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Geomancy

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Magic in the Middle Ages

Universitat de Barcelona

4.5 (792 ratings) | 60K Students Enrolled

Magical thought has always attracted human imagination. In this course we will introduce you to the Middle Ages through a wide conception of magic. Students will have an approach to medieval culture, beliefs and practices from the perspective of History and History of Science. Popular magic, as well as learned magic (alchemy, geomancy and necromancy) will be addressed. Moreover, we will also deal with how eastern practices and texts influenced western culture. In July 2016, the course will contain a brand-new module devoted to astrology. Magic in the Middle Ages offers a captivating overview of medieval society and promotes reflection about certain stereotypes associated with this period. At the end of the course, the students: a) will have overcome the usual prejudices about the Middle Ages, b) will be able to analyze historical documentation from the Middle Ages and recognize the most common patterns of juridical documents regarding witchcraft, and c) will be capable of distinguishing between popular magic and the magic of the learned people; will have a notion of which spiritual practices were allowed in medieval Europe and which ones were related to the devil, and will be aware of the link between a cultural product and the society that produced it. This course is taught in English, although subtitles in English, Catalan and Spanish will also be provided. COURSE SYLLABUS Week 1. Introduction to medieval magic (Pau Castell). Week 2. Magic & Heresy (Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel). Week 3. From Magic to Witchcraft (Pau Castell). Week 4. Magic in Islam (Godefroid de Callataÿ and Sébastien Moureau). Week 5. Astrology & Geomancy (Theo Loinaz, Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel, Godefroid de Callataÿ and Blanca Villuendas). © Gemma Pellissa Prades (coord.), Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel and Joana Palau Mumany Magic in the Middle Ages by Gemma Pellissa Prades (coord.), Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel and Joana Palau Mumany is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Skills You'll Learn

Middle East, Astronomy, History, Anthropology

Reviews

4.5 (792 ratings)

5 stars
521 ratings
4 stars
211 ratings
3 stars
41 ratings
2 stars
13 ratings
1 star
6 ratings

CB

Apr 07, 2019

I learnt a lot from this module. The lessons are incredibly interesting especially for those who are interested in the Medieval Ages and the beliefs of the people back then

MC

Aug 07, 2017

The materials in this course gave me a lot to think about. The effects of the ideas and attitudes towards medieval "magic" are still affecting modern thought today.

From the lesson

UNIT 5: ASTROLOGY & GEOMANCY

Medieval Astrology: Between Science and Magic5:57

The Melting Pot of Medieval Astrology6:10

Early Medieval Astronomy: the Moon, the Zodiac, Thunders and Dreams7:08

Horoscopes and World Events: the Doings of High-End Astrology6:37

Optional video-On World Cycles 1: The Great Year Doctrine in Antiquity (1)5:42

Optional video-On World Cycles 1: The Great Year Doctrine in Antiquity (2)7:14

Optional video-On World Cycles 2: The Great Year Doctrine in the Middle Ages (1)9:52

Optional video-On World Cycles 2: The Great Year Doctrine in the Middle Ages (2)6:35

Taught By

Godefroid de Callataÿ - University of Louvain
Professor
Dr Pau Castell Granados
Research and Teaching Scholar at University of Barcelona
Sébastien Moureau - University of Louvain
Chargé de recherches du F.R.S.-FNRS
Dr Gemma Pellissa Prades
Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow
Delfi I. Nieto-Isabel
BSc, BA, MA
Blanca Villuendas
PhD Candidate

Transcript

[MUSIC]

Hi, in this video we will delve into the world of Divination.

Divination supports itself on the belief in divine omniscience and,

throughout history, human beings have developed several

methodologies to receive knowledge from the gods.

Arguably, divinatory techniques may be considered a different phenomenon

from what usually falls into the category of magical resources.

But, in many cases, the performance of these techniques

requires the expression of fixed formulae and the following of a set of rituals,

a characteristic shared by most magical procedures.

Now, I would like to introduce you to a technique known in the West as Geomancy.

The word geomancy from the Greek geo-, Earth, and manteia,

divination, is the name the practice received from the first translators

of the Arabic manuals, where it was most usually named '<i>ilm al-raml</i>',

sand science, in reference to the use of sand as the surface

whereon castings have been traditionally performed.

These translations took place in the 12th century, in Spain, and

they extensively promoted the use of geomancy in Europe,

especially during Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

In what follows, you will learn the basic procedures of this sortilege

in order to identify the features that distinguish this popular technique.

For the castings, 16 figures are employed.

As you can see, each of these figures is built with four lines of dots,

and, in each line, one or two dots may be found.

The number of the figures, 16,

is the result of all the possible combinations

of two values, odd and even, grouped in four.

Now, from the simple introduction to the figures,

you may begin to notice some mathematical implications of this divinatory technique.

Indeed, the whole procedure attests to principles derived from arithmetic, or

number theory, and algebra.

This is the reason why Geomancy has become a matter of interest for

scholars from the field of Mathematical Anthropology,

as you can see in the following selected bibliography.

The geomantic figures are given a name and a meaning.

Predictions can be made taking into consideration the value

of only one figure obtained by random means.

But, usually, the practice exhibits a more sophisticated

procedure that involves the construction of a chart made of 15 or

16 positions in which figures are placed.

I would like to introduce you to the steps of the procedure, for

they illustrate the complexity and technical nature of the system,

a key aspect to understand how each divinatory practice is

embedded in the broad intellectual atmosphere it belongs to.

As we have just mentioned, Geomancy had a strong arithmetical input, and

it becomes especially clear in the laws that rule the construction of the chart:

In the first place, following a randomised process,

four figures are obtained.

One of the most traditional ways to get them is to draw four rows of dots for

each of them without counting.

Once this is done, the dots are discarded in pairs,

leaving only either one or two dots at the end of every row.

The remaining dots are placed underneath each other, obtaining a figure.

This operation is repeated four times in order to obtain the four figures

that will fill the first positions of the chart, known as '<i>mothers</i>'.

The reason for this name is that these four figures are responsible for

the rest, because of two laws of derivation operating.

The first one is called 'transposition', and

it produces the figures that will fill the next four positions, known as '<i>daughters</i>'.

It consists of shifting the dots from a horizontal position to

a vertical one by using the top lines of dots, or

'<i>heads</i>', from the four mothers to make the first of the daughters and,

down to the bottom, every line is taken to build the rest of daughters.

The second law of derivation, the 'addition', is applied to obtain the figures for

the remaining positions.

Addition consists in adding two figures to produce a third one.

The dots in each line are counted, and if the total numbers is odd

it corresponds to one dot, and if it is even to two.

In this way, the chart is completed and ready to be interpreted.

At this point, Geomancy exhibits a closed relationship with Astrology.

The positions in the chart are named <i>houses</i>, a concept borrowed from Astrology,

just as some of the principles governing the chart.

The houses may be related to a particular planet, colour, social role,

number and element, properties that have to be considered

along with the characteristics of the figure located therein.

Given the vast amount of information to bear in mind for

interpreting a chart, written manuals are useful, if not necessary.

The production of handbooks was considerably big

already in the Middle Ages, in view of the number of copies preserved.

They are the best source to know about the history of this technique.

As for indirect sources, they should be taken cautiously, because the names

by which it is known are sometimes applied to other practices that also involve

the use of sand or the ground, such as lithomancy, psammomancy, or feng shui.

Some of these manuals are interesting also from the standpoint of social and

economic history, because often they include the questions most usually asked.

On the basis of the examples preserved, it is assumed,

as we mentioned earlier, that Geomancy entered Europe after the translation

from Arabic handbooks that took place in the 12th century.

And given that there is no evidence of being practiced elsewhere before,

it is generally understood that the origins of this divinatory technique,

are to be traced back to Arab lands.

This idea is consistent with the legendary tales of its genesis and

transmission found in several Arabic sources.

The tales are intended to explain the divine nature

of the science by providing a chain of transmitters,

usually headed by the Archangel Gabriel, (Jibril in Arabic).

Master of Knowledge, Gabriel gave the prophet Idris the chance to learn and

transmit it to humans.

The angel and the

prophet had to meet several times until the apprentice mastered the technique.

Then, Idris taught it to an Indian sage named Tumtum al-Hindi.

The legacy of this wise man was unknown until the arrival of

Khalaf al-Barbari "the Elder", a contemporary of the Prophet Muhammad.

Khalaf al-Barbari had studied it in India for 120 years, and then wrote a book,

which he bestowed upon his disciple Nasr al-Din al-Barbari "the Young"

before dying in year 13 of the Hegira at the age of a 186 years.

The list usually ends with the most famous geomancer of all times,

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Zanati, following his master Abu Sa'id al-Tarabulusi.

In other cases,

the mythical transmitters are substituted with other ones of equivalent role.

For instance, Idris can be assimilated to Hermes Trismegistos, Thoth, the prophet Daniel, and

Enoch; whereas instead of Tumtum al-Hindi, we could find Ptolemy.

Furthermore, in some cases, it is possible to find Sem, Cham,

the Sibyll, Pythagoras, Abraham, Moses, or Christ.

But the practice of Geomancy is not exclusive to the Arab lands and

Europe, nor to the Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Divination by means of these geomantic figures experienced a tremendous

expansion in time and space.

Soon, it travelled to the southernmost parts of Africa, and as far as Madagascar.

There, it became a very popular and

ritualized practice after integrating local cults and beliefs.

Then, from the Western African Coast, where it was known as Ifa or Fa,

it reached the Caribbean as a result of the slave trade.

It also moved towards the East, with a special impact in Iran and Pakistan.

In all these places

Geomancy is still performed today.

[MUSIC]

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