geomancy

plural geomancies · alternative Early Modern geomancie

1. uncountableusuallyA method of divination using earth or the ground, such as interpreting markings on the ground or how handfuls of dirt land when tossed.

   1660 Urquhart tr. Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv. Hard by here, in the Brown-wheat-Island, dwelleth Her Trippa; you know how by the Arts of Astrology, Geomancy, Chiromancy, Metopomancy, and others of a like stuff and nature, he foretelleth all things to come...

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   The Arabian Geomancy, said to have been first practised by Almadul, was more recondite, being founded on the effects of motion under the crust of the earth, the chinks thus produced, and the noises or thunderings heard; its foundation was the dogma of Aristotle, that "the moving of the heaven is everlasting, and is the beginning and cause of all inferior movings."

   1855, Edward Smedley et al., The Occult Sciences, London: Richard Griffin, page 314

   In geomancy, the enquirer himself was asked to stab the earth at random with a pointed stick. The soothsayer then read the dots.

   1973, K. Ellis, Prediction and Prophecy, page 61

   The fountain or the well represents a point where invisible energies flow into a society; in geomancy these would be known as "power points." Where these energies are, elementals or genii loci or nature spirits congregate.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 230

2. uncountableusuallyfeng shui; Chinese geomancy.

   There was [...] a striking similarity between Mesopotamian and Chinese thinking - if not method - in the concept of feng-shui, the Chinese system of geomancy, or divination by topographical features.

   1978, M. Edwardes, The Dark Side of History, page 12

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   geomancy [...] The pretended art of divining future events, or of ascertaining the luckiness or unluckiness of any event or locality, by means of signs connected with the earth [...] or, as in China, from the configuration and aspect of a particular region in its relation to some other.

   1899, William Dwight Whitney, The Century Dictionary, volume III, page 61

   You realize we all live in our surroundings, and you start to look at your surroundings through Feng Shui and geomancy, and try to see, if we understand ourselves and others, how can we make our surroundings as good as they can be for us and the others.

   2015, Serge Augier, Shen Gong and Nei Dan in Da Xuan