whether the image came from the water or from her own mind, it led somewhere kind.

Making a simple black mirror

A black mirror is a classic scrying tool, and you can make one in an afternoon. Take a cheap picture frame with a glass front. Remove the glass, clean it, and paint one side with two or three coats of black acrylic paint. When it is dry, put it back in the frame, painted side inwards, so you look at the smooth glossy side. Use it in the same way as the water bowl: low light, soft gaze, a time limit and notes afterwards.

Coffee cup reading

Historical In Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and across the Middle East, reading coffee grounds is a living social tradition. After drinking a small cup of thick, unfiltered coffee, the drinker turns the cup upside down on its saucer and waits for it to cool. A friend or relative then reads the patterns left on the inside, often with much laughter and storytelling. It is usually a sociable pastime among friends, and a reminder that divination has often been a way of spending time together as much as a way of seeing the future.

Questions beginners ask

What should I scry with? A bowl of water with a dark bottom, a black mirror, a candle flame or a crystal. Dim light helps.

I see nothing. What now? That is common. Try for five minutes at a time and notice any feelings or words that arise instead.

Is scrying dangerous? For most people, no. If you have a history of hallucinations or dissociation, avoid long gazing sessions.

Myths to drop: Crystal balls are not ancient Celtic tools. Seeing images does not prove contact with spirits. And tea leaves do not require special “fortune-telling cups”, though they are fun.

A worked example

Imagine you finish your tea and see a clump near the rim that looks like a bird, and a long line running down towards the bottom. Before deciding what a bird “means”, ask yourself what birds mean to you. Perhaps news, or freedom. The line might be a road. So the cup says: news soon, and a longer journey later. Write down the shapes first and your meanings second, so you can tell them apart when you look back.

Try this

Fill a dark bowl with water, dim the lights and gaze softly for five minutes. Then make a cup of loose-leaf tea, drink it, swirl and turn the cup. In both cases write every shape you notice before you interpret any of them. Compare the two lists: does your mind return to the same images?

Journal prompts: What did I see, feel or think during scrying? What do the shapes in my cup mean to me personally? How did my mood affect what I saw?

A beginner’s worry, answered. “I saw something disturbing in the water.” Stop, turn on the lights, and look around the room. Images in scrying come from the same imagination that makes dreams, so they can reflect worries as well as hopes. Write down what you saw and how you feel, and if it stays with you, talk it over with someone you trust. You can return to scrying another day, or choose a different method.

A variation with a candle flame. Some people prefer to gaze softly at a candle flame instead of water or glass. Place the candle at arm’s length, a little below eye level, on a stable heatproof surface. Look for five minutes, then close your eyes and notice the afterimage and any thoughts that come. Never leave the flame unattended, and stop if your eyes feel strained.

Recap

Scrying means gazing into a surface until images arise, and John Dee and Edward Kelley’s sessions of the 1580s are its most famous historical example. Tasseography reads the shapes left by tea leaves or coffee grounds. In both, you read the patterns your own mind makes, so writing shapes before meanings keeps you honest. Keep sessions short and stop if you feel unwell.

What next

See my candle safety guide before you light anything, and my grounding and centering practice for after a session. The divination overview compares all the methods. Next lesson: ethics, and the journal that makes all of this useful.

Further reading: The British Museum’s online collection has pages on Dr Dee’s mirror and crystal. Giovanni B. Caputo, “Strange-face-in-the-mirror illusion”, Perception 39 (2010).

Sources

• The British Museum, Dr Dee’s mirror (museum number 1966,1001.1) (collection online record).
• Deborah E. Harkness, John Dee’s Conversations with Angels (Cambridge University Press, 1999).
• J. Gordon Melton (ed.), Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology (5th edition, Gale, 2001).

Go deeper: the tarot and runes pages on this site

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