On Geomantic Addition

“As Diviners we are ‘Pattern Readers’, and where we can find a pattern we can derive a meaning…”

In creating the Geomancy Shield Chart we have to use something termed “Geomantic Addition”. As part of my “Introduction to the Divinatory Art of Geomancy” course (yes, it’s a mouthful!), I focus solely on Geomantic Addition. One of the reasons why we devote a whole week to it is because it can be tricky for someone new coming to Geomancy to understand what we’re trying to do (and not make mistakes when doing it!). But the other reason is that it’s actually a really flexible tool that can be undervalued by people coming to Geomancy from other divinations.

Having come from a long and involved background of Tarot, Geomantic Addition can look like ‘just a formality’ in generating the chart and getting to the point where we can read. But now I’ve done some serious time with Geomancy, it’s actually a lot more…

What is Geomantic Addition?

Geomantic Addition is a process in Geomancy Divination whereby you take two of the sixteen geomancy figures and produce a third from them.

To perform geomantic addition, we take each ‘row’ of a figure and quite simply add them together. We take the head or ‘fire’ lines of our two figures and add them together, we then take the neck or ‘air’ lines, et cetera until all have been added together.

I hear some of you going ‘what?!’, so let me provide an example. Let us add together the figures of Rubeus and Conjunctio:

As you can see, in this example we are adding the amount of points/dots in each of the lines of the two figures together. Then, just like we did to cast the mothers, if the result is:

• Odd – then a single dot is made for the new figure.

• Even – then a double dot is made for the new figure.

Another way that I usually explain it is that if the two lines are different in the two figures being added, then it results in a single dot or active line. If the lines are the same in the two figures then it results in a double dot/passive line.

So if one has a head line with a single dot, and the other has a head line with a double dot, this would result in a single dot – because they are different, but the result of adding the dots would be odd (‘3’).

Get it? This is simple yet powerful stuff. I can think of two main functions of this type of process for geomantic figures:

Geomancy Articles

1. Geomantic Addition as Reductive

This process effectively ‘reduces’ two figures into one resultant figure. It is performed when creating the Shield Chart to produce the Nieces, the Witnesses, the Judge and the Sentence. When we look at a shield chart, we see how the use of addition reduces the chart down. We see how it takes four mothers and their four daughters, and reduces it down to four nieces. And so on, until we end up with a single figure of the judge.

But, Geomantic Addition provides more than a useful way of reducing the number of figures down to a result.

2. Geomantic Addition as Derivation

When we add two figures together in geomancy, what we are looking at is how these two ‘energetic principles’ interact. And what is derived from this interaction, that is to say ‘what is the result of these two energies colliding’.

So in our example above, when Rubeus’ energy of passion, rage and anger meets with Conjunctio – a symbol for conversation, communication, and connection – they are transmuted into Albus. Albus tells us some wisdom has been learnt, and Rubeus has gained some peace and control.

There’s alchemy in this. The transmutation and transformation of energy signatures into something new.

What does the resulting figure’s anatomy tell us?

Going back to our example of Rubeus interacting with Conjunctio, if we look at the anatomy of the figures we see the transformation of Rubeus’ active Air line to Albus’ active Water. Here the energy of the matter has cooled, constricted and is now about internalisation instead of externalisation. [My reasoning here is based on the four qualities of the elements, if you are unsure about this you can read my article about the four elements here].

In simpler terms, the internal looping thoughts of rage in Rubeus has become a more mellow, peaceful reflection on their emotions in Albus. The process of addition allows us to start building up a story, it provides us with a meaningful insight into how things start to unfold and cascade. And as diviners when we have patterns, we can have meaning!

Now, looking at the anatomy of the figure we can see that the resultant figure (the third, or produced, figure) tells us something more. Each line tells us what happened to each element in the process of addition:

• A passive line means ‘no change’ has occurred, that there was no difference between the two figures.
• An active line means ‘change’ has occurred, that there was a difference between the two figures.

What does this mean in interpreting the chart

This is especially beautiful in the interpretation of the witnesses and judge. We can see the two witnesses as the resulting two halves of the query. This is referencing the ‘reductive’ process of addition that happens on the two sides of the shield chart. Therefore:

• The Right Witness is the result of everything on the side of the Querent.
• The Left Witness is the result of everything on the side of the Quesited.

See each witness just like you would in a court of law. The Right Witness is the Witness for the Prosecution, and the Left Witness is the Witness for the Defence. They’re presenting the evidence of their side to the judge, who will make a decision.

Now, apply what we were discussing. The judge is a resultant figure telling us what:

1. What happens when the two stories or energies of the witnesses come together
2. The difference is between each of the witnesses
3. Or what has to change from the Right Witness to become the Left Witness.

Each of these can influence how we read the court in answer to the querent’s question.

In the first, we’re looking at the interaction between two opposing figures, two sides to a story, or how the Querent is likely to be effected by the Quesited. Take for example that the querent wants to…

In the second, we’re viewing how the two witnesses differ. Each line of the judge tells us whether there is a difference (active line or single dot) or no difference (passive line or double dot). Where there’s a difference, we could interpret a difference of opinion, unaligned energies, or a challenge in disposition/persona. Yet where there’s no difference, we could see an alignment of principles or ideals.

In the third, we’re looking at what has happened to move the Right Witness to become the Second Witness. An active line in the judge tells us that a change needs to take place in that element so that the Querent can become the Quesited – or the desired outcome.

Geomantic Addition Outside of the Shield Chart

The use of geomantic addition isn’t confined to just creating the shield chart. There is a technique for its use in answering questions using the 12 House system too.

This technique can be done equally with the Shield Chart as it is, or can be applied to the House Chart. Remember that the house chart is just another way of seeing the figures of the shield chart. Once again, changing the layout so that we can see more patterns – and thus derive more meaning from them.

When a question is posed, work out the House which represents the quesited (the thing you’re asking about)

1. Vita – House of life. Represents the querent and their life.
2. Lucrum – House of riches. Represents money, finances and possessions.
3. Fratres – House of Brothers. Represents siblings, news and short journeys
4. Genitor – House of the Father. Represents the Father, land and inheritances
5. Nati – House of Sons. Represents children, pleasure and speculation.
6. Valetudo – House of Health. Represents health, aunts and uncles, staff and servants, small animals.
7. Uxor – House of the Wife. Represents love, marriage, partners, partnerships, relationships, and sometimes adversaries.
8. Mors – House of Death. Represents deaths, legacies, and wills. Anxieties or pains.
9. Itineris – House of Journeys. Represents long journeys, travel, religion, science, divination and art.
10. Regnum – House of Kings. Represents careers, leaders, the mother, employment, position and profession.
11. Benefacta – House of Good Fortune. Friends, community, hopes, wishes, and good luck.
12. Carcer – House of Prison. Fears, hidden enemies, hidden secrets or dangers, hospitals, prisons, fear and sorrow.

Take the significator of this house (the figure in this location) and the significator of the querent (the figure in the 1^st house, AKA the 1^st Mother), and add them together. Now you have a third figure which represents the relationship between the querent and the quesited.

An example: Our question is “Will my job interview on Monday morning go well?”

We OBVIOUSLY (and without needing to say) read what is present in the shield chart, looking at the court, and any via puncti available to us. But after exhausting our methods of interpretation, we could take the figure in the first house (representing the person asking the question) and the figure in the tenth house (representing careers and jobs). Add them together to find the result of that interaction. We can then read this as we would do any other triad.

It also provides us an opportunity to examine other parts of the chart we might have not directly asked about, but has a link to the question. For example, we ask “should I propose to my partner?”. Obviously, this is a 7^th house enquiry – so we can interpret the chart and understand what the court is telling us, and look at the relationship between the 1^st and the 7^th house as we’ve mentioned. Though, we are curious about what the relationship between the partner and the querents mother and we want a better understanding of how they would get on – maybe it’s very important to the querent, or maybe something in the chart is pointing to examining the relationship with the mother.

So we can take the figure representing the partner in the seventh house, and add it to the figure which represents the mother in the 10^th house (in some traditions, we see Mother and Father swapping houses – i.e. 10^th and 4^th house swapping). Similarly, we could look at the relationship between our partner and our siblings (third house), or with our aunts and uncles (sixth house)… and so on.

Final Thoughts

The technique of geomantic addition, when understood at a deeper level, provides the geomancer with many opportunities to interpret the chart. We can see that it can be used to:

• As a process of reduction – reducing multiple figures down into a single ‘result’
• As a process of derivation – to consider what ‘emerges’ from two figures coming together
• As a pictorial snapshot of what is changing or moving between figures/energies
• Providing an illustration of what needs to change for one figure to transmute into another
• And finally, a way of considering additional relationships between parts of the chart which relate to the question at hand.

When casting a Shield Chart we do eight additions (including Judge + 1^st Mother = Sentence), so considering this as you’re creating the chart makes even the casting of the chart a magical act of transmutation and transformation, or an ongoing story of changes and ‘scenes’. The very act of geomantic addition not only creates the patterns that we rely on to interpret as Geomancers, but also helps us craft the meaning into the story of a reading.

Of course, how well we can craft that story depends on our knowledge and connection to the figures themselves… but that’s whole other story…

… and 16 more posts which I’m already writing!