On a recent Sunday, a him-and-her Missoula couple drove to downtown Ronan to learn their future. “Mere’s Magic Universe & Tea,” read white letters on a glass storefront above a neon yellow “Open” sign.
“Mere” is Meredith Trosper, a 40-something native Ronanite who left Montana as an infant and returned in 2020 after stints in Alaska, Los Angeles, South Korea, Japan, New York, Hawaii and Portland. On the road, among many other gigs, she sang and played the ukulele to support herself. And she learned tasseography: fortune telling through the art of reading symbols in tea leaves.
“Welcome,” she told the couple, “to my outer space for inner exploration.”
The immediate interior of the shop hosted a massage chair and rotating collection of Carl Jung quotes (“Life really does begin at 40. Up until then, you are just doing research”). Further inside was a cozy living-room-sized space with tea-making accoutrements, New Age books and knickknacks, and a raised wooden bar bearing a tea flight menu.
Featured were three sets of three teas: one, “Butterfly Me to the Moon” (Bodacious Blue, Rift Valley Currant, and Butterfly Pea Flower); two, “Time Traveler” (Moroccan Mint, High Country Huckleberry, and Follow Your Bliss); and three, “I’m Not Drinking Alcohol” (Gin & Cream Rooibos, White Champagne & Raspberry, and Mimosa Oolong).
The couple mixed and matched, going for the blue, bliss and cream, all sourced from the Lake Missoula Tea Company.
“Beautiful,” Mere said. She offered cheese and pear slices from a late-fruiting tree beside her house, and then portioned the chosen tea leaves into a tripartite white ceramic serving tray and prepared large glass beakers of hot water.
Soon, adding the tea leaves and swirling them with a hollow-centered metal stirrer, distinct blue, red, and white liquids became a kaleidoscopic purple.
Host and customers oohed and ahhed. They sat, sipped and chatted together for several minutes. Finally, when their cups were nearly drained, the couple was invited to a small, square faux-fur-lined table for the main event.
Now that the mugs were emptied of liquid, with a little imagination the remaining tea leaves formed identifiable shapes at the bottom or sides.
In the guy’s tea leaves, they first distinguished a figure with a watering can standing over a garden row. Above it, near the rim of the cup, was an osprey which had caught a fish but was being dive-bombed by an eagle.
The former he took as clear recognition of his people skills—“I’m a seed waterer!“—while the latter suggested any future prosperity would be accompanied by vulnerability.
His partner’s two clearest tea leaf patterns were a similar ego-boosting, anxiety-inducing mix: one, a Sanskrit “Om,” symbol of the universe; and, two, Little Bo Peep, shepherdess on the verge.
“So you’ll help people, and support us, but may lose everything,” she summarized.
“And you contain multitudes, but have to guard against falling asleep on the job,” he added.
“Usually, I tell the fortunes, but you two are naturals!” Mere told them.
She brewed more tea and they drank on, discussing pasts, presents and futures. Mere’s deep appreciation for tea started in South Korea and Japan, where she taught English, she explained. Inspired by how central the beverage is in those cultures, she took up tasseography, beginning by using leaf patterns as story prompts for creative English exercises with her students.
She came home at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to family land first homesteaded in the 1800s. “I’m the fifth generation born on that property,” she said, “and my nephew is the sixth generation.”
The tea shop is part of Mere’s larger effort to boost local tourism and provide an alcohol-free entertainment option in Ronan. “I like to promote health and wellness, for not only my own well-being, but, hopefully, to spill over into other people’s well-being,” as she put it.
Clients come from all over. “I’ve had summer locals that stay for half the year come in with their kids,” Mere said. “I’ve had people passing through on their way to Glacier National Park. Camping travelers. A friend group of ten local ladies from Missoula up through the Flathead Valley.”
For Halloween, she did 10-minute “witchy” tea readings at a salon in Polson. ”I have not done a wedding,” she mused. “I keep thinking I’m going to do a wedding.”
Most people find Mere’s Magic Universe through social media or camping sites like Hip Camp. In the summer, she offers camping and glamping options and on-site tea readings near a trout pond on the family land. Come January, she plans a spate of community events at Ronan’s Red Poppy arts center. “They have a stage, they have a yoga studio, they have a kitchen—all in one space off the 93, next to Ace Hardware,” Mere said.
There she wants to play music, sell soups and Thai curry bowls and, of course, keep reading people’s tea leaves.
At the couple’s urging, Mere serenaded them with her ukelele, revealing a large, lustrous voice, belying her small frame. “I’ve played in Oregon, New York, Connecticut, and Hawaii,” she said. “I still play at the Symes hotel in Hot Springs.”
Halfway through the set, mid-finger-picking, Winston, her year-old, 15-pound, brown-faced black Chiweenie (a dachshund-Chihuahua mix) howled from a back room to join the party.
A passing acquaintance entered the shop a minute later. With five living creatures, the Magic Universe suddenly seemed full to capacity.
The local bought a cup of tea to go. He bit into a free pear Mere offered and told everyone a story about trying twice to go fishing but being interrupted once by a bear and another time by a wild-eyed man with a rifle.
“What’re the odds of so much happening where there isn’t anything or anybody?” he said.
Mere’s Magic Universe & Tea, 315 Main St. SW, Ronan, MT, open by appointment. Reserve a private session for 2-6 people. $33 a person for two hours of tea reading and 3–4 teas. 646-508-3770 and @MagicUniverseofTea on Instagram. Camping and glamping at Mere’s Magic Trout Pond, 34944 Canyon Mill Rd.
