DISCUSSION THREAD: Tea Leaf Oracle Fortune Cards.

DownUnderNZer

I learnt something new last night:

1) A more in depth meaning to "Bag".

2) That sometimes the cards can be paired in a reading and other times a card should stand alone in meaning within the same spread. eg Sunrise Rat Bag.....Maybe Bag and Sunrise would go together, but Rat would stand alone.

Anyways, its a good opportunity for everyone to learn as much as possible, and good of Rae to help in that process.:D
 

Rae Hepburn

Hi Amanda:

Sorry making you have to do all that work. :(

First of all there is no set number of cards that you should pull. You should pull whatever feels right for you. These cards are based on tea leaf reading. When you read a tea cup there can be a few symbols in the cup or there can be many symbols. Sometimes when you read a cup the answer will raise more questions - this happens as well with the cards. In tea leaf reading you would have another cup of tea and ask about the new question that the prior cup raised. The same is true of the Tea Leaf Fortune Cards. If you feel a reading raises a question, then use that question as the basis of another reading.

All the cards carry the same weight. A stand alone card does not carry more weight.

With regard to your readings of Arrow, Ant, Horse, Dog Barking and how you read them for yourself. Intuitively, if that is how they read to you, then that is the correct reading. If I pulled those cards at this moment for myself then this is how I would read them.
Arrow, Ant, Horse - I am on the right path regarding work and achieving my goals and will be taking a short business trip. Dog Barking - I should pay special attention to advice from a friend or relative.

Each person will read the cards slightly different as everyone's life is different and it is how the spread applies to them.

Dagger, Forest, Broken Ring, Beetle. I would read this as Dagger + Forest - Muddled unclear thinking is causing you fear and worries and tense situations. Broken Ring - Parting of the ways regarding some aspect of your life, but as one door closes another door opens. Beetle - good fortune is smiling down on you.

I hope this helps.

Rae :)
 

Amanda

Hi Amanda:

Sorry making you have to do all that work. :(

No worries! :heart: :)

First of all there is no set number of cards that you should pull. You should pull whatever feels right for you. These cards are based on tea leaf reading. When you read a tea cup there can be a few symbols in the cup or there can be many symbols. Sometimes when you read a cup the answer will raise more questions - this happens as well with the cards. In tea leaf reading you would have another cup of tea and ask about the new question that the prior cup raised. The same is true of the Tea Leaf Fortune Cards. If you feel a reading raises a question, then use that question as the basis of another reading.

Oh, great! :) I've been trying to take one single reading as-is, kind of ignoring the additional questions that are raised. I've never had a tea cup reading, so this is helpful to know. And I see some new questions that are raised with the sample cards below!

All the cards carry the same weight. A stand alone card does not carry more weight.

With regard to your readings of Arrow, Ant, Horse, Dog Barking and how you read them for yourself. Intuitively, if that is how they read to you, then that is the correct reading. If I pulled those cards at this moment for myself then this is how I would read them.
Arrow, Ant, Horse - I am on the right path regarding work and achieving my goals and will be taking a short business trip. Dog Barking - I should pay special attention to advice from a friend or relative.

So, if I was curious to know who exactly or what advice was going to be given, I'd just ask and pull more cards, yes? Because the other card interpretations here seems pretty straightforward. I don't know why I didn't think of connecting the Horse to the Ant -- that seems obvious to me now! :D

Each person will read the cards slightly different as everyone's life is different and it is how the spread applies to them.

Dagger, Forest, Broken Ring, Beetle. I would read this as Dagger + Forest - Muddled unclear thinking is causing you fear and worries and tense situations. Broken Ring - Parting of the ways regarding some aspect of your life, but as one door closes another door opens. Beetle - good fortune is smiling down on you.

I hope this helps.

Rae :)

Yes, I can get a better sense of how to interpret these cards now and I can see the new questions I can come up with now to carry on a reading with fresh cards! :)

Thank you very much for taking the time to respond and give some direction. I appreciate it very much. :heart:
 

celticnoodle

First of all, I want to say to Rae, that I think it is so nice of you to help out here on the thread. I absolutely LOVE this oracle.

I can see how they would be much better at longer-range type predictions...I will have to try month ahead-type readings...and see if those make more sense! CN - you physically shuffle that big deck in your hands? lol!

:p LORD NO! I have small hands. I have to clean off our bar table in our home - which is literally bigger then our table but came with the house. I put all the cards face down and I move them around to really mix them up. :laugh: its a process with so many cards! lol! then, I gather them up (still face down) and keep them in piles. :laugh: then, I go through the piles putting them into their positions as required (I divide them up into the months, one by one first- one at a time, moving from pile one to pile two. Always starting with the month we are currently in, unless it is the last day or 2nd to the last day of the month--then I'll jump to the next month about to start.

Yeah. Its a long process. But its what works for me. This is why I don't use this method for all my customers. Only my special few--ones who continue to come back often for a read. I use to give this out as a Christmas gift to them with a reading for the coming year--or usually just a reading for the next 3 - 6 months, as the customer list grew. :p When I was reading for my family members - I'd do this for them as well, every 3 mos. and of course for myself and my hubby. It is eerily accurate. Always amazes all my customers, family members and me too! :D

I wonder, SB, does your boyfriend have a slighter build, or dark hair and eyes, and a moustache...? (whiskers! :laugh: ) they may be implying a physical kind of resemblance - a thinner or wirier person, a physically quick person...? And very bright...

I wonder if your bf may have a birthdate in the year of the Rat (Chinese horoscope)? I know I'm a rat. :bugeyed:

:p

but, honestly, worth looking into as well! ya never know!

I also think there are too many cards...
yes, true. but I don't think you can whittle them down anymore tbh. As Rae said, she had about 600 actual tea leaf symbols as it was! so, she already took it down by a third! I can remember when I went from playing cards to tarot cards and thought I'd never get use to reading 78 cards! :p

Lotus he has ALL those things you stated above :) ~~ both physical and intellectually...but the connotation of the rat card is very negative and he isnt like that at all.....he is crazy about me and very very loyal :)
also, look at the rat card as a totem animal. we look to the rat with bad thoughts about it, sneaky, nasty, etc. but every animal has its worth. incl the rat. check out the meaning of it as a totem animal and see if it resembles him in that way as well? just another thought.
 

DownUnderNZer

well, w/o pulling my box out, and since I use them rarely, I'll go by memory. First of all, I LOVE this deck and find it very accurate!

1) The different break down of cards each person has worked out that mightn't be in the book.
1. I do pull out only the cards used for reading--setting the month cards to the side--unless I am doing a reading for 3mos, 6mos, etc. (which is how I generally read with them). but on occasion I have been known to only pull a few cards for myself for the week, etc. just out of fun. I never use them to answer a specific question. I really prefer to use them for long term--what is coming up next week/month/3mos. etc.

2) How accurate the cards have been....or not.
2. Extremely accurate! Uncannily so! Sometimes it even surprises me how accurate they are. If there just were not so many of them, so it was easier to do readings for clients on a regular sized table, I'd use them move. The shear number of cards is what keeps them on my shelf for the most part.

3) What you have discovered with them in a "literal sense" compared to what is "written".
3. I am more of a visual reader with these, and never use the book to see what Rae Hepburn says the meaning is. I like to trust myself and with this deck it is very easy to do so! The images on the cards are quite simple and so I just take a look at them and go with whatever pops in my head first. After that, I also look to see the cards around it and do my best to make the 'meaning' fit with what is near it. It seems to work for me this way.

4) The frustrations and puzzlement versus straight forward and getting it.
I don't particularly care for the cards labeled "career, love, success, etc." I have tried to use them with minimal success. I have tried to pull just one card now and again and sometimes it works out but I feel I get more out of the deck when I do at least a weeks reading worth. However, in order for it to work well for me, I still shuffle all the cards (minus the month cards and the cards mentioned above here) and divide them up into month categories, one at a time. Then, I go back and divide the months pile into a weeks worth. Its a lot of work - but its the way I feel it works best and is most accurate. To just pull out a few cards doesn't seem to work as well for me.

5) Personal thoughts and feelings on the cards in your readings.

However, I must say, this is one of the best oracles out there for long term readings.

Gotta agree with you on the most part and especially about this:

I don't particularly care for the cards labeled "career, love, success, etc." I have tried to use them with minimal success.

I sometimes wonder if I have chosen the wrong category as some cards just dont mesh with what is asked I reckon.

But they are great for weekly and Im finding for DAILY too, but just an event or two during the day. Maybe even the WEEK... :)
 

DownUnderNZer

well, it's reassuring to know that I have evolved! lol! Maybe I am a quick study ;) since working with the daily reading group here, DU, I have been using them a lot to read for friends etc so as to try and get a grip on the slippery little buggers... :laugh:

Yes, I do feel more like I am beginning to understand them, and will use them more often, but I have to confess, they are - while very intriguing, in the sense of a puzzle that must have a solution, if only I could find it - not my current fave mode of reading. One thing I do find interesting is that I have been also using them as a kind of back-up draw in conjunction with my Lenormand deck, and they tend to echo - or agree - with whatever the message in the Lenormand is.

As I know Ms. Hepburn is a member here, I wish she would chime in! I would be very interested to know how she relates to her set of tea leaf cards :) I would also be intrigued to know the other group member's take, or opinion, of them...

DU, do you prefer them to your other oracles? Or use them often?

Lenormand for me has to be numero uno, but I would say these cards are up there too as they are rather on to it. I have other ORACLES that might be 50/50 or not so straight forward whereas the TEA LEAF are quite simple and deal with everyday things really only it has to be worked out as to how it weaves into the week sometimes.

Of my ORACLES I like: Lenormand and the Tea Leaf Fortune Oracle as both are clued in. I've yet to decide about Madame Endora/Psychic Tarot/ ??? forgot the other one I use more than dont. Others are packed away and probably will never see the light of day. Answer Deck is sometimes on the ball.

Waiting for the Fairie Oracle and Heart of the Fairie to see what they are like.....

But as ORACLES go for accuracy....Lenormand and Tea Leaf Fortune Oracle. :D
 

Padma

Oooo thank you thank you for this thread I worked with mine alot last year but haven't at all this year so I'm off to pull them out again. They started off being so accurate then it slowly went off for me so I put them away.

Maybe you could join our group of daily draws? Or even just the weekly one...? Well, anyways, you're welcome to join us, I am sure! It might get you reacquainted with them! That was why I joined - I hadn't done much with them, and then put them aside; but I really wanted to learn more about using them. :) and the weekly and daily draws are certainly helping a great deal!
 

Rae Hepburn

Gotta agree with you on the most part and especially about this:

I don't particularly care for the cards labeled "career, love, success, etc." I have tried to use them with minimal success.

I sometimes wonder if I have chosen the wrong category as some cards just dont mesh with what is asked I reckon.

But they are great for weekly and Im finding for DAILY too, but just an event or two during the day. Maybe even the WEEK... :)

The Astral House Pyramid is there to give a sense of timing. As with all readings, timing is the most difficult aspect to pin down as the future is always impacted by what you do in the past and present. To give some guide to the readings, I chose the 6 categories such as Love, Career, etc. that are the ones most people ask about. However, you can ask any question using the Astral House Pyramid. Choose a card from the deck that most represents your question, place it at the top of the pyramid and pull the spread.

Another point to remember is that sometimes cards will appear in a spread that do not seem to relate to the question you asked. Say if you're asking about Wealth and some cards seem to be about Love. That is because the cards are trying to get your attention and think it's important that you know this information even though you didn't ask for it.
 

Rae Hepburn

With regard to shuffling the cards, it seems that everyone has a different way of mixing them. Some people put them in the mixing bag and shuffle them inside the bag (this is great if you don't have too much room). Others put them in a big pot and mix them in that. Others separate the symbol cards into maybe three of four piles and shuffle them separately, then spread them in a long line face down (like you see blackjack dealers do) and pick out the different cards from the line. For myself, I love to mix the cards. Get my hands in there and spread them around until I can feel the cards coming to me. So, as you can see, there is no set way. It is up to you.

If you pull the cards on a daily or even twice daily basis, unless you are asking a specific question of them, the cards will have less impact and more repetition than if you pull them on a weekly or monthly basis. Let me explain what I mean by that. If you are pulling cards on a daily basis and CHAIR FILLED (someone new is entering your life) is pulled. Because people's everyday lives are not that turbulent this could water the card down to meaning "some stranger next to you in the grocery store that speaks to you" or "someone who is jogging on the same path says hi." The longer the space between the readings gives a chance to add weight to the card and CHAIR FILLED could mean that "someone new who could be important is entering your life.

For myself, I do a weekly reading and pick out a single card a day as a guide. Again, though, it is what works for you is right for you. :)
 

Rae Hepburn

BTW if anyone would like to see a video of me doing a reading using the Tea Leaf Fortune Cards go to YouTube and type in Tea Leaf Fortune Cards or Rae Hepburn and it will come up. It is a reading I did for a reporter of the Times-Standard using the Astral House Pyramid method for Happiness.

It's what I call a "white bread" reading as I deliberately didn't connect any of the cards nor did I want to say anything that he wouldn't like other people to know as I knew the reading was being filmed and was going to be put on YouTube.