I. Of Geomancy — Henry Cornelius Agrippa

Probably it is this treatise which is mentioned by Agrippa in 1526 when he sent to Metz for his work on geomancy. Again Agrippa refers to a work on geomancy in his De Incertitudine (Cap 13) where after listing earlier geomancies by Haly, Gerard of Cremona, Bartholomew of Parma, and Tundinus, he says of his own geomantic treatise "I too have
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written a geomancy quite different from the rest but no less superstitious and fallacious or if you wish I will even say 'mendacious'" Agrippa was nothing if not frank about his own work!
Geomancy was from the 12th to the 17th Century one of the major forms of divination in Europe, taking second place to astrology but precedence over the tarot. The first part of this book is concerned with the mechanics of geomantic divination, the second part with their application' in an astro- logical context, and the third, and by far the bulkiest part, is concerned with the meanings of each of the sixteen geo- mantic figures in each of the 12 Houses of heaven.
This text on geomancy is extremely interesting in that it provides much of the material for later derivative works on the subject. Interestingly, it expands greatly Agrippa 's re- marks on the subject in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy.
The actual practice of geomancy is set out in a rather compressed form. For example the table on page 6 is not very clear, and the diagram on the following page suffers severely from the deficiencies of the printer's art. So as to preserve the facsimile quality of the text these have not been altered. Reconstructions of these, together with complete instructions for geomantic practice appear in the present writer's The Oracle of Geomancy, Warner Destiny, New York, 1977, and a history of the subject in Divinatory Geomancy.