Earth Divination: Earth Magic: Practical Guide to Geomancy

By John Michael Greer

Book Overview

An in-depth guide to the history, theory, and practice of the divinatory art of geomancy. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567183123
• ISBN13: 9781567183122
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Llewellyn Publications
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.78 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

A clear and concise guide on an often confusing and purposely obsured subject.

Out of the many systems given at least decent mention of in larger works on magick, for me Geomancy was by far the most intimidating and seemingly too complex to operate well. Note, of course, that I used "was" as the operative word in that sentence. After reading "Earth Divination, Earth Magick" by John Michael Greer, I understand it far better now. In fact, in a relatively short time, I was able to gain some proficiency in it. I attribute that to this book. In a way, the book is split into two halves: the first half about Geomantic divination; the second half about Geomantic magick. Honestly, I don't think Greer could have chosen a better title for the book. In the first half of the book, Greer introduces Geomancy, gives a short history, and then goes into the figures and their meanings. After this, he goes into how to generate the figures and interpret them through the use of two different kinds of charts. Then, he guides the reader through means of interpreting the figures and the positions in which they fall. In the second half, he of course goes into how to use the Geomantic figures by themselves in magickal workings. He puts this forth in the context of High or Ceremonial Magick and its methods. He also goes into the magick of sigils based on the figures. At the end of the book, Greer even added a document on Geomancy translated from Latin. However, I haven't gotten through that document, as I've been busy enough just using the info from the first half of the book! I would definitely recommend this book. It's one of the few I've seen on Geomancy. It's understandable and clear, to boot!

Excellent Divinational Manual on the subject of Geomancy

Since I'm both a fan of Greer and of Geomancy, I have to say I really enjoyed this book. For most of you not in the know, Geomancy is a form of divination that came from the Arabic countries and was first talked about in Peter de Abano's "Heptameron" which is often attributed to Henry Cornelius Agrippa who compiled the mammoth work "Three Books of Occult Philosophy". Geomancy is related to the "Earth". It was traditionally used by drawing a box in the sand or loosely tilled soil with a stick. Then the diviner would focus on the question and make random stabs with the stick inside the box. Depending on if the total stabs was an even or odd number, a Geomantic figure was being created using a series of four lines of dots. And this same procedure would continue fifteen more times until a total of sixteen rows of dots had been tallied. If you think THAT's tough, then the manner in which the Geromantic characters are made will baffle you. The first sixteen lines were split into groups of four and thus you had the Four Mothers. Then you took the top line of dots of each Mother in order & from that you get the Four Daughters. Then you add the Daughters to get the Nephews. (Still with me?) THEN you add the Nephews to get the Right and Left Witnesses. Finally you add the Witnesses together and you got the Judge. Actually once you've created the dots and all the figures two or three different times, it becomes rather simple to remember how. Complicated? Yes. Easy to do? Yes with repetition. The tricky part is how you apply the Geomantic figures to the Medieval Astrology chart. This is a square chart where you take each figure and place it according to the outline in the book. This is standard procedure and it too becomes rather easy after five or six times of making a chart. Now you might ask, "Well if the Judge is the final outcome, why go to the bother of putting the figures in specific houses of the chart?" Because thru the use of Astrology and it's Aspects (squars, conunctions, oppositions, trines, sextiles, etc.) you can gain a LOT of useful information about the question and questioner that you may otherwise overlook. Actually Geomancy is a LOT easier to use and learn than the standard 78 Tarot cards! There's only sixteen standard Geomantic figures too. Plus the fact Geomancy is related to one particular element and all it governs: Earth. This includes careers, employment, physical health, home, love, real estate & land holdings, wealth, money, jewels, fame and fortune, etc. These areas are governed by the Gnomes of whom Ghob is the Elemental King. So why haven't people made more use of this system? Well the complexity for one thing. It's quite daunting at first but if you persevere, you'll see it's quite easily used. Unfortunately however this form of divination does take time to perform thus it does not lend itself so easily for those who'd like to use it at a Psychic Fair. Greer offers some tips on making the castings quicker but he rea

very clear explanation

i used to think geomancy was difficult. in this book, greer explains it simply and clearly.

- you can even use 'pocket change' to generate them !

_____Within the book, it speaks well about the many ways to 'generate' one of the sixteen characters. This is basically neccessary, in order to see what kind of 'ELEMENT' and 'DIRECTION' a certain response is going to go. _____In a natural setting, let's say your outdoors which magic works well... the ancient method of poking marks in the sand and adding up the sum to determine an even or odd number to reach a character. Some folks, perhaps would rather stay in doors during chilly nights all together and just have a small box with a lid, with sand in it as well. The same principle but smaller. _____The one system that seems to work well, is most definately the coin work. Yet keep in mind, that although 'this' and the 'I ching' come from the same type of divination --- they differ from each other 'mathematically' where a character is basically produced by four coins only once... as opposed to flipping three of them twice. _____In reading those little 'buggers' - your often reminded how they look like domino characters... what I usually do with em is to connect the dots, so they look like actual symbols for better interpritation. _____ Finally, keep in mind as well, there's a little handbook which was written in medevil period on how to interprit slight nunances in a shield or square reading. --- it's worth getting.

Great book on a long dead form of Divination

John Michael Greer has done something original with this book. It is truly great. He presents to the reader a very antiquated but very easy form of divination that has been practised little since the Rennaisance. He takes much of his information from bits and pieces of essays that survived the big Witch Persecution. If you are looking for an accurate form of divination that is very easy to use this book could teach you a lot and is simple enough that if you have no prior information in the occult you will still have no problem learning it.