Doing a geomancy reading takes time, and before you even start, it is wise to have a sound safety system to know if a Chart will be valid.
Geomancy has two well-known safety devices relating to the first house – if Rubeus or Cauda Draconis appears in the first house, scrap the chart. While this is true, another one taught me by African geomancy expert Shittu A. O. Sage involves something he calls the Mace.
The Mace is a generated figure that says the spirits have given the chart authority to speak. The King’s Mace is placed in Parliament to represent his authority over the government.
Calculate the Mace by adding the third house to the fifth house to give a figure we can call A. The eleventh house is added to the Judge to create a second figure we can call B. A is added to B to make the Mace.
The Mace must appear in one of the houses in the court or in the court to give it authority.
From a reading perspective, this is the house where the chart gains authority to answer the question, although reading it has a limited value.
Here is an example from a person who wants to know if his partner is happy with him as she had been a bit distant when he left for work that morning.
H3 is Via, and H5 is Fortuna Major, so A would be Fortuna Minor. H11 is Fortuna Minor, and the Judge is Amissio, so B is Conjuctio. Fortuna Minor and Conjuctio means Amissio is the Mace.
Amissio appears in the Judge; therefore, the chart has the authority to give an answer. If it had appeared in another house it might hint that the chart’s authority might be coming from something to do that house. It is hard to see how that might be. I have not had much luck getting the Mace to relate to the content in the houses where I have found it. I have found that the chart has been pointless where it is not present.
The Mace offers nothing good or bad to the reading. The court and the chart are still deciding the final result. But lacking a Mace means it is best not to proceed with the reading and wait for another planetary hour.
