Casting the Chart

Preliminary

Traditionally, geomancy was done using a stick on dirt or sand, but pen and paper are also acceptable. It is mentioned that chalk and slate, beans, pebbles, and dice can be and have been used. You need something to write on and something to write with, at the least. Dice, beans, and pebbles are alternative methods of producing the first four figures, but are wholly unnecessary if one does not have them.

Before you can cast your chart, you need a question. This question should not be impossible, or to something you already know of, or anything that equates to “testing the waters” or “figuring out if it works.” To paraphrase Skinner: if you give it stupid questions, you’re going to get stupid answers. Furthermore, you need to exclude as much ambiguity from your question as possible. If you were to ask if a book you wrote is to be successful, what is your metric of success? Does success mean “it makes a lot of money” or “people resonate with what it says”? Is it both? Neither? You need to be as specific as possible. Think of the classic example of a very literal genie. If you wish for a hundred raspberry crowns, the genie may interpret your wish to be the raspberry crown wasp if you never specify and assume that it will understand you want the dessert. Questions such as “should I do this or that” will result in confused answers, however, yes/no questions are perfectly fine.

It is also said that you should never cast a chart when either you or the weather isn’t calm, as both are believed to influence the results. You shouldn’t repeatedly ask the same question in the same form, because the answer is likely not going to change.

Then, once you have your question, worded as specifically as possible, find the planet which your question falls under. Once you’ve found your planet, if you are inclined to evoking spirits, you need to find the Genius of your question. Geniuses and their meanings, both in reference to planets and figures, can be found both in the previously linked page and on figures.

Furthermore, it is mentioned (by Hartmann and Skinner) that the best results will come from casting the chart on specific days and hours, correlating to what planet your question comes under. The planets repeat in the same order as their respective day, shown below:

Sunday/Sun
Monday/Moon
Tuesday/Mars
Wednesday/Mercury
Thursday/Jupiter
Friday/Venus
Saturday/Saturn

For daytime, find when sunrise is for the day, which will be the first hour. The first and either planets of the day are dedicated to that day’s planet. For night, determine when sunset is for the night, which will be the first hour. The third and tenth hours of night are dedicated to that night’s planet.

For example, if you are divining a question involving Saturn on a Wednesday, and that Wednesday’s sunrise is at 5am, 5am is ruled by Mercury. Counting up in that pattern, you will find that the 7^th hour (12pm) is ruled by Mars. If the sun sets at 7pm, then the 9^th hour (3am) is ruled by Mars.

All sources reference genii, special Earth spirits. Before you ask your question, you need to call upon the genius that pertains to your question. Draw a circle on the surface your divination will take place on, and draw a pentagram inside it, starting from the top point.

Inside the pentagram, draw the sigil of the genius you want to call upon, and concentrate on it.

Now you are ready to begin divination.

Mothers

Now that all that is done, you can finally cast your chart. The first figures you are going to need are the mothers (matres). Make sixteen lines of dots and make four groups with four lines each. These dots should be made without counting how many you make. Any number of dots is fine, but at least twelve is recommended. Traditionally, these move right to left, but left to right doesn’t affect the outcome. Next, you pair the dots, or you count the dots to see how many you’ve made. Both processes do the same thing: determining if the number of dots is even or odd. If a line of dots has a leftover dot or is odd, put down one dot. If all dots are paired or are even, put down two dots. Continue this for each line until you are left with four figures.

Each of the lines are associated with an element and direction, descending: fire/south, air/east, water/north, and earth/west. Each of the mothers are associated too with an element, descending: fire, air, water, and earth.

As you descend on the figures, write them from right to left. Unlike in previous steps, you must write them in this order, or it will affect the results. Mothers #1-4 correspond to houses #1-4.

Daughters

The next set of figures are derived from the mothers and are called the daughters (filiae). Each figure’s line of dots are named after a body part. Descending: head, neck, body, and feet. Each daughter is made of one group of parts on each figure. The first daughter is made with only the heads, the second is made with only the necks, etc.. The daughters assume the same element and direction as the mothers: the first daughter is fire/south just like the first mother.

Four figures will be generated from this, and will be written right to left like the mothers. Daughters #1-4 correspond to houses #5-8.

Niblings

Some sources call them nephews (nuptes). Some call them nieces (nuptae). I’m calling them niblings (nuptes).

Pair off the mothers and daughters, going right to left. Mother #1 and #2 are in a pair, and so on, until all are paired together. Next, add each line of dots in the pairings. Continuing to use the first two mothers as examples, the fire line/head of the figures added together is two, meaning that on the corresponding nibling, the head will have two dots. Similarly to generating the mothers, if the answer is even, two dots, and if odd, one dot.

Do this for all the pairs, and you will get four niblings. Niblings #1-4 correspond to houses #8-12.

Witnesses and Judge

To get the witnesses (testes) and judge (iudex), you do the same process to make the niblings, but with the niblings themselves. Pair them and add together each line of points.

The right witness represents the future, while the left witness represents the past. The judge, therefore, represents the present. The judge will only ever be a figure whose total of dots is even: Acquisistio, Amisso, Fortuna Major, Fortuna Minor, Pop ulus, Via, Conjunctio, and Carcer. If you get a judge with an odd amount of points, you have made an error.

This is your “shield chart,” as traditionally they put these figures on a shield-looking drawing. When you’re done, you need to release the spirit you called upon, which is done by tracing the pentagram in the opposite direction.

Organising the Chart

Now that your figures are generated, you need to order them. The chart that is made is the “shield chart.”

The final step is to organize this chart into a “house chart,” which is shaped like a square.

There are multiple methods to do this, and each can change the interpretation of the chart, so choose one and stick with it. The only figures that are put onto a house chart are the mothers, daughters, and niblings; everything else can be left off, since the house chart is meant to analyse the aspects between figures.

Position	Golden Dawn	Cattan	Agrippa
Mother 1	10^th	1^st	1^st
Mother 2	1^st	4^th	2^nd
Mother 3	4^th	7^th	3^rd
Mother 4	7^th	10^th	4^th
Daughter 1	11^th	2^nd	5^th
Daughter 2	2^nd	5^th	6^th
Daughter 3	5^th	8^th	7^th
Daughter 4	8^th	11^th	8^th
Nibling 1	12^th	3^rd	9^th
Nibling 2	3^rd	6^th	10^th
Nibling 3	6^th	9^th	11^th
Nibling 4	9^th	12^th	12^th

Now that the figures have been put into their appropriate houses, you can move into interpreting the chart and reading the figures.