I have been working with the Arabic meanings of the geomantic symbols since I wrote my book Stars and Stones. In that book I used a mixed approach taking the earlier Arabic meanings and mixing them with the Latin terms which most people are familiar. In this article, I will look at the pure Arabic meanings taken from a 13th century book Principles of Sand Science written by Muhammad al-Zanati. I have been using this work as the basis of two articles I wrote here and here.
Some of these meanings are pretty much the same, but others are more balanced and revealing than the Western Geomancy meanings.
Inward Victory (Fortuna Major) (happy figure)
The most fortunate geomantic figure, bringing happiness, total success, fulfilment of desires, fortune and money.
Outward Victory (Fortuna Minor) (happy figure)
Medium happiness, moderate success, favourable for moderate ambitions, but not for any great risks, or excessive desires. The culmination point of a period of success which is now waning but still present.
He who knocks at the door or morning star (Via) (a happy figure)
Road, route, waterway, journey, the traveller, to depart, to roam, means of transport, guide and life.
Meeting (Populus) (a mixed figure)
People, crowd, populace, large groups of people, big cities, democracy, to collect, to concentrate, to bring together without order.
Consensus or agreement (Conjunctio) (a mixed figure)
Conjunction, union, encounter, unity regained, friendship, love, communion, agreement (particularly of a community), to sympathise and converge.
Clarification or Whiteness (Albus) (a mixed figure)
White, whiteness, purity, cold, ice, snow, the calm of death. To sleep, to slow down, peace, light, and spiritual elevation. Elucidating a point, explaining a matter, or shedding light on a particular issue.
Gracious (or pure) Cheeks (Puela) (a mixed figure)
Girl, woman, female sex, female animals, virgin, chasity, gentleness and grace.
Outward capture (Amissio) (a bad figure)
Loss, failure to obtain, lack of success, shipwrecked, to decline, to go away, to end, to fall in ruin, to ruin oneself.
Downy, scarce beard, chick, joy ( Puer) (a mixed figure)
Boy, man, young man, the male sex, solidity, firmness and power.
Red (Rubeus) (a bad figure)
Red, redness, excitement, stimulus, force, violence, desire, to take, to take, to capture to kill. Blood, fire and war.
Inward capture (Acquisitio) (a good figure)
To acquire, possess, or take home. To capture or steal. To gain to carry the prize, to be admitted. To benefit, to pass to a higher grade.
Beard or Good Times (Joy) (a good figure)
Joy, happiness, health, light, success, victory, advantages of all times and agreements.
Closed circle/ link (Carcer) (a mixed figure)
Prison, to be imprisoned, demon possession, magic, egotism, solitary confinement, pregnancy, To enclose, attach and protect.
Reversed (Tristitia) (a bad figure)
Distress, unhappiness, pain and illness, shadows and obscurity. Defeat, disadvantages of all kinds, disagreement, irritation, difficulties, sorrow and mourning.
Inward threshold (Caput Draconis) (a good figure)
Internalisation, introversion, the inside world, mysticism, meditation, developing the soul. Deeping the personal world with philosophy.
Outward threshold (Cauda Draconis) (a bad figure)
Externalisation, extraversion, the outside world, action, developing the body, an active and intensive life, illusion, fraud and deception.
Example
Based on these meanings we get a slightly different interpretation of a reading. Let’s look at the old staple question “does she love me?”
The court indicates that there is some moderate success which is being delayed, with the reconciler being the bad figure of “Reversed” The two positive figures bode well for the question, but the reversed outcome indicates that there is something troubling and depressing.
When we look at the first house we can see that the issue is the querant who is distressed, depressed and unaware what is happening. It is doubly bad because it is in companionship with reversed.
Quested
However, it is important to remember that the question was not about what the querent is thinking but the quested. She is Fortuna Major and therefore happy and good for the question. She is in a demi-simple companionship with Lesser Fortune which is not that good and might represent a sudden change (both add up to via which means some movement). If that is so, it might be because the querent is too negative about the situation rather than anything she feels. This is emphasised by the fact that the querent and the quested add up to Albus which means coldness. He seems to be stealing her sunshine forcing it to be an intellectual sort of relationship.
Moving figures
That said, there are some good points. She moves into his 11th house (her fifth house of happiness) and he moves to his fifth house (her eleventh house). This could mean that they are up being friends (the eleventh house is friends), but in both cases this means forming a sextile which would be positive to the question. What is interesting about these sextiles is that it is up to the querent if these are going to be positive or not. Reversal making a sextile with Fortuna Major is a good figure connecting to a bad figure. According the Christopher Cattan that means that might indicate that the question is in trouble or faces difficulty. However, Inward Victory agrees with Reversal because they both share the same element (earth) and are stable so sextiles between them are probably how love comes to be expressed.
Cardines
The cardines show that the beginning of the matter is poor (reversal), but things will move to an outward victory and end with an inward victory. The fourth house which is the end of the matter is loss which could mean that she falls completely for him losing part of herself in the process and her grip on reality.
There are five positive figures, three neutral and four bad, so there is a mix with positive winning out. Even more if you count the court.
Summery
Although there are clearly some problems, the reading seems to show that the quested loves the querent and even if he is his own worst enemy things will turn out ok in the end.
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