Spiritsaid
What is Geomancy?
Traditional
Islamicate Tableau
Geomancy is a traditional divination system hailing from Africa and refined in the Middle East. It produces concrete yes/no answers, remedies, and suggestions.
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It complements other systems like Tarot or astrology, producing information those two don't - see more below!
My Updated Version
​Why is it called geomancy?
Back in the day, before fancy divination tools like tarot cards were accessible for regular people, sages used to write out geomancy figures in the dirt or sand, using their finger or a stick.
So “geo” is from the Greek for “earth,” and “mancy” comes from a root essentially meaning magic (e.g. necromancy, cartomancy, etc.)
The Arabic term is ilm al-raml, “the knowledge of the sand.”
Some people believe the name arose because geomancy involves channeling the energies of the planet, but I like the image of the ancient sage, scratching out wisdom from the very earth itself…
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Note: "geomancy" as a category is sometimes used to denote location-based practices like Feng Shui or dowsing, but that's not what I do.
"One faces one's future with one's past."
Pearl S. Buck
Author The Good Earth
All divination methods have uses where they shine.
Tarot cards don't specifically say "yes" or "no" – that's up to the reader to make that assessment. In horary, all charts cast within a short window of time look almost identical. Plus you have to deal with Mars retrograde for months!
I use geomancy because it can be very concrete and give specific recommendations. Medieval Middle Eastern seers in almost always used astrology and geomancy together because they complement each other.
Is geomancy better than Tarot or horary astrology?
Where did it come from?
Is it okay for Western white people to use it?
The best scholarship I've found suggests that it originated thousands of years ago amongst the Berber people of West Africa. It was expanded by medieval Islamicate occult practitioners in the Near East, and then picked up by European scholars during the Renaissance.
My practice is a mix of traditions from these three locations along with a healthy dose of my own techniques.
To my best knowledge, none of these is associated with any initiatory tradition that would limit who can use them.
Since geomancy has been used by people of many races on multiple continents, I think it's fine for anyone to employ as long as we acknowledge our debt to the sages and seers of the past.