HYDERABAD: As I settle into a video call with tasseographer Sheetal Shaparia, she takes a sip of a strong black Turkish coffee (which she has made in front of me by pouring hot water in a cup), twirls the rest in the cup, and turns the cup on to a saucer. “If you were in front of me, you would have done this,” she says to me. While she does that, I meditate asking the Universe to grant her the answers I seek.
As we wait for the coffee to drip into the plate and form a pattern, Mumbai-based Sheetal tells me how this works. The symbols tell the person about their past, present, and future happenings. She says: “In the Turkish tradition, coffee readers interpret the cup as being divided into horizontal halves: patterns appearing on the bottom half are interpreted as messages regarding the past, and patterns on the top half are messages regarding the future.”
Why twirl it around? She replies: “We make three horizontal circles clockwise. The target is to move the sediment around and evenly spread it around the entire inside surface of the cup. Then, turn the coffee cup set upside down (flip it) with a quick movement. This action will bring the sediments down to the saucer, leaving the necessary patterns.”
Once the cup is picked, symbols are formed both in the cup and the saucer. As she begins to predict my future and answer my questions, she tells me the symbols in the cup predict the future, and those in the saucer will guide me on how to achieve it. She says, “These represent various aspects of a person’s life.” She asserts, “Every person’s coffee cup is different, and no two cups can ever be the same!” What is the concept behind this? “The basic concept is that when we drink a cup of coffee, the caffeine in it releases the information locked in our subconscious mind. It is believed that our subconscious mind stores all the information of our past as well as the future,” tells Sheetal who also does teacup, wine and beer glass readings.
What kind of coffee should be used? Sheetal answers, “While various coffee types can be used for coffee readings, traditionally, Turkish coffee is the most common. Using any other coffee for the reading may not give the best results as the residuals would be light and almost impossible to recognise the symbols.” So, can one do their own reading? “No,” says Sheetal with clients in Hyderabad, adding, “The reader can’t read their own cup since, each residual leaves symbols that need to be interpreted in a particular method. It’s more of a belief than a rule.”
Getting popular
“Coffee cup reading is becoming popular In India now. Out of every ten clients, at least seven ask for a coffee cup reading,” says Sheetal who learned it from Model Town, the USA in 2000. “Slowly and steadily, it is gaining popularity just like tarot card reading,” she adds. It is fast gaining prominence as one of the most reliable mediums of determining an individual’s future, she adds. So, while I take advantage of this reading to point out the blocks that hamper progress in my desired areas, would you like a cuppa coffee too?
Tasseography
The future of the individual is read by interpreting the residual coffee/tea grounds that is left behind in the cup or saucer. The reading involves the experience of knowledge, understanding of symbols, and intuition. This works similarly for wine/ beer glass reading excepr that the medium changes in this case
Coffee cup reading
Coffee cup reading is similar to tea-leaf reading where the fortunes of the seeker are revealed through patterns, symbols, and omens formed from the residual coffee grounds in the cup. It is also called Cafeomancy. It originated in Turkey in the 16th Century. While most of the brewed coffee is consumed, the sediments are left to settle in the cup.