As was noted in the previous page, the geomantic chart was also used to construct a horoscope of sorts.
The conventional method (introduced by Agrippa, however, rather than being a traditional one as old as Geomancy itself) of doing so is simply to translate the geomantic chart to the horoscope by taking the planets associated with the geomantic figures located in the first twelve houses of the geomantic chart, and placing them in the twelve houses of the horoscope.
The sign of the ascendant is determined by the sign associated with the geomantic figure in the first house, as well as the planet in the first house being determined from it.
The number of dots in all the sixteen lines of dots used to generate the geomantic figure is also taken into account, according to Agrippa, in this way: the remainder when dividing by twelve (found, of course, by marking off the dots by twelves) but with a zero remainder taken as twelve, gives the number of the house which is the "Index" of the chart; as with the Reconciler in a normal geomantic figure, it is used to determine the significance of a chart that is ambiguous.
Of course, this method produces an unusual astrological chart, in that some planets may appear in it more than once, and others not at all.
Gerhard of Cremona devised a method of astrological geomancy that was less traditional which avoided that problem.
The first step was to use four lines of dots to make one geomantic figure. This gave the sign of the ascendant according to the following association of the signs with the geomantic figures:
:.:. Acquisitio Aries .::: Laetitia Taurus ..:: Fortuna Minor Taurus ..:. Puer Gemini :.:: Rubeus Gemini ::.: Albus Cancer .... Via Leo :..: Conjunctio Virgo :... Caput Draconis Virgo .:.. Puella Libra .:.: Amissio Scorpio :::. Tristitia Scorpio ...: Cauda Draconis Sagittarius :::: Populus Capricorn ::.. Fortuna Major Aquarius .::. Carcer Pisces
This is similar to the traditional association noted on the previous page, rather than that given by Agrippa, but it is not quite the same.
The geomantic figures are here lying on their sides, and made from periods and colons, to save on space.
Then, for each of the planets to be placed, four lines of dots are again made, but instead of being used to form a geomantic figure, the dots are marked by twelves, those in the last group, from one dot to twelve dots, indicating the house in which to place the planet.
The planets, luminaries, or points to be placed are taken in this order:
Sun Moon Venus Mercury Saturn Jupiter Mars Ascending Node Descending Node
This method produces a chart which is more realistic, since each body appears exactly once on the chart. Still, it has some imperfections.
Mercury and Venus, instead of always being near to the Sun, may be on the opposite side of the sky from it. And the Moon's ascending and descending nodes are not opposite each other either, but are positioned independently.
And, as well, it is not related to the traditional method of erecting the geomantic chart.
For purposes of amusement, I would like to propose here a method of producing a horoscope by means of geomancy which attempts to resolve these issues.
First, generate a normal geomantic chart.
The sign of the ascendant is determined from the two witnesses as follows:
Witness Witness
XIII XIV
.... Via Cancer Cancer
:::: Populus - Cancer
::.. Fortuna Major Leo Leo
..:: Fortuna Minor - Leo
:.:. Acquisitio Pisces Pisces
.:.: Amissio Libra Libra
::.: Albus Gemini Gemini
:.:: Rubeus Scorpio Scorpio
.::: Laetitia Sagittarius Sagittarius
:::. Tristitia Capricorn Capricorn
:... Caput Draconis - Capricorn
...: Cauda Draconis - Scorpio
.:.. Puella Taurus Taurus
..:. Puer Aries Aries
:..: Conjunctio Virgo Aquarius
.::. Carcer Aquarius Aquarius
Using this chart, first one looks for the sign of the ascendant in the column for Witness XIII. If the no sign is found for the geomantic figure of that witness, instead use the column giving signs for Witness XIV, which has signs for all sixteen geomantic figures.
And then the degree of the Ascendant is found from the Judge and from the Witness that was not used in determining the sign of the Ascendant:
Witness Judge Judge Witness
XIV XIII
.... Via 6 0 0
:::: Populus 8 0 4 0
::.. Fortuna Major 10 0 8
..:: Fortuna Minor 12 0 11 +1
:.:. Acquisitio 28 +1 26
.:.: Amissio 15 +1 18
::.: Albus 4 - -
:.:: Rubeus 16 - -
.::: Laetitia 20 - -
:::. Tristitia 22 - -
:... Caput Draconis 24 - - +3
...: Cauda Draconis 18 - - +2
.:.. Puella 2 - -
..:. Puer 0 - -
:..: Conjunctio 14 +1 15
.::. Carcer 26 +1 22
If it was Witness XIV that was not used, the first column is used to determine from that Witness the base degree amount, and the second column is used to determine whether or not one degree is added based on the Judge.
If it was Witness XIII that was not used, the third column is used to determine the base degree amount from the Judge, and then the fourth column determines from Witness XIII, which can have only one of four unused values, a degree amount from zero to three degrees to add to that base degree amount.
The other house cusps, incidentally, are placed by the Equal House method, as would seem appropriate for a chart generated by such a method.
Next, it is attempted to find the house positions of the planets in a fashion approximating the traditional method of Agrippa.
Begin by placing in each of the houses from 1 to 12 the planet indicated by the geomantic figure of that house of the geomantic chart.
For the following bodies:
Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn
If any of them occurs once and only once in the chart, then that occurence indicates the house position to be taken.
If any of them occurs more than once in the chart, then the house position to be taken will be one of the ones so indicated; which one will be determined as will be described later.
If any of them do not occur, their locations will also be determined as will be described later.
For the Moon's Nodes, the house position is determined in a similar fashion, but with one important change.
If, of the ascending and descending nodes, only one of them either occurs at all, or occurs once while the other one occurs more than once, then the one that occurs once determines its own position, and the other node is placed in the house opposite it.
If both the ascending and descending nodes occur once, and they occur opposite each other, then both positions are the correct ones to be taken.
If both the ascending and descending nodes occur more than once, but in only one case does the ascending node occur in a house opposite a house in which the descending node occurs, then those are the two house positions to be taken.
If only one node occurs, and that node occurs more than once, these are the possible positions for that node, with those for the other node being in the opposite houses. The one to use will be determined as will be described below.
If both the ascending and descending nodes occur more than once, then:
If they never occur with the ascending node and the descending node opposite each other, every position of either node indicates a possible position for that node, with the other node placed opposite it, and which one will be determined as will be described later.
If they do occur with the ascending node and the descending node opposite each other in more than one case, then only those occurrences will be possible positions for both nodes, and which one to take will be determined as will be described later.
If neither node occurs at all, the position to use will be determined in a manner to be described later.
Just as the positions of the ascending and descending nodes of the Moon in the chart are related, so too are the positions of the Sun and the two inferior planets Mercury and Venus.
Mercury can only be located in the same sign as the Sun, or one of the two signs adjacent to the Sun. Venus can be in the same sign as the Sun, or one or two signs away on either side. As we are using equal houses, the same rule applies to houses as for signs for us.
Note that this implies that Venus can be in the same sign as Mercury, or one, two, or three signs away on either side, and that if Venus and Mercury are three signs away, then the Sun's house is determined as the one adjacent to Mercury in the direction of Venus.
The initial placement for these three bodies is determined as follows:
If any one of the Sun, Mercury, or Venus occurs only once, and either the two others do not occur at all, occur more than once, or occur once in a plausible location, that is, with a separation not in excess of that noted above as possible, then that position is taken for that body.
In the case of a body that appears more than once, if only one of those occurences is plausible with respect to the position of a body that has been placed by the rule in the preceding paragraph, then that position is taken for that body.
Where two bodies both appear more than once, but only one pair of positions for each are plausible for them, then those two positions are taken if the third body has no candidate position.
If two or all three of the Sun, Mercury, and Venus occur only once, but their relative positions are not plausible, then each of these positions is a candidate position, and which is to be taken will be chosen as described below.
Where one body has been placed, and another body, that occurs more than once, does so with more than one of those positions being plausible, then those plausible positions are candidate positions.
Where only one of the three bodies occurs, but does so in more than one instance, each occurrence is a candidate position.
Where two bodies both appear more than once, but only one pair of positions for each are plausible for them, then those two positions are a candidate position for them if the third body has a candidate position as well not plausible with theirs.
If a body does not occur, or does not occur in a plausible position relative to other bodies that have been placed, then a choice is made between the available positions as described below.
The rules above will usually locate at least some, but not all, of the bodies in houses.
A body in a Case II situation will normally be located in one of its candidate positions.
A body in a Case III situation will normally be located in the same house as another body that has already been placed. Specifically, a house is excluded from consideration if it does not have in it the body that was directly specified by the geomantic figure placed in that house, since then it could have had the right geomantic figure for that body instead. An exception to this occurs for the Sun, Mercury, and Venus if none of the available plausible positions are not excluded by this rule.
Placing the remaining bodies in one of their possible locations is determined by ordering the possible locations consecutively from the 1st house onwards to the 12th house, and then choosing from the first, second, and possibly the third and subsequent alternatives as follows:
The order in which positions are to be resolved is:
Moon Mars Jupiter Saturn Moon's Nodes Sun/Mercury/Venus
After the initial resolution of a basic configuration for the Sun, Mercury, and Venus, one or more of individual bodies from that group may also need to be resolved. The order for that resolution is:
Sun Mercury Venus
They are resolved through using the geomantic figures in consecutive houses of the geomantic chart, starting with house XIII, continuing with house XIV, ignoring the Judge, and continuing with consecutive houses from the first house onwards.
Depending on the number of alternatives present, which alternative is to be chosen is determined by the appropriate column on this chart:
Number of choices 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ..:. Puer 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1st 1 1 1 1 1 .:.. Puella 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2nd 2 2 2 2 2 ::.: Albus 1st 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd 3rd 3 3 3 3 3 .... Via 2nd 1st 4th 4th 4th 4th 4 4 4 4 4 :::: Populus 1st 2nd 1st 5th 5th 5th 5 5 5 5 5 ::.. Fortuna Major 2nd 3rd 2nd 1st 6th 6th 6 6 6 6 6 ..:: Fortuna Minor 1st 1st 3rd 2nd 1st 7th 7 7 7 7 7 :..: Conjunctio 2nd 2nd 4th 3rd 2nd 1st 8 8 8 8 8 .:.: Amissio 1st 3rd 1st 4th 3rd 2nd 1 9 9 9 9 :.:: Rubeus 2nd 1st 2nd 5th 4th 3rd 2 1 10 10 10 ...: Cauda Draconis 1st 2nd 3rd 1st 5th 4th 3 2 1 11 11 .::: Laetitia 2nd 3rd 4th 2nd 6th 5th 4 3 2 1 12 :::. Tristitia 1st 1st 1st 3rd 1st 6th 5 4 3 2 1 :... Caput Draconis 2nd 2nd 2nd 4th 2nd 7th 6 5 4 3 2 .::. Carcer 1st 3rd 3rd 5th 3rd 1st 7 6 5 4 3 :.:. Acquisitio 2nd 1st 4th 1st 4th 2nd 8 7 6 5 4
In the case of the Sun, Mercury, and Venus, there are cases to choose from in which more than one of these bodies is to be placed.
The initial cases are first ordered by which of those three bodies, first the Sun, and then Mercury, and then Venus, was positioned in that case with any other bodies then given a position, or a set of alternate positions, based on plausibility.
Then they are ordered by the house position, from 1 to 12, of the principal body.
Additional bodies are then placed separately, with the Sun being placed first, then Mercury, and then Venus, with body's possible positions being one set of cases.
Finally, the planets, luminaries, and nodes are given degree positions.
..:. Puer 1 .:.. Puella 3 ::.: Albus 5 .... Via I 7 :::: Populus II 8 ::.. Fortuna Major III 10 ..:: Fortuna Minor IV 12 :..: Conjunctio V 14 .:.: Amissio VI 15 :.:: Rubeus 17 ...: Cauda Draconis 19 .::: Laetitia 21 :::. Tristitia 22 :... Caput Draconis 24 .::. Carcer VII 26 :.:. Acquisitio VIII 28
First, the Judge is used to determine which house of the geomantic chart to start from in taking geomantic figures from which to obtain the house degree position of each body.
The houses used are those from I to XIV, not including the Judge. The sequence wraps around, continuing from house XIV back to house I if required.
The houses are given in the first column, and the number of degrees found is given in the second column. These degrees are added to the position of the house cusp to obtain the position of the planet by sign and degree.
The degree positions are obtained for the bodies in the order:
Sun Moon Venus Mercury Saturn Jupiter Mars Moon's Nodes
Venus cannot be more than about two and a half signs from the Sun; thus, if degree positions give it an implausible position, here deemed as one more than 45 degrees (rather than the actual value of 46 degrees) from the Sun, it is moved clockwise or counterlockwise by 15 degrees if required. If this would move it to another house, the Sun is moved in that fashion instead.
Similarly, Mercury cannot be more than about one sign from the Sun; thus, if degree positions give it an implausible position, here deemed as one more than 30 degrees (rather than the actual value of 28 degrees) from the Sun, it is moved clockwise or counterlockwise by 15 degrees if required. If this would move it to another house, the Sun is moved in that fashion instead.
In the case of Mercury, while a separation of up to 30 degrees does allow it to be in the house next to the Sun, two bodies in adjacent houses can be up to 59 degrees apart, resulting in an adjustment of 15 degrees being inadequate. In that case, the first alternative to be considered is adjusting both the Sun and Mercury by 15 degrees each to bring them together. This is only permissible if that will not create an implausibility for Venus, and if the Sun will not change houses by such a move. If that alternative cannot be taken, the position of Mercury is to be adjusted by 30 degrees, even though that will move it to another house.
As these rules could lead to a case where the Sun is required to be moved in two opposite directions, when this happens, the Sun is not moved, but instead both Mercury and Venus are moved even though this will mean both of them are moved to a different house. When this happens, both of them are moved by 30 degrees rather than 15 degrees in the appropriate direction.
Let us make four groups of four rows of four dots to erect a geomantic figure:
....................... ..................... ............................ ................. ..................... ......................... ........................ ...................... ........................... ......................... ........................ ............................ ....................... .............................. .......................... ...............................
This produces the geomantic figure:
VIII VII VI V IV III II I
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XII XI X IX
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XIV XIII
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XV
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Proceeding from this geomantic figure, the initial positions of the planets become, in the first column:
I Mars Mars Mars, Mercury, Venus II Sun Sun III Sun IV Saturn V Moon VI DN DN DN VII Moon Moon VIII Saturn Saturn IX Saturn X Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter XI Saturn XII Saturn AN AN
Because Mercury and Venus do not appear, we simply have two candidate positions for the Sun. The Moon's Nodes, Jupiter, and Mars all have definite positions, we have two candidate positions for the Moon and five candidate positions for Saturn.
The first item to resolve is the Moon. There are two choices. As the figure in house XIII of the geomantic chart is Rubeus, we take the second of two choices, so the Moon is placed in house VII of the astrological chart.
The second item to resolve is Saturn. As the figure in house XIV of the geomantic chart is Laetitia, we take the second of five choices, so Saturn is placed in house VIII of the astrological chart.
Finally, we resolve the positions of the Sun, Mercury, and Venus.
First, there are two choices for the Sun. In house I of the geomantic chart, we find Puer, so we take the first of two choices, and thus the Sun is placed in house II of the astrological chart.
Mercury can plausibly be in house I, II, or III. However, house III is excluded from consideration as it initially had the Sun in it, but was not occupied by the Sun. Thus, there are two choices, and in order they are house I and house II.
House II of the geomantic chart contains Fortuna Minor; thus, we take the first of two choices, and Mercury is placed in house I.
Venus can plausibly be in house XII, I, II, III, or IV. The houses excluded because they are unoccupied are III, IV, and XII. Although XII is occupied by the ascending node, its initial contents were an unused Saturn; it could have had Venus, but didn't, if it was to contain Venus.
So again there are two choices; houses I and II. House III of the geomantic chart contains Fortuna Minor, so we take the first of two choices again, placing Venus in house I.
Now to locate the Ascendant. (In the description above, the instructions to do this were given before those to resolve the planets' house positions; these steps can be done in either order.)
House XIII of the geomantic chart contains Rubeus, and so the Ascendant is in Scorpio.
Since, therefore, House XIV was not used, we follow the appropriate steps, from which we obtain an initial position of 20 degrees since House XIV contains Laetitia, to which nothing is added because the Judge is Fortuna Minor. So the Ascendant is 20 degrees Scorpio.
The Judge is Fortuna Minor, so we begin obtaining the degree positions of the planets, luminaries, and nodes with the geomantic figures starting from that in house IV.
House IV of the geomantic chart contains Carcer, so the house position of the Sun is 26 degrees. As the Sun is located in house II of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 20 degrees Sagittarius, that means it is at 16 degrees Capricorn.
House V of the geomantic chart contains Via, so the house position of the Moon is 7 degrees. As the Moon is located in house VII of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 20 degrees Taurus, it is at 27 degrees Taurus.
House VI of the geomantic chart contains Cauda Draconis, so the house position of Venus is 19 degrees. As Venus is located in house I of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 20 degrees Scorpio, it is at 9 degrees Sagittarius.
House VII of the geomantic chart contains Populus, so the house position of Mercury is 8 degrees. As Mercury is located in house I of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 20 degrees Scorpio, it would be at 28 degrees Scorpio. This, however, is more than 30 degrees away from the Sun, and hence it would be adjusted by 15 degrees to 13 degrees Sagittarius. This, however, places it still 32 degrees away from the Sun. Adjusting the Sun by 15 degrees would not place it implausibly far from Venus, and this would be the next alternative to consider, but moving it by 15 degrees in the appropriate direction would move it to a different house. Therefore, instead, Mercury is adjusted by 30 degrees, and moved to 28 degrees Sagittarius, even though that moves it to another house.
House VIII of the geomantic chart contains Carcer, so the house position of Saturn is 26 degrees. As Saturn is located in house VIII of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 20 degrees Gemini, it is at 6 degrees Leo.
House IX of the geomantic chart contains Tristitia, so the house position of Jupiter is 22 degrees. As Jupiter is located in house X of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 20 degrees Virgo, it is at 2 degrees Libra.
House X of the geomantic chart contains Aquisito, so the house position of Mars is 28 degrees. As Mars is located in house I of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 20 degrees Scorpio, it is at 18 degrees Sagittarius.
House XI of the geomantic chart contains Tristitia, so the house position of the Moon's Nodes is 22 degrees. The descending node is in house VI, with a cusp of 20 degrees Aries and so it is at 12 degrees Taurus; the ascending node is in house XII, with a cusp of 20 degrees Libra, and so it is at 12 degrees Scorpio.
Here is the chart that has been generated, looking almost like any ordinary horoscope produced from real planetary positions:
This example was a very straightforward case of the system, as far as the resolution of the houses in which the planets were located was concerned, despite the large number of planets not placed initially, but it did involve a complicated case of adjusting the position of Mercury.
Let us instead start with the following geomantic figure:
VIII VII VI V IV III II I
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XII XI X IX
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XIV XIII
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XV
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Here, our initial assignment of the planets is noted as:
I Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter II Mercury III AN AN AN IV Sun Sun Sun, Mercury V Saturn Saturn Saturn VI Venus Venus Venus VII Mercury VIII Venus IX DN DN DN X Venus XI Venus XII Mars Mars Mars,Moon
We have two positions for Mercury, and three positions for Venus. Thus, the single position for the Sun takes precedence, and no candidate configurations are initiated for the two other bodies. Venus is therefore in house VI, as that is the only plausible position present.
For the other bodies, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mars occur once, and thus are placed. The Moon's Nodes occur once each, opposite each other, and are placed as well.
The first body to be resolved is the Moon, with seven alternate positions. The figure in house XIII of the geomantic chart is Fortuna Minor, and thus the seventh of seven alternatives is taken, and we place it in house XII of the astrological chart.
The second body to be resolved is Mercury, with three alternate positions. The figure in house XIV of the geomantic chart is Conjunctio, and thus the second of three alternate positions is taken, and we place it in house IV of the geomantic chart.
Witness XIII contains Fortuna Minor, and thus we use Witness XIV which contains Conjunctio is used to determine the sign of the Ascendant, which is Aquarius.
The Judge is Amissio, and thus the initial degree position for the Ascendant is 18, and Fortuna Minor in geomantic house XIII causes it to be adjusted by +1, for an ascendant at 19 degrees Aquarius.
The Judge is Amissio, so we begin obtaining the degree positions of the planets, luminaries, and nodes with the geomantic figures starting from that in house VI.
House VI of the geomantic chart contains Puella, so the house position of the Sun is 3 degrees. As the Sun is located in house IV of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 19 degreees Taurus, that means it is at 21 degrees Taurus.
House VII of the geomantic chart contains Conjunctio, so the house position of the Moon is 14 degrees. As the Moon is located in house XII of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 19 degrees Capricorn, it is at 3 degrees Aquarius.
House VIII of the geomantic chart contains Amissio, so the house position of Venus is 15 degrees. As Venus is located in house VI of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 19 degrees Cancer, it would be at 4 degrees Leo. However, that is more than 45 degrees, or one-and-a-half signs, away from the Sun, and so its position is adjusted by 15 degrees, to place it at 19 degrees Cancer. This does not change its house position, so this change is taken; if it did, the place of the Sun would have been adjusted by 15 degrees in the opposite direction instead.
House IX of the geomantic chart contains Caput Draconis, so the house position of Mercury is 24 degrees. As Mercury is located in house IV of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 19 degrees Taurus, it is at 13 degrees Gemini.
House X of the geomantic chart contains Puella, so the house position of Saturn is 3 degrees. As Saturn is located in house V of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 19 degrees Gemini, it is at 22 degrees Gemini.
House XI of the geomantic chart also contains Puella, so the house position of Jupiter is 3 degrees. As Jupiter is located in house I of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 19 degrees Aquarius, it is at 22 degrees Aquarius.
House XII of the geomantic chart contains Puer, so the house position of Mars is 1 degree. As Mars is located in house XII of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 19 degrees Capricorn, it is at 20 degrees Capricorn.
House XIII of the geomantic chart contains Fortuna Minor, so the house position of the Moon's Nodes is 12 degrees. The ascending node is in house III, with a cusp of 19 degrees Aries and so it is at 1 degree Taurus; the descending node is in house IX, with a cusp of 19 degrees Libra, and so it is at 1 degrees Scorpio.
Again, this example didn't involve any complicated cases of resolution, although it did involve an adjustment to Venus' position.
VIII VII VI V IV III II I
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XII XI X IX
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XIV XIII
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XV
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Now, our allocations of the planets become:
I Sun Sun,Mercury II Saturn III DN IV Saturn Saturn V DN VI Venus DN VII Mercury VIII Jupiter Jupiter IX Jupiter X Moon Moon Moon XI Mars Mars Mars,Venus XII AN AN AN
Here, the descending node occurs twice, while the ascending node occurs once, thus the latter takes precedence, giving positions for both nodes.
Mercury and Venus also occur only once, and their positions with respect to each other are plausible, but the Sun also occurs only once, but in a position such that neither of them is in a plausible position.
The rules do not give precedence to multiple planets in mutually plausible positions over a body that occurs once; thus, there will be two alternatives to resolve initially.
Jupiter has two candidate positions, and so does Saturn.
The Moon and Mars each occur once, and thus are placed as well.
First, we resolve Jupiter. Geomantic house XIII contains Amissio, so we take the first of two alternatives, and Jupiter goes to astrological house VIII.
Next, we resolve Saturn. Geomantic house XIV contains Fortuna Major, so we take the second of two alternatives, and Saturn goes to astrological house IV.
Next, we resolve the Sun, Mercury, and Venus. We have two cases, the isolated Sun (which is treated as the first alternative) and the mutually plausible pair of Mercury and Venus. Geomantic house I contains Fortuna Minor, and thus we take the first of two alternatives.
Had the pair of Mercury and Venus been taken, the Sun would need to be resolved, and there would be three alternative positions for it. Instead, Mercury and Venus now appear to need to be resolved.
Houses II and III are excluded, but houses I, XI, and XII are available.
Thus, first we resolve Mercury, with two choices. Geomantic house II contains Carcer, and so we take the first of two choices, and place it in astrological house I.
Next, we resolve Venus, with three choices. Geomantic house III contains Cauda Draconis, and so we take the second of three choices, and place it in astrological house XI.
Witness XIII is Amissio, and Witness XIV is Fortuna Major, and so the Ascendant is placed in Libra.
The Judge is Carcer, and it was Witness XIV that was not used in determining the sign of the Ascendant, and so the initial degree position of the Ascendant is 10 (indicated by Fortuna Major) and it is adjusted by +1 (indicated by Carcer), giving an Ascendant at 11 degrees Libra.
The Judge is Carcer, so we begin obtaining the degree positions of the planets, luminaries, and nodes with the geomantic figures starting from that in house VII.
House VII of the geomantic chart contains Albus, so the house position of the Sun is 5 degrees. As the Sun is located in house I of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 11 degrees Libra, that means it is at 16 degrees Libra.
House VIII of the geomantic chart contains Aquisitio, so the house position of the Moon is 28 degrees. As the Moon is located in house X of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 11 degrees Cancer, it is at 9 degrees Leo.
House IX of the geomantic chart also contains Aquisitio, so the house position of Venus is 28 degrees. As Venus is located in house XI of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 11 degrees Leo, it is at 9 degrees Virgo.
House X of the geomantic chart contains Via, so the house position of Mercury is 7 degrees. As Mercury is located in house I of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 11 degrees Libra, it is at 18 degrees Libra.
House XI of the geomantic chart contains Rubeus, so the house position of Saturn is 17 degrees. As Saturn is located in house IV of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 11 degrees Capricorn, it is at 28 degrees Capricorn.
House XII of the geomantic chart contains Caput Draconis, so the house position of Jupiter is 24 degrees. As Jupiter is located in house VIII of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 11 degrees Taurus, it is at 5 degrees Gemini.
House XIII of the geomantic chart contains Amissio, so the house position of Mars is 15 degrees. As Mars is located in house XI of the astrological chart, with a cusp of 11 degrees Leo, it is at 26 degrees Leo.
House XIV of the geomantic chart contains Fortuna Major, so the house position of the Moon's Nodes is 10 degrees. The descending node is in house VI, with a cusp of 11 degrees Sagittarius and so it is at 21 degrees Sagittarius; the ascending node is in house XII, with a cusp of 11 degrees Virgo, and so it is at 21 degrees Virgo.
Here, we finally did see a case where resolving the Sun, Mercury, and Venus involved some use of the applicable rules.
A complete horoscope chart, with degree positions for the planets, is a complicated object. It may well be doubted that a single geomantic figure would be sufficient to produce more than a tiny fraction of chart arrangements.
The obvious thing to do would be to make three geomantic charts, one for the initial placement of the planets, a second for resolving their house assignments, and a third for establishing their degree positions.
However, it is already required to make sixteen rows of dots in order to erect a single geomantic chart. Doing this three times would be fatiguing.
Instead, I propose the following method to construct a second geomantic chart from the same sixteen rows of dots used to construct the original one:
Construct four geomantic figures in which each of the four rows may have one, two, or three dots, by marking off the dots in the rows in threes instead of by twos.
Convert those geomantic figures to regular ones with the following table:
in which each geomantic figure ocurs five times, except for Fortuna Minor, which occurs six, and then use the resulting four geomantic figures to construct a second geomantic chart, and then use the first geomantic chart to determine the initial placement of the planets, and the sign and degree of the Ascendant, and use the second geomantic chart created here both to resolve the placement of the planets, and to give them degree positions.
Using the table to change geomantic figures with one, two, or three dots in each row to regular geomantic figures with one or two dots in each row suggests another procedure which would allow more possible combinations, which would be useful here.
When constructing the regular geomantic chart, two symbols are combined using the rules:
* + * = * * * + * * = * * * + * = * * * + * * = * *
A geomantic chart with the figures with up to three dots in it could be constructed by the rules
* + * = * * * + * * = *** * + *** = * * * + * = *** * * + * * = * * * + *** = * * *** + * = * *** + * * = * * *** + *** = ***
and then the symbols in that chart could all individually be translated to regular symbols using the table. This would produce something that looked like a normal geomantic chart, but because each figure could come from five different calculated figures, they could occur in more combinations.
One noticeable difference would be that the Judge would not be restricted to the eight geomantic figures with even parity, though.
This technique can be employed as follows as part of producing three geomantic charts:
The first chart is the conventional one derived from determining if the number of dots in each of the sixteen rows that were drawn was odd or even.
The chart introduced in the previous alternative, where the dots are counted by threes, and the resulting four figures are translated with the table, and then a geomantic chart is constructed conventionally from them, is used as an intermediate chart.
The second chart will be constructed from the first chart and the intermediate chart by combining corresponding geomantic figures from the two charts in every position by the normal rule used to combine geomantic figures to create the successive rows of a geomantic chart.
The third chart is the one described for this alternative, where the geomantic chart is constructed originally of three-dot figures with their combination rule, with every symbol then individually translated from the three-dot form to the conventional form. With the one change that the Judge is instead the one taken from the intermediate chart.
In this way, the second chart and the third chart don't have the same first four figures, the way the intermediate chart and the third chart do.
Then the astrological chart is constructed as follows:
The first chart is used to determine the initial positions of the planets.
The third chart is used to resolve the house positions of the planets, and to obtain the sign and degree of the Ascendant.
The second chart is used to obtain the degree positions of the planets.
Copyright (c) 2012 John J. G. Savard