Arabic geomancy
[1] Geomancy was considered by figures such as Richard II to be a broader discipline that also included philosophy, science, and alchemic elements.
The reference in Hermetic texts to the mythical Ṭumṭum al-Hindi potentially points to an Indian origin, although Stephen Skinner[4]: 17 thinks this unlikely.
[5] European scholars and universities began to translate Arabic texts and treatises in the early Middle Ages, including those on geomancy.
The poem Experimentarius attributed to Bernardus Silvestris, who wrote in the middle of the 12th century, was a verse translation of a work on astrological geomancy.
By this point, geomancy must have been an established divination system in Arabic-speaking areas of Africa and the Middle East.
Henry Cornelius Agrippa (1486–1535), Christopher Cattan (La Géomancie du Seigneur Christofe de Cattan (1558)), and John Heydon (1629 – c. 1667) produced oft-cited and well-studied treatises on geomancy, along with other philosophers, occultists, and theologians until the 17th century, when interest in occultism and divination began to dwindle due to the rise of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Reason.
Geomancy underwent a revival in the 19th century, when renewed interest in the occult arose due to the works of Robert Thomas Cross (1850–1923) and of Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803–1873).
Franz Hartmann published his text, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy,[6] (English translation: 1889) which spurred new interest in the divination system.
However, due to the short time the members of the Golden Dawn desired to learn, practice, and teach the old occult arts, many elaborate systems of divination and ritual had to be compressed, losing much in the process.
In effect, they had reduced geomancy from a complex art of interpretation and skill in recognizing patterns to looking up predefined answers based on pairs of figures.
This book was passed down through clandestine circles into the hands of Khalaf al-Barbarĩ, who traveled to Medina and was converted to Islam by Muhammad.
The stranger then taught Idris how to form the figures in a regular manner and what the results meant, teaching him how to know things that could not be known with just the physical senses.
After testing Idris' newfound knowledge and skill of geomancy, and revealing himself to be the angel Jibril in the process, the stranger disappeared.
However, those who argued against geomancy, such as Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddima (1377), countered that it was a pre-Islamic system of knowledge, and that all such epistemologies were rendered obsolete with the revelation of the Qur'an.
In one story in One Thousand and One Nights, both the African Magician and his brother use geomancy to find Aladdin in order to do him harm.
in William Langland's Piers Plowman where it is unfavorably compared to the level of expertise a person needs for astronomy ("gemensye [geomesye] is gynful of speche").
Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy (early 14th century) makes a passing reference to geomancy.
In the first two stanzas of Canto XIX in the Purgatorio, It was the hour when the diurnal heat no more can warm the coldness of the moon, vanquished by earth, or peradventure Saturn, When geomancers their Fortuna Major see in the orient before the dawn
Without taking note of the number of points made, the geomancer provides the seemingly random mechanism needed for most forms of divination.
[10] Traditionally, geomancy requires a surface of sand and the hands or a stick, but can be done equally well with a wax tablet and stylus or a pen and paper; ritualized objects may or may not be desired for use in divination.
The skilled geomancer can deduce root causes to the situation, hidden influences, the outcome and its aftermath, and general trends and events in the querent's life through interpreting the chart.
[15] Pietro d'Abano discusses the primary modes of perfection used in geomantic interpretations with significators in his geomancy essay.
Traditional practitioners of geomancy use this knowledge as a type of parity check on the chart to ensure that no mistakes have been made while computing the figures.
