An occult-themed party series is making a wicked return to the Bampot House of Tea this weekend. 

Tasseomancy goes down on Saturday, April 15 for a late night of witchy decor, music, and magic. The name refers to the art of reading tea leaves, which is one of the services that the in-house fortune teller does. 

"Tasseomancy is a fantasy world," says the organizer Thadea Decora. "We really wanted to evoke a sort of vintage opium den vibe, mixed with roaring 20’s energy and a little bit of cyberpunk and witchcraft in the mix."

The dancefloor resembles a Hogwarts sorority house party, adorned with candles, skulls and glowing stage installations. The DJ booth is surrounded by projections and floating facades. 

Outside is an alternative market with art vendors selling everything from gothic hair bows to stunning Sailor Moon-inspired taxidermy pieces of butterflies. 

By day, Bampot is a board games cafe and bohemian tea room with dozens of beverage selections. Its booths are dressed up with tapestries and are perfect for cozy conversations. 

Bampot's seductive space will be full of loving energy, flow performers and go-go dancers. Partiers look most content in the wee hours of the morning while taking a break and nestling into a pile of cushions with new friends.

Tasseomancy's fortune telling booth, Ava's Parlour, promises to "help you with your inner most dreams, wishes and desires. Whether you’d like a reading of your tea leaves, tarot or even a divinatory look at your cracked phone screen, the answers lie within!"

Ava Winter is the head witch, who comes from seven generations of witches. Dekora consults her on all things occult when leaning into those design elements. She designs a new look for herself each event on a monochrome theme.

Tasseomancy is an over-the-top rave by female-led artists collective Dekora Design. The eccentric organizer behind this event is Thadea Decora, an illustrator, set designer and prop maker. Her work Flora Arcana was recently featured in the Lumière: The Art of Light festival. 

Decora finds her inspiration in religious and spiritual imagery, mythical animals, gothic architecture, art nouveau, and pop culture. "We call this space our 'teahouse of dreams' and I just want to make it dreamier with every edition," Decora says. 

Dekora Design is influenced by the underground rave scene and themes evocative of outsider culture. They take inspiration from club scenes like Studio 54 and the aspects that made those parties successful. 

There were two iterations of Tasseomancy last year in the Spring and Fall. After a Winter break and figuring out some logistics, The Return invites witches, demons and tea enthusiasts to fill the winding rooms and intimate lounge with supernatural entertainment. 

"After multiple noise complaints and a cease and desist from the city your favourite Tea House rave had to shut its doors. However, we lawyered up, changed our lease and WE'RE BACK BABY. You can't stop us, the future is written in the leaves, and it is ours," Dekora writes on its event page. 

The DJs are an eclectic mix of dubstep, drum and bass, mashups and breaks. The lineup features Nikki Spin, Party Rhino, Pan!c Pop, DANAFTERDARK, Bill Slinnton, Miss Zolly and Aphotik. The music starts at 9 p.m. and doesn't end until 4 a.m. 

Most of all, Tassemancy is a celebration of friendship. "This event was also inspired by the return of a very dear friend of mine so I curated the music around her tastes, and have themed drinks, colour palette and a selection of performers that I thought she would like," Decora says. 

In this edition, there will be body painting with UV reactive and metallic paints plus all the colours the rainbow. There will also be added visuals thanks to video jockey Adam Kaleta. 

Dan Hamilton, aka DJ DANAFTERDARK, has his eye on Toronto's dub scene. He booked the music as they wanted a dub heavy party with happy DJs and a great soundsystem. 

The main stage design is by co-founder Lillian Moon, who is one half of Party Rhino and also DJs under the alias Illian Moon. Saranemone is a visual artist, DJ, and one of the flow performers new to this event. 

Dekora Design strongly believes in harm reduction and peer-to-peer education about substances and consent. Natalia Forgas Bernstein is their logistics brain and harm reduction peer who ensures there are harm reduction supplies to keep partiers safe. 

The drink specials are bewitching. This time around, the featured flaming cocktail is Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder. It is a blend of lychee and melon liquor, lime, rum, absinthe, "and of course, fire."

Tickets to Tasseomancy: The Return are on sale now and available at the door.