Tea-cup Reading and Fortune-telling

This lively guide presents tea-cup reading as a practical, domestic art rooted in Scottish folk tradition, one that ordinary people can learn for themselves. Rather than relying on paid fortune-tellers, it praises the humble Highland spae-wife and insists that true insight comes from honest, personal observation. Tea-leaf divination is framed as a short-range, horary practice best suited to immediate concerns, yet capable of surprising accuracy when handled with care, intuition, and the right materials: China tea and a plain white cup with a wide mouth. The book explains the ritual of turning and draining the cup, using the handle as a fixed point from which to read home, travel, and the near future. It offers a philosophical defense of divination, suggesting that future events grow from past causes and can be traced in symbolic form. Readers are taught to recognize animals, birds, crowns, letters, numbers, and geometric shapes, then to balance lucky and unlucky signs much like an astrologer weighs planetary influences. Through specimen cups and detailed examples, the book trains readers to decode omens of love, marriage, money, inheritance, danger, journeys, promotion, and everyday fortune. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.