geomancer
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈdʒiːəˌmænsər/
- Archaic
:
geomante
- However, in reality, a naturally formed place very rarely satisfies all the geomantic requirements, and people sought advice from geomancers in order to remedy the minor shortcomings of the landscape through landform modifications.
Examples
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Both the Aymara Indians in South America and Feng-shui geomancers in China hold that straight lines in the landscape facilitate the passage of spirits.
Academic text (1990) -
People consult a feng shui xiansheng (literally, a gentleman of the wind and water, or geomancer) to select a grave site and adjust the placement of monument stones and coffins.
Academic text (1993) -
I must hire the geomancer to complement His Majesty's wrath against disease.
Fiction book (1996) -
Professional geomancers knew how to evaluate the geomantic conditions of a site, so people hired them to find auspicious locations.
Academic text (2011) -
Consequently, geomancers developed the concept of pibo in order to compensate for or remedy minor defects.
Academic text (2011) -
A geomancer assesses the landscape's qi, a force whose path is attracted and deflected by certain topographical and built features, watercourses, and vegetation.
Academic text (1993) -
Believing that wind, water, and land are alive, that they are forces we must live with and not simply live on, the Chinese employ the services of a geomancer who, taking proper note of the forms of surrounding hills, the directions of water courses, the trend of the local winds, and the heights and forms of surrounding buildings, will advise on where to build new homes or cemeteries so that those living may obtain health, wealth, and happiness, and those deceased may obtain peace.
Academic text (1993) -
And before I go on to recount and analyze the separation and madness of Camaralzaman and Budoo, the prince's long search, disguised as a geomancer, for his lost love, their marriage, and their subsequent separation owing to the theft of a talisman.
Fiction book (1994) -
A geomancer uses specific methods to interpret the markings on the ground during a divination session.
-
During the ceremony, the geomancer explained how the patterns formed by the stones could predict future events.
Surface Forms
Morphology
geomancer = geomancy (opaque) = geo + mancy + er
The direct formation from the specialized base word 'geomancy' by adding the agentive suffix '-er' is regular, but the base meaning is too obscure for most learners to infer the whole word.
Etymology
Geomancer comes from geo- meaning 'earth', seen in geography, and -mancer meaning 'one who reads signs to tell the future', as in necromancer. So a geomancer is someone who 'reads' patterns in soil, sand, or stones to try to predict what will happen.