Divination and prediction of the future are based on the patterns of tea leaves left at the bottom of the cup, which was most popular in the Victorian era. At that time, people's analysis of mysterious forces and self-awareness was almost obsessed.
For ancient ancestors, divination of the future was a major event in life, and for centuries fortune tellers have sought answers from the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup.
Amy Taylor mistakenly walked into the ranks of "tea whisperers" when she was 18 years old, and now at the age of 46, she still clearly remembers the scene of that year. It was in a restaurant in Toronto, and she accidentally glanced at the tea leaves left in her step-sister's teacup, and couldn't help but exclaim, "Look, this is like a tree!" Then she took the family's teacup and looked at it carefully, and found that each pattern was different. She thought it was amazing.
Driven by curiosity, Taylor travels in search of "cup bottom pattern interpreters" and learns the mysteries of it in his discussions with them. Now she has her own "Tea Culture and Tea Whisperers" studio in Hamilton, Ontario. There, she also holds related ceremonies and gatherings. Taylor said: "I have also studied some other ways of divination, and only tea language can understand me. ”
The so-called reading of "tea language" is to observe the tea leaves that have been brewed and poured, and to predict the future through these accidentally formed patterns. Some fortune tellers also interpret minced coffee and red wine dregs, which for them are the codes that remain at the bottom of the cup.
When tea first spread to England in the 17th century, it was the exclusive domain of the nobility. Later, with the expansion of trade volume, the price fell, and it eventually became the drink of the people. This tea from the East, with its innate mysterious atmosphere, quickly replaced other dangerous or bulky divination objects (molten iron, hot wax oil, priestly animal offal) and became the new favorite of the grassroots.
The Tea Whisperers have their own textbook, an 18th-century English edition that lists interpretations of different tea patterns— ancient prophecies passed down from generation to generation by the Scots. The British historian Alec Gill wrote in his documentary: "In the north-east of England in the 19th century, noble ladies in manors swayed delicate teacups after breakfast, telling the maids the magic of tea language. ”
Gill also has his own unique insights into tea language. Shake the teacup counterclockwise with your left hand, the tea and tea swirl in the cup, the tea splashes out of the cup and falls into the tea toner... The fortune tellers—usually the wise men of the village—thus begin divination. "In the fifties, I was a kid," Gill recalls, "and I remember my mom doing this every time she asked a tailor to make clothes." ”
Wandering gypsies are adept at interpreting their gift for divination in a variety of ways. They also have "tea reading" and often come to market this technique. In the mid-19th century, Gypsies were socially accepted, and tea speakers often became guests in the living room and tea room.
To cater to this trend, porcelain makers began to make cups for tea whisperers. Under the guidance of the knowledge booklet, the craftsmen burned the zodiac chart, card face or other symbols on the cup for the convenience of tea speakers. Victorian aristocratic ladies began to call on friends to come to taste tea and also to taste these teacups with different patterns. Therefore, reading tea has been passed down from generation to generation among the ladies of the family, and to this day, the lady is still a loyal fan of tea language.
Amy Taylor was adopted from an early age, and it wasn't until she was 30 years old that she was reunited with her birth mother, and from then on, she learned that her grandmother was an English tea speaker, and it was from then on that she realized her indissoluble relationship with tea language — it was an innate fate.
Instinctively and intuitively, Amy Taylor can see at a glance the various patterns that tea leaves make up: iron anchors, rings, dogs, and butterflies. She can also interpret the code behind these patterns according to different environments and atmospheres. Since tea bags have become popular, interpreting tea language has been a bit troublesome, but Amy Taylor says she still has a steady line of customers, and her schedule is scheduled for next year.
You may think that the people of this era no longer believe in divination and fate as much as the Victorians, but as Amy Taylor said, "People often need someone else to tell you the way forward, and this may be the space where the tea speaker lives." My job is to help people find the right reasons to bravely navigate through the moment of confusion that they are bound to pass through. ”