The future in a coffe cup - 23-06-2009

The origins of coffee cup readings stem from the ancient Chinese art of tealeaves reading practised for centuries; originally by monks who ceremonially drank tea in bell shaped cups. Before that, it is thoughts that monks used to read patterns formed on the internal part of bells in temples, so the handle-less teacup was a logical progression.

This was later adapted to coffee grounds reading by the Arabs, who first discovered coffee beans around 600 AD and managed to keep coffee as a secret, having a monopoly on cultivating and drinking coffee for several hundred years. Coffee made its way and became known or used as a beverage in Western Europe and the Americas, only in the late 18th century.

Both tealeaves and coffee cup readings are known as Tasseography, or tasseomancy (kafemandeia in Greek). It is important to mention here, for the reading to be meaningful, or indeed accurate; you are to sip or drink the coffee while relaxing, sort of in a contemplative mode. Тhe intention or the emotional and mental condition of the drinker affects how, and what symbols the coffee grains shape.

If a coffee cup that is drunk in a hurry, without the intention of having it read, or while not in a relaxed state, it can't be read. The grains do not appear to form any meaningful patterns - merely chaotic brown dots or mud in a cup.

'The great coffee wave' created a number of ancillary trades. "Cup-women" entered the scene - anyone in search of wisdom would come to consult one of these women with a small bag of roasted beans. The art of reading coffee cups appeared in various literature of the time. "We have a sort of Mother Witch . . which are the Coffee and Tea Throwers to tell People's fortunes"- From Round About Our Coal-Fire, 1731.

Coffee cup fortune telling became very popular - and notorious - with official notifications to ban the activity. The first such fortune-tellers started their trade in Paris, and subsequently set up business in Germany. So much so, that in 1732, Johann Sevastian Bach composed his Kaffee-Kantate.

Partly an ode to coffee and partly a stab at the movement in Germany to prevent women from drinking coffee (it was thought to make them sterile), the cantata includes the aria, "Ah! How sweet coffee taste! Lovelier than a thousand kisses, sweeter far than muscatel wine! I must have my coffee." In 1742 a pamphlet appeared in Leipzig entitled "The prophetess of the coffee cup with observations by G.G.B.", and a decade later in Hungary "The Oraculum- Geomaticum or the art and wisdom on seeing Fate in coffee and all other infusions".