Geomancy in the Islamic World and Western Europe

Charles Burnett1
(Warburg Institute, University of London, London WC1H 0AB., U.K.)

Western geomancy. In spite of the name, this has nothing to do with Chinese
geomancy or fengshui. Rather, it bears a resemblance, both in appearance and in
spirit, to Yi Ching. It appears to have arisen among the Berbers of North Africa,
and spread from there both to other parts of the Islamic world and, through
translations into Latin, into Western Europe. 2 The earliest Latin translator, Hugo
of Santalla (mid twelfth century) gave the science the name ‘geomantia’
(‘divination from the earth’); in Arabic it is called ‘the science of sand’ (‘‘ilm al-
raml’). These names derive from the fact that the first action is to draw four rows
of a random number of points on the sandy ground (or on a board lightly dusted
with sand). One then
joins them up two by
two, and observes
whether one or two
points remain. The
‘geomantic figure’ is
then composed of these
single or double points,
in four rows. Hence the
resemblance to the
hexagram of the Yi
Ching.
Figure 1. The Geomantic ‘horoscope’

1
Charles Burnett, Ph.D., Professor of the History of Islamic Influences in Europe at the Warburg Institute,
University of London. Specialties: Transmission of Arabic science and philosophy to Western Europe,.
2
For geomancy in Arabic, Greek and Latin see P. Tannery, ‚Le Rabolion‘, in Mémoires scientifiques, IV,
Toulouse and Paris, 1920, 295-411. For a detailed account of Western geomancy, its texts and its practices,
see T. Charmasson, Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: La géomancie dans l’occident médiévale,
Geneva, 1980. For a general history see S. Skinner, Terrestrial Astrology: Divination by Geomancy, London,
Boston and Henley, 1980.

Zhouyi Yanjiu 周易研究 Zhouyi Studies (English Version), vol. 7, no. 1 (September, 2011) 176-180
©2011 Zhouyi Studies (English Version)
 GEOMANCY IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD AND WESTERN EUROPE
Four figures are constructed in this way, called the ‘mothers’ (figures 1-4). From
them are derived four more figures, by adding up the points in each row, called
the ‘daughters’ (5-8). The eight resulting figures are then added two by two to
produce four ‘granddaughters’ (9-12). The granddaughters are added two by two
to produce the two ‘witnesses’ (13-14), and the witnesses are added to produce
the final ‘judge’ (15).3 What we have now is a geomantic ‘horoscope’ which is
analogous to the square astrological horoscope.

Figure 2. The 16 combinations, and a

talisman for discovering water (Paris,
National Library of France, MA ar. 2687,
f. 16). From Tannery, ‚Le Rabolion‘, p.
302.

There are 16 possible combinations of

single and double points.4 These are
related to the twelve signs of the zodiac,
and, like them, are assigned to the four
elements, the four directions, the four
times of day etc. Just as, in the
astrological horoscope, the signs are
considered in relation to the twelve
‘places’ (or houses) on the ecliptic,
starting from the ascendant point in the
East, so the geomantic figures are
Figure 3. A talisman for discovering buried treasure,
with the compass directions marked on it. Ibid. f. 65r. From Tannery, ‚Le Rabolion‘, p. 308.

3
Sometimes a sixteenth figure is derived from the first and the fifteenth figure, and called the ‘super-judge’
(16). See Figure 1.
4
See Figure 2. For further examples of the geomantic figures see Figures 3 and 4.
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 CHARLES BURNETT
considered in respect to the ‘houses’ they occupy in the geomantic horoscope
(the first twelve houses being equivalent to the astrological houses, which are
each related to a different topic: oneself, ones possessions, ones parents, ones
children etc.). The geomantic figures also behave like planets, which ‘aspect’
each other, depending on which astrological house they are in: the figures in
houses one and five are in ‘trine’ with each other, being separated by four houses,
the figures in houses one and seven are in ‘opposition’ to each other. The figures
called the ‘witnesses’ and ‘judge’, which fall outside the twelve houses, give
further testimonies. The geomantic texts also reflect a different division of the
sphere: into the 28 mansions which the moon travels through in its monthly
cycle.
The geomantic texts go into great
detail on how to answer questions posed
by the client on all manner of subjects,
and are indistinguishable from the sets of
questions that you find in astrological
texts which have the title
‘interrogations’. For the subject of the
interrogation one looks at the geomantic
figure in the first house; for the object of
his desire, that in the seventh house,
again as in astrology. The answers to the
questions are based on the consideration
of several different elements: the nature
of the figure, the relationship of the
figure other figures, the testimonies of
the witnesses and the judge, etc. An
example may be taken from Gerard of
Cremona’s late twelfth-century text on
geomancy:5
Figure 4. Geomantic figures in Hugo of Santalla’s text on geomancy. Oxford,
Bodleian Library, MS Digby 50, f.
If you want to know whether the king will die, then assign the first house to
the king, the sixth house the illness. The geomantic figure‚ Amissio’ (‚loss’) is in
the first house, and is in conjunction with ‚Rubeus’ (‚red’) in the second house.
‚Rubeus’ is also in the sixth house, and is in quartile aspect to Cauda (‚the tail’)

5
Charmasson, op. cit., 64-5.
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 GEOMANCY IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD AND WESTERN EUROPE
in the ninth house. ‚Tristitia’ (‚sadness’) is both in eighth house, which is the
house of death and in the tenth house, which is the house of the king, and
‚Amissio’ is in the twelfth house, the house of affliction. The .judge’ is ‚Carcer’
(‚prison’), which is also an unfortunate figure. Thus the prediction is that the
king will die.
It is not by chance, then, that geomancy is described as ‘another astrology’ or
‘the little daughter of astrology’.6 Considerable space is given over to describing
the principles and raison d’etre of the technique. One text by Hugo of Santalla
writes that ‘Whatever is established in this
world…has been allotted a not dissimilar
exemplar in the higher circle; whatever also
here below is agitated by
some movement, imitates the movements of
the higher region which are congruent with it.
And thus it is clear that figures of the kind
that we wish to investigate here completely
follow the forms of the signs and the lunar
mansions’.7 As Robert Fludd of the mid-
seventeenth century (but drawing on
medieval texts) asserts, the initial casting of
points on the sand must be done without
deliberate counting, so that the human soul,
which is of the same essence as God’s mind,
determines the number of points without
bodily or sensual interference.8 He compares
the attitude of the geomancer to that of the
prophet: ‘as rapture in general is called the
abstraction, alienation and illumination of the
Fig. 5. The frontispiece of Robert Fludd’s geomancy.

6
Bartholomew of Parma (1294) describes geomancy as the practical side or ‘little daughter’ of the art of
astrology, and also as ‚another astrology‘: ‚Note that in this art every point is deposited according to a star of
the heavens. Every figure is is deposited according to certain element in the order of the four elements.
Similarly every figure is is deposited according to the sign of the star among the twelve signs of the
heavens, a planet and the part of the world, which are 4: east, west, south and north. Geomancy is nothing
other than ‘another astrology’ (altra astrologia’)‘: E. Narducci, I Primi due Libri del „Tractatus Sphaerae“
di Bartolomeo da Parma, astronomo del secolo XIII, Rome, 1985, 38 and 40.
7
A translation of the Latin text of the preface printed in C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Medieval
Science, 2nd ed., Cambridge (Mass.), 1927, 78.
8
Robert Fludd, De animae intellectualis scientia seu geomantia hominibus appropriata, in Fasciculus
geomanticus, Verona, 1687, pp. 3-170 (see 5-6 and 30). See Figure 5.
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 CHARLES BURNETT
human mind proceeding immediately from God, from which Prophecy is
produced, so also a certain species of rapture and ecstasy is required for
divination through Geomancy, which is not called the illumination of the mind
immediately issuing from God, but rather a collecting together of his spread-out
rays and their concentration in a narrow place—namely the seat of the human
body itself and its own home, so that through them the divining soul itself may
discern more brightly the simple truth’.9
So, geomancy owes its efficacy to the spiritual and celestial forces of the
whole universe. Moreover, it is a universal science, independent of religion and
place. Like Yi Ching it provides a way to solve problems, and to negotiate the
future, and, again like Yi Ching, it is a way open to anyone who is willing to
purify his soul and follow the signs.

9
Ibid., 13.
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