Do you use the VI to represent "the body?"

[sdi]

One of the big difficulties I've had in learning geomancy is house associations: these strike me as fairly arcane, and rote memorization of lists of associations doesn't give enough information to cover the full panoply of human complexity. Filling in the gaps has felt like my greatest struggle in understanding the art.

One of those gaps is, where does one put questions about oneself? Tradition covers some pieces of this: one's state of mind goes in the I, one's elementary knowledge goes in the III, one's diseases goes in the VI, one's death and legacy go in the VIII, one's skilled knowledge and religious beliefs go in the IX, one's ambitions goes in the X, one's hopes goes in the XI, and one's fears goes in the XII. But this is a very pale expression of a person! Traditional lore doesn't seem to allow for houses to perfect against themselves, so if one's current mental state goes in the I, how does one ask about it? Or where, for example, do questions about one's memories go? How about questions about one's body, when the question isn't about disease?

For the latter of these, I've been seeing hints in my readings over the last couple months indicating that the VI may refer to one's body and/or one's feelings about it. Not finding any traditional lore about the topic, I figured I ought to simply ask the expert—that is, the spirit with whom I'm communicating.

I am represented by the I, and characterized by energetic Laetitia. Divination is a skill and is therefore represented by the IX, characterized by deliberative Albus. (The reception of these two figures is Amissio, symbolic of loss, indicating my lack of understanding.) My geomantic spirit is represented by the VII, characterized by mischievous Rubeus (!). The chart perfects in two ways, emphatically affirming the question. The first is a translation provided by Rubeus in the X and XII, which is strengthened by capital company between the IX and X: this indicates that my spirit is intentionally stirring things up—Rubeus is sometimes symbolized as an overturned cup—in order to answer the kinds of questions that interest me. The second is a weak translation facilitated by capital company between the I and Amissio in the II and provided by Populus in the III and VIII: this indicates that my geomantic spirit is using a nontraditional house assignment in order to facilitate discussion with others and thereby bridge my lack of understanding.

More fancifully, the combination of a strong, direct mode of perfection and a weak, roundabout mode of perfection seem to indicate that the spirit is using the VI to represent both the physical body and the metaphorical "body," which is something else I was wondering about.

The court tells a story of it's own: I, as the Right Witness and characterized by Conjunctio (the figure of things coming together), am doing my best to understand; but traditional geomantic practice, as the Left Witness and characterized by Carcer (the figure of separation and even frustration), is proving a barrier to me. But, Carcer is also a very productive figure, hinting that the traditional methods are intentionally inscrutable in order to train one into alternative modes of thought. These two figures come together in the Judge, representing the overall situation and characterized by journeying Via, indicating the learning (and, indeed, personal transformation) that these contending forces ultimately bring about. Underscoring this, the Sentence, representing how the situation affects me personally, is characterized by Caput Draconis, indicating fertile ground and readiness for growth.

Consequently, this use of the VI (and its relation to the tradition) is something to meditate on: hopefully, leading to a deeper understanding of the practice.

Finally, as a bit of sightseeing, I would like to draw your attention to something cute: Tristitia, the figure of pure earth and form—almost literally "the body"—appears in the VI, the house I was asking about. I find references like this to be typical of the good humor I see in communications with my geomantic spirit.

Comments

[emmanuelg]

JMG's book (page 138) has a related comment that seems to agree with this;
"...Health. The first house is the patient, the sixth the illness, the seventh the physician, and the tenth the medicine or the treatment."

Also pg 158 has a discussion of Geomancy and diagnostics; "...Questions involving acute illnesses belong to the sixth house; chronic illnesses are discussed under the twelfth house...." There is a list of types of illnesses associated with the character that shows up in the 6th or 12th house. Probably you would have to do a reading with that framework in mind to get meaningful results--

It's way cool that the reading you did tells you things about the 6th house that are consistent with historical interpretations-- or in other words, TSW!

[sdi]

Yeah, it's interesting! I had kinda been thinking of the VI as "things below me in the social hierarchy," hence servants, hired people, small animals, and diseases (bacteria, parasites, etc.). But I suppose one's material body is below one in the social hierarchy, too, if we think of ourselves as our soul or spiritual being...

Still a lot to sort out, here! I have been thinking a lot, lately, about how people—even people in similar situations!—from different cultures can understand each other. (Whether that culture is Western Europe 500 years or, or Asia today, or something even further removed like ancient Greece or something. Hell, in America today, it seems like concepts don't even translate across cultural or regional boundaries!) We necessarily have different "mental maps" of "the way things are," and these don't necessarily translate well even if the words used to describe them do.