Macrobius on the Geomantic Figures

[sdi]

The demarcation between earth and water is called Necessity by natural philosophers because it is believed to bind and solidify the clay of which bodies are made. Hence when Menelaus, in Homer's Iliad, was invoking evil upon the Greeks, he said, "May all of you be resolved into earth and water," referring to the muddy substance of which human bodies were first made. The demarcation between water and air is called Harmony, that is, a compatible and harmonious union: for this is the interval which unites the lower with the upper, reconciling incongruent factors. The demarcation between air and fire is called Obedience; for whereas the muddy and heavy bodies are joined to the things above by Necessity, the things above associate with what is muddy by Obedience, with Harmony in the middle promoting a union of both.

(Macrobius, Commentary on the Dream of Scipio VI)

---

I find it fascinating how well these names and descriptions—Necessity, Harmony, Obedience—correspond to the natures of the geomantic figures, Fortuna Major, Conjunctio, and Fortuna Minor. Given that Macrobius was one of the main philosophical texts available in the middle ages, one wonders whether it exhibited some manner of direct or indirect influence on the development of geomancy.