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Audiobook edition · 3 h 13 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What story might you find in the leaves at the bottom of your teacup?
In Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves, Cicely Kent introduces tasseography: the traditional home art of reading the shapes left after tea. This small practical guide takes you from preparing a cup to interpreting its patterns, turning a familiar kitchen-table moment into a parlour pastime with a past.
The cup becomes a kind of calendar within this tradition. Its rim points to the present, its sides to the weeks and months ahead, and its bottom to the far future. Animals, letters, lines and everyday objects become symbols through which the reader tells a story about the drinker.
What you’ll discover
- Begin with the cup Explore how a plain, light interior helps make the scattered leaves easier to see.
- A small tea ceremony Follow the practice of swirling, turning and draining the cup before looking for shapes.
- Time inside a teacup Learn how the tradition assigns different stretches of time to different parts of the cup.
- A language of shapes Discover symbols linked to luck, travel, love, money and news in the leaves.
- From patterns to stories See how separate signs become a short reading about the person who drinks.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy folklore, fortune-telling traditions and the spiritual fashions of the early twentieth century will find plenty here. It also suits hosts who like a lively parlour pastime.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Tea leaves offer a symbolic language
- Prepare the cup with a quiet mind
- Position gives each sign its timing
- Read shapes together rather than alone
- Keep meanings steady and speak carefully
- Kent extends readings to public events
- The dictionary turns signs into messages
- Example cups put the rules to work
- The method joins observation with consistency
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Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves
by Cicely Kent · 1922
A pickaxe in a teacup warns of a coal strike, and the cup handle stands for the person asking.
ChallengingUnder 2 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Picture a Highland housewife at breakfast, tipping her teacup to see what the day will bring. A letter, a parcel, a visitor, perhaps a wedding.
Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 45 min1 h 25 min fast, 2 h 5 min slow
- Length
- 25,200 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1922by Cicely Kent
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Tea leaves give everyone a simple way to divine
Kent opens by saying that the search for knowledge about psychic matters is stronger than ever. People want hidden things shown in symbols and pictures, and tea leaves are one way to do it. She argues that the medium matters little if the reader understands the language of symbols.
Her case for tea is practical. The leaves are simple, cheap and open to everyone. She admits the practice is not ancient, since tea reached Europe only around the middle of the sixteenth century.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1922
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 5 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Kent, Cicely. Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/telling-fortunes-by-tea-leaves.
Kent, C. (2026). Telling fortunes by tea leaves. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/telling-fortunes-by-tea-leaves (Original work published 1922)
Kent, Cicely. Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/telling-fortunes-by-tea-leaves.
@book{kent2026telling,
author = {Kent, Cicely},
title = {Telling Fortunes By Tea Leaves},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/telling-fortunes-by-tea-leaves},
note = {First published 1922}
}
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What is Telling Fortunes by Tea Leaves about?
It is a practical handbook by Cicely Kent on reading the future in the leaves left in a teacup. It covers the method, the meaning of position, a dictionary of symbols, sample readings, and twenty example cups.
What do the handle and the rim of the cup mean in tea leaf reading?
Kent says the handle stands for the person asking and their home. Leaves near the rim point to events soon to come, the sides to those further off, and the bottom to the distant future.
What kind of cup and tea does Cicely Kent recommend?
She recommends a wide, shallow, white cup with a plain, smooth surface and no pattern. She prefers a good tea and advises against cheap blends full of dust and twigs, since they form no clear shapes.
The author
Cicely Kent
Writer on fortune-telling
Cicely Kent wrote this handbook in Britain in the years just after 1920. Beyond this book, little is set down here, but its pages show a writer deeply involved in the fortune-telling interests of her day, familiar with cards, crystal gazing, and the Nelros cup, and keen to teach readers through plain instruction and sample readings.
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