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Geomancy (SAGE)

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David J. Nemeth
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 Geomancy : Encyclopedia of Geography Page 1 of 1

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Geomancy
The mantic arts employ diverse mediums for purposes of divination. Geomancy (geo- for "Earth," -mancy
for "divination") is the mantic art that divines earthy, terrestrial, or telluric mediums to discover hidden
knowledge and/or predict the future. Geomancy literature and its applications constitute the oldest
continually practiced scholarly geographic tradltton in the world. East Asian variants of geomantic applied
arts have had major ÿmpacts in shaping some of the world's most populated cultural landscapes during
ancient and medieval times.

The two major exemplars of geomancy in human history are the "African" (or Western) "science of sand"
and the "Chinese" (or East Asian) "wind-and-water" variant, popularly known as feng shui (various
spellings). Geomantic configurations divined in both systems relate to celestial phenomena. The Islamic
variation of African geomancy, which interprets geometric designs formed by casting pebbles, diffused
through the Byzantine and Latin worlds across Europe and into England, to gain popularity during the
medieval and Renaissance periods. The telluric medium divined in East Asian feng shui geomancy is terrain
itself. Due to its preoccupation with landform divination, feng shui is known alternatively in English as
topomancy and terrestrial astrology. Esoteric ideas related to correspondences and reciprocities between
Earth and heaven as human habitat are highly symbolized and deeply embedded in feng shui theories and
applications. Feng shin surveying in the field Involves skill, intuition, instrumentatJon (principally its
complex astrobiologmal model and compass), and cartographic skills.

Feng shui geomancy, aptly described a century ago by Herbert Chatley, is the art of adapting the
residences of the living and the dead so as to cooperate and harmonize with the local currents of the
cosmic breath. Motivating the effort are expectations of propitious outcomes for nature and humanity.
Where feng shui surveys are diagnostic and remedial, skilled surveyors are perceived to be "Earth doctors."
Two distinct traditional schools of feng shui--"landscape" and "compass"--are discernable, but their skills
seem complementary and overlapping. The mass popularity of Chinese geomancy reached its pinnacle,.
under the Qmg dynasty (AD 1644-1911) but then faded dramatically throughout East Asia wherever
modernization and communism became entrenched. However, among the unforeseen impacts of economic
liberalization and globalization over the past few decades Is the unexpected new demand throughout East
Asia for traditional feng shui skills, services, and products.

Related to this resurgence, and even more remarkable, is the diffusion to and sudden growth and
persistence of a popular wave of interest in Asian geomancy throughout the West, and especially in the
United States. This trend has had some major economic impacts m high-end residential and commercial
West Coast real estate markets, meanwhile generating a variety of geomancy-related "New Age" products
and services in mass markets nationwide. Higher-education programs, including those in geography,
planning, and Africana studies, have meanwhile increasingly incorporated the topic of geomancy into their
curriculums.

--David J. Nemeth

Further Readings

Entry Citation"
Nemeth, David J. "Geomancy." Encyclopedia of Geography. 2010. SAGE Publications. 16 Oct. 2010.
< http ://www.sage-ereference.com/geography/Article_n483.html >.

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