Geomancy
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John Michael Greer wrote a very detailed and easy to understand book on this subject. I find the entire system less open to interpretation, Sorta like divinatory binary code. If you do not like the pen and paper method you can use tons of other things, marbles, rocks, runes, spare change etc. The invocation is the most important part. the easiest way to begin is to just use the shield chart. once you get a hang of the characters and there relationships you can move on and add the astrological aspect of this technique. Even though there are only 16 figures it can be a little intimating, like tarot work it in stages.
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@jcrow said
"John Michael Greer wrote a very detailed and easy to understand book on this subject. I find the entire system less open to interpretation, Sorta like divinatory binary code. If you do not like the pen and paper method you can use tons of other things, marbles, rocks, runes, spare change etc. The invocation is the most important part. the easiest way to begin is to just use the shield chart. once you get a hang of the characters and there relationships you can move on and add the astrological aspect of this technique. Even though there are only 16 figures it can be a little intimating, like tarot work it in stages."
I'll be experimenting with various methods once I've memorized the basics of the technique, the coin method looks superficially like the I Ching method so I'll probably start with that, I've been a tarot guy for about the last 20 years since the tarot/qaballah was the first system I learned, so that I don't have to go rooting through texts to find things that I have wired firmly into my brain, I'm looking forward to getting my teeth into a new system, and I already have Regardies book ordered from Amazon and should have it in a few days.
It should be interesting to see if I can get it to work.
One thing that does interest me though, is the mechanism by which these things work, because all my reasoning and logic say's that they shouldn't, and yet I have always found the Tarot to be useful despite that.
I probably need to re-think my ideas about how the universe is put together
Not an easy task for a hard-headed rationalist like me. -
They geomancy they are speaking of is in regards to a certain Liber of Crowley's that has to do with the magician making dots almost at random, by his/her subconscious Will, that end up meaning something prophetic.
That's what I got out of a quick read of the liber months and months ago.
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Why people always mistake Crowley's manly influential writing for "pompous", I will never know.
If one takes his writing as pompous, Christ, one should concentrate on releasing more testosterone in their body during meditation. We are in the Aeon of Horus, a very male ever-growing child who states things bluntly, obviously, to-the-quick, as Crowley does.
.."but there are some not so receptive to the Work."
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To give a broader answer to the original question: Geomancy is a method of divination based on communication with Earth elementals (gnomes). The communion is effected classically by surrendering just enough physical control after an appropriate summoning and binding of the gnomes that they will guide your hand to make unconscious marks across moistened sand or soil. These dashes are composed into figures (not entirely different from the way that Yi Ching hexagrams are formed), and composed into a horoscope wheel - so that astrological symbolism (primarily house symbolism) can be used as the framework of the divination.
A modern innovation - I think it can be credited to Regardie - is that using a felt-tipped pen on paper makes the dashes as effectively as preparing a sandbox.
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@ThelemicMage said
"Why people always mistake Crowley's manly influential writing for "pompous", I will never know.
If one takes his writing as pompous, Christ, one should concentrate on releasing more testosterone in their body during meditation. We are in the Aeon of Horus, a very male ever-growing child who states things bluntly, obviously, to-the-quick, as Crowley does.
.."but there are some not so receptive to the Work.""
Sorry, I forgot I'm not allowed to criticize the great poo-bah
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Criticism allowed. Others have different opinions. I absolutely adore his prose style, it is a very high end of the early 20th Century English style IMHO.
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I love it in the Holy books for sure, it serves a great purpose in speaking to the subconscious, and I'd go crazy trying to memorize tracts of boring text if the Class A work was all in a scientific style.
I guess that having that kind of style in instructional works just isn't to my taste, it just seems a bit unnecessary.
Anyway, way off topic, my apologies.
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And Crowley adored criticism, you might say. It was proof to him that people were actually interested in his important work, even though their consciousness wasn't entirely into it.
Plus, he found a subconscious/conscious "divine" game with his little puppets in the garden by receiving such criticism and countering it with newer prose.
Never question the great Poo-Bah!
The Great and Powerful Oz has spoken!
(Do not pay attention to the little man behind the curtain. He is merely an instrument of the divine!) -Aiwaz
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@Jim Eshelman said
" The communion is effected classically by surrendering just enough physical control after an appropriate summoning and binding of the gnomes"
Is there any kind of standard or tradtional method or instruction for doing this? Does Regardie cover it in his book? -
@Iamus said
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@Jim Eshelman said
" The communion is effected classically by surrendering just enough physical control after an appropriate summoning and binding of the gnomes"
Is there any kind of standard or tradtional method or instruction for doing this? Does Regardie cover it in his book?"Yes, he does.
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An easy way to look at it is this:
(and if you are in everyday awareness of such creatures, it will make it so much easier.)Identify as much as you consciously can about yourself with that of the gnomes. From the way your ears look at different angles, to the way you speak and walk. From the way you feel the breath of the forest to the way you breathe.
Everyone connects to their gnome in another dimension, very close to here actually, but their "world" seems so much more intimate and "huger" than ours is, even though they are "smaller" creatures.
When you can feel these energies creeping up through your meditation upon these aforementioned ideas, you can begin to walk that fine line of feeling out divination, even with (simple?) geomancy.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"To give a broader answer to the original question: Geomancy is a method of divination based on communication with Earth elementals (gnomes). The communion is effected classically by surrendering just enough physical control after an appropriate summoning and binding of the gnomes that they will guide your hand to make unconscious marks across moistened sand or soil. These dashes are composed into figures (not entirely different from the way that Yi Ching hexagrams are formed), and composed into a horoscope wheel - so that astrological symbolism (primarily house symbolism) can be used as the framework of the divination.
A modern innovation - I think it can be credited to Regardie - is that using a felt-tipped pen on paper makes the dashes as effectively as preparing a sandbox."
Thank you for explaining this Jim...what house system do you use for geomancy? Is it just symbolic (like Porphyry?)
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Just symbolical. The divination tells you what house each figure is in. You don't use real astrology at all - never a matter of actually calculating a horoscope or a single planet position.
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thank you Jim, that clarifies. I know I may be asking a heresy here, but if one does not have much earth element in the natal chart (I only have moon in virgo), would they have problems working with the gnomes, Ghob and therefore geomancy? What I mean is, do the balance of the elements in the natal chart (sidereal, that is) affect the ability of the operator to work with one element if they are deficient in it?
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@Freya said
"thank you Jim, that clarifies. I know I may be asking a heresy here, but if one does not have much earth element in the natal chart (I only have moon in virgo), would they have problems working with the gnomes, Ghob and therefore geomancy? What I mean is, do the balance of the elements in the natal chart (sidereal, that is) affect the ability of the operator to work with one element if they are deficient in it?"
I don't think the so-called elemental attributions (Medieval concatenations to triplicities, based on a fictitious zodiac) have any value at all. If I did, though, then an "Earth" luminary is surely enough! In any case, (1) I don't think it matters and (2) if it did, I'd look for things like strength of Saturn.
I always found geomancy boring and superficial - no depth or dignity to it. I learned it dutifully when it was in my curriculum, and employed it laboriously and sullenly - very earthen of me
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My Saturn is in Libra, so it should be ok... But what you say about the triplicities not really making any difference is music to my ears. It is not the first time I hear of element deficiencies based on the natal chart (from tropical astrologers).... so thank you for that.
What divination technique, apart from Western Sidereal astrology, would you recommend, once we are past learning geomancy? -
@Freya said
"What divination technique, apart from Western Sidereal astrology, would you recommend, once we are past learning geomancy?"
I don't consider astrology divination, because it's primarily analytical/scientific, not relying on subconscious or superconscious links per se.
But to answer your question: I'm a huge fan of Yi Ching and, of course, Tarot.