The newest exhibition from the SFO Museum at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) is all about fortune-telling and the paranormal.
On view post-security in Terminal 2, Gallery 2A through mid-April 2027, this exhibition showcases fortune-telling cards, games, and devices.
On view are crystal balls, swinging pendulums, fortune-telling teacups, tarot cards and all manner of psychic phenomena.
Here are some snaps and notes from the exhibit, courtesy of the wonderful SFO Museum.
We predict a visit to SFO Airport’s new exhibit, One Step Beyond: Fortune-Telling and the Paranormal in your future.
Palm reading
Palmistry—or chiromancy—the art of reading character and destiny from the lines and shape of the hand, remains one of humanity’s oldest fortune-telling methods.
One hand typically reflects inherited traits or destiny; the other shows how life choices have shaped the person.
Tarot cards
Tarot first entered Europe through Italy in the fifteenth century as a trick-taking game in which points are scored by capturing specific cards and sets. But it was over several hundred years before tarot evolved into its more enigmatic form.
Fortune-telling teacups
Reading tea leaves, or tasseomancy, is a form of divination that interprets the patterns left by tea leaves in a cup.
Here are the instructions from an early manual on how to read the leaves:
Drink the contents of the cup, leaving only a teaspoon of the liquid and tea leaves at the bottom.
Take the cup by the handle in the left hand and move it rapidly three times from left to right. Then, slowly invert it over the saucer until any remaining liquid drains away.
The cup is divided into three zones: the rim represents the present, the sides near-future events, and the bottom the distant future. Tea leaves form lines, circles, dots, and recognizable symbols that the seer interprets.”
The SFO Museum’s newest exhbit: One Step Beyond: Fortune-Telling and the Paranormal is on view in San Francisco International Airport (SFO) Terminal 2, post-security, through mid-April 2027.
