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Geomancy (from Greek geōmanteia< geo, "earth" + manteia, "divination"; a calque of Arabic ‘ilm al-raml, "the science of sand"), is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground, or how handfuls of soil, dirt or sand land when someone tosses them. The Arabic tradition consists of sketching sixteen random lines of dots in sand.

In Africa 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. Ifá, one of the oldest forms of geomancy, originated in West Africa. In China, the diviner may enter a trance and make markings on the ground that are interpreted by an associate (often a young boy).

In Korea, 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.^[1]

Geomancy formed part of the required study of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn in the late 19th century, and also survives in modern occult practice.

In the 19th century, Christian missionaries in China translated Feng Shui as geomancy, but this was incorrect.

In recent times the term has been applied to a wide range of other occult, fringe, and pseudoscientific activities, including Bau-Biologie. This article deals with geomancy in its traditional meaning.

Literary background

The poem Experimentarius attributed to Bernardus Silvestris (Bernard Silvester), who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, was a verse translation of a work on astrological geomancy.

Either Gerard of Cremona (c. 1114–87) or Gerard of Sabionetta (Sabloneta), who lived in the thirteenth century, wrote or translated Astronomical Geomancy from Arabic into Latin. An original in Arabic is possible, as the traditional method of structuring a geomantic divination follows the direction of Arabic writing. There has been disagreement among scholars over which of these two men was responsible for this text.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "geomancy" appeared in vernacular English in 1362 (vernacular English at this time was the language of the lowest classes; Latin and French were the common languages of the middle class, gentry, and nobles).

Geomancy's first mention in print was Langland's Piers Plowman where it is unfavorably compared to the level of expertise a person needs for astronomy ("gemensye [geomesye] is gynful of speche"). In 1386 Chaucer 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 also used geomancy for comic relief.

It was explained as divination (in the same sentence with pyromancy and hydromancy) in the best-selling Travels of Sir John Mandeville (1400, ISBN 0-14-044435-1), as "geomantie that superstitious arte" in a book of alchemy (1477), and defined in Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa's Philosophy of Natural Magic: Complete Work on Natural Magic, White & Black Magic (1569, ISBN 1-56459-160-3) as a form of divination "which doth divine by certaine conjectures taken of similitudes of the cracking of the Earthe." European geomancy does owe some of its valuations to medieval astrology (the "houses" for example).

In Ben Jonson's Elizabethan comedy The Alchemist, the character Abel Drugger is a practitioner of geomancy.

In the story of Aladdin often included in "The Arabian Nights" called "The History of Aladdin" both the African Magician and his brother use geomancy to find Aladdin to do him harm.^[2]

Western methodology

Geomancy in the Western tradition requires a tool to make short marks with and a surface to make marks upon; geomancy was originally performed with a stick and a flat surface of sand, but has also been performed with wax tablets and styluses or a pen and paper. Modern methods of geomancy include, in addition to the traditional pen-and-paper or sand methods, using geomancy cards, random number generators, or thrown objects.

Diviners in medieval Europe used parchment or paper for drawing the dots of geomancy but they followed the traditional direction of notation, right to left, for recording the dots. Western occultism still defines geomantic technique as marking sixteen lines of points in sand or soil with a wand or on a sheet of paper. The points are not counted as they are made (thus forming the random number generator needed for any technical divination method). The geomancer counts the number of points made in each line and produces either a single dot (for an odd number of points) or two dots (for an even number) for each line. The pattern of dots produced by the first to fourth lines are known as a figure, as are the fifth to eighth lines, and so on.

Those four derived figures are entered into two charts, known as the Shield and House charts, and through binary processes form the seed of the figures that fill the whole charts. The charts are subsequently analyzed and interpreted by the geomancer to find causes, solutions, options, and responses to the problem quesited, along with general information about the querent providing an all-round reading into the querent's life.

Once practiced by commoners and rulers alike, it was one of the most popular forms of divination throughout Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages. Books and treatises on geomancy were published up until the 17th century, some by respected philosophers and academics, when the geomancy generally stopped being practiced. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn attempted to bring about a revival of old occult arts, including geomancy, but given the short time they desired to master certain arts, geomancy as taught by the Golden Dawn was turned into a simple lookup method with interpretation and analyzation of full charts remaining unknown. Modern teachers and practitioners of geomancy include John Michael Greer and Stephen Skinner.

The four binary elements of each figure allow for 16 different combinations, each called a tableau. As there are 4 root figures (or "Mothers") in each chart, there are a total number of 16×16×16×16, or 65536, possible charts. The charts are also interpreted differently depending on the nature of the question, making it one of the most thorough kinds of divination available, and with a symbolic alphabet of only 16 figures is simple to learn.

Astrological geomancy

Because traditional Western geomantic divination was so dependent on astrological technique, it was often referred to as astrological geomancy. Although documents from the 12th century explain the theories and methodologies of this type of geomancy, it was more recently popularized by occultist Franz Hartmann in his book The Principles of Astrological Geomancy.

Divination, Geomancy, fractals and modern computers

Mathematician Ron Eglash, 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 and/or Islamic kingdoms. For, unlike the practices in many other regions (i.e. the Middle East and China etc.) 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 Leibniz, a German mathematician, developed the binary code theory, which later was the base for boolean algebra (although it should be noted that certain boolean systems such as that used by SQL are in fact based upon three-valued logic) and modern computers.^[3]

References

^ Peter H. Lee and Wm. Theodore de Bary eds, Sources of Korean Tradition Volume 1, New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
^ "George Stade,"The Arabian Nights" Barnes and Nobles Classics 2007
^ of Mathematician Ron Eglash's talk on fractalsand their manifestations in various African cultures

External links

TED Talk by Ron Eglash (geomancy is mentioned in the video chapter "Bamana Sand Divination")]

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 ==Divination, Geomancy, fractals and modern computers ==
-Mathematician [[Ron Eglash]], 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 and/or Islamic kingdoms.  For, unlike the practices in many other regions (i.e. the Middle East and China etc.) 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 Leibniz]], a German mathematician, developed the binary code theory, which later was the base for boolean algebra (although it should be noted that certain boolean systems such as that used by [[SQL]] are in fact based upon three-valued logic) and modern computers.<ref>[[http://blog.ted.com/2007/11/ron_eglash.php|Transcript of Mathematician Ron Eglash's talk on fractalsand their manifestations in various African cultures]]</ref>
+Mathematician [[Ron Eglash]], 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 and/or Islamic kingdoms.  For, unlike the practices in many other regions (i.e. the Middle East and China etc.) 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 Leibniz]], a German mathematician, developed the binary code theory, which later was the base for boolean algebra (although it should be noted that certain boolean systems such as that used by [[SQL]] are in fact based upon three-valued logic) and modern computers.<ref>[http://blog.ted.com/2007/11/ron_eglash.php|Transcript of Mathematician Ron Eglash's talk on fractalsand their manifestations in various African cultures]</ref>
 ==References==