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I wish to add here this valuable excerpt from John Michael Greerâs âThe Art and Practice of Geomancyâ, titled âThe Soul of the Worldâ:
"Geomancy remains as relevant now as it ever was, not least because its perspectives point to dimensions of reality that todayâs society has forgotten, and desperately needs to relearn. To the diviners of earlier times, the entire world was a dance of meanings that could be read by the perceptive eye and interpreted by the attentive mind. When birds flew past from a particular direction, when the stars and planets assumed certain arrangements, or when the chance patterns of a geomantic divination gave rise to a specific set of figures and their interactions, some part of the great dance of the cosmos was brought into clearer view. All these events formed pages in what scholars and magicians of the Renaissance called the Book of Nature â a book that geomancers, among many others, studied with great care and learned how to read.
The old geomancers had no time for the modern notion that the world of nature is simply a passive collection of objects waiting for us to push our interpretations on them. From the geomancerâs perspective, nature is an active, creative presence. Magicians and philosophers of the Middle Ages and Renaissance often spoke of two aspects of nature, using a convenient bit of Latin wordplay that relies on the fact that natura, ânatureâ in Latin, comes from a root meaning âto be bornâ. One of these aspects they called natura naturata, ânature that is bornâ: nature as a collection of things we can percieve with our outer senses, things that are born and live and pass away. The other they called natura naturans, ânature that gives birthâ: nature as a creative power that gives rise to everything that is born and lives and passes away. If natura naturata is the Book of Nature, then natura naturans is its author.
Closely related to this latter realization is the knowledge of the Earth as a living and concious entity: not simply a mass of raw materials for our use, but an intelligent creature in whose vast body we live and move and have our being. Nowadays many people associate this idea with tribal cultures, or with scientists such as James Lovelock who have pointed out that the Earth does in fact behave like a single organism. Few remember that before the rise of modern materialist thought, the same concept had central place in Western cultures as well.
The old magical philosophy of the West sees all living beings as unities formed of three aspects: anima, or soul, the aspect of conciousness and essence; spiritus, or life, the aspect of energy, imagery, and vitality; and corpus, or body, the aspect of the material form. So alongside the corpus mundi, or body, of the world, the physical world of matter we experience with our senses, traditional lore places the spiritus mundi, the essential life-energy of the world, and the anima mundi, the soul of the world, its conciousness and innate intelligence.
Itâs in the anima mundi, the conciousness of the world, that the patterns percieved by the geomancer take shape as rhythms in the interaction of the four magical elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air. Each of the geomantic figures, as explained in Chapter Two and Three of this book, represents a particular pattern of forces, with single and double dots representing active and passive elemental influences, respectively. These patterns echo outward through the spiritus mundi to become visible to our ordinary senses in the realm of the corpus mundi. A skilled geomancer can read these patterns in the dance of the geomantic figures before they reach manifestations, sense how those patterns will shape events, envision new patterns in the depths of meditation and scrying, and set those nrw patterns in motiom with precisely chosen magical actions to bring events into a new balance.
The regular practice of divination is the key to learning this process. As you watch the dance of seemingly random events, use intuition to sense their meanings, and then compare the results to what actually happens, you can readily learn to use the subtle awareness of the old geomancers to make sense of the world. This is why divination formed the core of the old geomantic tradition, and other practices such as meditation and magic played a secondary role.
This marks one of the primary differences between Renaissance magic and its modern equivalents. In most of todayâs occult traditions, ritual magic takes the central role divination had in earlier times, and practitioners of modern magic spend much of their time learning how to raise power and direct it into their magical work. You wonât find a word abour raising power and direct it into their magical work. You wonât find a word about raising power in Renaissance magical texts, however, because Renaissance occultists relied on the currents of power that exist around us at every moment. The shifting patterns made by those currents could be tracked in many ways, but geomancy â with its sixteen figures expressing the dance of elemental energies in the anima mundi â was one of the most value." - John Michael Greer, The Art and Practice of Geomancy: Divination, Magic, and Earth Wisdom of the Renaissance, page 26-28, published by Red Wheel/Weiser LLC, 2009
John Michael Greer has remarkable skill in explaining things very eloquently and neatly.
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I think you would like this book:
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That seriously sparked my interest, thank you! Iâll definitely check this out in the future 
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The Turn of a New Age
There are two types of predictions that have a very low success rate. One of these is the End of the World prediction. These have been going on for an extremely long time, among various cultures. If you live in a Christian country, youâve probably heard it in the context of Christianity as the Rapture or Judgement is coming. This also quite commonly happens in Islam, and it just happens in general. Now, needless to say, these predictions that have come to pass have had a 100% failure rate⊠thousands and thousands of years continue to pass, untroubled by these predictions.
Now, the other type is of âA new age is arrivingâ. These have been going on for a very long time as well. Itâs usually either a fearful idea or a hopeful one, but usually the former. âThe economy is gonna collapse real soon!!â, or âCivilization is going to collapse any year now, and itâs gonna be a catastrophe!â, some people have spent a great deal of time preparing for these perceived catastrophic and swift global changes, but alas, they havenât arrived. There are some changes that are inevitable, like industrial society collapsing since it isnât sustainable, but people tend to have the idea that with it collapsing âEverything diesâ, which is very unrealistic. Some people have a similar idea with âIf X Country falls, thatâs practically the end times!â
Then thereâs the more hopeful ones, like back in the past century it was believed we were going to enter some kind of sci-fi future by now. Well, that hasnât happened. Thereâs also prophecies like Crowleyâs New Aeon. That idea of the New Aeon can be a bit vague, but many think it has something to do with Christianity collapsing and everything being more free. Voltaire already said in the 1700s that Christianity is in its twilight. Now, fast forward nearly years later and Christianity is still the largest religion in the world and itâs still going strong, without any real sign of it leaving. Some events, like the Atheist movement that was popular in the previous two decades, have come and gone, but provided some hope of this kind of prediction for a time.
We also live in a generally âfreeâ time, with great human rights, but itâs not like this everywhere, even though it is like this now in a lot of places thankfully. Now, while not on this scale, a lot of countries in the past also gave their citizens a good deal of freedom and good conditions for their time. We are able to have this today because of the quantity of resources we have access to, and weâre kind of at the peak and already on the decline in many ways. So, it seems this wonât stay the same forever (And thatâs just the way of the world. As the Tao Te Ching says, everything returns to its root). And these kinds of hype predictions continue to fail or when they are accomplished, oftentimes donât quite work out as thought.
So, be careful of following the hype. And also be careful of believing everything you see and hear from spirits. Often times, these can simply be âPhantasies, and idle imaginationsâ, or actual deception from spirits, but oftentimes the former. But a lot of people fall into this rabbit hole of the end of the world or turning of the age because of what they experienced in their spiritual practice, and to their detriment.
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It occurred to me that the idea of wrathful and unstable Gods and Angels never really made sense to me, even before I learnt a little about traditional western esoteric philosophy. The reason was because you have spirits who are extremely ancient, at least thousands of years ancient if you think we created them, and yet despite their age they continue to be so unstable. That didnât make sense to me. It seems⊠a bit strange.
It makes sense if you think we indeed did create the Gods and Angels. That of course goes against the traditional perspectives of the Gods as creators of the cosmos. And the Celestial Gods would still seem to be at least hundreds of millions and often billions of years old. But if you think that we have made just about every spirit, then thatâs still fine. Then matter would have to come first, and spirit would be some kind of byproduct made by man (And so, there would have to be something special about man that separates us from other animals to be able to create spirits and Gods. That would probably be reason). Or, reality is just really subjective.
However, under such a highly subjective view, electional astrology shouldnât work. So, that is one issue I would have with it.
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Canât we live in several worlds at the same time and wear different hats?
I donât think we created the gods,
but think we created their avatars, masks,
they wear on the physical plane.
The spirit and matter problem to me
is the same as the chicken and egg one.
It looks logical in my world that they both come from something more primal, call it chaos, tohu, etc
But theyâre two faces of the same coin.
What do you think @Dankquanicus? Makes sense?
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I suppose it depends on what you mean. I myself tend to think that there is not only one objective reality. Although I donât think that everything is completely subjective either.
I wouldnât necessarily call it a problem. It more depends on what world-view you follow. If you foÄșlow a traditional world-view, and practice things such as Alchemy or Astrology, then it is clear that Spirit exists prior to matter and is superior to it. If you follow a modern world-view, then things are more murky depending on your practices.
Traditionally, spirit ultimately comes from The One, who is above conciousness and spirit. So, I would personally agree.
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Some time ago, someone asked me how I define a âGodâ, which had me thinking on it a bit.
So, I define a God as a being who creates the world. There is the inner hidden workings of the cosmos that constantly brings all things into the world, and since the cosmos is one unified body, and one living being (As Plotinus says), these inner workings can be seen through the light of the Planets and Stars and calculations based on them.
The Gods manage and oversee this act of creation. I donât see the Gods as seperate from the world, rather, everything is unified. I think for many of the Gods, their highest form is outside of the cosmos, but they are not seperate from the cosmos as we might understand seperation.
And so, with the Gods as creators, this includes the Celestial Beings as Gods, which is not unusual in most cultures.
Now, Angels: Angels by definition are âMessengersâ. I see them as communicating the powers of the Gods onto the world, completing their influence. They are close to the Gods and contact with them as well as with the Gods purifies the soul to an extent.
Now, Demons: Currently, I think Demons have a divine role in the cosmos. But this role is often times unpleasant to us. I think they may serve as tormentors (LHP practitioners tend to go through a great deal of suffering as we have seen) who refine people into a better state through torment. They seem to inspire a desire for the material world, so that is part of the torment - leading things to impermanence. Ultimately, necessary for the entire cosmos to function properly.
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Practice
Good and deep study is of immense benefit, and often times it is necessary! However, you donât want to become an armchair occultist. Practice is important in just about any field, and itâs no different with magick and the occult in general. It helps with deeper understanding and often times knowledge of magick is gained with the purpose of actually doing magick.
So, put your knowledge to good use and practice, practice, practice!
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This reminds me very much of Buddhism. The âdemonicâ torture of beings in the hell realms is ultimately seen as an act of compassion which burns off negative karma and allows for better rebirth.
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Very interesting! Thanks for this. I didnât know theyâre seen like that in parts of Buddhism.
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Election for Planting
Here is an astrological election (A favorable time to take action) I used months ago to plant several seeds. Now, I made some very questionable decisions here as I was not yet so knowledgeable.
The primary considerations were that it was the Hour of Jupiter, which is fortunate for planting, and aids the plants to grow well. Additionally, both the Moon and the Ascendant were in Aquarius, a fortunate sign for planting according to Thomas Hill in his 'The Gardeners Labyrinth" (Page 42), and the Moon was Waxing.
The Moon signifies the growth of things, and she also signifies the beginning of things. The issue was that she was conjunct the Ascendant while Peregrine, which somewhat afflicts her, as she is the enemy of the Ascendant. And indeed, the early days of the plants did not go well, as their growth was impeded by too much Sunlight, and they received Sun damage, and some of the plants also died because of the Sun damage (I wasnât too knowledgeable on gardening either!). However, the Moon was Trine Venus, and Sextile Jupiter, alleviating her affliction, and strengthening her, and she was also free from any aspects of Mars, which is helpful. And so, after the initial problems, the plants were moved into a nice area with shade and then grew nicely, as well as they could at that point.
The ascendant here signifies the plants and their growth, and the Ascendant was free from any aspects of Mars, and the Lord of the Ascendant was Saturn. Saturn was in Aquarius, dignified by both Sign and Triplicity. So, well dignified by essential dignity! However, he was retrograde. In some traditional sources, they say that Saturnâs affliction is greater when he is in his dignities while retrograde, but here I feel like him being dignified seems to have alleviated his affliction, because of how things went while he played a significant role in this election. That said, some plants did die and the growth wasnât the best because of the trouble, so his affliction still seems to have signified this difficulty in the plants.
The Lord of the Sign the Moon is in and the Lord of the Sign the Lord of the Ascendant is in both signify the end of a matter, and both here was Saturn. Now, as said before, Saturn was retrograde, but he was also technically in the 1st House, standing Angular, which generally isnât fortunate, so another affliction to the election. However, he was very nicely dignified, and the end of this wasnât so bad! I harvested the plants and they bore some nice and healthy fruits! However, I harvested them pretty late, so some of the branches also died and much of the fruit wasnât in the best condition, although some was quite healthy and nice still. So, again Saturnâs affliction seems to have signified this happening, but with the ending not being a complete failure and actually generally going fairly well.
Now, the Lord of the 4th House also signifies the ending of a matter, and here he was Mars. I at least had Mars not be Angular, as that is also unfortunate, and I had him in the 5th House. He was Peregrine, which is a minor affliction. But otherwise he wasnât in too ill a state, not in any ill aspects with other Planets either. And so, the ending was as was said, a bit mediocre, still with problems, but most of the fruit was harvested, and most of it wasnât in the worse condition, but also not the best either, and some branches with fruit did die.
Another less-than ideal factor I want to add here was that both Fortunes were Cadent from an Angle. But an additional note is that the plants werenât troubled too much by pests this time around. And I believe this is signified by Mars being succeedent from an Angle, and the Lord of the 7th House (The enemies of the plants) was Cadent from an Angle, although also seriously afflicted by being in his Detriment, and making a fortunate aspect with the Lord of the Ascendant.
So, we see this election had a balance of good and ill, and tending more towards the ill, although there were some fortunate basic factors like Moon making fortunate aspects, Waxing, and both the Moon and the Ascendant in a fortunate sign for planting were present, and it was a fortunate Planetary Hour, and so the growing was successful in the end, but it was a difficult one and a good deal was lost. And so I learn! I learn a bit about electional astrology, and a bit about gardening.
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I really donât think that they are the Gods, and that is regardless of their names. But it has been debated that some of the Demons of the Goetiaâs names came from the names of some the Gods. Iâm not well versed in Demonology, but it seems some of these demons come from ancient Jewish sources, and if so, I think itâs reasonable that they used the names of some middle-eastern Gods and the Gods of Egypt, since they were known and it was convenient to portray them as Demons, since the story given in the Lamegeton says that once these Demons were freed they were worshipped as Gods by some peoples. So, itâs kind of like an origin story of the Gods there. If I recall the story correctly, anyways! And the Lamegeton is a Renaissance Christian Source, which seems to borrow from the Psuedomonarchia Daemonium. But, again, Iâm not well versed on demonology or these two works! So, I wonât speak much further on them right now.
But I donât think that they are the Gods, regardless of their names. I believe they are spirits who govern more ill aspects of the world, inflicting disease and torment, or inspiring love for the world in an especially corruptive way, but ultimately this too serves a purpose and is necessary for the world. So, as I said in a previous post, I do believe they have a divine role in the cosmos. Although I think there are also some other evil spirits whose lives appear to be more impermanent and they have no real good about them. I think these spirits are different from the known Demons. Iâve read that Plotinus spoke about some evil spirits who are impermanent, so Iâd have to read more about that. I think these other spirits are like the âastral parasitesâ that many speak of (And that Iâve had a run-in with, at least once or twice in my early days of practice)
But Demons are certainly far below the Gods. This is seen because some of the Fixed Stars actually have power over them. A few of the 15 Behenian Fixed Stars, such as Algol, Gienah, Antares, and arguably a few others, have the power to banish Demons, and one also has the power to gather them. The Sunâs herbs traditionally also have the power to Banish Demons, and it seems that Sunlight itself also sometimes does this with evil spirits in traditional lore, so itâs also a power of the Sun himself. And I would argue that it is a power of Mars as well.
So, they are below the Celestial World, and if we follow Agrippa, we might say that they are below the Elemental World as well. Following Agrippa, these Demons are then even further from The One than the Material World, which does make sense if they are especially corruptive. Iâm not exactly sure about that, but Iâd say they are below the Celestial World or at least beneath the Celestial Gods.
In any case, we can still say that they partake of God to an extent. I like the idea of the Qliphoth, âpeelsâ, as if the pure and holy side of reality is like a fruit and it is protected by a peel, which is this darker side of the cosmos.
I wouldnât really say that the Demons âevolvedâ from the Gods either. Currently, I think they have always existed (well, as long as the cosmos has been complete, I mean), but weâve simply become more aware of them and given them names. I feel the same way about the Gods. Someone asked me some time ago if I think that the Gods âsplitâ from other Gods as cultures evolved, and my response was that I think they have always been there, we simply named them.
So, I donât believe that Demons are the Gods, nor did they really split from them either. Others will say other things and have different experiences, which is perfectly fine too! This is just my view. But I think itâs very fair to say that they are not the Gods. I donât think that they create the world, rather they corrupt it. That is what makes them Demons.
Although I donât mean corrupt here in an entirely negative sense! As I said, I think this is necessary for the world to function. I believe a chapter in Plotinusâ Enneads spoke of why the material world must be mortal. What I gained from it was that the constant flow of the higher worlds must go somewhere, and all of it ultimately reaches and makes up the material world. In order for everything to continue, the material world is broken down. The material world is impermanent so that the heavens above are eternal!
So, these Demons, as forces that break down the material world, play a vital role in the cosmos. And I donât judge anyone for working with them. I just donât work with them myself. Now, if Demonic Theurgy is possible⊠Iâm not sure about that, but it does almost seem like they lead people to the start of Theurgy sometimes, in a weird way. Although I personally wouldnât actively encourage anyone to work with them currently, but thatâs just how I feel. It seems to be the destiny of some, and this is seen especially if Mercury was severely afflicted when they were born.
My views on Demons will likely change over time, as my view of their role and place in the cosmos is not entirely established and clear yet.
But, I doubt I would change my view about them not being the Gods, so there I am referring to my other thoughts!
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A wonderful and well-constructed read (as usual), thank you very much for sharing this
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Glad you enjoyed it! feel free to post on here anytime with questions or comments.
This also goes for others here!
âThe Passive Flint never yields any Fire, but when it is struck against the Active Steelâ
(John Gadbury, The Just and Pious Scorpionist, âTo the Readerâ Page IV)
Itâs interesting to see the modern spiritual ideas regarding eclipses. The more New Age thought (which tends to be overly positive about most things) regarding Solar Eclipses is that it signifies new beginnings, which is pretty vague but seems to be taken in a positive way. Iâve also seen one article say that Solar Eclipses bring on growth. Iâm not really sure what the reasoning behind that it.
But Iâve also seen it said that eclipses are pretty good for shadow work, which I find quite interesting! I have no real experience with shadow work but I can see the link there and think itâs pretty neat.
Traditionally, eclipses are generally viewed as malefic, signifying some ill event that will happen in a country (the entire eclipse, duration, position, and house placement etc. Is looked at for this), or an ill event to a person who was born with the Sign the eclipse occurs in as their Ascendant Sign.
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I think itâs a modern attempt to âreclaimâ something viewed as having been needlessly demonized in the past. Possibly inspired by Buddhist views as well, as Buddhism is frequently cherrypicked by New Agers.
I wonder if itâs related to (what I see as) a pop cultural obsession with the idea of ârestoring the divine feminineâ, especially the dark feminine, in the West. Or the normalisation / elevation of things previously ostracized 
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