Geomancy (
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
: γεωμαντεία, "earth divination") is a method of
divinationDivination is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a standardized process or ritual. Diviners ascertain their interpretations of how a querent should proceed by reading signs, events, or omens, or through alleged contact with a supernatural agency...
that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of
soilSoil is a natural body consisting of layers of mineral constituents of variable thicknesses, which differ from the parent materials in their morphological, physical, chemical, and mineralogical characteristics. It is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and...
, rocks, or
sandSand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.As the term is used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 to 2 millimeters. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain...
. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy involves interpreting a series of
16 figuresThe 16 geomantic figures are the primary symbols used in the art of divinatory geomancy. Each geomantic figure represents a certain state of the world or the mind, and can be interpreted in various ways based upon the query put forth and the method used to generate the figures...
formed by a randomized process that involves recursion followed by analyzing them, often augmented with
astrologicalAstrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer...
interpretations.
Once practiced by people from all
social classSocial classes are the hierarchical arrangements of people in society as economic or cultural groups. Class is an essential object of analysis for sociologists, political economists and social historians...
es, it was one of the most popular forms of divination throughout
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus Mountains , and the Black Sea to the southeast...
in the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
and the
RenaissanceThe Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Florence in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe...
. Books and treatises on geomancy were published up until the
17th centuryThe 17th Century was that century which lasted from 1601 to 1700 in the Gregorian calendar.The 17th Century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the French Grand Siècle dominated by Louis XIV, and the beginning of modern science and...
when most occult traditions fell out of popularity. The
Hermetic Order of the Golden DawnThe Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order founded in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development. It has been one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism...
curriculum currently includes geomancy in its study curriculum. Geomancy has recently seen a new interest through the works of
John Michael GreerJohn Michael Greer is an author, historian of ideas, Hermeticist and Druid who resides in Ashland, Oregon. He currently serves as the Grand Archdruid of the Ancient Order of Druids in America, a position he has held since 2002....
and other practitioners, with more mainstream occult circles practicing and teaching geomancy.
History of geomancy
Geomancy, from
GreekGreek , an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, is the language of the Greeks. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. In its ancient form, it is the language of classical...
geōmanteía translates literally to "foresight by earth"; it is a
calqueIn linguistics, a calque or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal, word-for-word or root-for-root translation....
of the
ArabicArabic is a Central Semitic language, thus related to and classified alongside other Semitic languages such as Hebrew and the Neo-Aramaic languages. In terms of speakers, the Arabic macrolanguage is the largest member of the Semitic language family. It is spoken by more than 280 million people as...
term
‛ilm al-raml, or the "science of the sand". Earlier Greek renditions of this word borrowed the word
raml ("sand") directly, rendering it as
rhamplion or
rabolion. Other Arabic names for geomancy include
khatt al-raml and
darb al-raml.
Geomancy as an art is theorized to have its origins in the Arabic
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
, although the lack of historical records prevents any measure of certainty. The original names of the figures were traditionally given in Arabic, excluding a
PersianIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran is a country in Western Asia. The name Iran has been in use natively since the Sassanid period and came into international use from 1935, before which the country was known internationally as Persia...
origin. The reference in Hermetic texts to the mythical Ṭumṭum al-Hindi potentially points to an Indian origin, although Skinner thinks this to be unlikely Having an Islamic or Arabic origin is most likely, since the expansive trade routes of Arabian merchants would facilitate the exchange of culture and knowledge. It is theorized that related systems of divination in sub-Saharan
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
, such as
IfáIn traditional Yoruba culture, Ifá refers to a system of divination and the verses of the literary corpus known as the Odú Ifá presented in the course of divination. Orunmila is the deity associated with Ifa diviniation. In some instances, the name Orunmila is used interchangeably with the word Ifa...
and sikidy, either were based on or co-developed with Arabic divination systems; the use of binary numbers is a distinct trait in the culture of the African plains.
European scholars and universities began to translate Arabic texts and treatises in the early
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
, including those on geomancy. Isidore of Seville lists geomancy with other methods of divination including pyromancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, and necromancy without describing its application or methods; it could be that Isidore of Seville was listing methods of elemental
scryingScrying is a magic practice that involves seeing things psychically in a medium, usually for purposes of obtaining spiritual visions and more rarely for purposes of divination or fortune-telling...
more than what is commonly known as geomancy. The poem
Experimentarius attributed to Bernardus Silvestris, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, was a verse translation of a work on astrological geomancy. One of the first discourses on geomancy translated into Latin was the
Ars Geomantiae of Hugh of Santalla; by this point, geomancy must have been an established divination system in Arabic-speaking areas of Africa and the Middle East. Other translators, such as
Gerard of CremonaGerard of Cremona , was a Lombard translator of Arabic scientific works found in the abandoned Arab libraries of Toledo, Spain....
, also produced new translations of geomancy that incorporated astrological elements and techniques that were, up until this point, ignored. From this point on, more European scholars studied and applied geomancy, writing many treatises in the process. Henry Cornelius Agrippa,
Christopher CattanChristophe de Cattan was a reputed astrologer of the sixteenth century. The title page of one of his books gives him as Swiss, from Geneva....
, and
John HeydonJohn Heydon was a Neoplatonist occult philosopher and Rosicrucian.-Life:Rosicrucian sources, including Heydon's own English Physician's Guide and Frederick Talbot's The Wise Man's Crown, give a florid biography for Heydon, in which he is descended from a King of Hungary...
produced oft-cited and well-studied treatises on geomancy, along with other philosophers, occultists, and theologians until the
17th centuryThe 17th Century was that century which lasted from 1601 to 1700 in the Gregorian calendar.The 17th Century falls into the Early Modern period of Europe and was characterized by the Baroque cultural movement, the French Grand Siècle dominated by Louis XIV, and the beginning of modern science and...
, when interest in occultism and divination began to dwindle due to the rise of the
Scientific RevolutionIn the history of science, the scientific revolution was a period when new ideas in physics, astronomy, biology, human anatomy, chemistry, and other sciences led to a rejection of doctrines that had prevailed from Ancient Greece through the Middle Ages, and laid the foundation of modern science...
and the
Age of ReasonAge of reason may refer to:* 17th-century philosophy, as a successor of the Renaissance and a predecessor to the Age of Enlightenment* Age of Enlightenment in its long form of 1600-1800* The Age of Reason, a book by Thomas Paine...
.
Geomancy made a revival in the
19th centuryThe 19th century was a period in history marked by the collapse of the Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Ottoman, Holy Roman and Mughal empires...
, when renewed interest in the occult arose due to the works of
Robert Thomas CrossRobert Thomas Cross - notable astrologer, better known as RaphaelRobert Cross was the seventh 19th century astrologer to use the pseudonym "Raphael", and is best remembered as the editor of Raphael's Ephemeris , though he never claimed to be a mathematician or scientist, unlike many of his...
and
Edward Bulwer-LyttonEdward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton PC , was an English novelist, poet, playwright, and politician...
,
Franz HartmannFranz Hartmann was a German physician, theosophist, occultist, geomancer, astrologer, and author of esoteric works. He wrote esoteric studies and a biography of Jakob Böhme and of Paracelsus. He translated the Bhagavad Gita into German and was the editor of the journal Lotusblüten. He was at one...
published his text,
The Principles of Astrological Geomancy, which spurred new interest in the divination system. Based on this and a few older texts, the
Hermetic Order of the Golden DawnThe Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order founded in Great Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which practiced theurgy and spiritual development. It has been one of the largest single influences on 20th-century Western occultism...
began the task of recollecting knowledge on geomancy along with other occult subjects, with them,
Aleister CrowleyAleister Crowley , born Edward Alexander Crowley, was an English occultist, writer, mountaineer, poet, yogi, and possibly a spy...
published his works that integrated various occult systems of knowledge. However, due to the short time the members of the Golden Dawn desired to learn, practice, and teach the old occult arts, many elaborate systems of divination and ritual had to be compressed, losing much in the process. In effect, they had reduced geomancy from a complex art of interpretation and skill in recognizing patterns to looking up predefined answers based on pairs of figures.
Like other systems of divination, geomancy has a mythological origin. According to one Arabic
HermeticHermeticism is a set of philosophical and religious beliefs based primarily upon the Hellenistic Egyptian pseudepigraphical writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus who is the representation of the congruence of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes...
text,
IdrisIdris or Idriz , is a prophet of Islam. He is known in the Bible as Enoch.-Prophet Idris in the Qur'an:There are four verses related to Prophet Idris in the Qur'an. These are found as consecutive verses in the surahs Maryam and Al-Anbiya ."And mention Prophet Idris in the Book; surely he was a...
(or
Hermes TrismegistusHermes Trismegistus is the representation of the combination of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. In Hellenistic Egypt, the Greeks recognised the congruence of their God Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth...
) witnessed the angel
JibrilIn Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an angel who serves as a messenger from God....
in a dream. Idris asked for enlightenment, and Jibril proceeded to draw a geomantic figure; upon being asked what he was doing, Jibril instructed Idris in the geomantic arts. Keeping this secret, he sought out Ṭumṭum al-Hindi, an Indian king, who then wrote a book on geomancy. This book was passed down through clandestine circles into the hands of Khalaf al-Barbarĩ, who traveled to Medina and converted to
IslamIslam Islam Islam ( al-’islām,
[There are ten pronunciations of Islam in English, differing in whether the first or second syllable has the stress, whether the s is or , and whether the a is pronounced as in father, as in cat, or (when the stress is on the i) as in the a of sofa...]
by the prophet
MuhammadMuhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh , is the founder of the religion of Islam [ إِسْلامْ ] and is regarded by Muslims as a messenger and prophet of , the last and the greatest law-bearer in a series of Islamic prophets as taught by the...
himself. Confessing to knowing a divinatory art, he explained that pre-Islamic
prophetsProphets may refer to:*Nevi'im, which is the second of the three major sections in the Tanakh *Prophets of Islam - 124,000 in total, beginning with Adam and ending with Muhammad.*Prophet, an interpreter or spokesperson of a deity...
knew geomancy, and that by learning geomancy, one may "know all that the prophet knew."
Another mythological story for the origin of geomancy also involves Idris After praying to
GodGod is a deity in theistic and deistic religions and other belief systems, representing either the sole deity in monotheism, or a principal deity in polytheism....
that He give Idris easily a means to earn his living, Idris rested one day, bored and without work, and began to draw figures idly in the sand. As he did so, a stranger appeared before him and questioned what he was doing. Idris replied that he was simply entertaining himself, but the stranger replied that he was doing a very serious act. Idris became incredulous and tried to deny this, but the stranger explained the significance of the meaning of the figure Idris drew. He then commanded Idris to draw another figure, and upon doing so the stranger explained the meaning and significance of that figure. The pair continued this until Idris had discovered and understood the sixteen figures. The stranger then taught Idris how to form the figures in a regular manner and what the results meant, teaching him how to know things that could not be known with just the physical senses. After testing Idris' newfound knowledge and skill of geomancy, and revealing himself to be the angel
JibrilIn Abrahamic religions, Gabriel is an angel who serves as a messenger from God....
in the process, the stranger disappeared. Idris, thankful to God and His messenger that he learned this art, never revealed the art to anyone. Before his death, he wrote a book describing the art as Jibril had taught him, and from his successors.
Other tablets and records from
antiquityAntiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...
identify Idris with the prophets
DanielDaniel is the central protagonist of the Book of Daniel...
or
EnochEnoch is a name occurring twice in the generations of Adam. In one reference, Enoch is described as a grandson of Adam via Cain, and as having had a city named after him...
. This was done in order to give geomancy a legitimate standing as a gift and skill from God, especially since one of the prophets had practiced it. However, those that argued against geomancy, such as
Ibn KhaldunIbn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun Ibn Khaldūn or Ibn Khaldoun (full name, , , (May 27, 1332 AD/732 AH – March 19, 1406 AD/808 AH) was a North African polymath — an astronomer, economist, historian, Islamic scholar, Islamic theologian, hafiz, jurist, lawyer,...
in his
Muqaddima, countered that it was a pre-Islamic system of knowledge, and that all such
epistemologiesEpistemology or theory of knowledge is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge...
were rendered obsolete with the revelation of the
Qur'anThe Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam...
.
Throughout the evolution and migration of geomancy, various tales and plays incorporated aspects of the art into their stories. In one story in One Thousand and One Nights, both the African Magician and his brother use geomancy to find Aladdin in order to do him harm.Geomancy's first mention in print was
William Langland'sWilliam Langland is the conjectured author of the 14th-century English dream-vision Piers Plowman.- Life : The attribution of Piers to Langland rests principally on the evidence of a manuscript held at Trinity College, Dublin...
Piers PlowmanPiers Plowman or Visio Willelmi de Petro Ploughman is the title of a Middle English allegorical narrative poem by William Langland. It is written in unrhymed alliterative verse divided into sections called "passus"...
where it is unfavorably compared to the level of expertise a person needs for astronomy ("gemensye [geomesye] is gynful of speche"). In 1386
ChaucerGeoffrey Chaucer was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat, courtier and diplomat. Although he wrote many works, he is best remembered for his unfinished frame narrative The Canterbury Tales...
used the Parson's Tale to poke fun at geomancy in
Canterbury Tales: "What say we of them that believe in divynailes as …geomancie…" Shakespeare and
Ben JonsonBenjamin Jonson was an English Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor. A contemporary of William Shakespeare, he is best known for his satirical plays, particularly Volpone, The Alchemist, and Bartholomew Fair, which are considered his best, and his lyric poems...
were also known to use geomancy for comic relief.
Dante AlighieriDurante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante, was an Italian poet of the Middle Ages. His central work, the Divina Commedia , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature.In...
's
Divine Comedy makes a passing reference to geomancy. In the first two stanzas of Canto XIX in the
PurgatorioPurgatorio is the second part of Dante's Divine Comedy. It is an allegory telling of the climb of Dante up the Mount of Purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil...
,
Generating the geomantic charts
Geomancy requires the geomancer to create sixteen lines of points or marks without counting, creating sixteen random numbers. Without taking note of the number of points made, the geomancer provides the
seemingly random mechanismSynchronicity is the experience of two or more events that are causally unrelated occurring together in a meaningful manner. To count as synchronicity, the events should be unlikely to occur together by chance....
needed for most forms of divination. Once the lines are produced, the geomancer marks off the points two by two until either one or two points remain in the line; mathematically, this is the same as producing two dots if the number is even or one dot if the number is odd. Taking these leftover points in groups of four, they form the first four
geomantic figuresThe 16 geomantic figures are the primary symbols used in the art of divinatory geomancy. Each geomantic figure represents a certain state of the world or the mind, and can be interpreted in various ways based upon the query put forth and the method used to generate the figures...
and form the basis for the generation of the remaining figures. Once this is done, the "inspired" portion of the geomantic reading is done; what remains is
algorithmIn mathematics, computing, linguistics, and related subjects, an algorithm is an effective method for solving a problem using a finite sequence of instructions. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and many other fields....
ic calculation.
Traditionally, geomancy requires a surface of sand and the hands or a stick, but can be done equally well with a wax tablet and stylus or a pen and paper; ritualized objects may or may not be desired for use in divination. Often, when drawing marks or figures, geomancers will proceed from right to left as a tradition from geomancy's
ArabicThe Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa, such as Arabic and Urdu. After the Latin alphabet, it is the second-most widely used alphabet around the world....
origins, although this is by no means mandatory. Modern methods of geomancy include, in addition to the traditional ways, computerized random number generators or thrown objects; other methods including counting the eyes on potatoes , spinning specialized dice, or drawing a number of beans from a sack in a manner similar to kumalak. Some practitioners use specialized
cardsCartomancy is fortune-telling or divination using a deck of cards. Forms of cartomancy appeared soon after playing cards were first introduced into Europe in the 14th century. Practitioners of cartomancy are generally known as cartomancers, card readers or, simply, readers...
, with each card representing a single geomantic figure; in this case, only four cards are drawn after shuffling. Specialized machines have also been used to generate full geomantic charts.
The figures are entered into a specialized table, known as the shield chart, which illustrates the recursive processes reminiscent of the
Cantor setIn mathematics, the Cantor set, introduced by German mathematician Georg Cantor in 1883 , is a set of points lying on a single line segment that has a number of remarkable and deep properties. Through consideration of it, Cantor and others helped lay the foundations of modern general topology...
that form the figures. The first four figures are called the
matres, or Mothers, and form the basis for the rest of the figures in the chart; they occupy the first four houses in the upper right-hand corner such that the first Mother is to the far right, the second Mother is to her left, and so on (continuing the right-to-left tradition). The next four figures, the
filiae, or Daughters, are formed by rearranging the lines used in the Mothers: the first Daughter is formed by taking the first line from the first, second, third, and fourth Mothers in order and rearranging them to be the first Daughter's first, second, third, and fourth lines, respectively. The process is done similarly for the second Daughter using the second line from the Mothers, and so on. The Daughters are placed in the next four houses in order on the same row as the Mothers.
After the eight
matres and
filiae are formed, the four
nepotes (or Nieces) are formed by adding those pairs of figures that rest above the houses of the respective Niece. Therefore, the first and second Mothers add to form the first Niece, the third and fourth Mothers add to form the second Niece, and so on. Here, addition involves summing the points in the respective lines of the parents: if the sum is an even number, then the resulting figure's line will have two points, and if the sum is odd then the line will have one point. Conceptually, this is the same procedure in mathematical logic as the exclusive or, where a line with two points is used instead of "false" and a line with one point instead of "true".
From the four
nepotes, the two
testes (or Witnesses) are formed in the same manner as the
nepotes: the first and second Nieces form the Right Witness, and the third and fourth Nieces form the Left Witness. From the Witnesses, using the same addition process, the
iudex, or Judge, is formed. A sixteenth figure, the Reconciler or
superiudex, is also generated by adding the Judge and the First Mother, although this has become seen as extraneous and a "backup figure" in recent times.
Interpretation of the charts
The shield chart most likely provided an early visual guide to generating the figures, and the interpreted answer would center on the fifteenth and sixteenth figures, the Judge and Reconciler. Skilled geomancers observe the whole chart, interpreting (among other things) meanings of the figures based on where they place in the chart, the numerical significance of the total points, and the similarities produced by added figures. Generally, the Judge represents the answer to the question, the Right Witness describes the querent's side of the query, the Left Witness represents the quesited's side, and the Reconciler represents the effect of the outcome (or Judge) upon the querent. The skilled geomancer can dedeuce root causes to the situation, hidden influences, the outcome and its aftermath, and general trends and events in the querent's life through interpreting the chart.
One division of the shield chart for interpretation involves triplets of the figures called triplicities. Each triplicity contains two of the Mothers or two of the Daughters and the Niece that results from them. They can be interpreted in a manner similar to the Witnesses and Judge, in that the right parent represents the past, the child the present, and the left parent the future; another way to interpret such a triplet views the right parent as the querent's side, allies, resources, and opinions, the left parent as the quesited's side, and the child as the interaction of the two sides.
| Triplicity |
Figures Involved |
Interpretation |
| First Triplicity |
First Mother, Second Mother, First Niece |
The querent's health, disposition, outlooks, and habits. Current trends in the querent's life. |
| Second Triplicity |
Third Mother, Fourth Mother, Second Niece |
The influences in the querent's life at the time of the reading. Factors that shape the querent's life and the situation surrounding the query. |
| Third Triplicity |
First Daughter, Second Daughter, Third Niece |
The places most frequented by the querent, including the home and the workplace. People and objects found at those places. Family, partners, and housemates of the querent. |
| Fourth Triplicity |
Third Daughter, Fourth Daughter, Fourth Niece |
Friends, associates, coworkers, colleagues of the querent, as well as people in authority over the querent. Situations and factors caused by external sources. |
Another method of evaluating a geomantic chart involves taking the total sum of all points from 16 figures within the shield chart. In order to evaluate how quickly the queried situation would resolve,
Pietro d'AbanoPietro d'Abano also known as Petrus De Apono or Aponensis was an Italian philosopher, astrologer and professor of medicine in Padua. He was born in the Italian town from which he takes his name, now Abano Terme. He gained fame by writing Conciliator Differentiarum, quæ inter Philosophos et Medicos...
suggested that the total sum be compared to the sum of all points in the sixteen
geomantic figuresThe 16 geomantic figures are the primary symbols used in the art of divinatory geomancy. Each geomantic figure represents a certain state of the world or the mind, and can be interpreted in various ways based upon the query put forth and the method used to generate the figures...
, which is 96. If the sum of the chart is 96, then the resolution of the query will be "swift, and neither slow nor doubtful;" in other words, that all things that could be acted upon in the situation described by the query would resolve without delay nor ahead of schedule. If the sum is less than 96, then it will resolve quickly, and in a degree proportional to the difference between 96 and the total. Conversely, if the sum is more than 96, then it will resolve slowly.
European geomancers provided an alternate method of interpreting the figures through the house chart, which feature the
twelve astrological housesMost horoscopic traditions of astrology systems divide the horoscope into a number of houses whose positions depend on time and location rather than on date. The houses of the horoscope represent different spheres of life, described in terms of physical surroundings as well as personal life...
. Here, they assign the figures from the shield chart to the houses in the house chart; the order used differs between different circles of occultists. While European geomancers still used the shield chart to generate the figures and provide most answers, they augmented geomancy with
astrologicalWestern astrology is the system of astrology most popular in Western countries. Western astrology was founded by Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos in the 2nd century AD, and forms a continuation of Hellenistic astrology and ultimately Babylonian astrology....
techniques in the house chart. Based upon the query, they could provide a deeper insight into the querent's life, factors shaping the query itself, and the extent of the situations involved. They took note when several houses shared the same figure; as this figure passes from one house to the next, it generally indicates that the same situation or event affects each of those houses.
Pietro d'Abano discusses the primary modes of perfection used in geomantic interpretations with significators in his geomancy essay. In astrological geomancy, the significators are chosen based upon the identity of the querent and the identity of the quesited. Generally, except when the querent asks about a situation about a subject with no immediate connection to themselves, the querent's significator is located in the first house (see
Derivative houseIn astrology, a derivative house describes the affairs of a house as they relate to another individual. Each house in the horoscope as a specific rulership, such as the second house relating to the native's money. Every house in the horoscope also relates to a specific person known to the native,...
). The quesited's significator is identified based upon the focus of the query: this is based upon the relation of the query to the astrological houses. Some questions require more than two significators, such as in a query involving several primary factors (e.g. two parties quarelling over an estate). Queries that have a yes-or-no, or possible-impossible, answer can easily be answered with these modes of perfection. If the chart perfects, the answer is "yes"; otherwise, in the case of denial of perfection, "no". The nature of the figures themselves should also be considered; if a chart perfects with negative figures, for instance, the matter will resolve but the querent may not like the result. On the other hand, if the chart does not perfect but the figures are good, then the matter will not resolve even though the querent can make do successfully without it.
| Mode of perfection |
Interaction of the figures |
Interpretation |
| Occupation |
The querent's significator and the quesited's significator are the same figure. |
A natural connection between querent and quesited. The matter will resolve by the querent's own nature without extra effort. |
| Conjunction |
One of the significators moves to a house directly beside the house of the other significator. |
The querent and quesited meet each other. The significator that moves shows which party must work to attain the resolution: if the querent's significator moves to the quesited's, then the querent will need to work for the resolution. Otherwise, the quesited will work things out without need from the querent. |
| Mutation |
The two significators appear next to each other elsewhere in the chart. |
The resolution will come by some unexpected or unusual manner. Try new avenues that wouldn't normally be expected. |
| Translation |
The same figure appears in houses directly beside the houses of the significators. |
The resolution will come through a third party. A mediator will help bridge the gap between the querent and quesited. |
| Denial |
No connection exists between the two significators. |
The lack of perfection in a chart. The querent and quesited cannot reach each other. No resolution. |
In addition to modes of perfection, geomancers often took note of
aspectsIn astrology, an aspect is an angle the planets make to each other in the horoscope, and also to the ascendant, midheaven, descendant and nadir. The aspects are measured by the angular distance along the ecliptic in degrees and minutes of celestial longitude between two points, as viewed from the...
between those figures that passed to other houses, and especially ones that made aspects to the significators. Often, when a chart denied perfection, geomancers would observe how the significators aspected each other; the aspects here retain similar meanings from astrology.
Christopher CattanChristophe de Cattan was a reputed astrologer of the sixteenth century. The title page of one of his books gives him as Swiss, from Geneva....
advocates using the strength of the astrological houses in determining the resolution. By observing the nature of the figures (good or ill, depending on the query) and what type of house they fall in (
angularIn astrology, an angular house, or cardinal house, is one of four cardinal houses of the horoscope, which are the houses in which the angles of the chart are found. The angular houses of the horoscope are considered to be the most ardent, or forceful, and are considered to have the greatest impact...
,
succedentSuccedent house is an astrological term for the houses that follow the angular houses in an Astrological chart. “Succedent” derives from the Latin succedens meaning "subsequent" or "succeeding"...
, or
cadentIn astrology, a cadent house is the last house of each quadrant of the zodiac. A quadrant begins with an angular house, proceeds to a succedent house and ends with a cadent house...
), he judges the total effect of the figures on the query. The figures that fall in cadent houses have little to no effect, those that fall in succedent houses have a transient effect, and those that fall in angular houses have the strongest and most lasting effect upon the query.
Other examples of astrological technique used in geomancy include assigning zodiacal rulerships to the geomantic figures, linking geomantic figures to parts of the body based on zodiacal rulers, and assigning planetary spirits, intelligences, and genii to the figures based on their ruling planets.
Geomancy and mathematics
The
four| class="infobox" style="width: 20em;"|-! colspan="2" align="center" style="font: 10em times; background:#ccc;" | 4|-| colspan="2" | |-| Cardinal| 4
four|-| Ordinal| 4th
fourth|-| Numeral system| quaternary|-| Factorization| |-...
binary
elementsIn mathematics, an element or member of a set is any one of the distinct objects that make up that set.- Sets :Writing A = {1, 2, 3, 4 }, means that the elements of the set A are the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. Sets of elements of A, for example {1, 2}, are...
of each figure allow for 16 different combinations, each called a tableau. As each chart is generated from the four Mothers, there are a total number of 16
4, or 65536, possible charts. Due to the mathematics of the chart, only figures that have an even number of points total can become Judges; each of the eight Judges then has 8192 charts associated with it. Traditional practitioners of geomancy use this knowledge as a type of parity check on the chart to ensure that no mistakes have been made while computing the figures.
In each chart, if all sixteen figures are observed (the four Mothers, the four Daughters, the four Nieces, the Witnesses, Judge, and Reconciler), at least two of the figures must be the same. However, as the Reconciler is usually termed an optional figure, 16 combinations of Mother figures can yield a chart where the Mothers, Daughters, Nieces, Witnesses, and Judge are all unique. Notably, Populus cannot appear in these charts, since mathematically it either requires two figures to be the same in order to be formed, or produces a duplicate figure when added to another figure. In such charts, the Judge will always be one of Conjunctio, Amissio, Carcer, or Acquisitio. The sixteen combinations of Mothers, in order from the First to the Fourth Mother, are
- Puer, Caput Draconis, Tristitia, Albus
- Conjunctio, Puella, Fortuna Major, Tristitia
- Puella, Puer, Tristitia, Albus
- Puella, Cauda Draconis, Tristitia, Albus
- Rubeus, Laetitia, Puella, Puer
- Rubeus, Laetitia, Cauda Draconis, Puella
- Rubeus, Laetitia, Cauda Draconis, Caput Draconis
- Rubeus, Laetitia, Caput Draconis, Puer
- Acquisitio, Puella, Albus, Fortuna Major
- Laetitia, Fortuna Minor, Puer, Conjunctio
- Laetitia, Fortuna Minor, Acquisitio, Cauda Draconis
- Cauda Draconis, Caput Draconis, Tristitia, Albus
- Caput Draconis, Amissio, Fortuna Major, Tristitia
- Caput Draconis, Carcer, Albus, Fortuna Major
- Fortuna Minor, Rubeus, Puer, Amissio
- Fortuna Minor, Rubeus, Carcer, Cauda Draconis
Mathematician
Ron EglashRon Eglash is an American cyberneticist, university professor, and author widely known for his work in the field of ethnomathematics, which aims to study the diverse relationships between math and culture...
, while studying fractal structures in African culture, identified a binary recursive process that used self similarity to create a random number generator from an initial set of lines that the geomancer draws on the ground. This technique was brought to Europe by way of North African Islamic mystics. It is very likely that these mystics had previously obtained the approach from traditional African societies by way of interactions between the West African and North African trade or Islamic kingdoms. Unlike the practices in many other regions (e.g. the Middle East and China) which utilized base 10 numeric systems, the base 2 system utilized in geomancy had long been widely applied in sub-Saharan Africa. Partly inspired by the geomantic technique,
Gottfried LeibnizGottfried Wilhelm Leibniz was a German philosopher, polymath and mathematician who wrote primarily in Latin and French....
, a German mathematician, developed the binary code theory, which later was the base for Boolean algebra and modern computers.
Other forms of geomancy
The Arabic tradition consists of sketching sixteen random lines of dots in
sandSand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.As the term is used by geologists, sand particles range in diameter from 0.0625 to 2 millimeters. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain...
. This same process survived virtually unchanged through its introduction to Europe in the medieval era, and survives to this day in various Arabic countries. Sikidy and other forms of African divination also follow techniques that have remained virtually unchanged.
In
AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
one traditional form of geomancy consists of throwing handfuls of dirt in the air and observing how the dirt falls. It can also involve a mouse as the agent of the earth spirit.
IfáIn traditional Yoruba culture, Ifá refers to a system of divination and the verses of the literary corpus known as the Odú Ifá presented in the course of divination. Orunmila is the deity associated with Ifa diviniation. In some instances, the name Orunmila is used interchangeably with the word Ifa...
, one of the oldest forms of geomancy, originated in West Africa, and uses the same sixteen
geomantic figuresThe 16 geomantic figures are the primary symbols used in the art of divinatory geomancy. Each geomantic figure represents a certain state of the world or the mind, and can be interpreted in various ways based upon the query put forth and the method used to generate the figures...
as in Arabic and Western geomancy with different meanings and names; the process is shortened to using only two figures. In
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, the diviner may enter a trance and make markings on the ground that are interpreted by an associate (often a young or illiterate boy). Similar forms of geomancy include
scryingScrying is a magic practice that involves seeing things psychically in a medium, usually for purposes of obtaining spiritual visions and more rarely for purposes of divination or fortune-telling...
involving the patterns seen in rocks or soil.
The Chinese divination practice of the
I ChingThe I Ching , “Yì Jīng” , Classic of Changes or Book of Changes; also called Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. The book contains a divination system comparable to Western geomancy or the West African Ifá system...
has several striking similarities to geomancy. It includes a series of binary trigrams (as opposed to tegtragrams used in geomancy) that are generated at random, the resulting figures of which are taken in combination. However, the figures are not added or reorganized as in geomancy, but are instead taken to form a single hexagram. While there are 2
3, or eight, trigrams, there are 2
6, or 64, hexagrams. This yields a smaller set of resulting charts than geomancy.
In
KoreaKorea is a civilization and formerly unified nation currently divided into two states. Located on the Korean Peninsula, it borders China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the east by the Korea Strait....
, this tradition was popularized in the ninth century by the Buddhist monk Toson. In Korea, geomancy takes the form of interpreting the topography of the land to determine future events and or the strength of a dynasty or particular family. Therefore, not only were location and land forms important, but the topography could shift causing disfavor and the need to relocate. The idea is still accepted in many South East Asian societies today, although with reduced force.
In the 19th century,
Christian missionariesChristianity in China is a growing minority religion that comprises Protestants , Catholics , and a small number of Orthodox Christians...
in China translated
feng shuiFeng shui is an ancient Chinese system of aesthetics believed to use the laws of both Heaven and Earth to help one improve life by receiving positive qi...
as "geomancy" due to their observations of local shamans and priests manipulating the flow and direction of
energyIn traditional Chinese culture, qi is an active principle forming part of any living thing....
based on aesthetics, location, and position of objects and buildings. While incorrect to call it so, the term "geomancy" now commonly indicates
feng shui. Similarly, the introduction of a similar Indian system of aesthetics and positioning to harmonize the local energies,
vastu shastraVastu Shastra is a traditional Hindu system of design based on directional alignments. It is primarily applied in Hindu architecture, especially for Hindu temples, although it covers other applications, including poetry, dance, sculpture, etc...
, has come under the name "geomancy". Due to the definition having changed over time (along with the recognized definition of the suffix
-mancy), "geomancy" can cover any spiritual, metaphysical, or pseudoscientific practice that is related to the
EarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun. It is the fifth largest of the eight planets in the solar system, and the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in terms of diameter, mass and density...
. In recent times the term has been applied to a wide range of other occult and fringe activities, including
Earth mysteriesEarth mysteries describes an interest in a wide range of scientific and pseudo-scientific ideas focusing on cultural and religious beliefs about the Earth, generally with regard to particular geographical locations of historical significance...
and the introduction of ley lines and Bau-Biologie.
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