The thing I like about the personality profile approach to using the Geomancy Cards is, like an astrologer, you can see a personality taking shape before your eyes, however incompletely. Getting an idea of what sort of person you’re dealing with before you meet them can give you a leg-up on how to deal with them when you do meet. Indeed, it almost feels like one is doing surveillance on someone.
If there’s someone you know and something suddenly seems wrong with them, doing a horoscope-chart cast with the Geomancy cards just might give you some insights into what the trouble is. For example, say someone in your environment has suddenly gotten twitchy at being touched, and is engaging in avoidant behavior. You do a cast for a progress-report on them, to see what’s wrong, and observe that Carcer turned up in the eighth house. The eighth house, being associated with Scorpio, is the house of sexuality. Carcer is the Geomantic symbol representing restraint, imprisonment, a pen. There could be some sexual coercion going on, or they were trapped and assaulted. This is an extreme and dark example, but hopefully it demonstrates what a potentially-valuable tool this can be.
If I ever meet these two teenagers, I’ll know they just aren’t the friendly type when you first meet them. They must have some redeeming qualities, or they wouldn’t have the good friends their eleventh-house Geomantic symbols imply they do. This card-reading system can be a useful heads-up. When using the twelve-house method as an annual reading, it can serve as a progress report of sorts on how you’re doing, as well as a forecast for the year ahead.
One is left with the impression by Sepharial that the symbols you turn up in the houses for a subject are all-life traits. While this may be true, keep in mind that a few of these houses might be subject to change over time, and that this is how the person’s life looks to you, at the present time, if no changes are made. With that out of the way, have fun with this unique way of using the Geomancy symbols, and may it bring you much valuable insight.
EXERCISES
- Print out two copies of the Personality Profile/Personal Yearly Reading form. A.) On one of them, do a personality profile reading for someone you know. How closely does it fit the person you know? B.)On the other copy, do a personal yearly reading for yourself. Return to these notes a year from now. Did the way your year transpired harmonize with what the yearly reading indicated?
- Print out another copy of the Personality Profile/Personal Yearly Reading form. This one’s a little more daring. Do a personality profile reading for someone you probably haven’t met yet. Your next boss. The person you’ll likely marry. One of their parents. Your next-door neighbor at a home where you’re not yet living. File these notes away and forget ‘em until you meet this person. Then pull out your notes again. How close did your reading come?
- EXTRA CREDIT: If there’s a dispute for which you want to know the outcome, print out a copy of the second form, the one marked ‘Oppositional/Aversarial/Dispute Resolution Reading.’ Do a Geomancy reading using this chart. If you’re ambitious, and you remember how to cast the geomantic symbols from the geomancy lesson way-back-when, print out a copy of the shield-chart format (see earlier under ‘How to Use This System’), and do a reading on the same subject. Compare and contrast the two results, the shield chart and the 12-house horoscope chart. How were they alike? How were they different? Do you prefer one format over the other? Hold onto these two sets of notes until the resolution of the dispute, then visit them again. Was one reading more accurate than the other?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Sepharial. A Manual of Occultism. London: William Rider & Son, Ltd. 1914. Pp. 268-309.
This is the source from which I drew this way of using the Geomantic symbols. I took a few liberties with the source text, and omitted its instructions on how to erect the Geomantic symbols from scratch, so you may want to see if for yourself. It is available through InternetArchive.org.
Greer, John Michael. Earth Divination, Earth Magic: A Practical Guide to Geomancy. St. Paul, MN: Lewellyn Publications, 2000. Chapter 2: The Figures.
Greer goes into more detail about the meanings associated with each Geomantic symbol, which can help when doing readings with this system.
Woolfolk, Joanna Martine. The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need. Plymouth, U.K.: Taylor Trade Publishing, 2008. Chapter 8, The Houses of Astrology, pp. 293-297.
This section of Woolfolk’s concise manual gives a good description of the meanings associated with each house in a horoscope chart. This book is available through InternetArchive.org or at your local public library.