| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 1 | 46 | 93 | 139 | 185 |
|
4
- Making your Geomantic Instruments
Obtain an open-topped, square wooden box, or, alternatively, if you are a purist, make one for
yourself. If you follow the latter course and want to be a real purist you can cut your own timber and
manufacture your own glue; we have known at least one devoted occultist who did just that, but, alas,
the magical results he achieved seemed in no way superior to those obtained by another esotericist of
our acquaintance who used an old fruit box!
The dimensions of your box are not particularly important, but in practice anything over one foot six
inches by one foot six inches will found to be impossibly unwieldy, and anything under six inches by
six inches will prove 'fiddly' in use. Paint the outside of the box as follows:
•
•
•
•
•
Bottom -/- Black
Side Facing You -/- Citrine (brownish yellow)
Side Facing Away from You -/- Black
Right Hand Side -/- Russet (a reddish brown)
Left Hand Side -/- Olive (brownish green)
There is no need to bother with the technical details of exactly why these are the colours used. At this
stage it is sufficient to note that they pertain to one of the spheres of the qabalistic diagram known as
the Tree of Life - Malkuth, the 'Sphere of the Elements' - and are formed by a particular mode by
which the colours of some of the higher spheres are reflected into it. (1)
----
[1] It is useful if at this stage in your magical career you read an elementary text on the Qabalah,
simultaneously with your practical progress, in no way neglecting the latter for the former. Such a text
is Dion Fortune's Mystical Qabalah, or Israel Regardie's Garden of Pomegranates. Both outline briefly
much of the Qabalistic theory behind practical western magic. Charles Ponce's Kabbalah is an
excellent historical and theoretical background which draws purely from qabalistic sources.
----
Having completed the painting of your box fill it with either dry earth, peat, rock salt or - in many
ways the most satisfactory - sand. Should the last be your choice of filler material it should be
obtained from an inland site and not from the seashore for otherwise the symbolism would be
incorrect; geomancy, it will be remembered, pertains to the Earth elementals and the instruments
employed in its practical techniques should be as free as possible from any association with Water,
Air or Fire.
The next step is the manufacture of your geomantic wand. Obtain a rounded stick, about a foot to
eighteen inches in length, and sharpen one end. Once again, if you have a purist desire to do things the
hard way you can go to almost infinite trouble in the process of manufacture of your wand - cutting it
at sunrise on May morning from a hazel bush with one stroke of a knife that has never been used for
any other purpose, for example - but all this sort of thing is entirely unnecessary, a hangover from the
Page
Quick Jump
|