What is Geomancy and the Dreaming?
By Alanna Moore, © 2022
View my YouTube Geomancy presentation HERE.
Geomancy is the ancient art of attunement to the subtle energies and spirits of place, and of working with them if help is needed. Place energies develop over time as they combine the inherent powers of Earth and cosmos with the impacts and stories that people bring to them. As a geomancer I love to delve into the mythic elements of country. In Aboriginal Australia, it’s often referred to as the Dreaming or Dreamtime (- a clumsy term assigned by white colonists). This geo-mythos is not simply a hazy dream, dying memory, fading folklore or superstition. It is a living, vibrant layer of the landscape. Where landscapes are not too altered, this dynamic element gives a place its unique subtle character, forged from energetic, topographic, geologic and socio-historic dimensions.
The Dreaming shows us that all life is imbued with consciousness and that this is available for us to contact. Buddhism also has this view, as do the paradigms of animistic cultures worldwide, from Shinto traditions of Japan to the fairy lore of Ireland. Unfortunately this worldview has been globally suppressed by imperialist religions over the last two millennia. Despite this, much remains ingrained in peoples’ psyches, within fragmentary legends and place names, and it’s still out there, to be discovered directly when visiting sites. As the Aboriginal Australian Dreamtime is shorthand for the spiritual reality, it conveys the timeless other-dimensional, other-worldly qualities of place, and provides a useful term to denote those ancient understandings everywhere (when the English language is rather silent on expressing this reality).
Today even some scientists are catching up with these ancient concepts! A good example is the work of the brilliant Burkhard Heim in Germany, with his twelve-dimensional unified field theory that provides a subtle, quantum physical view of life. It provides a useful framework (for sceptics especially!) to understand the other dimensional nature of the devic realms and beings.
Serpent/Dragon lore
In Ireland, medieval monks concocted stories about St Patrick, who was said by them to have banished the serpents. But Ireland did not have any physical snakes and the story symbolises his struggles against the pagan paradigms of the times, represented in the globally common serpentine forms of Earth energies and nature spirits. There are many Irish lakes that retain resident serpent stories and telling place names. In fact, my dowsing studies confirm that those beings are detectable there today. Serpent spirits do often still inhabit certain watery places, regardless of medieval propaganda.
Telluric energy currents flowing in serpentine pathways across the landscape are often used by dragon spirits in the geomantic lore of Chinese Feng Shui, which calls them Dragon Lines/ Lung mei. The Irish call them Fairy Lines and know that the “little people” travel along them, for they connect together their ‘fairy fort’ homes and their sacred places. Many an Irish fairy tale tells of dire consequences if one obstructs them in any way!
Today the world is constantly losing its sacred pathways and places, the understanding of the inherent spiritual value of landscapes having been mostly overruled by the destructive power of capitalism. But we can work to reverse this decline.
Pilgrimage to the Sacred Earth
Despite the repression of the Earth magic, we can restore and renew humankinds’ sacred relationship with land and nature. One way to start is by connecting to the Dreaming qualities of places, to the intelligences inhabiting there, allowing them to speak to us when we are in the meditative headspace of dreamy but lucid alpha brainwaves. When we listen to the land empathetically, the Earth wisdom and harmony can start to flow!
In the process we can identify sites where there is lingering sadness, trauma, stagnation, geopathic stress etc; and offer healing or say sorry to the land if needed. Sites that may be threatened by inappropriate development can be defended, as we become a good friend to them. Sites that have already been desecrated can be helped, harmonised and reinvigorated.
By visiting sacred sites in a sensitive, respectful way we can maximise the potential interaction with the Dreaming there. On arriving at them, or, better still – from just before, at a respectful distance, we can announce ourselves and any intentions we have for the visit. Verbalisations of intent are very powerful! Clean up any rubbish we find there and touch the Earth, feel its stone bones, smell the flowers, breathe the air deeply and meditate, dowse, sing songs, chant, dance – however your body wants to respond to the land. Give thanks to nature for her bounty. And deeply listen to what the land might say to you… When it’s time for leave-taking – send out heart-felt gratitude and love to the place. This will make the fairies very happy!
Having gained the trust and approval of a place, before long, the energetic atmosphere becomes soothingly calm or even vibrantly joyful and magic will start to happen to the Dreamtime pilgrim!
In a world riven with all kinds of stress, conflicts, tragedy and want, we can consciously create and inhabit havens of balance and bliss. It all starts within our hearts, as we orient our view of life to love rather than fear. With an eco-spiritual approach that respects the rights of all the dimensions of nature, we take a deeply meaningful life path and help the survival of planet Earth all the better.
To learn more about geomancy, read these books by Alanna Moore:
Divining Earth Spirit – There is much to discover about Australian and Irish geomancy plus other global traditions in this book. Find it HERE.
Water Spirits of the World – The world’s watery spirit realms are inhabited by similar serpent and dragon forms, that are often the paramount devas of place in many global traditions. Find it HERE.
Touchstones for Today – Earth mysteries are often associated with sacred stone arrangements, standing stones, bullauns, labyrinths and the like. Find out how to create your own and imbue them with the sacred. Find it HERE.
“I live in Brisbane, Queensland. I really enjoy your books, especially Divining Earth Spirit, I found it really inspiring. I also like that you have write so much about both Aboriginal and Irish dreamings, as this resonates so strongly with me being a first generation Australian brought up with a strong connection to my Irish heritage, and also to have respect (and connection) to the original inhabitants and spirits of this land. I am very happy that you are doing what you are doing and look forward to hearing and reading more of what you have to share with the world, as well as the things you do for it.”