At a glance
- Reading focus
- Sixteen four-row dot figures; distinct from feng shui.
Definition and content
Each figure has four rows with one or two points, producing sixteen basic combinations. Names, elements, and astrological associations can enter positional interpretation. A definite combinatorial structure does not establish predictive conclusions. The limited mathematical possibilities and claims connecting them to life events are separate issues requiring different kinds of evidence.
Structure and history
Transmission across languages changed names and arrangements. Modern ceremonial texts place geomancy within their own correspondences without defining every earlier form. Particular texts and editions should anchor the account. Cross-cultural translation and modern compilation differ, and an earth-related name alone does not make the method equivalent to architectural placement traditions.
Cultural example
A modern Handbook of Geomancy pairs named figures with statements about life concerns. Its four-row structure illustrates how tables organize interpretation without repeating predictions of health or death. The example shows a text expanding limited symbols into elaborate narratives; it does not establish the reliability of any particular judgment or forecast.
Context and limits
Readers may use geomancy for reflection or assign religious and predictive value, requiring clear perspective labels. Testing would need questions, time frames, and criteria fixed beforehand rather than reinterpreted afterward. Such charts cannot replace professional information, and accounts of Arabic and European reception should acknowledge sources rather than claim every borrowed element as European invention.
References & further reading
Historical sources document ideas and rules of their time, not empirical proof of predictive accuracy. Source notes identify the nature and scope of each reference.
- A Handbook of GeomancyPrimary / tradition source
Modern ritual-magical geomancy text documenting sixteen figures and traditional readings; predictions are historical claims only.
- University of Amsterdam: History of Hermetic PhilosophyScholarly research
University research-field overview; supports classification and historical context, not supernatural efficacy.