Geomancy and I Ching: Binary Twins?

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Although I've been an astrologer and tarot-card reader for a very long time, over the years I've also experimented (separately) with geomancy and I Ching. Here is an analysis of the binary syncretism that exists between the two. (In this essay I'm talking about Western geomancy, not Chinese feng shui.) Classical, location-based geomantic …

The Case for Esoteric Syncretism

AUTHOR'S NOTE: In The Book of Thoth, Aleister Crowley went to great lengths (15 pages) to relate a number of primitive cultural rites to his understanding of the Fool, with much of his inspiration coming from Sir James George Frazer's anthropological tome, The Golden Bough. This conceptual melding is known as syncretism, and as one …

Mild Spring? A Geomantic Example Reading

For my first geomantic "return engagement," I decided to ask whether we will have a milder-then-usual Spring season here in my local area (and no, I didn't consider the "groundhog factor"). I used my bowl of carefully-gathered stones, even though they came from our previous "home ground" and are more regional than local. I'm rusty …

Easing Back into Geomancy: Tools of the Trade

As promised, I'm moving toward exploring forms of divination beyond cartomancy and horary astrology. Several years ago I spent a good deal of time pursuing the art of geomancy but let it lapse as my tarot practice grew. I found it to be quite accurate in its predictions about practical affairs and accumulated a small …

Divinatory Revisionism

Yesterday I was reading an article that equated geomancy with "earth healing" - that is healing of or through the Earth. This stopped me in my tracks because not only does this usage have absolutely nothing to do with the suffix "mancy," which derives from the ancient Greek word "manteia," meaning divination, it is at odds with …