Inheritance, Intuition, and Empowerment: Sacred Coffee Divination Rituals Heal and Defy Injustices throughout Space and Time
by Ani Kalafian
*trigger warning: mention of domestic violence in post*
From a young age, I’ve always been an empath, sensitive to energies and spirits that I’ve inherited from my Armenian great-grandmother, Tamar, who was a well-known ‘hands-on’ healer in Tehran from the start to the third quarter of the 20th century. In my youth, it wasn’t long until I picked up the art of coffee reading by comfortably tuning into my clairvoyant abilities and emulating the elder women in my family that would practice this as a norm.
Currently, I host coffee reading events, ceremonies, and workshops. I aim to not only help guide people on their journey to the betterment and activate healing but keep the art of coffee reading as a powerful form of divination and cultural preservation alive. Coffee reading is usually a craft that is kept primarily in the home due to patriarchal oppression of matriarchal empowerment. I challenge that notion every day I give readings in public to bring awareness, send a message that it’s ok to practice in public, and inspire more SWANA members who also have the gift to get out there, get in touch with their innate supernatural powers to sublimate inherited traumas and help perpetuate my upheaval: healing as a form of activism and restoring the divine feminine energies on this planet.
Ani Carla Kalafian connects with the divine cosmic energy of Armenian Goddess Anahit at 9th Century Medieval Bjni Fortress (Armenian: Բջնի Բերդ). Image of a green landscape with hills in the background, in the center is an ancient fortress of black brown and beige stones. In the center of the ruins stands Ani, dresses in a royal purple outfit.
To try and simplify a highly complex issue of gender inequality \that has been looming in the SWANA regions for millenia: our women have always been left to pick up the pieces after endless wars and genocides started by men. In no way to discredit brave and courageous men who supported women and fought hard to protect their lands, the pain and agony is carried on by the women, the women who survive and are not ‘relieved’ by death as the men are. The women are left subject to rape, violence, migration, traumatic parenting, and serving the men. But this just touches the surface. For thousands of years the regions were famous for Goddess worship and fertility cults of the fertile crescent and beyond. When patriarchal religious leaders who were in the interest of abusing their powers and disobeying their own sacred religious practices, they set to monopolize spirituality in order to gain control of the population, systematically disempowering women and their sacred powers. It wasn’t just about discrediting reputable oracles and talented astrologers, part of this had to do with the medical industry through time. Many women were healers and midwives birthing children, so when the same patriarchy saw opportunity for financial growth in medical developments, it meant lobbying governments through religious institutions to ban of any healing activity that was practiced by women. Sadly, so many old traditional forms of divination, healing, and spiritual rituals were lost along the way, deeming any empowering activity a woman does as “superstitious”. Even now, some people will say how ‘silly’ or ‘taboo’ coffee reading is, why, because it’s a craft dominated by women? If women do it and believe in it to help one another, it must be stupid?
The coffee reading ritual starts very simply, I pour an ‘eye measurement’ of water, finely grounded coffee, cardamom, and, depending on a guest’s preference, a bit of sugar. All organic, all fair trade, of course. As I fire up the copper pot (that represents the womb) I bring the coffee to a patient boil. The complexity emerges with the bubbles and depths of the dark and flavorful elixir that tastes like home to the soul. I meditate on the swirls and myriad tones of brown where set my intentions. I alchemize the coffee by blessing all the hands it passed through to get to me and bless those whom I am of service to. When the sunlight hits the surface just right, I see my face transform in the reflection into my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother and so on dating back as far as coffee has been an integral part of our SWANA DNA. In my case, it would be from the kitchens and fire pits of my ancestral homelands of Western and Eastern Armenia to Iran (Persia) and now here, at the indigenous/First Nations land of Tongva (Los Angeles).
I know it’s ready when the coffee rises to the top, then I take it off the fire and put it back to let it rise once more. The top layer creates a foam-like texture we call ‘love’ and when I pour into the decorative espresso sized cups, I make sure to evenly distribute the love into every cup. Once served, an old school therapy session of sorts begins with women gathered for the sacred coffee session in a safe space. Stories, jokes, traumas, advice, and support are brought to the table in addition to a variety of dates, nuts, favorite SWANA sweets like baklava and other familiar delicacies.
After the coffee is slowly consumed with intention, the thick natural grinds gravitate to the bottom and the best is yet to come as the cup gets turned over onto its saucer. A combination of sharing ancient wisdom through symbols, signs, sacred numbers, omens, and healing modalities with psychometry and channeling spirit come forth as I read the grinds on the saucer and in the cup. Imagine the cup as a blank canvas where the coffee grinds display an array of nature’s patterns, showing the energetic fingerprint, a metaphysical form of vibrational frequencies taking on the most beautiful forms. All the senses are engaged from all parties involved. I see the images as keys to intuitive information that I download and communicate in real-time. Just as the reading comes to a close, I ask that one last intention or wish is made as the cup is marked on the bottom for one last message. Although the reading ends, the healing just begins as I give homework and sometimes a set of instructions if applicable for the next steps.
Although the readings come off as individual, in that they are all unique, they are very representative of the overall cosmic shift and mass trauma release happening on this planet to all of us and each reading tells the story of various forms of the shift. I have come to this conclusion after reading for so many people throughout my lifetime, and in the more recent years with sacred ceremonial groups. Many messages that come through can resonate with the collective including myself. Although I don’t read my own cup, I can already feel everything through the readings I give to others, so in that way, I receive too.
Sometimes I will see actual scenes like an animated play where the story and characters come to life through in between the positive and negative spaces. Once on a camping trip tucked far away in a gushing gorge in Northern Armenia, a bunch of strangers learned that I was a reader and formed a line with coffee in hand for a reading from me. For some I was able to identify specific things they needed to let go of, tell them which time of year was best for them to pursue higher learning or growth in career, I always know who can see vivid dreams and have the gift to interpret them, and in general I can help people find their modalities of healing and where their strengths are. The last woman in line approached me and before even looking at her cup I immediately asked her if we could take a walk and offer the reading next to running water away from others. Her energy was so heavy I knew it was going to be intense. We settled in a calm space overlooking a waterfall fresh after rainfall, I turned up the cup and saw the grinds transforming into people to tell me a story, her story. A horrid scene of a man tormenting a women emerged and I merely described it as I saw it and tears filled her eyes as she started sobbing. She had removed herself out of a situation that caused her to suffer domestic violence and was recovering from it. There was a light at the end of the tunnel for her and I was able to tell her about her own path which was so relieving. Shortly after, I switched the reading over to energy healing work for her and we shared a beautiful and emotional experience together in one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen, lush with trees and waterfalls in my sacred homeland. That heavy energy didn’t disappear, but it was lighter.
Now, something to consider: what kind of coffee is it, Greek, Armenian, Turkish, Mediterranean, Arabic, Oriental, Middle Eastern, Yemenese? Am I missing some, is this controversial? It’s coffee. The tradition of boiling fine grounds in a pot was the way it was consumed originating in Ethiopia making its way to Yemen and through the Ottoman Empire for global distribution for centuries before the European technology of creating espresso then the American drip. The first coffee houses in Europe were established by Armenian merchants so I call it Armenian coffee because I’m Armenian, it doesn’t resonate with everyone and it doesn’t have to. There’s no right answer and I do not by any means get offended if it’s called Turkish coffee (because of the traumatizing history of genocide) because it’s deeply embedded in their culture too. I always say, through war, colonization, and genocide its women who suffer the most from either side. And it’s us who have to pick up the pieces and clean up the mess every single time. We continue to create through the destruction caused by the volatile patriarchy. We must band together, heal together, and create peaceful and healthy relationships. We’ve had enough and there is no other choice if we want to carry our cultures through the next centuries.
When I started to host public coffee readings, I intended on using coffee as a bridge to the SWANA culture and lifestyle; to show how open, talented, and friendly we are rooting from some of the oldest civilizations on the planet. People who had never heard of it fell in love with the craft and were curious to know what else it was that we do in not just the sphere of healing but what foods do we eat, textile patterns do we create, and so on. I know I’m not the only one out here doing this work, but sometimes it feels like it and that’s why I decided to start teaching others and encouraging our own to go public as well. It’s like coming out of the closet but as a psychic. The next phase of realization hit when members of our SWANA community started to book me and would comment that this is something their grandmas or elderly aunts do, or sometimes people were surprised that I was younger than they expected me to be. It hit me: the art of coffee reading, by the result of tragedy and assimilation to western cultures, may go extinct if the youth don’t continue the practice NOW. So now I present an open invitation, to gather your elders, ask questions, learn their ways, practice, find your style, and join me in spreading the love and preserving the healing modality of coffee reading.
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