Geomantic figures

The sixteen figures

Each of the figures is composed of four lines, each line containing either one or two points.

Via

Cauda Draconis

Puer

Fortuna Minor

Puella

Amissio

Carcer

Laetitia

Caput Draconis

Conjunctio

Acquisitio

Rubeus

Fortuna Major

Albus

Tristitia

Populus

Unicode

Geomantic figures were added to the Unicode Standard in September 2025 with the release of version 17.0:

Properties

Each of the figures is composed of four lines, each line containing either one or two points. Each line represents one of the four classical elements: from top to bottom, the lines represent fire, air, water, and earth. When a line has a single point, the element is said to be active; otherwise, with two points, the element is passive. Because there are four lines, and since each line can be either active or passive, there are 24, or 16, different figures. The different combinations of elements yields different representations or manifestations of the figure's energy.

Each figure can be said to have a ruling element, whereby that element's energy and manifestations correlates most closely to the figure itself. With the exception of Populus, the ruling element for each figure is always represented as active (a single point in the corresponding line). For figures with only one active element, that element by default is its ruling element; other combinations of active and passive elements require more introspection to assign rulerships. Populus, consisting of all passive lines, is ruled by Water by its nature of being entirely passive and taking on the reflective qualities of water whenever an outside force acts upon it.

While the elements just described are from the geomantic tradition, another set of elemental assignments are used based on the figures' astrological connections. These elements are assigned based on the zodiac sign of a given figure. The geomantic element is said to reflect the nature of a figure when viewed alone; the astrological element reflects its nature when acting with other figures.

Another classification of the geomantic figures involves their quality, which is either stable or mobile. The quality of a figure represents its duration of effect or motion, such that a figure with a stable quality will represent a long-term situation or that a certain object remains where it was left, while a mobile figure represents a transient effect upon the real world. In simple "yes or no" style divinations, stable figures indicate a positive answer, while mobile figures indicate a negative one.

Originally, the quality was shown in terms of entering or exiting figures, where, from the viewer's point of view, the figure would be pointing towards (downward) or away from (upward) the viewer. Entering figures have the stable quality, while the exiting figures have the mobile quality; when an entering figure is rotated upside-down, it becomes an exiting figure, and vice versa. However, based on this classification, the four figures that point in both directions regardless of rotation have the quality of both entering and exiting and must be evaluated in terms of its neighbors or generating figures.

In the generation of the geomantic charts, the primary answer is given by the figure called the Judge. Based upon the mathematics involved in generating the charts, the Judge figure must always have an even number of points. For this reason, all the figures that can appear as Judges (i.e. have an even number of points) are also termed impartial figures; they represent objective states of the world observable equally by any party. The ones with odd numbers of points are termed partial or personal due to their subjective and emotional nature.

In the Middle Ages, when geomancy was introduced to Europe where astrology was the foremost occult science, the geomantic figures obtained astrological correspondences to the Zodiac and to the planets. Based on their zodiacal correspondences, astrologers assigned new elemental rulerships (henceforth known as outer elemental rulers, whereas the previous elemental assignments will be known as inner elemental rulers) based on the element of their zodiacal ruler. The exceptions to the planetary rulerships were the figures Cauda Draconis and Caput Draconis, which were assigned to the northern and southern lunar nodes instead.

Traditionally, the energies and manifestations of the planets were different based on their declination or motion; for the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the diurnal energy represents the planet in direct motion, while the nocturnal energy refers to the retrograde motion of the planets. For the Moon, this was illustrated by the waxing or waning periods of the Moon, respectively; the Sun's figures were based on the Sun during the day (or northern declination) or during the night (southern declination). The zodiacal rulerships followed from the diurnal or nocturnal planetary rulership: nocturnal figures are assigned earth and water signs, while diurnal figures are assigned fire and air signs. The North Node is assigned, by Gerard of Cremona, to Sagittarius and the South Node to Virgo (for the sake of finding the ascendant in astrological traditions of geomancy). Once the zodiacal rulerships were agreed upon, all the following correspondences followed upon the geomantic figures, including what part of the body they each ruled over, different countries, planetary hours, body and character types, and so on.

Operations

Addition

The structure of the figures themselves can be directly translated into binary numbers, such as those used by modern computers, with passive lines representing the numeral 0 (or logic low) and active lines representing the numeral 1 (or logic high). This structure is exploited in computation of more figures by means of the XOR function used widely in computer science and electrical systems; when two figures are "added" to form a new figure (where points in the lines of the same elements are summed, divided by two, and the remainder taken), the logical operation obtains the new figure by determining which lines are different. The lines that have different numbers of points results in a line with one point (logic high), and lines with the same number of points results in a line with two points (logic low). The result of adding two figures is usually interpreted to mean the interaction between the two parties (the parent figures) or the present situation (when one parent represents the past and the other parent represents the future).

Inversion

In the same fashion how Boolean values or binary numbers can be inverted, geomantic figures can likewise be inverted. By inversion, figures whose lines are active become passive and vice versa. In this manner, Puer becomes Albus, Populus becomes Via, and so forth. Inversion represents a polarity of action, e.g. the rashness of Puer balanced by the calmness of Albus.

Reversion

Reversion, or rotation, of figures is the process that replaces the fire line of a figure with the earth line, the air line with the water line, and vice versa. By reversion, Puer and Puella are reverted pairs, as are Rubeus and Albus. Not all figures have a unique reversion: the figures that are neither entering nor exiting revert into themselves and the other figures with even points revert into their inverted figure. Reversion often represents an axial polarity, such as the male and female axis between Puer and Puella.

References

• Modern works

  • Greer, J. M. (1999). Earth Divination, Earth Magic. Llewellyn Worldwide. .
  • Greer, J. M. (2009). The Art and Practice of Geomancy. Weiser Books.
  • Hartmann, F. (1889). The Principles of Astrological Geomancy. .
  • Skinner, S. (1980). Terrestrial Astrology. Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd. .

• Medieval and Renaissance works

  • Gerard of Cremona. On Astrological Geomancy.
  • Henry Cornelius Agrippa. Of Geomancy (English translation of the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy).
  • Means, Laurel. "A translation of Martin of Spain's De Geomancia." In Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England, ed. Lister M. Matheson, 61–121. East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1994.
  • Pietro d'Abano. Modo judicandi questiones (English translation as The Method of Judging Questions in Greer (1999), pp. 195–214)