geomancy

Noun

geomancy (usually uncountable, plural geomancies)

1. (usually) A method of divination using earth or the ground, such as interpreting markings on the ground or how handfuls of dirt land when tossed.
   • Hard by here, in the Brown-wheat-Island, dwelleth Her Trippa; you know how by the Arts of Astrology, Geomancy, Chiromancy, Metopomancy, and others of a like stuff and nature, he foretelleth all things to come...1660 Urquhart tr. Rabelais Gargantua & Pantagruel iii. xxv.
   • The Arabian Geomancy, said to have been first practised by Almadul, was more recondite, being founded on the effects of motion under the crust of the earth, the chinks thus produced, and the noises or thunderings heard; its foundation was the dogma of Aristotle, that "the moving of the heaven is...1855, Edward Smedley et al., The Occult Sciences, London: Richard Griffin, page 314
2. (usually) feng shui; Chinese geomancy.
   • geomancy [...] The pretended art of divining future events, or of ascertaining the luckiness or unluckiness of any event or locality, by means of signs connected with the earth [...] or, as in China, from the configuration and aspect of a particular region in its relation to some other.1899, William Dwight Whitney, The Century Dictionary, volume III, page 61
   • There was [...] a striking similarity between Mesopotamian and Chinese thinking - if not method - in the concept of feng-shui, the Chinese system of geomancy, or divination by topographical features.1978, M. Edwardes, The Dark Side of History, page 12