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Geomantic Figures

Laetitia

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Origin 1100 to 1300

Laetitia (Joy) is one of the sixteen geomantic figures, formed of single Fire above double Air, double Water, and double Earth: a rising point over a broad base, often pictured as a tower or a face turned upward. It is attributed to the element Water, the planet Jupiter, and the sign Pisces. Its name means joy, and it signifies happiness, health, hope, optimism, and things rising toward the good. Ruled by benevolent Jupiter, Laetitia is a favorable figure, promising cheer, blessing, and upward movement, and it is especially good for questions of health, emotional well-being, and hope for the future. It counsels an open and hopeful spirit and generally lifts the matter it touches toward a happy outcome.

Facts
Origins
Origin Period
1100 to 1300 3Tradition: Latin geomancy, translated from the Arabic
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
1533 4Tradition: Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Origin Period
800 to 1200 CE 1Tradition: Arabic ilm al-raml, the science of the sand
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account
Laetitia belongs to the sixteen figure system of geomantic divination whose figures took shape in the Arabic tradition of raml, attested there and in North Africa from the eighth to the twelfth century; the technique reached Latin Europe by the eleventh to thirteenth century, and Cornelius Agrippa set the figures into their now standard planetary and zodiacal correspondences in his Three Books of Occult Philosophy, published in 1533. 4
Place of Origin
North Africa and the wider Islamic world; carried into Latin Europe through the twelfth-century translation movement, chiefly in Spain. 1
Attributed Author / Compiler
No single author. The Latin geomantic corpus is anonymous and pseudonymous, circulating under the names of Hermes, Aristotle, Ptolemy and others, none of whom wrote any part of it. Having no author is itself the fact about this tradition worth recording. 3
Language
Classical Arabic 1
Language
Latin 3
Attributions
Mode (Stable / Mobile)
Mobile 2
Modern mainstream Stable/Mobile classification; exact page locator not confirmed against the primary text this pass.
Ruling Planet
Jupiter 1
Zodiac Sign
Pisces 1
Figure Points
Fire single, Air double, Water double, Earth double 1
Identity
English Name
Joy 1
Element
Water 1
Reading Keys
Keywords
Joy, health, hope 1
Partially Attested
Exaltation House (Attributed)
11th house (exaltation) 5
Sourced to the subject's own accountReported exaltation house, attributed to Pietro d'Abano, sourced only through a secondary blog summary. Not a ruling-house claim; see Via's note for the full caveat.
Learn More
The Figure Laetitia and Its Attributions

Laetitia, Joy, is one of the sixteen figures of Western geomancy, the divinatory art in which meaning is read from a figure of four rows, each row holding either one dot or two.

The figure and its reading

Its four rows are Fire (one dot), Air (two dots), Water (two dots), Earth (two dots). Geomantic figures are attributed to the elements, the planets and the signs of the zodiac; Laetitia is assigned to the element of Water, to Jupiter and the sign Pisces. Its traditional divinatory sense is one of joy, health, hope.

These attributions are those of the mature Western tradition set out by writers such as Christopher Cattan (1558) and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (Book II of the Three Books of Occult Philosophy, 1533), and taken up in the modern revival by the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn from 1888. The technique itself is older and reached Latin Europe through translations of the Arabic ilm al-raml, the science of the sand. The figure is described here as an element of that documented tradition.

Laetitia: The Points, and What Flipping Them Gives

Everything intrinsic to a geomantic figure is in its four rows, each holding one point or two. The names, planets and signs are layers added later.

The pattern

Laetitia is single, double, double, double, reading Fire, Air, Water and Earth from the top down, seven points in all. One light row sits above three heavy ones, which gives the figure a narrow top and a broad body. Drawn the traditional way, it is often described as a tower or a raised thing, and several handbooks note the resemblance.

Flipping every row

Change each row from single to double and from double to single and Laetitia becomes Caput Draconis. There are eight such pairs in the sixteen, and this is one of them.

The heaviest and lightest figures

At seven points Laetitia is one of four figures with a single light row, the others being Tristitia, Albus and Rubeus. Populus at eight points and Via at four are the outer limits, and no figure has an odd count above seven or an even count below four. That distribution is a consequence of the arithmetic rather than a choice: four rows of one or two points can only total between four and eight.

The attributions

A planet, a sign and an element are recorded for this figure elsewhere in the atlas. They belong to the astrological tradition that was laid over geomancy in Latin Europe, they vary between authors, and they were not derived from the points.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Originates in Language

Classical Arabic, Languages
Source Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-Century Divinatory DeviceEmilie Savage-Smith and Marion B. Smith
Latin, Languages
Source Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: la geomancie dans l'Occident medievalTherese Charmasson
Sources
1. Islamic Geomancy and a Thirteenth-Century Divinatory Device
Emilie Savage-Smith and Marion B. Smith, Undena Publications, 1980On ilm al-raml and the sixteen figures before their Latin transmission
2. John Michael Greer, The Art and Practice of Geomancy (2009)
John Michael Greer, 2009
3. Recherches sur une technique divinatoire: la geomancie dans l'Occident medieval
Therese Charmasson, Librairie Droz, 1980On the Latin figure names and the medieval tradition
4. Three Books of Occult Philosophy
Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Llewellyn, 1533Book II, on the geomantic figures and their planetary and zodiacal attributionsView the Source
5. Nick Farrell, "Geomancy Aspects, Dignity, Occupation, Conjunction, Mutation and Translation" (nickfarrell.it)
Nick Farrell
The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan, Gentleman
Christopher Cattan, John Wolfe, 1591On the figure Laetitia and its significations
Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy: Of Geomancy
Pseudo-Agrippa; Robert Turner (trans.), J. C. for John Harrison, 1655On the planetary and zodiacal attribution of LaetitiaView the Source

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