The following story is collected from my friend. He lived in Turkey for the most part of his life. He talks about a Turkish tradition in this collection. This interview is done on phone. “A” refers to me, the collector. And “B” refers to the participant.
A: “Is there a practice in Turkey, for people to learn about their future.”
B: “Yes. I think there are many different ways of doing it. One of them is known as coffee fortune telling. When people come together in a group and drink coffee, they are excited to learn about their fortune with it. First they drink classical Turkish coffee, then they turn it upside down and place it on the small plate. After coffee is dried, it is turned up again and now there are shapes all over the cup. Someone looks at the shapes and come up with future predictions. Usually Turkish women like their fortune to be red more than the men, but everyone does it. If you walk in the streets of Istanbul, you can see English signs saying “FREE FORTUNE TELLING WITH YOUR COFFEE” to attract tourists. Of course, the coffee will cost much more than normal since someone will read it for you.”
A: “Do you have any personal experience?”
B: “Yes, of course. I did this many times, it is something we do very often. But if I have to talk about one time; It was few years ago. There was a guest in my home. She is known for her mystical stuff like this. She was reading everyone’s fortune so I also wanted to join. I drank a coffee and flipped it over. Once the coffee was dry, I handed to her. She looked at it and told me two things; “You will go to America and you will be separated from your girlfriend”. As I am doing this interview now in NYC, you can see the first one came true. I also ended up breaking up with my girlfriend.”
A: “Do you think it is real?”
B: “I mean like… Sometimes it really becomes true. Also there are people in Turkey, who are known to be really good at this. People recommend them to their friends, if what they told to them becomes true. If they told wrong things, they would not be known.”