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Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Occultism and Esoterism, Tarot

Simplifications of the Opening of the Key Spread

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In a previous article I discussed how the original Golden Dawn spread known as Opening of the Key fits perfectly into the mold of traditional divination by cards, although it adds certain occult layers to it. This is largely due to the absence of one-card-per-position layouts, the presence of peculiar techniques and the tendency to read cards in rows.

To sum up how the spread worked:

  • You selected a significator for the querent (usually among the court cards)
  • You shuffled the deck and let the querent cut it into four stacks (corresponding to the four letters of the Tetragrammaton)
  • You found the stack with the significator and had to divine, based on its position, the nature of the querent’s problem. If wrong, the divination wasn’t radical.
  • You had to spread out the cards into a row or arrange them into a ring and count starting from the querent’s card. Then, you had to pair the cards on either side of the querent to fill out the details.
  • Then you shuffled the deck again and dealt it out into the twelve houses. You had to find the querent’s significator and count and pair as before based on the house.
  • You shuffled the deck again and dealt it into the twelve signs. You found the stack, counted and paired.
  • You shuffled the deck, then looked for the significator and dealt out the 36 cards following it into a ring symbolizing the decans of the zodiac. You counted and paired.
  • Finally, you shuffled and dealt the deck into the ten Sephiroth of the Tree of Life, found the stack, counted and paired.

As you may have guessed, the Opening of the Key was a cumbersome spread, and while it was used for the solution of practical matters (Crowley famously remarked on this fact), it clearly was meant to be used primarily within a ritual setting, at least in its entirety.

What is also clear, though, is that the Opening of the Key is less a spread in itself than a blueprint for a complete tarot reading made up of five individual spreads, each of which analyzes the issue from a different standpoint, or rather by tapping into a different layer of it. The experienced card reader could simply choose one of the five spreads and use it without resorting to the others, as need dictates.

For the most part, it seems that many Golden Dawn members simply stuck to the first operation, which is consequently the most famous and iconic, where one cuts the pack into four smaller stacks and reads the one with the significator. The possible reason why the other operations were generally discounted is probably that almost all of them required the deck to be dealt out into small stacks, only one of which is read, so that it takes more time to deal the cards than to read them.

Other members, though, were more inventive. In his Oracle of the Tarot booklet, Paul Foster Case offers a simpler alternative to the five-operation extravaganza of the full method (which he nonetheless describes and recommends for more serious or complex questions)1

The divination starts as usual: by finding the stack containing the significator and telling the querent what he or she has come for without them telling us, based on the stack. In the original instructions, if the diviner is wrong in assessing the nature of the question, the divination should be abandoned. In reality, aside from the initial period of training, it seems that the location of the significator was simply used to color the interpretation of the cards.

At this point, Case’s simplified method diverges from the original. Instead of spreading out the stack into a single row or ring of cards and starting the counting technique from the significator, Case says the diviner must shuffle the stack and then deal it out into three smaller stacks, corresponding to the past, present, and future. Each stack is then read sequentially (as you would in playing card, Sibilla or Lenormand divination).

The simplification of the method is due to the fact that, instead of starting the exploration of the issue from the past/present with the first operation and then moving on to the further future with the other operations, one has immediately past, present and future condensed into a single method.

There are other ways of simplifying the Opening of the Key. Paul Hughes Barlow rose to some prominence a couple of years ago for his idiosyncratic way of reading the first of operation without relying on a significator, instead reading all four stacks, something for which he was reproved by some.

Personally, I have found Paul Case’s simplification very effective in my experiments, and I’ll probably post an example reading in the future.

MQS

  1. He also introduces certain specifications that are also found in the advanced BOTA course on divination elaborated by Ann Davies based on his notes. ↩︎
Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, Occultism and Esoterism, Spirituality and Psychology

Robert Fludd’s Geomancy – Introduction Pt. 2

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Fludd describes the importance of purification, meditation and other practices in preparation to geomancy.

3. How a Geomancer Should Prepare Himself, So That the Intentions of His Mind May Be Clearly Emitted, and May Be United With the Senses by Means of Reason

It is thanks to our senses that we can see the geomantic points. Then, we compare these same points to the celestial [bodies] and the elements with our imagination.1 Finally, the hidden virtue, both of these points and of the figures arising from them proceeds from the correctness of the intellect, both active and passive,2 and consequently from the mind.

From all this follows that the human body must be regulated and governed in such a way that its more intellectual part may not be drowned by too much intercourse with the flesh, or become dulled, and that the imaginative or fantastic spirit may not be rendered dull and impure.3

Therefore, before this work is approached, let our fantastic spirit be clean, pure, unmoved and untroubled by cares, so that it may be made worthy of being trusted by the mind and intellect. Thus, such a spirit, most suitable for divination, will receive the light of the rays of the mind without any hindrance, and will depict the objects of truth in a mystical manner, as if in a mirror, and will cause the sensation and movement of the body to proceed exactly and to the degree to which the effect of the mind itself tends.4

When, therefore, we are safe and healthy in body, and not disturbed in mind, not weighed down by food or drink, not suffering from want or poverty, and not ruled by any vices of lust or anger, let us enter into this area of ​​prophecy. Let him also who wishes to use this art keep his spirit pure, both by quiet and religious meditation, and by moderate and temperate diet according to nature.5

This preparation is necessary for him who desires to foretell the truth of future things, either by the geomantic art, or by any other method, since without it no one can access true divination, for he who is languishing in a fantastical spirit6 will not attain the desired end, but will judge confusedly and indiscernibly.

Similarly, when we are filled with wine, our imaginative spirit, as if submerged in noxious vapors, hides and distorts the glory and truth of the rays of the mind, no differently than a thick cloud, or the earth raised in the middle of the air region, shields the glory of the sun from the eyes of the beholder, and produces a refraction of its rays. In this manner falsities will appear instead of truths, and in the very portion of the cloud the objects of the sun will be seen changed into an iridescent or multi-colored substance, and many phantasms will appear in the air, which are not such as they appear.7

Hence they say that the vassals of Amphariaus,8 as Philostratus testifies, ordered one who wished to divine future things, and to receive the oracles of God or of the mind, to abstain from food and wine for a whole day, or even for three days, if this could be conveniently done.

Thus we read that Ezra and Daniel, and even Moses himself, before they came to God, abstained from their wives for three days and washed their clothes: and so they did all this, at the command of God himself, of which we read Exod. 19 and Ezech. 44.9

And so also must he who desires to devote himself faithfully to this form of divination, be delighted not with carnal intercourse, but with spiritual union, not with wine, but with the light of the mind’s milk, not to be lavished with worldly riches, but with the infinite affluence of the divine intellect, not with junk, but to be filled with spiritual food.10

In an old French manuscript on occult Geomancy I found a confirmation of the above in these following words: “Before you get to the projection of the Geomantic points, I would like you to understand that they are not counted. Indeed, if you do this, nothing good or profitable will result from it, since this is knowledge based on the soul, and therefore the number of points is to be found in the will of the soul, and in no way be established according to the appetite of your senses.

It behooves him, therefore, who undertakes this work, to begin nothing, unless his heart is at peace, and his conscience is whole and healthy, and his spirit and soul are not troubled by any disturbances, so much so that he would not even wish worse for another than for himself.11

Finally, having been prepared in this way, let him trust in God, the teacher of knowledge, and beseech him with prayers, that by the power of that knowledge he may reveal to him the truth; having therefore carefully completed these things, it will be necessary to proceed immediately to the projection and arrangement of the points, etc.”

This author in no way disagrees with our opinion, but rather, on the contrary, seems to agree exactly with it.

4. It Is Not Sufficient for Divination That the Body and Flesh Should be Well Ordered. It is Also Necessary That the Rays of the Internal Soul Be Gathered Together

As concentrating a force generally increases its strength, so also it begets great weakness when it is dispersed.12 Thus we see that the rays of a candle in a confined room illuminate a place in a wonderful manner, since the narrowness of the place compresses and contracts the rays emitted by the flame to each other, so that they have a greater power in illumination. However, if that candle is placed in a larger room, its light is greatly weakened and darkened, because of the dispersion of its rays in a wide area.

In the same way, then, the soul (whose candlestick is the human body) spreads its rays in this or that business, nay, in infinite external things, for example, in lawsuits and legal affairs, in the art of medicine, in the care of family matters, in pain and sadness over a lost cause or the death of a friend, in anger or some unexpected adversity, in some art or knowledge and others of the like, or if he is also affected by the intercourse of concupiscence, the vice of drunkenness, the indulgence of gluttony, or other temptations of the flesh, he will be very weak and have little power to illuminate the body.

But truly, if all these soul-rays are reduced from external affairs to the internal economy of the Microcosm, and are drawn back to their center from the multitude, the force of the soul will be united, and that body, which was formerly dark and gloomy because of the rays, will be illuminated in a wonderful way, and thus the prophetic power in man will be far more effective than it was before.13

However, this reduction of the expanded rays of the soul into one cannot take place without the purification of the body, which is done in the manner mentioned above. As a result it is necessary above all things for him who wishes to claim the name of truth in Geomancy, that his soul should once again turn and reflect its scattered rays upon itself; since the chief virtue of this science consists in the illumination of the soul, in so far as true things are seen in its divine light, as in a mirror of truth, and are explained by the external observation of points in a mystical way through the guidance of the soul that turns its attention to this.

MQS

Footnotes
  1. By using the correspondences of the figures. ↩︎
  2. The concept of the ‘intellectus agens’ or Active Intellect is key to Neoplatonist spirituality both in Europe and in the Arab world, and has many similarities with some kabbalistic concepts. Generally, the Active Intellect was a universal form of intelligence that is not confined to one’s individual nature. Whether Fludd is referring to this or simply to the more active faculties of the human soul is unclear to me. The gist of his argument, however, is that the occult sciences, including Geomancy, rest on the highest principles, which makes them hard to access when one is not pure. ↩︎
  3. Imagination is depicted here as a valid aid to understanding, as long as it is in its pure form and not just mere fancy. ↩︎
  4. To put it simply, the body and the lower faculties of our nature must be ruled in such a way that they move in unison with the higher. Once this is accomplished, divination may take place successfully. ↩︎
  5. Old medicine was of the idea that an appropriate diet could only be prescribed based on one’s nature. There was no one-size-fit-all. As for meditation, Fludd is unlikely to refer to those forms of meditation that entered into the Western consciousness thanks to theosophy’s Eastern dabblings, and that have become commonplace today. The West used to have its forms of meditation. ↩︎
  6. possibly meaning someone who gives in to their fantasy without ruling it appropriately ↩︎
  7. It is impossible to read this passage without being reminded of Plato’s myths, especially that of the cave. ↩︎
  8. Possibly Amphiaraus, the mythological seer. ↩︎
  9. Here Fludd interprets passages from the Bible as episodes describing some higher form of divination. In a way, this is very true. ↩︎
  10. Here Fludd proposes a series of alternatives to ‘lower’ forms of pleasure that may seem rethorical at first, but on closer inspection aren’t. Such ‘substitutions’ are typical of many occult training curricula. ↩︎
  11. Ill-wishing is part of the things that weigh the soul down. ↩︎
  12. The same pressure applied on a wider surface disperses it. ↩︎
  13. This process of ‘unification’ is the same that has been typical of Neoplatonism since (at least) Plotinus, and which has been described, within a Christian context, by the German mystics (Meister Eckhart and his disciples) who described the Seelengrund (ground of the soul) as the point of contact of the individual soul with the universal presence of the divine. Fludd, living at the end of the Renaissance and its exaltation of humanity, gives us a slightly less mystical version of this idea, one geared toward increasing one’s knowledge through occult practices. ↩︎
astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Playing Cards, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Unanswerable Questions

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Not every question is fit for divination, and as diviners who get approached by people, discernment and, if necessary, gate-keeping is among our rights and duties. I say this not because I want to feel part of a superior caste of priests, but because our practice should be informed by two great principles: the well-being of our querents and the honor of our art.

It is perfectly fine to ask questions out of mere curiosity or for fun, but the ultimate decision on whether a question shall be put to the cards rests with us. I, for one, have dodged more questions about controversial politicians in the last couple of weeks than in the last couple of years altogether, largely because the question, when boiled down to its essential meaning, was “Is it true this politician I hate is a spawn of Satan?”

Such questions are unanswerable not merely because they are idle, but because they are ultimately unverifiable: unless you are that politician’s cleaning lady you have few ways of verifying my answer. Furthermore, consider this: if my answer is anything except “yes, you’re absolutely justified in your hatred,” the person is going to be inclined to dismiss my answer as superstitious nonsense. Why, then, whould a positive answer be of any value?

But unanswerable questions are not just those that belong to the “is it true that my particular preferences are absolutely valid and I don’t ever need to question them?” category. Some are more tragic. Recently I got asked something heart-breaking: “Is my life still worth living?”

No matter how we slice it, THIS is an unanswerable question, which doesn’t make it a meaningless string of sounds. On the contrary, it is a clearly formulated cry for help. As someone who has been struggling with depression since my teen years and has gone dangerously close to the edge on more than one occasion, I resonate strongly with it. But the fact remains that divination is not the tool to solve this issue.

I refused to open the cards on this question, obviously, but suppose I had, and suppose that, predictably, the cards had shown me the absolute mess that is this person’s life: does this make their life less worth living?

There is no answer. In this case, not because we cannot verify the details (I could easily point at the cards and say “your career is in shambles and your family life is a museum of red flags”) but because the reality of the situation has no bearing on the answer. Worth is subjective. The exact same set of circumstances that might drive someone to walk into a lake with stones in their pockets would be taken by someone else as life throwing a little challenge their way.

Therefore, in this case the question would translate as “What is your personal opinion on what makes life worth living and do you think I still meet those criteria?” I don’t think anyone would be foolish enough to even consider taking such a responsibility for themselves.1 It is much wiser to talk to the person, encourage them to open up and direct them to an appropriate source of (medical) help.

Again, though, the fact that the question cannot be answered does not imply that there isn’t a deep, real, visceral experience behind it. It is just that divination is not the way to go. It is like asking a pair of scales to measure whether you are pretty.

MQS

  1. Furthermore, people in a seriously distressed state are especially prone to esoteric influences, and would to better to avoid them, even if it’s just a simple card reading ↩︎
Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Tarot, Uncategorized

Tarot Encyclopedia – The Four of Cups

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(Note: this is a collection of the meanings attributed to the cards by some occultists in the past centuries. It does not reflect my own study or opinion of the cards. It is only meant as a quick comparative reference as I develop my own take.)

The Four of Cups from the Builders of the Adytum (BOTA) tarot deck

Paul Foster Case (and Ann Davies)

The specific divinatory meanings are thus based on the attributions of Chesed, the planetary forces of Jupiter and Neptune, the zodiacal influences of Cancer ruled by the Moon, and the astrological fourth house. Jupiter’s sphere of influence is Chesed. It co-rules the third decanate of Cancer besides being exalted in this zodiacal sign. Therefore the Four of Cups has a very strong Jupiterian influence of wealth and expansiveness. The Four of Cups corresponding to the third decanate of Cancer is the time period July 13 to July 22, ruled by Jupiter and Neptune.
In specific Tarot Divination its key meanings are:
Well Dignified: success in material things, but desire for something higher; a period of comparative comfort, yet a little confining, thus suggesting a measure of satiety; it is a symbol of contemplation and of the turning away from pleasure in quest of higher things; it intimates strong psychic influences in the life or environment of the Querent.
lll-Dignified: material gain, but through injustice; sorrows resulting from satisfaction of desire; getting what one has wanted but finding no joy in it.
Keyword: Surfeit
(From the Oracle of Tarot Course)

A. E. Waite

A young man is seated under a tree and contemplates three cups set on the grass before him; an arm issuing from a cloud offers him another cup. His expression notwithstanding is one of discontent with his environment. Divinatory Meanings: Weariness, disgust, aversion, imaginary vexations, as if the wine of this world had caused satiety only; another wine, as if a fairy gift, is now offered the wastrel, but he sees no consolation therein. This is also a card of blended pleasure. Reversed: Novelty, presage, new instruction, new relations.
(From The Pictorial Key to the Tarot)

Aleister Crowley

The Four of Cups is called Luxury.

The masculine nature of fire permits the Four of Wands to appear as a very positive and clear-cut conception. The weakness in the element of water threatens its purity; it is not quite strong enough to control itself properly; so the Lord of Pleasure is a little unstable. Purity has somehow been lost in the process of satisfaction.

[…]

This card refers to Chesed in the sphere of Water. Here, below the Abyss, the energy of this element, although ordered, balanced and (for the moment) stabilized, has lost the original purity of the conception.

The card refers to the Moon in Cancer, which is her own house; but Cancer itself is so placed that this implies a certain weakness, an abandonment to desire. This tends to introduce the seeds of decay into the fruit of pleasure.

The sea is still shown, but its surface is ruffled, and the four Cups which stand upon it are no longer so stable. The Lotus from which the water Springs has a multiple stem, as if to show that the influence of the Dyad has gathered strength. For although the number Four is the manifestation and consolidation of the dyad, it is also secretly preparing catastrophe by emphasizing individuality.

There is a certain parallelism between this card and the Geomantic figures Via and Populus, which are attributed to the Moon in her decrease and increase respectively. The link is primarily the “Change=Stability” equation, already familiar to readers of this essay. Four is an “awkward” number; alone among the natural numbers, it is impossible to construct a “Magic Square” of four cells. Even in the Naples Arrangement, Four is a dead stop, a blind alley. An idea of a totally different Order is necessary to carry on the series. Note also the refolding-in-upon-itself suggested by the “Magic Number” of Four 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 which is Ten. Four is the number of the Curse of Limitation, of Restriction. It is the blind and barren Cross of equal arms, Tetragrammaton in his fatal aspect of finality, as the Qabalists knew him before the discovery of the Revolving Formula whereby the Daughter, seated upon the Throne of the Mother, “awakens the Eld of the All-Father”.

For the meanings of Via and Populus, refer to the “Handbook of Geomancy” (Equinox Vol. I, No.2).

(From The Book of Thoth)

An AI-generated illustration for the Four of Cups

Golden Dawn’s Book T

FOUR cups: the two upper overflowing into the two lower, which do not
overflow. An Angelic Hand grasps a branch of lotus, from which ascends a stem bearing one flower at the top of the card, from which the white water flows into the two upper cups. From the centre two leaves pass right and left, making, as it were, a cross between the four cups. Above and below are the symbols Moon and Cancer for the Decan.

Success or pleasure approaching their end. A stationary period in happiness, which may, or may not, continue. It does not mean love and marriage so much as the previous symbol. It is too passive a symbol to represent perfectly complete happiness. Swiftness, hunting and pursuing. Acquisition by contention: injustice sometimes; some drawbacks to pleasure implied.
Chesed of HB:H (Receiving pleasure or kindness from others, but some
discomfort therewith).
Therein rule the great Angels HB:HYYAL and HB:MVMYH.

Etteilla

Boredom
Upright. This card, as far as the medicine of the spirit is concerned, means, in its natural position: Boredom, Displeasure, Discontent, Disgust, Aversion, Enmity, Hatred, Horror, Restlessness, Pain of spirit, Slight sadness, Affliction, Painful, Annoying, Unpleasant. – Saddening, Distressing.
Reversed. New Directive, New Light. – Index, Indication, Conjecture. – Augury, Foreboding. – Presentment, Foreboding, Predilection, Novelty.

MQS

Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, Occultism and Esoterism

Introduction to Abano’s Geomancy – Who Was He?

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The modern mind is used to neat distinctions and a more or less monolithic theoretical scaffolding where everything finds its little place. To our sensibility, what belongs to natural science does not belong to literature or art, let alone to astrology or occultism. Though some eccentrics try to straddle the gorge, within the current worldview they must remain what they are: eccentrics. This is largely a consequence of the evolution of science away from the mother root of philosophy and the triumph of the technical-scientific worldview. It is neither a good process nor a bad one: it is what it is, but it hasn’t always been this way.

Pietro d’Abano, who lived between the XIII and XIV century, was, like many of his time, an encyclopedic learner. This was certainly easier back then, when owning a couple of dozens books was considered a marvel and the hyperspecialization typical of our contemporary organization of knowledge hadn’t yet taken place.

The extent of Abano’s involvement in occult practices is not clear. The famous grimoire Heptameron (Book of the Seven Days) is traditionally attributed to him, though it is, in actual fact, an anonymous work. What we do know is that his knowledge of languages allowed him to study many authors (like the Averroes or Ibn Ezra) who had considerable influence on the later development of magical theory, though this influence is still little understood by contemporary occultists.

We also know that he taught a number of subjects ranging from medicine to astrology, and that he was a very adept astrologer. This is not a unicum in the history of science. Astrology was one of the few forms of divination that was, if not tolerated, at least not as consistently persecuted as other branches of occultism in the Middle Ages, largely due to the fact that a reasonable argument could be made that the astrological influence of the planets was a natural consequence of how the cosmos was believed to work according to the Platonic-Aristotelean view accepted by the Church. It was simply not always practical to distinguish astrology as astronomy from astrology as divination, though attempts were made.

Finally, Abano is the subject of a number of urban legends. For instance, he was brought before the inquisition twice, largely due to his immense erudition. Once he was acquitted, the second time he was condemned. Unfortunately, he died in custody before the sentence had been pronounced, so the tribunal ordered his body exhumed and burned. But they dug up an empty grave, since a friend of the philosopher had gotten to his body first. This fact alone was enough to cement in people’s mind the image of Abano as an ominous magus and necromancer whose body was capable of disappearing from the grave.

As for the present book on Geomancy, it is not a stretch to think that someone as versed in astrology as Abano should be interested in this form of divination, which, at least in Europe at the time, was reduced as much as possible to astrological principles. The treatise is divided into four books: in the first, Abano explains the principles and astrological correspondences of geomancy; in the second, he discusses the meanings of the various houses and the principles of geomantic perfection; in the third, he gives examples of the meanings of the figures in the houses; in the fourth, he talks about the good or bad fortune of the figures depending on which figures they derive from.

What makes this book an interesting read for any student of geomancy is that it confronts us with a way of reading the Geomantic Shield that is not typical of how geomancy has been rationalized in the late XX and early XXI centuries. This is in itself worthy of consideration, especially because it proves beyond doubt that the distinction between Shield Chart and Astrological Chart is artificial and only serves to complicate matters. Furthermore, Abano’s interpretation of the figures affords us a rare glance in the workings of the mind of an adept of geomancy, by whose example we can derive solid principles for interpreting our divinations. Abano’s examples are therefore not meant to be taken as the last word, but as a contribution to our study of the interrelation of the Geomantic figures.

MQS

Card Meanings, Card Reading, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Playing Cards, Reading Example, Uncategorized

The Car Keys (Example Reading)

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I’m currently visiting my parents in Italy, so I’m going to keep this short and sweet. I lost my  keys. As I probably already mentioned, I hate lost object readings because they are incredibly difficult to decipher, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to try. The cool thing about playing cards is that most people have them at home. This is the reading that came up:

7♠️ – 8♥️ – 10♠️ – 2♦️ – J♦️

If I had to tell you I understood this reading I’d be lying. The one thing that seemed clear to me is that it was in a place made for people (Eight of Hearts), so the living room was an option, though it seemed strange, since I always keep my keys in my old bedroom. There were also those two diamonds indicating messages, which I didn’t understand.

Well, it turned out I suddely lost (Seven of Spades) the keys the previous evening (Ten of Spades) during a dinner (Eight of Hearts), and I was contacted by the owners through a friend of mine who knows them.

MQS

Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, Occultism and Esoterism

Robert Fludd’s Geomancy – Introduction Pt. 1

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Fludd discusses how we may know that geomancy works, and why we should consider it a science of the soul.

1. The Science of Geomancy is the True Act of the Intellectual Soul

Before we speak of the properties of geomancy and of divination from the east (to be discussed later in a separate book), we think that it is appropriate to deal with its essence here, which we will clearly illustrate with sufficiently probable reasons.1

If we consider the origin of this science, we will certainly perceive that it is a very occult and internal science,2 wherefore it is that common men, paying attention only to their senses, habitually blather that this art is merely accidental, foolish, and empty, and has nothing of value to it. In reality, men endowed with a strong imagination are able to grasp the reason of this secret knowledge, and to behold or perceive it with their spiritual eyes, since its consideration passes the limits of ordinary reason.3

In fact, if we try to account for the effects in this science, the work will surely be arduous and painful. Indeed, who, even among the commoners, would not regard him as a foolish man, who, upon seeing a servant carrying out the commands of his master, would wish to inquire about the master’s secret plan and intention and, wanting to know and explore them from that servant, he would directly answer thus: “My Lord usually commands this or that; so, however, that he does not in the same way indicate the account of the mandate to his executors or servants.”4

Thus we receive the feeling of life in a wonderful manner from the higher planes,5 while, however, as to its source, vehicle, and reason, men usually only reason from the effect by conjectures, and do not know or have anything certain. Similarly the divine mind produces wonderful effects in man and acts marvelously, while, however, the obstacle of the flesh and the mind prevents us from correctly knowing the reason of these actions. The mind therefore acts upon the intellect, and the intellect patiently fulfills the acts of its ruler, and yet the principal cause is hidden in the center of the mind, that is, in the divine word.6

Similarly a Lord hands his money to his servant, that he may take it to such and such a city: yet the servant does not understand what his Lord intends to do with such money, since the reason is hidden in the heart of the Lord. that is, of the mind. Thus the intellect and reason impel the imagination to bear and carry the impressions of its king, that is, the mind.

In a similar manner the servant puts his master’s money into the cart, so that he may carry the master’s burdens into the visible world; and in this way also the horses draw the cart to the city. Yet in the meantime reason or imagination or sense do not understand the intention of the mind any more than a servant or a cart, or the horses perceive the secret and hidden will of their Lord. However, human reason can conjecture better than imagination or sense,7 just as even a servant may in a certain way imagine and conjecture to reach the conception of his master, if he wishes to have nothing certain.

From these considerations it is evident, therefore, that just as we cannot know God except a posteriori,8 so also we do not perceive or understand the mind or the reason of its actions, except from the effect. Moreover, from its effect, the Artists9 understood that this knowledge was true and admirable, inasmuch as by means of it the future and the present, even the unknown things of the past, were discovered in a wonderful divine manner.

But if fools wish to penetrate to the center of this act, that is, to the unity and the point of the mind itself, they will indeed waste their time, since there is a level beyond reason and understanding, to which no one can ever reach, unless he takes off his bodily abode: it is sufficient, therefore, that we know the monk by his tunic, and the art by its effect.

And so this knowledge is divine, because it allows one to divine, which is close to prophecy, because through it the mind, by its own power, performs, although weakly, that which it is accustomed to perform at other times (but more powerfully and clearly because of the multitude of higher rays coming to us at the same time) united and conjoined with the divine mind.10

And hence, considering it in the proper manner, we see that the human mind is of the same essence of which the divine mind is, since it usually performs the same to a lesser degree as it performs in a greater one: for a greater power produces a greater effect, and consequently a smaller one also a smaller effect.11

Man’s mind, being at the receiving end of the divine rays, if only it is preserved from the harm of the body and flesh, and is not clouded by darkness, or is not affected by the allurement of the senses,12 can pour out its prophetic power into a sensible effect, and perform miracles, the effects of which are indeed unaccounted for. It is no more possible to account for this, than it is possible to recognize the nature of prophecy itself.

2. Why Geomancy Is Considered an Absurd and Silly Science Among the Ignorant

Those who are ignorant are wont to esteem this knowledge of the soul absurd and ridiculous, since they think that it flows out and proceeds from points made by the movement of the hand.13

But the wise and the learned could answer them easily that there is nothing certain, nor any constant resolution in the mind of man, to execute this or that thing, or to set out to seek this or that place on such a day, and yet that the mind of man is somehow made up, and man accomplishes this regardless of all hindrance.14

Therefore, even though the movement of the hand, constituting points corresponding to the disposition of the mind in its certain number and proportion, appears to accomplish nothing in the projection of the points,15 yet many things are concealed under the multitude of points: namely, the prediction of the soul itself, driven by the ethereal and elemental vehicles of the Microcosm, as far as the twelve signs, the seven planets, and the four elements,16 and their powers are hidden under such points.

For as the mind and intellect could not descend into man without the aforesaid vehicles of the Macrocosm, so also nothing real and essential proceeds from the mind, as from its origin, except through these means.

This movement is therefore not accidental, inasmuch as it proceeds from the human soul, which is the complete essence of man,17 and acts essentially and by itself, unless it is hindered by the accidents of the flesh and the senses.

In this way we also say that the mineral nature of lead and iron tends in its essence to the nature of gold: but by accidents, that is, it is hindered by impure sulphur, so that it cannot reach the goal set by nature.18

But the ignorant will reply that such impediments always happen to the body, because of the impurity of the flesh and the error of ignorance. This, then, should at least be granted: That the more the rays of the mind are impeded in their motion by the pollutions of the body, the more the effect of its action is weakened, just as when a cloud is interposed between our eye and the solar rays, so that the rays cannot penetrate to our sight, and hence their manifest effects are removed.

MQS

Footnotes
  1. As will be seen shortly, Fludd says his reasonings are “sufficiently probable” because there cannot be true certainty in this science, though this is not, for him, a negative thing, but rather a feature of its mystical origin. ↩︎
  2. “scientiam valde occultam et internam.” The word ‘occult’ here is probably to be simply understood as ‘hidden’. ↩︎
  3. The word ‘imagination’ here is not to be mistaken as ‘fancy’. Imagination is treated as a valid aid to understanding. ↩︎
  4. This sentence, like many in Fludd’s writings, is exceedingly convoluted. The metaphor of the servant carrying out the master’s order runs through this section. In this first instance, the general sense (provided my translation is correct) seems to be that asking for proofs about something too mysterious in the same way one would ask for them in everyday matters is useless. ↩︎
  5. literally “from the superior things”. The translation “from the superior planes” probably sounds a touch too modern, but it clarifies the idea. ↩︎
  6. This sentence cannot be understood without reference to Fludd’s Neoplatonic view of the world, which, like all forms of Neoplatonisms, sees the universe as a series of spheres of emanation which find their correspondence in the microcosm of man. The universe, like humans, finds its center in the divine. ↩︎
  7. That is, we can arrive at probable conjectures, even though we cannot be sure. ↩︎
  8. ‘a posteriori’ is a philosophical term which means, broadly speaking, that we know something from its effects in our concrete experience, rather than from abstract logical reasoning (‘a priori’) ↩︎
  9. Probably in reference to the ancient geomancers. ↩︎
  10. Divination, therefore, is but a step down from prophecy. The reference to ‘rays’ is Fludd’s way of conceptualizing our relationship with the Divine, as if the divine world sent rays to us, and the more we receive of these rays, the more we approach God in his power and ability (such as seeing the future). ↩︎
  11. Again, this is to be seen within the context of Fludd’s Neoplatonism, whereby the Microcosm of man is like a small replica of the Macrocosm and, indirectly, of God. ↩︎
  12. Neoplatonism’s relationship to the material world of senses is ambivalent. Generally speaking, the material world is seen as the last emanation, and therefore as a final concretization of the divine worlds above it. Therefore, it is good in so far as it comes from a divine source, but it is seen as corrupt because, being the last stretch of being before the abyss of nothingness, in it the perfection of the divine plane is obscured, both in nature and within humanity (through bad behavior). ↩︎
  13. That is, the ignorants believe that geomancy’s powers reside in its exterior signs rather than in the inner chain that links those signs to the divine source. ↩︎
  14. This metaphor seems a bit obscure. Possibly, its meaning is that, just like our external behavior is inconstant and unpredictable, and yet the mind manages to force us to accomplish clear results, so the inner mechanism that makes geomancy work can create meaning in a bunch of hand gestures and lines and points. ↩︎
  15. The points are those traced during the ‘inspired’ section of a geomancy session. ↩︎
  16. All these are the universal symbols that allow us to derive meanings from the geomantic figures. ↩︎
  17. The human soul is not a random fragment of life animating a body. It is a universal power which is found whole within each of us, and is impeded in its manifestation by our imperfect nature to various degrees. ↩︎
  18. This paragraph is a reference to the alchemical and chemical beliefs of the time, and similar statements can be found in many alchemical texts. ↩︎
Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, Occultism and Esoterism, Spirituality and Psychology

Robert Fludd’s Geomancy, Translated and Annotated / Index

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Back to the Geomancy Index

My translation and comments on Robert Fludd’s Animae Intellectualis Scientia seu Geomantia (The Intellectual Science of the Soul or Geomancy). Please note that I am no professional translator of old texts and sometimes I had to paraphrase. Feel free to leave comments or contact me on how this project could be improved. The translation and commentaries are copyrighted to me, so please ask for my permission before using it.

Introduction
Part I – Geomancy is an Act of the Soul
Part II – Preparing to Divination, the Hermetic Way
Part III – The Mystical Presuppositions of Divination

Book I
Part I – Anecdotes on the veracity of Geomancy
Part II – How to Prepare to Divination
Part III – Basic rules on projecting the points
Part IV – Filling out the geomantic shield

Book II
Part I – Elemental and astrological attributes of the figures
Part II – The Houses
Part III – The First Four Geomantic Figures
Part IV – The Second Four Geomantic Figures
Part V – The Third Four Geomantic Figures
Part VI – The Final Four Geomantic Figures
Part VII – When the Same Figure is Found in Two Houses

MQS

astrology, Cartomancy, Divination, Divination Master Post, Everyday Oracle, Fortune-telling, Geomancy, I Ching / Yi Jing, Occultism and Esoterism, Philosophy, Playing Cards, Sibilla della Zingara, Tarot, Vera Sibilla

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies And How to Avoid Them

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A couple of weeks ago I received a message about the question of whether we, as readers, risk causing self-fulfilling prophecies with our predictions. For instance, if I tell a querent that the relationship she is in is going to end, I may end up causing the break-up. What follows is a slight elaboration on my response.

First off, we need to recognize that some things we can change or at least improve, others we can’t and they will happen regardless of what we do and what a reader tells us. Most people who go about their life with their brain switched on can recognize this. It is only when we get into delulu territory and body-mind-spirit-section pseudomysticism that we encounter people who deny the existence of unavoidable happenings.

On the other hand, sheer fatalism is also a gross misunderstanding. Consider simply this fact: if two people X and Y are exactly the same and go exactly through the same life experience, except that X also uses divination or consults a diviner, this is enough to tell them apart.

The fact that X knows about what is going to happen in advance is enough to make him a different individual, which in turn is enough to change the nature of his fate, because our ability to change a situation is contingent on our knowledge of what the situation truly is. Even if X cannot change a certain fact in any meaningful way, but knows about it enough in advance that he can make his peace with it, the same event Z won’t be the same if X’s attitude toward it changes, because X is part of the event that takes place in his life, and so if X change, the event changes. Even if X cannot bring himself to accept Z, his knowledge of Z is enough to change Z, because X with knowledge of Z is not equal to X without knowledge of Z.

Fate patterns are a difficult topic to tackle without a previous sound philosophical and occult discussion, and I plan on starting that discussion at some point, once I’ve organized my notes. For now, it suffices to say that we, as readers, can play a rather important role in the querent’s life if we are consulted at the right moment.

Yet, this doesn’t mean that we are capable of empowering querents to always turn their life around, and I don’t even think empowering is our mission: our mission is to provide information. On a number of occasions, especially when I was less experienced, I gave querents the wrong prediction on purpose because I didn’t want to disappoint them, even though the cards were clearly negative: Yes, you’ll get the job, yes the relationship is going to last and be wonderful. But it didn’t happen. 

On some of those occasions you may even think that because I didn’t bring up the negative aspects, the querent wasn’t prepared to tackle them, so my not bringing them up may have been just as bad as another diviner handing out negative predictions willy-nilly. That’s because I wasn’t able to give accurate information.

It is nice that some things can be changed even if some things can’t, but unfortunately we don’t always know which is which. Therefore, we must also recognize that we have a degree of power over our querent just by virtue of using odd, mysterious counters to give our predictions, and we must not abuse this power. 

Whenever possible, we should either frame our predictions as potentials and/or accompany them with positive suggestions. These suggestions, though, must ALWAYS be based on what the oracle describes, never on vague self-help platitudes. Sometimes (many times) it is best to highlight critical points so that the querent can become conscious of them (e.g., “you know, this relationship is headed down a pumpy road. You should address x, y and z if you want to try to make it work”) while avoiding drastic predictions unless necessary.

Furthermore, we must never frame our predictions in such way as to take away all hope. It is not our right to do so. Deluding and disillusioning are the two capital sins that we must avoid, even though striking the right balance is sometimes hard. There is plenty of space between being a pushover to our querent’s wishes and being an insufferable sassy tough-love prick.

If there are positive aspects to a situation, we should emphasize those and try to put them at the center of the querent’s life so that they can address the negative points more positively.

Finally, we ought to always remind our querent that diviners are people and are therefore fallible. In a world where doctors, lawyers, judges, scientists and bakers can get things wrong it would be absurd to expect diviners to always be right. Always encourage the querent to take your predictions as an additional input. 

MQS

Divination, Divination Master Post, Fortune-telling, Reading Example

The Job Interview (Example Reading)

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Since I began reviewing my geomancy reading method I started nagging some friends for an opportunity to read for them. I am especially interested in seeing whether we can consider the houses in the shield to be adjacent across the shield (like, for instance, the First with the Ninth), as Peter of Abano seems to suggest in his handbook. This would open up the Geomantic Shield to a whole host of interactions.

A friend of mine was applying for a job, so he asked me if he would get it. This is the Shield I got:1

“Will I get the job?” Geomancy reading. App used: Simple Geomancy

The Querent is represented by the First House and the first figure, Tristitia. The Job is represented by the Tenth House and the tenth figure, Caput Draconis. Tristitia is not a great figure, indicating trouble and difficulties. The querent has been having trouble holding down a job or having contracts renewed, so it is fitting that he should be troubled by the situation. Caput is an encouraging figure, showing things beginning, but without contact between the two houses I wouldn’t predict him being hired.

Fortunately, contact is provided by Tristitia, which springs to the Eleventh House. The fact that Tristitia moves, and not Caput, indicates that the querent will need to put quite a bit of effort into the hiring process. Tristitia also springs to the Third House, and, according to Abano, this seems to count as being in contact with the Tenth House. I cannot make any definitive judgment on this issue. I will merely file it away for future consideration.

The Judge is Fortuna Maior, which is a very encouraging indication of success through effort. Possibly, I thought, the hiring process will stretch out and take longer than the querent thinks. The fact that Maior emerges from a very difficult set of Witnesses adds to the obstacles and the delay.

The outcome, thankfully, was positive. He got hired, but the pay was not as satisfying as he thought it would be (note Amissio as Left Witness) and the hiring process definitely lasted way longer than he thought it would.

MQS

  1. Someone asked me if I do my geomancy readings with the app I use to show the chart. I don’t. I always do my readings with pen and paper. The App is only for presentation. ↩︎