Crossword clues for geomancy
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Geomancy \Ge"o*man`cy\, n. [OE. geomance, geomancie, F. g['e]omance, g['e]omancie, LL. geomantia, fr. Gr. ge`a, gh^, the earth + mantei`a divination.] A kind of divination by means of figures or lines, formed by little dots or points, originally on the earth, and latterly on paper.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
"art of divination by means of signs derived from the earth," late 14c., from Old French géomancie, from Medieval Latin geomantia, from late Greek *geomanteia, from geo-, comb. form of ge "earth" + manteia "divination" (see -mancy).
Wiktionary
n. A method of divination which interprets markings on the ground or how handfuls of dirt land when tossed.
WordNet
n. divination by means of signs connected with the earth (as points taken at random or the arrangement of particles thrown down at random or from the configuration of a region and its relation to another)
Wikipedia
Egypt or Syria, 1241–42 CE, by Muhammad ibn Khutlukh al Mawsuli. When turning the dials, random designs of dots would appear, which were then interpreted. British Museum.
Geomancy ( Greek: γεωμαντεία, "earth divination") is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand. The most prevalent form of divinatory geomancy involves interpreting a series of 16 figures formed by a randomized process that involves recursion followed by analyzing them, often augmented with astrological interpretations.
Once practiced by people from all social classes, it was one of the most popular forms of divination throughout Africa and Europe in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Books and treatises on geomancy were published up until the 17th century when most occult traditions fell out of popularity.
In Renaissance magic, geomancy was classified as one of the seven "forbidden arts", along with necromancy, hydromancy, aeromancy, pyromancy, chiromancy ( palmistry), and spatulamancy ( scapulimancy).
Geomancy is also another word for earth magic and the associated powers of the earth, such as healing.
Geomancy is dismissed by the scientific community and skeptics as being superstition.
Usage examples of "geomancy".
Although he was long gone when I was bom, when I chose Geomancy for my craft, I willingly accepted responsibility for seeking out and reversing his many wickednesses.
And behind me I could hear my army speculating as to whether earth currents have any effect on braided bridges, or had the thing been constructed without reference to geomancy at all?
The Master Magus had judged Xalan not recovered enough to participate in the geomancy, so he now sat on a fur rug regaling the Commander and Bochas the rhetor with an account of my introduction to goats.
At the table Otho brooded over his geomancy figure while the innkeep consulted the painted cowhide.
Over the past few days the Old One had been using various devices and rituals to scry, ranging from geomancy on the one hand to actual astral travel on the other, in an attempt to discover just who his enemies in the Dark Council might have been.
I now called to mind what I had read of certain colleges in old times, where judicial astrology, geomancy, necromancy, and other forbidden and magical sciences were taught.
I am not a believer in geomancy, or that geographical places have spirits of their own, but I do believe that certain vistas can provide an expansive pattern of reality that resonates with prior memory patterns.
Puella and Rubeus were two figures in geomancy, representing two constellations-the one signifying Mars retrograde, the other Mars direct.
Every Chinese house is built on the principles of geomancy, which do not admit of straight lines, and were these to be disregarded the astrologers and soothsayers under whose auspices all houses are erected, predict fearful evils to the impious builders.
Vainly I consulted the stars and made use of geomancy and necromancy.
Necromancy, geomancy, ritual sacrifice, divination by means of the study of entrails, omens, crystals, dreams, or pools of ink, animism, fetishism, social Darwinism, psychohistory, continuous creation, Lamarckian genetics, psionics, and more.