Humans have turned to many sources of divination through the centuries.

We read tarot cards, the I Ching, runes, the swing of a pendulum, flowers, numbers and coins.

And given civilization’s long obsession with tea, it only makes sense we’d also search for our fates at the bottom of a cup of Earl Grey.

Tea leaf reading is the art of brewing a cup of loose leaf tea, setting an intention or asking a question, consuming the earthy liquid, turning the cup upside down and right side up, then searching for and analyzing the images created by the leftover tea leaves congregating around the sides and bottom of the cup.

“When I started doing it I noticed how easily it flowed,” said Desi Knight, a Colorado Springs psychic, astrologer and musician. “There was something so intuitive or innate about it. I thought it would be more difficult than it is.”

The hot brew doesn’t only provide caffeine, antioxidants and other health perks, it also can provide clarity when it comes to life’s questions.

“People don’t believe this sort of thing but it’s true,” said Carolina Dow, the Boulder author of the 2011 award-winning book “Tea Leaf Reading For Beginners: Your Fortune in a Tea Cup” and “The Healing Power of Tea.” “I did a reading for a woman, a publicity person at a golf club. I saw this golf club and a man in the leaves with a Scottish tam on his head. Turned out he was someone who was Scottish and went to this golf club in Denver. He met this woman and they ended up getting married.”

“Another reading I did was sort of weird because a woman came and said she was worried about her mother who just moved to Colorado,” Dow said. “I saw the word air spelled out in the leaves. I said she needs air and it turned out she needed oxygen. She was coming from a much lower altitude.”

Reading tea leaves is a form of geomancy, which is a type of earth divination, Dow says. It’s similar to interpreting the patterns cast by throwing dirt on the ground, or sand, pebbles or runestones.

“All these things are ephemeral and pick up impressions easily, but they leave easily, too,” Dow said. “They’re good reporters, but momentarily. A reading doesn’t last for more than three months, if that.”

Dow is a tea leaf reader from way back. Her great-aunt read tea leaves and predicted family events for years, and thanks to the Russian side of her family, which drank tea instead of coffee, there was always a constant drizzle around her as a child. At college she earned the nickname “tea leaf girl” after she started reading leaves for friends.

To this day, she reads her leaves every morning, much like some write in a journal. She likes to steep a cup of loose leaf oolong tea, a tea that falls somewhere between black and green teas, and see how her day might pan out.

There’s a lot to love about this particular act of soothsaying, she says. Not only is it a cheap form of entertainment requiring only a cup of hot water and tea leaves, but it also helps people connect and slow down.

“It encourages people to pause, reflect on their desires, challenges and goals,” Dow said. “It focuses the mind. It can develop the intuitive right side of the brain.”

There are different approaches to reading leaves, says Knight, who owns Desert Rose Tarot and has spent every other Friday this summer doing paid readings at The Queen’s TEApothecary in Old Colorado City.

“I intuitively read it knowing those different methods and based on the vibes I’m getting from the leaves,” she said. “We call their angels, ancestors and spirit guides to align them to their timelines of their highest good.”

But you don’t need a professional to read your leaves, both women say. You can do it yourself. Choose your tea: black, green or herbal. You can even use chicory, if you like coffee. While green tea leaves provide bigger impressions, black tea provides a greater number of smaller images, making it a good tea for beginners. Gunpowder green tea also is good, Dow says, as are freshly cut and chopped leaves from the garden.

Use a traditional cup, not a mug, with plain, white, curved sides. Add your hot water and allow it to steep for five minutes as you get quiet and ask a question or set an intention. Don’t drink the whole cup. Leave about a teaspoon of liquid, enough to swirl the liquid around the sides. Invert the cup to get the water out, then flip it back over.

Empty your mind as you gaze at the resulting images, and ask yourself what you see.

“First impressions are most important,” Dow said. “See if there’s anything interesting. Look for concrete shapes, like a boat, book, a person’s face. And symmetrical designs, like a circle or square. Then maybe numbers, letters, words, universal symbols, like the circle of life. Then how many positive or negative symbols are in here? What’s the balance in here?”

There aren’t any hard and fast rules to the practice, though there is one that might be better to abide by.

“It should be loose leaf tea, although you can open up a tea bag,” Dow said. “I did once on a plane for a reading. The problem is those leaves are very tiny and don’t create good images. but they might create a wash of something.”

Reading leaves takes practice. Because there are hundreds of symbols that might appear, newbies might want to read a few books, including Dow’s, that go into their meanings. But tea leaf symbols are much like symbols from your dreams. They hold different meanings for different people.

“I once did a reading and saw a little mouse in her leaves. It was cute and had a cap and glasses,” Dow said. “Most symbols will tell you a mouse means small thefts or things disappearing and it’s a negative symbol. But I always ask the person. What does a mouse mean to you? She says I love mice, it’s my totem animal. For her it meant domestic bliss. It was a positive symbol.”

Much like a tarot card reader, a tea leaf reader learns to tell a story around the images they see.

“Pull out what you think is important and pay attention to their question first,” Dow said. “Take it from there and tell a story. It takes awhile to develop the ability to do that.”

And if you find tea leaves just aren’t working for you, don’t worry.

“Anything can be used as a tool for divination,” Knight said. “If you seek clarity and guidance, you can tap into that no matter what tool you use. The intention is the most important part.”

Humans have turned to many sources of divination through the centuries.

We read tarot cards, the I Ching, runes, the swing of a pendulum, flowers, numbers and coins.

And given civilization’s long obsession with tea, it only makes sense we’d also search for our fates at the bottom of a cup of Earl Grey.

Tea leaf reading is the art of brewing a cup of loose leaf tea, setting an intention or asking a question, consuming the earthy liquid, turning the cup upside down and right side up, then searching for and analyzing the images created by the leftover tea leaves congregating around the sides and bottom of the cup.

“When I started doing it I noticed how easily it flowed,” said Desi Knight, a Colorado Springs psychic, astrologer and musician. “There was something so intuitive or innate about it. I thought it would be more difficult than it is.”

The hot brew doesn’t only provide caffeine, antioxidants and other health perks, it also can provide clarity when it comes to life’s questions.

“People don’t believe this sort of thing but it’s true,” said Carolina Dow, the Boulder author of the 2011 award-winning book “Tea Leaf Reading For Beginners: Your Fortune in a Tea Cup” and “The Healing Power of Tea.” “I did a reading for a woman, a publicity person at a golf club. I saw this golf club and a man in the leaves with a Scottish tam on his head. Turned out he was someone who was Scottish and went to this golf club in Denver. He met this woman and they ended up getting married.”

“Another reading I did was sort of weird because a woman came and said she was worried about her mother who just moved to Colorado,” Dow said. “I saw the word air spelled out in the leaves. I said she needs air and it turned out she needed oxygen. She was coming from a much lower altitude.”

Reading tea leaves is a form of geomancy, which is a type of earth divination, Dow says. It’s similar to interpreting the patterns cast by throwing dirt on the ground, or sand, pebbles or runestones.

“All these things are ephemeral and pick up impressions easily, but they leave easily, too,” Dow said. “They’re good reporters, but momentarily. A reading doesn’t last for more than three months, if that.”

Dow is a tea leaf reader from way back. Her great-aunt read tea leaves and predicted family events for years, and thanks to the Russian side of her family, which drank tea instead of coffee, there was always a constant drizzle around her as a child. At college she earned the nickname “tea leaf girl” after she started reading leaves for friends.

To this day, she reads her leaves every morning, much like some write in a journal. She likes to steep a cup of loose leaf oolong tea, a tea that falls somewhere between black and green teas, and see how her day might pan out.

There’s a lot to love about this particular act of soothsaying, she says. Not only is it a cheap form of entertainment requiring only a cup of hot water and tea leaves, but it also helps people connect and slow down.

“It encourages people to pause, reflect on their desires, challenges and goals,” Dow said. “It focuses the mind. It can develop the intuitive right side of the brain.”

There are different approaches to reading leaves, says Knight, who owns Desert Rose Tarot and has spent every other Friday this summer doing paid readings at The Queen’s TEApothecary in Old Colorado City.

“I intuitively read it knowing those different methods and based on the vibes I’m getting from the leaves,” she said. “We call their angels, ancestors and spirit guides to align them to their timelines of their highest good.”

But you don’t need a professional to read your leaves, both women say. You can do it yourself. Choose your tea: black, green or herbal. You can even use chicory, if you like coffee. While green tea leaves provide bigger impressions, black tea provides a greater number of smaller images, making it a good tea for beginners. Gunpowder green tea also is good, Dow says, as are freshly cut and chopped leaves from the garden.

Use a traditional cup, not a mug, with plain, white, curved sides. Add your hot water and allow it to steep for five minutes as you get quiet and ask a question or set an intention. Don’t drink the whole cup. Leave about a teaspoon of liquid, enough to swirl the liquid around the sides. Invert the cup to get the water out, then flip it back over.

Empty your mind as you gaze at the resulting images, and ask yourself what you see.

“First impressions are most important,” Dow said. “See if there’s anything interesting. Look for concrete shapes, like a boat, book, a person’s face. And symmetrical designs, like a circle or square. Then maybe numbers, letters, words, universal symbols, like the circle of life. Then how many positive or negative symbols are in here? What’s the balance in here?”

There aren’t any hard and fast rules to the practice, though there is one that might be better to abide by.

“It should be loose leaf tea, although you can open up a tea bag,” Dow said. “I did once on a plane for a reading. The problem is those leaves are very tiny and don’t create good images. but they might create a wash of something.”

Reading leaves takes practice. Because there are hundreds of symbols that might appear, newbies might want to read a few books, including Dow’s, that go into their meanings. But tea leaf symbols are much like symbols from your dreams. They hold different meanings for different people.

“I once did a reading and saw a little mouse in her leaves. It was cute and had a cap and glasses,” Dow said. “Most symbols will tell you a mouse means small thefts or things disappearing and it’s a negative symbol. But I always ask the person. What does a mouse mean to you? She says I love mice, it’s my totem animal. For her it meant domestic bliss. It was a positive symbol.”

Much like a tarot card reader, a tea leaf reader learns to tell a story around the images they see.

“Pull out what you think is important and pay attention to their question first,” Dow said. “Take it from there and tell a story. It takes awhile to develop the ability to do that.”

And if you find tea leaves just aren’t working for you, don’t worry.

“Anything can be used as a tool for divination,” Knight said. “If you seek clarity and guidance, you can tap into that no matter what tool you use. The intention is the most important part.”