Thursdays, July 27, August 3, 10, 17
7 – 9 pm ET
Full-series: $200 Patreon Members / $225 General Admission
Single class: $75

PLEASE NOTE: All classes will also be recorded and archived for students who cannot make that time. Students can register after the start time and receive a streaming link to class recordings via email.

This modular four-part series explores fundamental aspects of European Renaissance geomantic divination and magic. This course series is designed for both total newcomers to geomancy, as well as seasoned geomancers looking to further master their art.

The four sessions of the Geomancy Is Everywhere series break down as follows (more on each below):

July 27 - A Worldly Oracle: introducing the history and practice of geomancy, noting important sources and historical practitioners, as well as presenting as overview of the system, its tools and techniques, and all the necessary elements for getting started with geomancy.

August 3 - The Sixteen Figures: offering deeper study of the Sixteen Geomantic Figures that make up the answers that a geomantic shield chart provides; analyzing their various meanings, as well as presenting some options for understanding these geomantic figures in terms of everyday elemental and planetary magic.

August 10 - Mastering Shield Charts: presenting in-depth analysis of the geomantic shield chart, assessing its elemental positions and placements to unveil new and clarifying layers of meaning for divination. This session also deals with how to most helpfully phrase one’s questions when casting geomancy, as well as some more detailed techniques of interpretation like the Via Puncti, the Index and the Part of Fortune.

August 17 - Geomantic Spellcrafts: exploring various ways geomantic divination can be used to inform operative magical practices of ritual magic and remediatory spellcraft, as well as for creating geomantic sigils, working with geomantic spirits, and employing the Sixteen Figures for practical sorcery along with divination.

Part I: A Worldly Oracle

At its height in the Renaissance, geomancy was one of the most popular and well-regarded forms of divination. It was the preferred oracle of monarchs and sages. Occult philosophers swore by it as one of the most accurate and insightful divinatory practices available. While geomancy’s earliest origins lie in Arabic traditions, it swiftly became popular across Europe in the late medieval period.

Perhaps the most inherently elemental system of Western divination, the 'geo-' of it is understood not only as elementally Earthy, but as worldly: for it maps practically and precisely any and all events and influences occurring in and on this world, offering advice both grounded and gnomic.

Geomancy examines the roles of the planets in our daily lives, and while it utilizes the language and expression of astrology, is not dependent on astronomical measure. Our questions are answered in this familiar language of the stars, showing how these titanic forces are playing out in our lives and under our feet. It is not a replacement for astrology but rather its "Sister" oracle, and so many of its terms will be familiar to an astrologer. That said, no previous knowledge of astrology or sorcery is needed to attend or follow this lecture; on the other hand, these explorations and presentation of the art should refresh and enliven those already familiar with divination and even geomancy itself.

This presentation is delivered by Dr Alexander Cummins, himself both a historian of magic and professional geomancer. And so, in this class, we will not only examine the historical practice of this incredibly popular Renaissance system of divination, students new to it will be taught how to consult this most worldly oracle. And even seasoned geomancers should appreciate the shared techniques and tips on exploring geomancy's spirits and spell-craft!

Part II: The Sixteen Figures

Systems of divination divide the universe and its events between various sets of icons of power and potentiality. The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac, the Sixty Four Hexagrams of the I Ching, even the Seventy Eight Cards of the Tarot. The Sixteen Figures of European Renaissance geomancy are no exception.

Geomancy as a system consists of only sixteen figures, each attributed an astrological identity in terms of a ruling planet and a corresponding zodiacal sign. These sixteen figures are combined in specific charts (known as shields) to render very particular answers, often employing the twelvefold Houses of the Heavens to answer specific questions, and locate deeper perspectives in the querent’s life.

But the Sixteen Figures themselves represent not only working lots of fate in geomancy’s engine of divination; the Figures are coherences of differing patterns of possibility and potential, each with their own unique expression and instantiations of events, influences, energies, and spirits.

In this class, contemporary cunning-man and professional geomancer Dr Alexander Cummins will take us an on in-depth exploration and celebration of the practical mysteries of the sixteen figures of European Renaissance geomancy: considering the messages they bring when they show up in readings, particularly considering the blessings and obstacles they can represent, as well as assessing the ways the occult virtues and spirits of these patterns of energy can be actively engaged with and worked in our spiritual and material lives.

Part III: Mastering Shield Charts

The fundamental act and process of European Renaissance geomantic divination, of “casting geomancy”, is setting a shield chart. So called because of the shield-like shape of the chart, this charting of geomantic influences distills down assessment of any and all aspects of the querent’s situation into a careful and stable judgement concerning how likely things are to happen, as well as offering advice on what will help and hinder one’s success in such matters.

The geomantic shield chart generally consists of fifteen (or, as we shall see, sixteen) ‘places’, not unlike the places of, say, a classic cartomantic three-card spread. As a sister art to astrology, geomancy of this sort uses the Twelve Houses of the Heavens as the first twelve of a shield chart’s places to assess the various specific moving parts of any given set of circumstances, situations, and conditions. As such, this class will carefully consider what information, perspectives, and insights can be gleaned from assessing the placements of the Sixteen Figures across the Twelve Houses.

This class will also offer some training in the so-called “advanced” techniques of analyzing geomantic shield charts, presenting how to locate and interpret the Via Puncti for considering underlying influencing factors in a reading; as well as setting and understanding the place of the Index of the shield chart for beneficial spiritual foci and the Part of Fortune for grounding the reading’s advice in practical action. Finally, this class will offer some tips and tricks on best phrasing your questions to minimize confusion and maximize helpful clarity in one’s own geomantic divination.

Part IV: Geomantic Spellcraft

Considered a “sister” to astrology, the system of divination known as geomancy was an incredibly popular and well-regarded form of divination in Renaissance Europe. It was not simply a divination system however. The talismanic use of geomantic figures - 'betwixt images and characters' - was considered by many Renaissance magicians to bridge a divide between divination and operative sorcery: offering a range of elemental, planetary and zodiacal magical techniques.

These and other examinations of how early modern geomancer magicians worked their Arts begins to demonstrate the ceremony, invocation, spell-craft, evocation, spirit-work, and theurgy underlying this once-popular art of divination. Much more than a party-trick of simple fortune-telling, geomancy apprehends, interrelates and articulates grounded lived realities fundamentally dependent upon occult cosmological meaning and the conscious sorcerous manipulations of ritual magic.

This class will guide those new to geomancy and astrological magic through the options geomantic magic presents - from the sorceries emergent from sortilege, the image magic of characters and letters, talismanic spell-craft, and simple but potent folk magics of candle, bath, prayer, and charm, as well as techniques for working a variety of tutelary elemental, planetary, and necromantic spirits of geomancy.  

This illustrated lecture is taught by professional diviner and consultant sorcerer Dr Alexander Cummins, a geomancer with over a decade of personal and professional experience in geomantic divination and remediation, spirit conjuration, spell-work, and talisman-craft. He can be found at his website www.alexandercummins.com, where he can be booked for talks, readings, and private coaching.

Images by J.M. Hamade