Tasseography, or the divining of one’s fortune from a cup of coffee or tea or wine even, has been practiced all over the world for centuries. Fortune telling from coffee specifically traces its lineage back at least to the 1500s and the Ottoman Empire. Also known as tasseomancy—“tasse” meaning cup and “-mancy” meaning to divine—the practice is most common in Arab nations and Asia Minor, particularly Turkey, where the namesake coffee style produces a thick bed of sediment most conducive to readings.
For nearly 600 years, tasseography has been an in-person practice. You drink your coffee, turn it over on the saucer to let the sediments fall in some unique fashion, and then hand the cup over to the diviner to read it. But the 21st century brings with it 21st century versions of much older traditions, with coffee readings available online, via video chats, and even in apps.
In a recent video, CNN Travel headed to Istanbul, Turkey where they interviewed coffee fortune teller Batu Soylu. Soylu does readings at Symbol Coffee, a chain of cafes around Istanbul founded back in 2002, all of which do coffee readings. The video shows Soylu performing a reading, interpreting shapes and symbols found in the coffee grounds—like a cat, a key, and a road—as well as “the person’s face in front of [them].”
This particular reading was in person, but that is not the only avenue Soylu and Symbol offer. Through their website, folks can schedule to have their fortune read online. For this, they would need to send in photos of their coffee cup for Soylu or another fortune teller to read and interpret for them online or even over the phone.
And this is not the only example of a modern reimagining of the centuries old mystical practice. In the Apple App Store, there are no less than 10 different fortune telling apps that do coffee readings. Some, like Kaave and Faladdin, offer coffee readings as part of a suite of fortune telling options, along with tarot, palm readings, and birth charts. Then there are others like Fortune Cup, which focuses soleyl only tasseography and connects you with fortune tellers from around the globe who will interpret your cup.
There’s even Magic Coffee, a paid app where you “create” your cup of coffee in the app, using your finger and the touch screen to swirl the coffee that will then be “read” by the app. Or you can use Tasseography AI, which is exactly what it sounds like. Because nothing says traditional mystic practice like [checks note] artificial intelligence.
So for those looking for a glimpse into their future through the lens of their coffee cup but don’t want to book a flight to Istanbul, the 21st century has provided a host of different digital options. How divine.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
<?php echo adrotate_group(54); ??><?php echo adrotate_ad(589); ??><?php echo adrotate_group(56); ??><?php echo adrotate_ad(589); ??><?php echo adrotate_group(69); ??><?php echo adrotate_ad(589); ??><?php echo adrotate_group(38); ??><?php echo adrotate_ad(589); ??><?php echo adrotate_group(51); ??><?php echo adrotate_ad(589); ??>
Zac Cadwalader
July 16, 2024
