Lead pouring

Across half of Europe this is what New Year’s Eve sounds like: a scrap of lead — or tin, or wax — melted in an old spoon, poured in one go into a basin of cold water, and then the hiss. What comes out of the water is a figure nobody made, twisted and full of spikes, and naming it is the whole craft: the lead figure speaks of the year to come.

That is how the work is divided in this house: the coffee grounds answer what is happening to you now — the lead looks ahead. An anchor, a bell, a dragon, a clover: the figure canon of the German Bleigießen is centuries old, and each figure carries its reading for the stretch that is beginning, be it a new year or a new life.

Here the ritual is complete and burn-free: think of the time ahead of you, tip the ladle and let the lead set. The figure comes out different every single time — genuinely: it is drawn at random with every pour, just as no two are ever alike in the basin — and the oracle gives it a name and a reading.

Is it science? No: it is one of Europe’s best-loved divination customs — so loved that lead-pouring kits can no longer be sold in the EU because of the lead, and the custom has moved on to wax and to the internet. Take it the way it has always been taken: a figure, a conversation and a toast to what is coming.