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Geomancy · Figure 8 of 16

Amissio, Loss: what slips away

Amissio, Loss, is the geomantic figure that alternates single and double lines, single at the head: two bowls turned over. The 1655 Of Geomancy makes it Venus weakened, and the tradition reads it as loss, unwelcome for what is hoped for and kind where losing is wanted.

The figure Amissio drawn large: Fire at the head, one point; Air at the neck, two points; Water at the body, one point; Earth at the feet, two points. Below, the sixteen figures small in a row, the 8th marked. Amissio · Loss Fire, the head one Air, the neck two Water, the body one Earth, the feet two
Amissio, figure 8 of 16: its points head to feet, with the element and part of each line. Below, the sixteen in our order, the eight that can be Judge first.

Facts

Number
Figure 8 of 16; the eight that can be Judge come first
Points, head to feet
1 · 2 · 1 · 2: one point in the Fire and Water lines
Total
6 points, even, so it can be the Judge
Planet (1655)
Venus weakened, as if retrograde
Sign (Gerard's scheme)
Scorpio, in the Astronomical Geomancy attributed to Gerard of Cremona (1655 English)
Cattan's English (1591)
“losse”
Agrippa's glosses (1651)
“Acquisition” (a known misprint for its opposite), “Comprehended without”
Turned over
Upside down: Acquisitio. Every point swapped: Acquisitio

Meaning

Amissio is loss, plainly. Cattan's translator writes "losse"; Hartmann, "that which is taken away. It is a bad figure". The tradition reads it as unwelcome for anything the asker hopes to gain or keep, and welcome where losing is the point: a burden, a worry, a habit the asker wants gone. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's handbook adds that it is sometimes good for love, as a figure of Venus. Our old one-line meaning softened it into a release; the tradition does not soften it, and neither do we. As the Judge it gives the tradition's no: what is sought slips away.

In the shield

Amissio has six points and can be Judge, for one casting in eight. By Cattan's rule it is a going-out figure, with more points below than above, and so ill. In the sample casting on the Geomancy page it is the Third Mother, in the 3rd house, and the Third Niece. Upside down, or with every point swapped, it becomes Acquisitio, Gain, its mirror. Its partner under Venus is Puella. Its head line is single, so a Judge Amissio always has a Way of the Point under the modern rule.

Venus, a misprint, and the signs

The 1655 Of Geomancy makes it Venus "as it were retrograde or combust", Venus out of strength, and Cattan's table makes it Venus retrograde. Agrippa's English of 1651 prints the gloss "Acquisition" for it, a known misprint for its opposite. Its sign is disputed even within one book: Gerard's scheme gives Scorpio, as Fludd does; Agrippa gives Libra, and so does Cattan's table, though his second book puts it under Scorpio; the Golden Dawn gives Taurus, and Cattan's page 63 Virgo.

Correspondences

Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.

Planet
Venus, in every source checked (Cattan, Agrippa, the 1655 text, Hartmann, Crowley, Fludd) sourced
Direct or retrograde (Cattan, p. 54)
Venus retrograde sourced
Sign, Gerard's scheme (ours)
Scorpio sourced
Sign, other schemes
Agrippa (1651): Libra; Cattan's table (p. 56): Libra; Cattan's “Gerard Cremon” (p. 63): Virgo; the Golden Dawn (1909): Taurus disputed
Quality (Cattan's rule)
Going out, and ill (pp. 62, 215) sourced
Lines
Single, active: Fire (head) and Water (body); double, passive: Air (neck) and Earth (feet) sourced
Our keywords
Loss, something slipping away our construction

How the schools read it

Cattan (1591)
Calls it “losse”; going out, and ill (pp. 62, 215).
Agrippa (1651)
Glosses it “Acquisition” (a known misprint for its opposite), “Comprehended without”.
*Of Geomancy* (1655)
Venus, as it were retrograde or combust (Venus weakened).
Hartmann (1889)
“Amissio, Loss, that which is taken away. It is a bad figure.”
The Golden Dawn (Crowley, 1909)
“Good for loss […], and sometimes for love, but very bad for gain” (its words on property left out)
Modern practice (Greer, as reported)
Calls it mobile, the modern word for a going-out figure.
EsoTerrier
Loss, something slipping away (our one-line reading in the chart).

Claims about it

  • Amissio is a figure a person is born under, worked out from a name and a birth date.

    false

    What the record shows: No source makes a geomantic figure from birth data; every casting is for a question. Our own app did this until October 2026, and the method was retired.

  • Amissio has one zodiac sign.

    disputed

    What the record shows: Gerard's scheme gives Scorpio, the Golden Dawn Taurus, Cattan's page 63 Virgo. At least six schemes exist; we always name the one we use.

  • Amissio has an element of its own.

    disputed

    What the record shows: The sources give the figures at least six different sets of elements. We show only the four line elements, never an element for the whole figure.

  • Amissio means “letting go, release”.

    false

    What the record shows: Our own old one-line meaning. The tradition reads it as loss, kind only where a loss is wanted.

Elsewhere on EsoTerrier

Sources

Primary texts (6)
  1. Christopher Cattan, The Geomancie of Maister Christopher Cattan Gentleman, translated by Francis Sparry. London: John Wolfe, 1591 (French original, Paris, 1558). wellcomecollection.org/works/gk8r8xpn
  2. Of Geomancy (attributed to Agrippa) and Astronomical Geomancy (attributed to Gerard of Cremona), in Henry Cornelius Agrippa his Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, translated by Robert Turner. London, 1655. github.com/textcreationpartnership/A26563
  3. Henry Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, translated by J. F. London, 1651; Book II, chapter 48. github.com/textcreationpartnership/A26565
  4. Franz Hartmann, The Principles of Astrological Geomancy. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1889. archive.org/details/b24884145
  5. [Aleister Crowley], “A Handbook of Geomancy”, The Equinox I(2), 1909, pp. 137 to 161. keepsilence.org/the-equinox/1.2/a-handbook-of-geomancy_low.pdf
  6. Robert Fludd, De naturae simia, second edition. Frankfurt, 1624; De geomantia II.1, pp. 724 to 725. archive.org/details/bub_gb_zINwyYhcsp8C
Studies and other sources (2)
  1. Sam Block, The Digital Ambler, posts on the shield, the Way of the Point, perfection, the elements and the signs, 2012 to 2020. digitalambler.com/2020/05/08/how-to-construct-the-shield-chart-of-geomancy
  2. John Michael Greer, The Art and Practice of Geomancy. San Francisco: Weiser, 2009. Facts only, known through reports.
Our own research (2)
  1. EsoTerrier, geomancy research and validation, 11 to 14 October 2026.
  2. EsoTerrier calculation engine, the geomancy service, its texts and documentation.
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By EsoTerrier. Written with AI assistance from our research and checked against its sources; last revised 19 October 2026. How we write these pages.

First published ; last revised . Corrections: support@esoterrier.com.