On Geomantic Energy Centers, and the Via Elementorum Exercise

August 27, 2018 By polyphanes in geomancy, mathesis, occult Tags: arabic, chakras, elements, energy, energy work, epode, geomantic magic, gesture, iao, intonation, mudra, palindrome, qur'an 5 Comments

So, the last post on my system of epodes, or bīja/mantra-like intonations, for the elements and geomantic figures, wasn’t originally going to be a post of its own. It was originally just a small thing that was going to fall within another post on a novel technique of mine, a kind of geomantic energy work, based on a notion of geomantically-derived energy centers in the body. That topic was brought up earlier this summer in the context of how such a system of energy centers inspired by geomancy could be developed and explored, and I’ve been thinking about how to actually begin working with the subtle energy body in a geomantic way. The idea is that, based on the Geomantic Adam diagram from MS Arabe 2631, we can posit that there are four main energy centers in the body, each associated with the four elements: a Head center for Fire, a Throat center for Air, a Belly center for Water, and a Groin center for Earth, based on the parts of the body associated with the figures Laetitia, Rubeus, Albus, and Tristitia, which each have only one element active in their (you guessed it) so-called head, neck, belly, and feet lines.

Of course, based on the Geomantic Adam diagram, it could totally be conceived that there are 16 such energy centers in the body, one for each geomantic figure, as indicated according to the diagram. However, of these, the four primary ones would be those corresponding to the pure-element figures Laetitia, Rubeus, Albus, and Tristitia. However, for the sake of fullness, here’s where I’d place all such energy centers:

Figure	Body Part	Energy Center
Laetitia	Head	Center of the head behind the eyes
Rubeus	Throat and neck	Center of the throat
Puella	Left shoulder	Upper left chest between shoulder and collarbone
Puer	Right shoulder	Upper right chest between shoulder and collarbone
Carcer	Chest and breast	Center of chest cavity by the heart
Amissio	Left hand and arm	Middle of the palm of the left hand
Acquisitio	Right hand and arm	Middle of the palm of the right hand
Albus	Stomach, upper belly	Solar plexus, just under the sternum
Coniunctio	Ribcage	Sternum
Populus	Back	Spine between kidneys
Via	Intestines, lower belly	Just below navel
Tristitia	Crotch and genitals	Perineum
Fortuna Maior	Left hip and upper leg	Crease between left buttock and thigh
Fortuna Minor	Right hip and upper leg	Crease between right buttock and hip
Cauda Draconis	Left foot and lower leg	Middle of the sole of the left foot
Caput Draconis	Right foot and lower leg	Middle of the sole of the right foot

Now, most of these are definitely secondary to the purpose of this post, which is to demonstrate a simple energy exercise to work with the primary four energy centers, and honestly, most of these secondary centers are simply conjectural with varying degrees of confidence. For instance, I’m totally about the placement of the centers for Amissio and Acquisitio as well as Cauda and Caput Draconis and why they’re positioned where they are. However, for ones like Coniunctio, Carcer, or Populus, I’m much less sure about these. There’s also the possibility of extending these to other parts of the body, say the orifices of the head or to other major organs in the body, much as there are secondary chakras that connect to the primary seven chakras distributed throughout the body. However, all these can be explored another time in another post; for the purposes of this exercise, we’ll limit ourselves to the centers for Laetitia, Rubeus, Albus, and Tristitia.

First, before we continue with describing the energy exercise, the practitioner will need to decide on one main thing for their implementation of the exercise. The first is a set of elemental epodes, bīja-like intonable single-syllable “mantras”. This is what I discussed in the last post, and what I had to break out of this one, because (as can be seen), it was too big to be just thrown into another topic and really deserved being fleshed out in its own post. After all, when dealing with such innovations, it really helps to lay out a solid theoretical foundation and expand on the whys and hows and wheres so that, when we begin to involve these new elements of rite and ritual, we can have a good understanding from the get-go about what can be used where and for what purposes. While I give a whole bevy of possible systems of elemental epodes, there are four I would recommend most to choose from:

Arabic system
- Fire: bā (با)
- Air: zā (زا)
- Water: dā (دا)
- Earth: ḥā (حا)
Simple Greek system
- Fire: ba (ΒΑ)
- Air: za (ΖΑ)
- Water: da (ΔΑ)
- Earth: ha (Ἁ)
Hybrid Greek system
- Fire: bi (ΒΙ)
- Air: zu (ΖΥ)
- Water: dē (ΔΗ)
- Earth: ha (Ἁ)
Exact Mathesis system
- Fire: kho (ΧΟ)
- Air: phu (ΦΥ)
- Water: ksē (ΞΗ)
- Earth: thō (ΘΩ)

Personally, because I have a hard time pronouncing the Arabic letter ḥāʾ and because I like using the planetary vowels to extend the system, I prefer to use the hybrid Greek set of, which I also plan on using in the future for the other geomantic figures besides the four pure elemental ones of Laetitia, Rubeus, Albus, and Tristitia. However, for the purposes of this energy exercise, you can go with a simpler, more straightforward system if you so choose.

Beyond knowing your preferred set of elemental epodes, let’s also establish a few other things:

The gesture of Laetitia is a hand gesture made with the index finger pressed down into the palm and the thumb covering the index finger, with the other fingers extended.
The gesture of Rubeus is a hand gesture made with the middle finger pressed down into the palm and the thumb covering the index finger, with the other fingers extended.
The gesture of Albus is a hand gesture made with the ring finger pressed down into the palm and the thumb covering the index finger, with the other fingers extended.
The gesture of Tristitia is a hand gesture made with the little finger pressed down into the palm and the thumb covering the index finger, with the other fingers extended.
The six permutations of the Divine Name: “ΙΑΩ ΑΩΙ ΩΙΑ ΑΙΩ ΙΩΑ ΩΑΙ”. These are just the six different ways the name ΙΑΩ (ee-ah-ough) can be spelled. Those who prefer an Arabic flavor can pronounce these using only the three (long) vowels available in standard and classical Arabic: “ĪĀŪ ĀŪĪ ŪĪĀ ĀĪŪ ĪŪĀ ŪĀĪ” (ياو اوي ويا ايو يوا واي).
There’s a particular Arabic phrase that’s a famous palindrome in Islam: “RABBAKA FAKABBIR”, literally “glorify your Lord”, from the Qur’an 74:3, “‏رَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ‎” (you can see it in full vocalized Arabic and hear it cantillated here). That it’s a palindrome here will work well for our purposes, as well as recalling the Arabic and Divine origins of geomancy. Of course, if you wanted to Hellenicize it and make it a proper palindrome in a Greek script, I would recommend spelling it as “ΡΗΒΒΑΚΑ ΦΑΚΑΒΒΗΡ”, but this is just a small detail.

Alright! At this point, we have a a rough set of four main energy centers in the body, a set of intonations, and a set of gestures to use. With all those at our disposal, we’re now (FINALLY omg) able to describe the actual energetic exercise. First, let’s try something simple, shall we? Those who are familiar with the work of Strategic Sorcery’s Jason Miller will be familiar with his well-known primer on magic, The Sorcerer’s Secrets. In that book, he describes a simple energy practice called the The Pillar and The Spheres, a quick, short, and easy method of getting the subtle energy body cleansed and primed for more powerful work. I’m using that as my template for the really simple energy exercise that follows:

Stand upright with good posture, with the feet shoulder-width apart. If standing is not possible, sit in a straight-backed chair. Relax the body, keeping good posture. Clear the breath and empty the lungs. If desired, perform a Pillar-like exercise at this point to clear out the central channel, such as that of Jason Miller or my own variant, the Pillar of Heaven and Earth (see this post for more information).
Focus the attention on a spot in the middle of your head, behind the forehead, just somewhat above the spot between the ears and behind the eyes. See an empty sphere at this spot. Breathe in a hot, dry, upwards-motion, red-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Fire, seeing the sphere burn brightly, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Focus the attention on a spot in the middle of your throat. See an empty sphere at this spot. Breathe in a warm, moist, spinning, yellow-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Air, seeing the sphere whip upon itself, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Focus the attention on a spot at the solar plexus, in the soft spot just under the sternum of the upper abdomen. See an empty sphere at this spot. Breathe in a cool, wet, downwards-motion, blue-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Water, seeing water fill and surround this sphere, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Focus the attention on a spot at the perineum, at the base of the spine between the genitals and the anus. See an empty sphere at this spot. Breathe in a cold, dry, heavy and compressing, dark-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Earth, seeing rock and soil crack and crystallize through this sphere, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Spend a few moments relaxing, maintaining the visualization and manifestation of the four energy centers in the head, throat, belly, and perineum.

Okay, easy enough! With or without any other preliminary work, such as a Pillar activity or some other practice, this is simple and straightforward enough, and is what I would recommend for a first-attempt by those who would want to start working with a four-primary-center subtle body system within a geomantic contexts. After getting used to this, we can elaborate on the process a bit and start incorporating other things that we’ve already discussed. One of the inspirations for this method is something I’ve been doing a while, the Attunement portion of my old Q.D.Sh. Ritual, except here we’re using different intonations and making use of the geomantic gestures in addition to the basic exercise template given above.

Stand upright with good posture, with the feet shoulder-width apart. If standing is not possible, sit in a straight-backed chair. Relax the body, keeping good posture. Clear the breath and empty the lungs.
Breathe in deeply. As you draw in breath, visualize a clear beam of pure, cool light shooting down from the infinite heavens above through the crown of your head, through the center of your body, and out from your perineum downwards, clearing out your body of all darkness. Intone the word “RABBAKA”, exhaling all air from the lungs, visualizing and feeling the beam of light continue shooting down through you.
Breathe in deeply. Visualize a clear beam of powerful, hot light shooting up from the infinite hells below through the perineum, through the center of your body, and out from the crown of your head, stabilizing your body with fortitude. Intone the word “FAKABBIR”, exhaling all air from the lungs, visualizing and feeling the beam of light continue shooting up through you.
Focus the attention on a spot in the middle of your head, behind the forehead, just somewhat above the spot between the ears and behind the eyes. See an empty sphere at this spot. Lower your left hand down and out to the side and raise your right hand up and out to the side, making the gesture of Laetitia with both hands. Breathe in a hot, dry, upwards-motion, red-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Fire, seeing the sphere burn brightly, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Focus the attention on a spot in the middle of your throat. See an empty sphere at this spot. Raise both your hands up and out to the sides, making the gesture of Rubeus with both hands. Breathe in a warm, moist, spinning, yellow-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Air, seeing the sphere whip upon itself, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Focus the attention on a spot at the solar plexus, in the soft spot just under the sternum of the upper abdomen. Lower your right hand down and out to the side and raise your left hand up and out to the side, making the gesture of Albus with both hands. See an empty sphere at this spot. Breathe in a cool, wet, downwards-motion, blue-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Water, seeing water fill and surround this sphere, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Focus the attention on a spot at the perineum, at the base of the spine between the genitals and the anus. See an empty sphere at this spot. Lower both your hands down and out to the sides, making the gesture of Tristitia with both hands. Breathe in a cold, dry, heavy and compressing, dark-colored energy that fills this sphere. Intone the epode of Earth, seeing rock and soil crack and crystallize through this sphere, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Inhale deeply. Place both hands together at the lowest point they can reach without bending over, palms pressed together. Slowly raise them outwards and up in a large circular motion separately so that they meet again high up above your head. Intone the first half of the permutations of the Divine Name “ΙΑΩ ΑΩΙ ΩΙΑ” while doing this, exhaling all air from the lungs. Visualize the four centers becoming connected along a single path of light upwards from the perineum center up to the head center.
Inhale deeply. Slowly lower the hands outward and down in a large circular motion separately so that they meet again at their lowest point. Intone the second half of the permutations of the Divine Name “ΑΙΩ ΙΩΑ ΩΑΙ” while doing this, exhaling all air from the lungs. Visualize the four centers becoming further connected along a single path of light downwards from the head center down to the perineum center.
Again focus on the perineum center. Lower both your hands down and out to the sides, making the gesture of Tristitia with both hands. Breathe in more Earth energy into this sphere. Intone the epode of Earth, seeing the energy of the sphere begin to travel up and down the central energy path of the body, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Again focus on the solar plexus center. Lower your right hand down and out to the side and raise your left hand up and out to the side, making the gesture of Albus with both hands. Breathe in more Water energy into this sphere. Intone the epode of Water, seeing the energy of the sphere begin to travel up and down the central energy path of the body, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Again focus on the throat center. Raise both your hands up and out to the sides, making the gesture of Rubeus with both hands. Breathe in more Air energy into this sphere. Intone the epode of Air, seeing the energy of the sphere begin to travel up and down the central energy path of the body, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Again focus on the head center. Lower your left hand down and out to the side and raise your right hand up and out to the side, making the gesture of Laetitia with both hands. Breathe in more Fire energy into this sphere. Intone the epode of Fire, seeing the energy of the sphere begin to travel up and down the central energy path of the body, exhaling all air from the lungs.
Breathe in deeply. As you draw in breath, visualize a clear beam of powerful, hot light shooting up from the infinite hells below through the perineum, through the center of your body, and out from the crown of your head, connecting your energy centers and their elements to all the heavens above and fortifying them with all the hells below. Intone the word “RABBAKA”, exhaling all air from the lungs, visualizing and feeling the beam of light continue shooting up through you.
Breathe in deeply. As you draw in breath, visualize a clear beam of pure, cool light shooting down from the infinite heavens above through the crown of your head, through the center of your body, and out from your perineum downwards, connecting your energy centers and all their elements to all the hells below and sanctifying them with all the heavens above. Intone the word “FAKABBIR”, exhaling all air from the lungs, visualizing and feeling the beam of light continue shooting down through you.
Spend a few moments relaxing, maintaining the visualization and manifestation of the four energy centers in the head, throat, belly, and perineum, most powerfully located at their respective centers but able to facilitate and flow their respective elements in a balanced and gentle way through the main column of the body and radiating outwards from there, connecting to the cosmos both above and below.

And there you have it! The only thing left is a fancy name, isn’t it? How about the Via Elementorum, literally “The Way of the Elements”? After all, we are essentially making a path for the four elemental powers to radiate from in the body, and the four energy centers, when all fully activated, resemble the four single points in the figure of Via, which means the Road; in a sense, though we’re working with the four elements individually as represented by Laetitia, Rubeus, Albus, and Tristitia, when all four are added, it’s the figure Via that results, the full sum of all elements active together at once. I would make a corresponding Arabic name, but I don’t really know Arabic; it’d probably be something like Ṭarīq al-ʿAnāṣiri (طَرِيق الْعَنَاصِرِ). Those who know Arabic are more than welcome to correct this or suggest a better name.

With a geomantic energy exercise like this, it can serve as a foundation for more profoundly exploring the geomantic figures and how they relate to the body, allowing the body a new way to interact with the elements and channeling the powers of the figures, giving us new avenues for exploring geomantic magic, and a whole slew of other things to consider and adapt. Who knows, this might even get me back on a regular energy work exploration routine, figuring out exactly how far I can take this novel system! Of course, it is experimental, and modifications and refinements will likely need to be made along the way. Still, it’s something to start with, and it could be extraordinarily useful even on its own merits.

Mathetic Mudras for the Greek Letters

June 11, 2016 By polyphanes in mathesis Tags: deaf, fingerspelling, gesture, greek sign language, gsl, hard of hearing, mudra, sign language 1 Comment

For me, physical motions in ritual are hugely important. Tools, incenses, oils, candles, and all the rest are heavily used in most of my rituals, but the biggest thing is what I’m physically doing with my body. I’m not the greatest fan of using astral-only rituals, and I’m a firm believer in that if you want your magic to have worldly effects, you need to do stuff in this world to effect it, both inside and outside ritual scenes. The body is perhaps our greatest tool we have, from our breath and voice to our dances and our hands, and with it we can accomplish the greatest of things.

I make a special case for the movements, motions, and gestures of the hands, which I find to be among the most crucial of all ritual acts. Just as we write with the hands, we can make gestures with the hands in a way to create a symbol that’s halfway between spoken sound and written letter. I’ve discussed this before when I developed a system of geomantic gestures or mudras, where each of the sixteen figures of geomancy are associated with a particular extension or reflex of the fingers on the hand. If I’m working with the powers of a particular geomantic figure, I’ll use the corresponding mudra in whatever ritual I’m doing.

When I recently started investigating mathetic ritual, I started wondering about motions and gestures one could use for this work. I mean, the Golden Dawn and OTO have their signs of their grades, and I’m sure they have other signs besides those. What sorts of mudras could I use or adapt for mathetic work? Sure, given my geomantic musings on the Tetractys, I could borrow those mudras over again, but I didn’t feel it proper to do so. (Depending on the ritual, of course, since I’ve been using the mudras for Laetitia, Rubeus, Albus, and Tristitia as pure elemental mudras quite well.) If the main symbols of mathesis are the Greek letters, what could I…

Oh. Duh. Of course there exists a set of mudras for the letters of the Greek alphabet. It’s called fingerspelling (alternatively dactylology, lit. “words of the fingers”), and it’s been done for centuries now. Sure, there’s one such chart recorded by the Venerable Bede from the 1400s that gives distinct signs for the numbers (and, thus, the letters of Greek), but it seems in bad shape and I can’t clearly make out what it is. Besides, Wikipedia says that such finger alphabets were likely “only a bookish game” and not seriously used. What is seriously used? Greek Sign Language, the official language of the Deaf Community in Greece as of 2000, with up to 60,000 native speakers of it at last recording. That’s actually kinda big, when you think about it, and their method of fingerspelling gives us a readily available alphabet of mudras to work with for mathesis. (My deaf and hard-of-hearing friends, and my hearing friends with deaf/HOH families would be facepalming at my density right now, Jim.)

Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of written material on Greek sign language that I can easily scan for, especially in English where most of what I find are technological white papers on automated GSL synthesis, but I did find one excellently clear guide to Greek fingerspelling with clear pictures on this website, but another source that I’m more inclined to follow has somewhat different letter forms for a few of them. The former seems to be a remapping of American Sign Language fingerspelling to Greek sounds, while the latter seems to be more authentically Greek. As a bonus, the latter doesn’t involve any motion of the hands, so we can use them and hold them indefinitely, a good benefit for mudras.

To describe each of these signs for the Greek alphabet, or more properly, δακτυλογοι (daktylogoi):

Α: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the thumb pressed against the side of the fist pointing upwards
Β: a palm facing away from the signer upright, with the thumb curled over the palm and the four fingers extending upward together
Γ: a fist facing down, with the index finger extended downwards and the thumb extended out to the side
Δ: a palm facing to the side upright, with the index finger extended upward, the thumb connected to the middle finger, and the other two fingers curled in an O-shape
Ε: a palm facing away from the signer upright, with the thumb curled over the palm and the four fingers curled to connect to the length of the thumb
Ζ: a fist facing toward the signer sideways, with the index and little fingers extended outward and the thumb curled over the fist
Η: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the index and little fingers extended outward and the thumb curled over the fist
Θ: a fist facing toward the signer sideways, with the index and middle fingers extended outward and the thumb curled over the fist
Ι: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the little finger extended upwards
Κ: a fist facing to the side upright, with the index finger extended upwards, the middle finger extended to the side, and the thumb pressed against the side of the fist
Λ: a fist facing down, with the index and middle fingers extended outward and apart from each other
Μ: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the index, middle, and ring fingers extended downwards
Ν: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the index and middle fingers extended downwards
Ξ: a fist facing toward the signer sideways, with the index, middle, and ring fingers extended outward and apart from each other
Ο: a palm facing sideways, with all the fingers bent to connect to the thumb together curled in an O-shape
Π: a fist facing downwards, with the index and little fingers extended downwards
Ρ: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the index and middle fingers extended upward, both fingers crossed
Σ: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the thumb held over the fingers
Τ: a fist facing downwards, with the index finger extended downwards
Υ: a fist facing away from the signer upright, with the little finger and thumb extended outwards
Φ: a palm facing away from the signer upright, with the thumb and index finger connected in a O-shape and the middle, ring, and little fingers extended upward together
Χ: a palm facing away from the signer upright, with the index and middle fingers extended upward and hooked down, and with the thumb curled over the ring and little fingers
Ψ: a palm facing away from the signer upright, with the index, middle, and ring fingers extended upward and apart from each other, and with the thumb connected to the little finger
Ω: a palm facing upwards, with all the fingers coming together at a peak above the palm

I suppose, if I really wanted to be completionist about it, I could develop three more signs for the obsolete letters Digamma, Qoppa, and Sampi, but…they wouldn’t be used in ritual, since the letters themselves go unused in ritual and on the Tetractys, so there’s really no point.

Okay, so, at this point, we have a system of mudras for the 24 letters of the Greek alphabet. Excellent! As a matter of protocol, I’d use my right hand for signing these in ritual, primarily because my right hand is my dominant hand, but also because of the classical taboo on using the left hand. That said, if you’re left-handed, screw the taboo and switch the sides. How would I go about using these mudras? Say I’m sitting down to meditate on a Greek letter. In addition to intoning the name of the letter, I could also simultaneously hold the mudra while intoning the name, and use the mudra mentally as a way to open the gate of the letter before entering its world when pathworking. It’s a useful idea, to be sure. If I’m using a tool for a given ritual, I’d probably use the tool with the dominant hand and make the corresponding mudra needed with the submissive hand…though I’m not entirely sure yet when such a situation would apply. After all, the dominant hand is the one you write with; it’s the one that should, correspondingly, make the gestures for the letters, but in a ritual, you’d be “writing” an effect with another tool, but perhaps they can be combined in some manner.

So, if I’d be signing the letter with my dominant hand, what would my left hand be doing? For now, lacking other ideas, I’d be holding it under the letter; if I’m signing the letter at chest height, I’d have my left hand at my center, palm facing upwards, as if radiating light to the mudra or collecting light from it. That said, perhaps there are other possibilities for other mudras to be used in tandem with the letter of the dominant hand. For instance, perhaps a system of ten mudras to describe the ten forces on the alchemical Tetractys could be developed; four of them are already known to me, the elemental mudras borrowed from geomancy, so there’d be six to go there. Alternatively, perhaps a “grade” mudra could be made, according to one’s station within mathesis as hypognostes, epignostes, or gnostes. This would be a later addition, however, and not strictly necessary.

De Geomanteia: Geomantic Magic (let this spell last forever)

April 2, 2013 By polyphanes in geomancy, link, occult Tags: de geomanteia, elements, emblem, geomancy, gesture, magic, mudra, planets, sigil, talisman 10 Comments

Since one of my most favorite topics in occultism and magic is divination, specifically the divinatory art of geomancy, why not talk about that? I know a lot about it, and not many do, so let’s go with it. If nothing else, you’ll come away slightly more educated, and I’ll come away with something looking like productivity. With that in mind, let’s continue this little series of posts on geomancy, “De Geomanteia” (On Geomancy). This (last and final) week, let’s talk about technique instead of figures. Specifically, let’s talk about how to apply geomancy and geomantic figures to magic.

Yes, dear reader, magic. That fabulous art and science of causing a change in conformity with will, the thing I talk about near non-stop on this blog. This (yet again) lengthy post on geomantic technique will review just a few of the ways one might apply geomancy to magic, since the sky is literally the limit here (at least in terms of celestial spheres). So get a drink and a snack, put on your robe and wizard hat, and let’s begin.

Just as the planets in astrology can lend themselves to either divination or magic, so too can geomancy by incorporating the figures and their associations in magical ritual, talisman creation, and the like. Keep in mind that a geomantic figure is nothing more than a collection of elemental forces, where each of the four elements is either active or passive, present or missing, on or off. In one sense, each geomantic figure can be seen as an alchemical formula that reveals a particular state of the cosmos. Further, by figuring out the ruling element of the mixture, we can divine the overall elemental nature of a certain combination of elements. For instance, Coniunctio (air and water active), with its fluidity in emotional response and mental communication, lends itself very well to the element whose primary nature is wet: Air.

In addition to their elemental formulae and overall correspondences, the geomantic figures are also associated with the planets and signs of the zodiac. Through these, they’re tied into the ancient and well-known field of planetary magic, which can incorporate the geomantic figures as well into their rituals. For instance, when I want to work with the darker, more destructive side of Mars, I’d probably pick Rubeus or Cauda Draconis; for wealth magic, I’d go with jovial Acquisitio. This also ties the geomantic figures into the planetary sephiroth in Qabbalah, which is an extensive set of systems in its own right. For instance, Coniunctio is associated with Virgo and Mercury, and through those the sephirah Hod, the number 8, the color orange, and the like. If you’ve forgotten what those are, review the other De Geomanteia posts on the figures for their elemental, planetary, zodiacal, and qabbalistic associations, the paragraph on the “technical details” of the figures near the start and the last paragraph that describes their divinatory and magical interpretations.

Another way to understand the figures is by expanding them to entire charts. Due to the nature of geomantic chart construction, there are 16×16×16×16 = 65536 possible legal charts used in geomancy, but subsets of them have special properties. One set, which I call “unique charts”, is the set of all charts that make use of 15 geomantic figures without repeating (excluding the Sentence figure, which of mathematical necessity must repeat from the foregoing 15 figures, and none of the figures in the first 15 figures of the shield chart can be Populus, which would induce repetition). There are 16 such unique charts, which makes the prospect of linking each one to the sixteen geomantic figures tempting. One of the members on the Geomantic Campus Yahoo! mailing list (which everyone interested in geomancy should join), Frater Pyramidatus, uncovered a way to assign these 16 unique charts to the 16 figures of geomancy as a way to expand and fully capture the “essence” of the figure in a whole geomantic chart. Though I won’t reproduce the method or the full set of charts here, the Mother figures to generate each chart are as follows (in order from First to Fourth Mother):

Populus: Caput Draconis, Amissio, Fortuna Maior, Tristitia
Via: Puer, Caput Draconis, Tristitia, Albus
Albus: Fortuna Minor, Rubeus, Puer, Amissio
Coniunctio: Laetitia, Fortuna Minor, Puer, Coniunctio
Puella: Cauda Draconis, Caput Draconis, Tristitia, Albus
Amissio: Fortuna Minor, Rubeus, Carcer, Cauda Draconis
Fortuna Maior: Puella, Cauda Draconis, Tristitia, Albus
Fortuna Minor: Acquisitio, Puella, Albus, Fortuna Maior
Puer: Rubeus, Laetitia, Caput Draconis, Puer
Rubeus: Caput Draconis, Carcer, Albus, Fortuna Maior
Acquisitio: Rubeus, Laetitia, Cauda Draconis, Caput Draconis
Laetitia: Coniunctio, Puella, Fortuna Maior, Tristitia
Tristitia: Rubeus, Laetitia, Cauda Draconis, Puella
Carcer: Rubeus, Laetitia, Puella, Puer
Caput Draconis: Puella, Puer, Tristitia, Albus
Cauda Draconis: Laetitia, Fortuna Minor, Acquisitio, Cauda Draconis

Further, because of the mathematics of geomancy, whole charts can be added to each other to yield new charts by adding each figure in one chart to its corresponding figure in the other (e.g. chart 1 First Mother + chart 2 First Mother = chart 3 First Mother). Based on this, we can obtain charts (not unique, but still significant) that similarly reflect the force of whole planets.

Moon (Populus + Via): Amissio, Puer, Albus, Fortuna Maior
Mercury (Albus + Coniunctio): Rubeus, Laetitia, Populus, Fortuna Minor
Venus (Puella + Amissio): Albus, Fortuna Maior, Laetitia, Fortuna Minor
Sun (Fortuna Maior + Fortuna Minor): Cauda Draconis, Acquisitio, Fortuna Maior, Tristitia
Mars (Puer + Rubeus): Fortuna Maior, Tristitia, Acquisitio, Cauda Draconis
Jupiter (Acquisitio + Laetitia): Albus, Fortuna Maior, Puer, Coniunctio
Saturn (Tristitia + Carcer): Populus, Populus, Acquisitio, Coniunctio
Lunar Nodes (Caput Draconis + Cauda Draconis): Fortuna Maior, Tristitia, Rubeus, Fortuna Minor

These charts can be used as talismanic images in their own right or augmented to other talismans to represent the entire force of a particular figure or planet. Frater Pyramidatus also managed to link up the whole system of unique charts assigned to each geomantic figure into a more overarching diagram called “the Geomantic Pyramid”, which combines the geomantic figures, elements, and notions of the Male Principle and Female Principle. It’s an interesting read, though I haven’t found a way to incorporate it into my own practice; Frater Pyramidatus operates (I believe) in a stricter Thelemic current, so maybe students of that tradition will get more out of it. Still, I’ll leave the interested reader to join the group above and read for themselves.

In a similar manner, you might also use the geomantic emblems, or sequences of 16 lines like a geomantic figure that contain the essence of all 16 geomantic figures in a cohesive, single icon. There are 256 such emblems, which can be analyzed elementally on their own, or grouped into 16 cycles of emblems. Each cycle is associated with a particular figure, giving whole families of emblems a particular geomantic force underlying its nature. If individual geomantic figures, which are combinations of the four classical elements, represent different states of the cosmos, then the geomantic emblems can be used to represent whole cosmoses or processes of the universe from one state to another fluidly. The magical uses of these emblems is still mostly unexplored, but it wouldn’t do any harm to find a particular emblem structurally associated with a particular figure you want and elementally associated with a particular stage you want in a given situation and incorporate it into talismans or subtly-occult jewelry. The notion of order, transition, and flow within the geomantic emblems does beg more investigation, especially in terms of “universal geomantic descriptors” of the cosmos. You might do well to check out some of my meditations on how they might be explored and understood.

I once mentioned, long ago and separate from De Geomanteia, a particular set of geomantic mudras, or shapes and gestures one can make with the hands to concentrate and meditate upon the figures. They can also be used as magical gestures, as well: in ritual, when wanting to direct the force of a particular geomantic figure outward, one would make the mudra with the right (dominant) hand; when wanting to direct it inward towards yourself, one would make the mudra with the left (submissive) hand. Consider the ASL sign for “I love you”, which is the mudra for Coniunctio, or the standard gesture used for Christian blessing, which is the mudra for Fortuna Maior. When wanting to cause destruction or to lay a curse on someone, you might use the mudra for Cauda Draconis towards the target (like the surfer shaka/hang loose gesture). These mudras can be thrown up in formal or informal ritual to act as a focus or “geomantic weapon” in their own right, depending on the need and context. As a rule, the mudra should be selected based on the force desired: if one wants to start something new, one might throw the mudra of Caput Draconis, but if one wants someone to cut something out, one should use that of Cauda Draconis. Based on the ruling elements of the figures and the natural motion of the figures (fire and air tend to go upward, water and earth tend to go downward), one could hold the mudra at different heights to affect the motion of the force:

Fire (burns upward): held high to “catch” and pull in Fire energy, held low to “burn away” and send out
Air (moves around but tends upward): any height works, but similar to Fire
Water (flows around but tends downward): any height works, but similar to Earth
Earth (falls downward): held low to “catch” and pull in Earth energy, held high to “drop” and send out

Plus, due to the “pure” elemental nature of the figures Laetitia (Fire), Rubeus (Air), Albus (Water), and Tristitia (Earth), these mudras are especially powerful for invoking and working with the elements. Due to their internal, subjective nature, mudras for figures ruled by Fire and Water are more naturally suited to the left hand, with the right hand more suited to the external, objective elements of Air and Earth. These attributions of right and left are assumed for a right-hand dominant magician; they may be kept the same or reversed for a left-hand dominant magician.

Every time I’ve talked about a figure in this series, I mentioned how you might get a certain shape or image if you play connect the dots with the figure. That method of making images or pictures by connecting the dots in different ways to form a variety of sigils; depending on the figure and depending on the method, a number of different sigils can be devised for a single figure. Cornelius Agrippa gives a plentiful list of geomantic sigils in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy (book II, chapter 51) which can be used directly in magic or incorporated into talismans, either on their own or in conjunction with other signs and symbols, such as planetary squares, images and occult art, statement-derived sigils a la chaos magic, or qabbalistic diagrams or patterns.

Another use of the sigils, though I haven’t experimented with it personally, is to conjure the intelligence of the individual geomantic figure itself. Beyond calling them “spirit of Puella” or “angel ruling over Fortuna Maior”, I had an idea to use the Hebrew names for the figures (based on Stephen Skinner’s Geomancy in Theory and Practice) and append the requisite -(i)el onto the end of the names. Though I haven’t had experience with calling on these angels in relation to the geomantic figures, they should get good results, considering that their names are directly tied to those of the geomantic figures. Instead of using these angels, one might conjure the angels ruling the zodiac signs or the planets associated with the figures (e.g. Malchidiel, angel of Aries, for Puer). Instead of using the sigils for the geomantic figures as the seals for these angels, one might also draw out their names on their associated planetary qameas (using the Qamea of the Earth for the angels of Caput Draconis and Cauda Draconis). These are names based off the traditional names of the figures; should you contact them and get different names or sigils specific to them, let me know, because it’d be nice to have a set of standard names for these guys.

Populus: Qehilahiel (QHLHIAL, קהלהיאל)
Via: Derekhel (DRKAL, דרכאל)
Albus: Labaniel (LBNIAL, לבניאל)
Coniunctio: Chiburel (ChBURAL, חבוראל)
Puella: Halechiel (HLChIAL, הלחיאל)
Amissio: Abodel (ABUDAL, אבודאל)
Fortuna Maior: Elihiel (OLIHIAL, עליהיאל)
Fortuna Minor: Sheqiohel (ShQIOHAL, שקיוהאל)
Puer: Nilchamel (NLChMAL, נלחמאל)
Rubeus: Adomel (ADUMAL, אדומאל)
Acquisitio: Hashigiel (HShGIAL, השגיאל)
Laetitia: Nishoiel (NShUAIAL, נשואיאל)
Tristitia: Shefeliel (ShPLIAL, שפליאל)
Carcer: Sohariel (SUHRIAL, סוהריאל)
Caput Draconis: Rashithiel (RAShIThIAL, ראשיתיאל)
Cauda Draconis: Siumel (SIUMAL, סיומאל)

There are records and methods of assigning different letters to the geomantic figures, whether in the Roman, Greek, Hebrew, or Enochian languages. Examples can be found in Golden Dawn’s use of Enochian Chess (images of the “chessboard” can be found here) as well as John Heydon’s Theomagia (book III, pp. 15-18, or pp. 323-325 on Scribd). John Michael Greer also gives examples of assigning Roman letters to the geomantic figures in his book Art and Practice of Geomancy, perhaps based on Fludd’s or Heydon’s associations. However, like with assigning numbers to the figures to tell time, I haven’t gotten good results in assigning the geomantic figures to letters to indicate names of people, places, or the like. I’ve heard of others do so well enough, so your mileage may vary.

One way to incorporate geomantic divination into magical planning or geomantic magic involves the inspection of a given geomantic chart. Say a querent wants to know whether something will happen that they really want to happen, but the chart denies the query and says “no, it won’t” (review this post on perfection, affirmation, on denial if you’re foggy on this). By inspecting the significators of the querent and quesited, one can see what can done to “edit” the reality described by the chart to induce a perfection (though it might be best to limit this to the significator of the querent). One might consider “adding” or “removing” elements from one’s life to change their significator into another one (such as “adding” Air to Puella to change it to Via, or “removing” Water from it to change it to Carcer), and see what effects that would have in the geomantic chart (either redrawing the whole chart from scratch or just superficially editing the house chart). Doing the same with whole geomantic figures can also be done, such as adding Puella and Puer to form Coniunctio.

An old style of Arabic geomantic magic involves the use of taskins, or specific orderings of the sixteen geomantic figures as a kind of talisman. One shown in Stephen Skinner’s book was used to find water, and there are references to other taskins to find treasure or similar objects. I haven’t found very many of these, since it seems to be really old or obscure geomantic knowledge (at least as published in English or European publications), but one could use such orderings (say, four sets of four figures aligned to the four quarters based on their elements) for altar arrangements, geomantic Tables of Practice, or similar talismans. Such orderings might share similarities with the geomantic emblems I mentioned above, but due to the dearth of information on the Arabic, African, or Middle Eastern uses of taskins in European languages, this is pretty much an unknown. Unfortunately, until I learn Arabic or until someone who does is willing to take on a few translation projects for me, not much is going to change in this situation. Although some taskins might be ordered by astrological principles (ruling planet, ruling sign, etc.), other takins might be derived from the unique charts above or the geomantic emblems. Definitely something to experiment in the future with.

To give an example of geomantic magic, say Jane Doe wants to marry John Smith in the next year. Marriage can be benefitted magically from a number of figures, but Coniunctio is probably the best. So, to achieve her desired goal, Jane might do any or all of the following:

Make a talisman of the figure Coniunctio with associated mercurial, Virgoan materials and timing, since Coniunctio is a figure representing union, a coming together of forces and people, and marriage; such a talisman might have a sigil of the figure on one side and its associated unique chart on the other.
Conjure Chiburel, the angel watching over Coniunctio, perhaps under the guidance of the angel of Mercury Raphael, to invoke and manifest the forces of Coniunctio between herself and John.
Intone the vowel epsilon (associated with Mercury) in a day and hour of Mercury over an image of her and John put together, with a sigil of Coniunctio drawn over them, perhaps incorporated with yet other sigils a la chaos magic.
Throw the geomantic mudra for Coniunctio (which looks a lot like the ASL sign for “I love you”) around in John’s presence, perhaps visualizing a sigil for Coniunctio directed or “thrown” at him.
Make a small hemp or chain bracelet tied or knotted in a manner that makes use of the geomantic emblem for Coniunctio, starting at the position where Caput Draconis appears, repeating a short incantation to lure, tie, and conjoin John to her.
Cast a candle spell that uses six candles set out in the dot pattern of Coniunctio in a day and hour of Venus, placing a picture of her between the candles of the earth line and a picture of John between the candles of the fire line.

Assume for a bit that a geomancer throws a chart to see whether it’s possible that they can be married in the next year; the chart comes up with a negative answer, with Tristitia as the significator for Jane and Fortuna Maior for John. There’s no perfection, but the structures for Tristitia and Fortuna Maior are similar, differing only in the water line (i.e. Tristitia has water passive, Fortuna Maior has water active). Jane might consider “adding” the elemental force of water to her own self and life, perhaps by reaching out emotionally to connect with John more than she is or swimming more and being surrounded by blue and watery things, which would have the effect of transforming Tristitia to Fortuna Maior, which would induce perfection by occupation, turning the negative answer from the chart into a positive one. The same could be accomplished by working with the figure Albus similarly, since Albus and Tristitia combine to form Fortuna Maior, perhaps by being more reflective and in touch with oneself, or by working with the angel Labaniel to make one more watery and spiritually deep.

At their core, the geomantic figures are another set of symbols that can blend or bind with other symbols in magic. You might incorporate the geomantic figures into sigils, or use the sigils of the geomantic figures themselves, in a sigil web. Drawing the geomantic figure on consecrated paper or scrolls to keep as talismans, or using candle arrangements in the form of geomantic figures, would be good ritual uses of the geomantic figures. Conjurework and hoodoo might also benefit, by using the geomantic figures as talismans on paper or clay, burning or crushing them up into dust, and mixing them in with other powders to lay over someone as a target/victim/beneficiary. The ability to use geomantic figures and geomancy in magic is as wide and varied as the kinds of magic out there entirely, so feel free to experiment and use the geomantic figures in whatever way might seem useful or interesting.

As a rule, before performing any magic working (geomantic or otherwise), it’s suggested that the magician perform a divination to make sure it’s both advisable and feasible to use magic to a particular end. In other words, the magician should always ask “can I use magic to attain my goal?” before actually using magic as a part of planning. To understand these charts, see whether the Judge is favorable to the working and whether perfection exists with the proper house. Magic is related to four houses in geomantic charts:

Sixth house: magic you ask others to do on your behalf as a service
Eighth house: magic you do generally, e.g. those that involve lesser spirits, demons, witchcraft
Ninth house: magic you do with celestial, theurgic, divine, or philosophical forces, e.g. astrological talismans, prayer to attain a desired end
Twelfth house: magic done by others against you, especially without your knowledge

Additionally, you might want to inspect the seventh house (anyone working with you, a partner, a consultant, a spiritual worker, etc.) and the fourth house (the end result of the magical operation) to get a feel for other factors in magic-related situations. The Part of Spirit, or Index, often indicates spiritual considerations related to queries and their resolution, which is doubly important in questions of magic.

And that concludes my 20-part series De Geomanteia, a weekly series of posts on the sixteen figures that constitute the alphabet of geomancy as well as four posts on geomantic technique. This series was a lot more fun to write than I expected it to be, and you guys gave some really good feedback during the whole process both on the blog and off. Thank you, dear readers, for sticking it through with me, and I hope you learned at least a bit about this venerable and ancient divination system, if not inspired to use it in your own work. Would you guys have any other questions, queries, quandries, or comments to make about geomancy? Or would you have anything to share in addition to what I’ve posted, especially about incorporating geomancy with magic?

Geomantic Gesticulation

October 14, 2011 By polyphanes in creative, geomancy, link, occult, philosophy Tags: element, geomancy, gesture, mudra, seal 16 Comments

It’s no secret that geomancy is one of my favorite occult systems, and probably the one I have the most skill in (which may or may not be saying anything). Lord knows I used my time and library resources at college getting every possible academic article on the art, as well as pilfering the PF section in the ancient library for finding any leads or books on geomancy, ifa, raml, or what-have-you. If nothing else, I consider myself knowledgeable, though I’d love to get my hands on a few more original manuscripts or treatises on the subject (alas that I don’t speak classical Arabic).

That said, it’s a pretty flexible system of divination, and the symbols it uses can be widely applied in many situations. Geomancy has a divinatory “alphabet” of sixteen figures, each of which can be seen as a composition of the four classical elements. Each figure has four rows stacked atop each other, each row having one or two points; each row is related to one of the four elements, from top to bottom fire, air, water, and earth (from least dense to most dense). A single point in a line shows that element to be active, present. and able to effect change. Two points in a line show that element to be passive, absent, and able to be affected by other influences. In a way, the geomantic figures are like alchemical formulae.

Consider the figure Puer, which has row of one, one, two, and one points; Puer has all elements but water active. Puer represents youthful brazenness and rash energy, acting first and thinking later, and is typically bad in all things except love and war. Like the old knights who used to go out and journey in the world for the Holy Grail, Puer seeks to go out and be received by the world for all he’s worth, either by a woman (who fulfills his lack of water) or by war (where compassion and emotion aren’t needed and can’t be found anyway). He has the spear of Fire to exact his Will, the sword of Air to sort out friend from foe, and his shield of Earth to sustain and protect him, but Puer is made complete by his lack of water, and he acts the way he does without that last element to balance him out and make him a complete Unity.

It’s like that with all the figures. Plus, in addition to being seen as alchemical formulae, they can also be seen as alchemical units, each having connections to a particular element, as well as corresponding to a planet and zodiac sign. For Puer, those are Air (not Fire, except in terms of astrology), Mars, and Aries, which help flesh out the meaning of Puer and, more importantly, enable it to be used in most western occult practices.

One part of those practices is ritual motion, especially with that of the hands. As I’ve noted before, hands and their positions, being one of the primary ways we interact and interpret the world, are highly important to us as human beings and as magicians. Jason Miller, for instance, talks at length of various positions of the hands to represent different meanings or to direct the mind in particular ways, not least because he was trained by Nepalese and Tibetan Buddhist teachers. Buddhism, Hinduism, and most other religions place a huge amount of importance of the positions of the hands in ritual or devotional artwork. These positions are often called mudras, which literally means “seals”. Different mudras connote different things, cultivate different mindsets, or create different meanings in the world.

Why not extend this to geomancy? After all, we know that different parts of the body relate to different elements, planets, or signs. Plus, some of the older geomantic authors described making the figures “much as the four fingers are” (the first line of points used to mark off the fire line of a figure having so many points, the air line having more than that, the water line having less than the air line, and the earth line having the fewest points of all, like the four non-thumb fingers of a hand). It’s pretty simple, when you think about it: have the index finger represent the fire line of a figure, the middle finger represent the air line, the ring finger represent the water line, and the little finger represent the earth line. We see this all over the place anyway in occultism and daily life. The index finger is used to point out things and can be used as a wand (Fire); the middle finger bears the ring of the King of Swords and is the center finger of the hand, showing a balance between the rest (Air); the ring finger bears wedding or commemorative rings, which lead back to the heart (Water); the little finger bears the Solomonic ring, which is used to protect and ground ourselves from other influences (Earth). Pretty neat, huh? The thumb, in this case, wouldn’t relate to much (because, you know, fuck primates and their opposable digits).

Populus

To represent the activity or passivity of the elements, a particular figure’s mudra would extend a particular finger to represent the element’s passivity, and pull it downward to the palm to represent that element’s activity. It’s kinda like counting backwards, since we normally think of a raised finger as being active, but consider the figure Populus: its elemental structure is completely passive, with no active elements. Its associated mudra would be an empty and open hand, which lets all things flow in and out equally. A closed fist would represent Via, whose elements are all entirely active, to represent a closed but dynamic and charged force that can influence and impact everything. The thumb, since it doesn’t really matter much in this scheme, should just be positioned wherever it’s comfortable. I claim this system makes sense.

So, that means that the mudra for Fortuna Major would look much like the the American Manual Alphabet sign for “V”. Consider that gesture for a moment. Fortuna Major represents complete and total success, total victory. The “V” was famously used by Winston Churchill during WWII and by all Japanese teenagers and weeaboos to this day. Plus, it’s also the same symbol used by priests to bless their congregations, and Fortuna Major is the figure representing the rising Sun (God risen and active in the world). These kinds of coincidences can be seen repeatedly in this system of mudras, from Conjunctio (whose mudra looks much like the ASL sign for “I love you”) to Puella (which is just flipping the bird, telling someone to, well, be rather receptive like a bitch).

When it comes to the individual hands, much as in the geomantic tableau, the right and left hands represent different things. Consider that the right hand represents the right hand side of the chart or the Right Witness, and the left hand the left side and Left Witness. In meditation, one might use different geomantic mudras on each hand and contemplate the figure that results from their addition in the mind. In ritual, the right hand could be used to represent the situation as it is, and the left the situation as it is desired to be. Alternatively, the right hand could be used to reprsent forces being sent or directed away from you, and the left forces applying or being drawn to you.

The mudras can represent the different forces of the elements, such as using Laetitia to represent pure fire, Rubeus pure air, Albus pure water, and Tristitia pure earth. The other figures could be used as well to represent different manifestations of that element. Fiery and airy geomantic mudras might be held aloft to receive that element (where sunlight, heat, and air currents travel) and held low to send it forth (like how fire and wind blow upwards); watery and earthy ones would be the reverse, held low to receive their powers from bodies of water or the Earth and aloft to pour or drop onto something below. Alternatively, instead of using the elements, one might use the mudras to represent the planets or signs. For instance, when I consecrate under the power of Jupiter, I might hold one hand in the mudra of Acquisitio and the other in the mudra of Laetitia.

This system of geomantic mudras can be used in pretty much any situation. Stuck in traffic? Throw up a Fortuna Minor mudra and invoke Mercury to get you out. Going into a place that gives you the shivers? Throw up the horns with one hand (not to be confused with the Conjunctio mudra) and the mudra for Carcer on the other to keep yourself isolated from the place or to bind a spirit into a particular spot. Trying to contemplate the mysteries of Populus partnered with Populus? Meditate with both hands open and facing upward on your lap.

I actually wrote a short paper on this for the benefit of the Geomantic Campus Yahoo! group, the only real mailing list I’ve found that discusses geomancy. You might want to consider joining that group and pilfering the benefits of the resources gathered there and the occasional reading discussion.

The Digital Ambler

Always Forward Between Heaven and Earth

Tag Archives: mudra

On Geomantic Energy Centers, and the Via Elementorum Exercise

Mathetic Mudras for the Greek Letters

De Geomanteia: Geomantic Magic (let this spell last forever)

Geomantic Gesticulation